Vodacom Group Limited
Integrated report for the year ended 31 March
’13
Human capital report
1 Raise the bar on talent
2 Build key capabilities
3 Build a lean and effective organisation
3 Create a safe and healthy place to work
5 Embed desired culture
6 Drive a high performance culture
Year ended 31 March
Number of employees
2013
2012
2011
% change
South Africa
5 153
5 238
5 302
(1.6)
International
2 115
2 076
1 997
1.9
174
189
214
(7.9)
7 442
7 503
7 513
(0.8)
7
9
11
Corporate head office
Total number of employees
Employee turnover (%)
Differentiating our brand,
driving growth and
becoming more efficient
depends largely on having
the best people with the
right skills and right
attitude in the positions
most suited to them. We
ensure our people feel
motivated and engaged to
such an extent that they
stretch themselves beyond
their daily functions, which
requires that we empower
them to change what’s not
working, and trust them to
be accountable for
achieving their set goals.
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Raise the bar on talent
Talent management and succession
planning
Our ongoing efforts to improve talent
management for our more senior
employees have resulted in more focused
development interventions, ensuring we
have the right capabilities in place to meet
future needs. To further strengthen talent
management, we are working to deepen our
succession pool by targeting employees
identified as having the potential to move
up into more senior positions.
We also offer the following programmes as
part of leadership development:
• V
odacom advanced executive
programme (‘VAEP’) – our executive
development programme; and
• ASCEND – a leadership development
programme for our heads of functions.
Employment Equity
We understand the business imperative of
transformation, and recognise diversity as a
strategic advantage. Having an employee
base that reflects the diversity of our
customers gives us a deep understanding of
their needs, which helps us retain our
leading position in our markets. Our
transformation programmes are aligned to
our skills development priorities to help us
address the scarcity of skills, such as
developing skilled women through our
bursary programmes in technology.
We are making good progress in achieving
our employment equity targets at
management levels, and marginally missed
our internal targets for semi-skilled people
and people with disabilities. During the year,
black people accounted for 82% of new
hires and 69% of promotions in South Africa.
Our diversity and inclusion programmes
have been extended to our International
operations and will be further embedded
over the next year.
• I nspire – a global leadership
development programme for emerging
senior talent;
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Human capital report continued
Year ended 31 March
2013
2012
2011
Women representation at senior
management level (%)
29
26
23
Ratio of average basic salary of men
to women (times)
1.4
1.5
1.4
Black representation at senior
management level (%)
49
45
42
Vacancies filled by black employees (%)
82
78
76
0.67
0.80
1.08
Total representation of people with
disabilities (%)
Women’s network
We are in the initial stages of setting up a women’s network in South Africa, which will help
us address gender-based issues raised by employees and form a platform for investigating
the issues that impact career progress for women at Vodacom. We are considering launching
a similar programme in our International operations. During the year we participated in the
Vodafone International women’s forum and women in technology forum.
We are launching an initiative to provide identified women employees with international
exposure to help them broaden their understanding and knowledge of our business and of
the Vodafone Group, and to improve their functional and cross-functional abilities.
Disability
We understand that disability is still stigmatised in some workplaces. At Vodacom, we work to
create a trusting environment in which employees are comfortable disclosing their disability
status, and a number of our initiatives focus on disability as part of our diversity and inclusion
agenda. We have also made various modifications to our head office buildings to ensure they
are accessible to disabled people.
We currently have 65 employees with disabilities at Vodacom, down 12 from the prior
year’s 77.
2
Build key capabilities
During the year we invested R56 million in training and development initiatives across the
Group, including online learning programmes, local training events, global development
programmes, bursaries and internships.
Year ended 31 March
2
Our most notable learning and development
initiatives are:
• T he Vodacom bursary programme,
which gives permanent employees in
the Group the opportunity to advance
their careers and develop specific
information and communication
technology (‘ICT’) skills. In total,
634 bursaries were either awarded
or renewed during the year, at a cost
of R11.4 million.
• A
virtual learning centre is available
to all employees.
• H
osting interns and learners in
partnership with the Information
Systems, Electronics and
Telecommunication Technologies
(‘ISETT’) Sector Education and Training
Authority (‘SETA’), with 27 interns and
84 learners hosted during the year.
• T he Columbus Programme, a two-year
assignment that gives talented
graduates international exposure.
In South Africa we are hosting
candidates from Vodafone Spain and
Vodafone Ghana, while Vodafone are
hosting some of our graduates in Spain,
Ghana, the United Kingdom and India.
• T he Young Achievers Programme,
which offers training on business and
leadership to young people starting
their careers. Of the people who
participated during the year, 85% were
black and 52% women.
