News
Tanel Kiik, Minister of Health and Labour of Estonia, and Signe Riisalo, Minister of Social Protection of the Republic of Estonia, awarded Marketex Offshore Constructions the Silver-tier Label of the Family-Friendly Employer Programme during a virtual event held on October 17th.
“Receiving such acknowledgement is a tremendous honour for us. As an employer, we strive to be not only a reliable and successful company but also an employee-friendly one with a highly developed corporate culture,” said Ruslan Diduhh, a Member of the Marketex Offshore Constructions Board. “The Family-Friendly Employer Programme has been our guiding light for three years, helping us keep steady on the course to further improvement of the working environment and development of a consistent corporate culture. We are pleased with our achievement as we have put a lot of effort and resource in order to succeed. Today, looking back at all the things we have done to improve our corporate culture, I feel we could have done much more had the coronavirus pandemic not interfered. That said, I also believe that we should be aiming higher and setting bigger, more ambitious goals to bring more fundamental changes to our corporate family.”
According to Tanel Kiik, Minister of Health and Labour, the Family-Friendly Employer Programme aims at drawing greater public attention to personal well-being: “Today, the working environment is continuously changing, and there is more diversity in the organizational staff composition, too. Organizations-participants of the Family-Friendly Employer Programme are incessantly and consistently seeking opportunities to maintain the comfortable and healthy working environment. Today’s award recipients have put a lot of effort into maintaining their team spirit even in the most challenging stressful situations, and have found reasonable ways to boost their personnel motivation,” said Minister Kiik.
Signe Riisalo, Minister of Social Protection, added a comment about the importance of factoring in people’s mental health when setting the comfortable working environment: “We spend most of our lives at work – working remotely or in an office. Whichever is the case, it is essential that the employee feels appreciated and involved. The coronavirus crisis has made it obvious that, in addition to the vaccination and maintaining good health and performance capability under the pandemic conditions, more attention should be given to efficient ways of balancing work and home life. It is important to make sure that working from home does not become a never-ending continuous process or that exhausted front-line employees could leave on time to have some family time. And that makes a lot of room to work for the employer recognizing the importance of the work-family balance.”
The Family-Friendly Employer Programme takes 1.5 – 3 years and culminates with the company being awarded a final label indicating the Bronze, Silver or Gold Tier. Various aspects of working life are assessed though a consultations and audit process. Marketex Offshore Constructions set their focus on creating comfortable working conditions, occupational health and safety, successor training, professional support and development, information circulation, communication climate and flexible working hours.
The Family-Friendly Employer Programme was initiated in 2017 by the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs in cooperation with the Civitta Eesti AS consultancy.
