SEIFSA calls on M&E sector to celebrate greatness at Awards for Excellence

The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (SEIFSA) will celebrate companies in the Metal and Engineering (M&E) sector that have displayed innovation, competitiveness and excellence at the 2022 SEIFSA Awards for Excellence.

“SEIFSA is calling on employers in the sector – including those that are not SEIFSA members – to speak up and have their voices heard by entering the Awards for Excellence, which provide a platform to celebrate your achievements,” says SEIFSA CEO Lucio Trentini.

The awards were launched in 2015, at a time when the sector faced turbulent economic conditions as slow growth, rising input costs and unreliable energy supply took their toll. Seven years later, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and amid the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the need to celebrate companies that have prevailed and even strived despite the challenges remains.

Companies keen to share their achievements can  enter online,  entries close on September 30 and the ceremony will take place on 18 November 2022.

There are ten primary award categories, with entrants assessed according to their performance during the year under review:

• Most Digitally Innovative Company Award recognises the enterprise using new technologies and showing innovation in their approach to projects and/or their business.
• Most Transformed Company Award for the company that is most transformed in terms of ownership and the composition of its board of directors, executive management and managerial team, as well as skills development and enterprise development initiatives.
• The Best Customer Service Award for the company that receives the best/highest rating from its customers for its customer service.
• The Workplace Health and Safety Award acknowledges a company’s best-practice approaches and achievement in workplace health and safety.
• The Company Artisan Training Award for the company that has the highest activity in artisan training.
• The Corporate Social Responsibility Award for the company whose CSI project makes the biggest impact on the lives of its beneficiaries.
• The Environment Stewardship Award recognises a project in the M&E sector that exemplifies the practices of environmental stewardship.
• The Business Resilience (Covid) Award for the company that showed resilience, agility and adaptability in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.
• The Young Entrepreneur Award for a business owned by a person 35 years or younger that has demonstrated growth for over two years and contributed to job creation in the industry.
• The Businesswoman of the Year Award recognises a woman who runs a successful business in the M&E sector and who has contributed significantly to the development of sector.

There are three internal SEIFSA awards:

• The Association of the Year for the most active SEIFSA-affiliated association.
• The Bursar of the Year for the bursar with the highest final academic average in 2021 and who passed all their modules/subjects.
• Recognition of the Graduate Class of 2021 Award for the beneficiaries of the SEIFSA bursary in 2021, who graduated in 2022.

“By acknowledging past entrants and celebrating winners, we also continue to encourage players in the metals and engineering sector to continue to work hard and to strive for excellence in all that they do,” says Trentini.