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SECURICO has won the inaugural National Quality Awards (NAQA) Company of the Year Award (Large Enterprises) at a colourful ceremony hosted by the Standards Association of Zimbabwe at the Holiday Inn.
This win automatically qualifies the company to enter the SADC/SQAM regional quality awards representing Zimbabwe in this category.
SECURICO has been in the limelight for several years and is famous for its brand which has become synonymous with professionalism and high service quality. This award is yet another accolade in addition to a number of business awards that the company has won in the past decade.
Despite the fact that SECURICO is a relatively new comer in the security industry the company now provides services to the majority of the top-end blue chip organisations in Zimbabwe making it the undisputed service quality leader in security services.
In her short speech when accepting this prestigious award SECURICO's founder and Managing Director Divine Ndhlukula attributes the phenomenal success of SECURICO to the company's robust welfare system.
"Our primary focus is to have a happy, motivated and displined team," Divine Ndhlukula explained. "The strength of our brand is naturally linked to the welfare of our employees so we go the extra mile to ensure that our welfare programmes create a win-win relationship between the company and employees.
"We take cognizance of our employees' ambitions in life and we try to align these ambitions with the organisation's goals. This approach has taken us a long way and is the underlying factor of our company's success," she added.
The high level of employee engagement that Divine explained resulted in SECURICO being voted Zimbabwe's 7th Best Employer for 2010 in a national survey conducted by Industrial Psychology Consultants making it one of the leading organisations with a robust HR management system.
In addition to a number of welfare projects that include medical and funeral cover the company has since launched an ambitious housing programme that aims to secure housing stands for half of its employees in three years' time.
 Speaking on the sidelines of the awards ceremony Divine laughed at the suggestion that SECURICO's housing project was rather ambitious considering that the organisation and its sister companies employ over three thousand employees.
"We will do it," Divine emphasised. "We have always surmounted such perceived huddles in the past and we would not be where we are now if we did not have the fortitude to forge ahead and attain goals that may appear as a dream now. This project is a necessary component for the sustainability of our business therefore we shall ensure that we commit the necessary resources for its attainment."
"Quality is not achieved by simply putting up internal systems" Divine added. "The quality of our internal customer service guarantees the quality of our customer service as the high internal service quality permeates to our other stakeholders."
Divine went on to explain that unlike some other players in the security sector who are failing to pay their employees the correct wages, her company ensures that employees are paid over and above the legislated salary.
When asked why some security organisations are paying very low salaries Divine lamented the tendency by some of these security companies to undercut prices then ending up paying their employees below the legislated minimum wage with some paying salaries in instalments due to financial constraints.
"While competing on price is healthy there should be a balance between the business' concern for growth and the welfare of employees," explained Divine Ndhlukula. "The tendency to charge unrealistic prices compromises employees' welfare and in the end the quality of the service provided by these companies is seriously compromised. They inevitably end up losing business rather than growing their businesses."
"The sad part of this situation is that it is the clients and workers who are taken for a ride due to these bad corporate practices." Divine went on. "We are also disappointed that the Ministry of Home Affairs which is supposed to control the operations of security organisations is not enforcing the relevant legislation that prevents this gross undercutting and exploitation of workers. |