Our South African training days for the
year totalled 12 332, which breaks down
as follows:
Days
Female
Male
Total
3 194
3 540
6 734
Coloured
701
1 163
1 864
Indian
590
869
1 459
White
535
1 740
2 275
Total
5 020
7 312
12 332
African
2013
2012
2011
Total training spend (Rm)
56
68
71
Average training spend
per employee per year (R)
15 018
9 794
9 359
% change
Vodacom Group Limited
Integrated report for the year ended 31 March
3
Build a lean and
effective organisation
We continue to work towards aligning the
overall structure of our business to best
practice, with the ultimate aim of creating
a more streamlined business structure
with fewer layers of complexity, thus
improving overall efficiency. To this end,
we are implementing Vodafone’s global
business transformation programme,
Project EVO, which went live in South Africa
on 2 April 2013.
Project EVO aims to standardise and simplify
internal processes for finance, procurement
and human resources under the principles
of speed, simplicity and trust. Through
Project EVO we are realising more direct
accountability of our people by taking out
unnecessary layers of authority. We have
also introduced new self-service options
for employees and more streamlined
approval processes.
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To reduce the frequency of safety incidents, we have identified our top risks and developed
programmes that proactively mitigate these risks. Our top five identified risks are:
Risk
Road risk
Contractor
control
Working at
heights
Absolute Rule #1
Never work under the influence of
substances (drugs or alcohol).
Absolute Rule #2
Always wear a seat belt when travelling in
or operating vehicles.
Absolute Rule #3
Never use a handheld phone or any other
device while driving. Only make calls
using a hands-free device or by pulling
over when it’s safe to do so.
Absolute Rule #4
Never carry out work on electrical
equipment, circuits or gears if you are not
qualified or adequately prepared.
Absolute Rule #5
Never exceed speed limits or drive at a
speed which is dangerous for the type of
road, vehicle or conditions.
Absolute Rule #6
Always use suitable personal protective
equipment.
Absolute Rule #7
Never carry passengers in the load area of
pick-up vehicles (bakkies or trucks).
Mitigating action
• Defensive driver training
• Use of Bluetooth hands-free devices
• Monitoring driver behaviour
• Implementing journey management plans
• Contractor reviews and audits on high risk suppliers
• Contractor induction sessions and forums
• Safety passport system launched
• Specific inspections by a health, safety and environment
(‘HSE’) specialist ensuring that:
– Fall protection plans are drafted by qualified persons
and conform to minimum standards
– Medical fitness and training certificates are evaluated
to assess worker competency
• Inspection programme for all legacy infrastructure
Legacy
infrastructure
Create a safe and
healthy place to work
Health and safety
This year we added a seventh rule to our six
absolute rules that help ensure the safety of
our people, all of which must be adhered to
at all times:
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Electrical
work
• Electrical standard launched
• Incorporated in absolute rules
Our absolute rules address a number of these risks and we minimise their potential
occurrence through enhanced training programmes and processes. Our overall lost time
frequency injury rate (‘LTFIR’) decreased 59% to 0.24, well below our target of less than 1.
Employee wellness
We have a dedicated employee Wellness Centre on our Midrand campus that is equipped
with a wide range of facilities and services to help our employees with their wellness needs.
The centre communicates frequently with employees about various wellness issues. We also
have a telephonic counselling service for employees who require counselling on difficulties
they may be encountering at work or at home.
Sickness Absenteeism Rate
Absenteeism remains a major concern for all organisations, and can be a good indicator of
both productivity and engagement levels. In South Africa, the cost of absenteeism to
Vodacom was R201 million in the year, down from R203 million in 2012. The average
absenteeism rate in South Africa for the year was 1.4% (2012: 1.4%), below an industry
average of between 2.6% and 3.0%.
Chronic Lifestyle Disease (‘CLD’)
For the year, we found that the Sickness Absenteeism Rate (‘SAR’) was higher than average
for employees that score highly on CLD risk factors. However we also found that, although
the percentage of employees with CLD risk factors has increased across most disease
categories, the SAR for five out of six risk factors was in fact lower than the company average.
This suggests that employees who score highly for risk of CLD are managing their health
risks more effectively, thus taking less sick leave and being more productive.
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Human capital report continued
The CLD health risk factor profile for
South Africa is higher than that for
HIV (based on tested employees).
Approximately 4 000 of 5 000 employees
have more than one CLD health risk factor.
Considering that the average age of the
Vodacom South Africa workforce is 32,
this health risk will require concerted
effort to mitigate.
HIV/Aids
Most countries in which we operate are
considered high risk for HIV/Aids.
The Vodacom Group HIV/Aids Policy is
available to all employees on the intranet,
and ensures that:
• e mployees are educated on HIV/Aids
and tuberculosis (‘TB’), including on the
transmission of the disease and healthy
lifestyle choices;
• t he company’s policy on fairness and
non-discrimination is communicated;
and
• a ffected and infected employees have
access to support.
The HIV prevalence rate among our
employees increased from 0.7% in the prior
year to 1.6% in November 2012, which is
attributable to 32 more employees testing
positive. Of known cases, 134 HIV-positive
employees are confirmed to be registered
on treatment programmes through
their individual medical aids or
non-governmental organisations (‘NGOs’).
4
Number of people tested (SA and Group
standalone)
Prevalence rate
2013
2012
2011
1 966
1 345
1 535
1.6%
0.7%
1.0%
As at December 2012, 53.8% (2 678 employees) were aware of their HIV status when
combining the results of onsite testing and those registered on the HIV Disease
Management Programme.
