Kerre Woodham: Respect reaps rewards

The best place to work isn't necessarily the place that pays you the most money. In fact, in survey after survey, people consistently say money isn't what keeps them in a job.

What workers want is respect, just like Aretha Franklin says. They want to be told they're valued and appreciated and they want those words translated into deeds.

Within a couple of months of my starting work at NewsTalkZB, my dad died. It meant a lot to me and my family that my bosses drove to Hamilton to attend the funeral, and that I was given as much time as I wanted before returning to work.

They have also been great in helping me resolve the conflicts being a working parent creates and have never begrudged me taking time off when I've felt my family needed me more than my employers did.

And that respect and consideration breeds loyalty from workers. I have never, and would never pull a sickie, and if I'm needed to do a bit of extra work for the company, I'm glad to do it. Especially when it involves hosting Tony O'Reilly and Sean Connery to lunch.

I can imagine the staff at Vector and Mt Albert Pak'nSave feel much the same way towards their bosses. These two companies picked up awards last week for their innovative approaches to balancing work and family life.

Vector offers its staff $300 towards gym membership or any physical activity, as well as flexible working hours, opportunities to work from home, four weeks' annual holiday and unlimited leave to look after sick family members.

Mt Albert Pak'nSave celebrates the diversity of its multinational staff by offering a prayer room for its Muslim workers and giving them time off to pray. All 320 staff are able to speak in their own languages and the name badges on their uniforms have national flags to show customers which languages they speak. Not surprisingly, staff retention at these award-winning companies is at an all-time high, and absenteeism is down despite the unlimited leave policy at Vector. And it's not just big companies that understand how to look after staff.

A number of people rang me on my show to tell me how great their employers were and these were people working in small businesses. They told of employers who shouted all the women staff out for a day of shopping that began with a champagne brunch, with the only proviso being the women had to spend the money they were given on themselves - no gifts for husbands or children.

Then there were the bosses who paid for staff to attend further training, or who pick up the specialist's bills for sick kids.

Good bosses get good workers and it's nice to see some of the best employers being recognised.