Our International operations recorded the following results from their testing initiatives
during the year:
International operation
Number of
people tested
% of Prevalence rate,
staff tested of those tested
DRC
36
6%
* all negative
Lesotho
33
28%
3.0%
Mozambique
108
44%
1.0%
Tanzania
267
60%
1.5%
We provide an opportunity for all employees to be tested at least once a year, together with
the necessary counselling.
The Vodacom World Aids Day event was held on 5 December 2012, attended by
over 460 employees in the Vodacom Dome on the Midrand campus, to listen to
Justice Edwin Cameron sharing his story of living with HIV/Aids.
IAMLIFESTRUCK
Vodacom Wellbeing in association with IAMLIFESTRUCK launched an initiative during the
year that is assisting over 100 employees in Midrand and their chosen buddies in making
physical and lifestyle changes over the next 12 months. The initiative is aimed at
encouraging exercise and healthy eating. The programme has been well received and its
Facebook site has over 600 active members. Participants are reporting increased energy
levels and higher productivity.
Executive wellness
A total of 166 Vodacom executives participated in the Vodacom Executive Health
Programme during the year. As a result seven executives are being monitored by our
occupational health doctor, with one deemed high risk, three moderate risk and three
low risk.
Vodacom Group Limited
Integrated report for the year ended 31 March
5
’13
Year ended 31 March
Embed desired culture
Employee engagement
The annual People Survey was conducted
during the year, with 6 054 respondents
across the Group; a participation rate
of 89%. The main aspects the survey
measures are employee engagement,
our Manager Index, our values of speed,
simplicity and trust, and the extent to
which our culture is diverse and inclusive.
This year’s results showed improvements
in all indices and scores except for the
Simplicity Score. We had a large number
of changes and reorganisations in the
business during the year, including
senior management changes in the
Group Executive Committee and
reorganisations in South Africa, Tanzania
and Lesotho. We are pleased that we
were able to increase our employee
Engagement Index across the Group
during this period of change.
Feedback from the survey indicates that our
employees are proud to work for Vodacom
and that they would recommend Vodacom
as a place to work. People are also clear on
Vodacom’s goals and priorities and work in
teams is well-organised. Our people are of
the opinion that Vodacom will outperform
competitors and the majority feel that
Vodacom does a great deal to
accommodate the needs of employees
with disabilities.
On the other hand, our employees believe
that more should be done to ensure the
most talented people progress in the
business, as well as identify and address
barriers that impede effective job
performance. Cross-team collaboration also
needs attention as many people feel that
they are not adequately supported by other
teams within the organisation. More
attention also needs to be paid to
embedding The Vodacom Way within the
organisation as speed, simplicity and trust
remain highlighted as areas for
improvement by our people.
%
Engagement Index
2013
75†
2012
2011
73
73
Manager Index
69
68
69
Diversity and Inclusion Index
71
69
69
† This item was included as part of our assurance process in the current year.
This year Tanzania and Lesotho performed particularly well, with notable increases across all
indices measured in the survey. The Manager Index improved across all five markets, while
the Engagement Index improved in all markets with the exception of South Africa which
remained unchanged from the prior year.
Unionisation
The Employment Law division, reporting to the Chief Officer: Legal and Regulatory is
responsible for maintaining relationships with the unions and meetings are held on a regular
basis to ensure unions have a platform to raise issues with management and for
management to understand concerns from employees.
Union representation in South Africa:
Year ended 31 March
Number of employees
Communication Workers Union (‘CWU’)
Media Workers’ Association of South Africa
(‘MWASA’)
% employee representation
2013
2012
2011
741
812
846
18
20
26
15.5%
16.6%
17.1%
The union membership in South Africa has decreased 1.1ppts over the period under review.
Mozambique has a small union that has recently been established. Tanzania and Lesotho are
not unionised.
The DRC is unionised with 50% of employees belonging to the union. There is no signed
collective agreement with the union due to the parties not being able to reach agreement to
date. It is currently under negotiation.
We have not experienced any strikes over the past year in any of our operations.
Disciplinary procedures
We have numerous active policies relating to discipline which are published on our intranet
and are available to all employees. In addition to this, the Employment Law division
publishes monthly newsletters highlighting the most pertinent misconduct-related issues. In
this way, employees become more familiar with what is acceptable behaviour and what is
not. There is also a grievance policy and procedure in terms of which employees may submit
a grievance to management, which is addressed within five working days.
For the year under review, approximately 60 cases of employee misconduct resulted in
disciplinary enquiries in South Africa. Of these matters, 15 resulted in dismissals. There were
no incapacity-related dismissals for the year under review.
The most common form of misconduct was work-related gross negligence/negligence,
which accounted for approximately 29% of hearings. This type of transgression has declined
in prevalence from the previous financial year when it accounted for 52% of serious
misconduct. The nature of negligence varied but included network-related negligence and
negligence in providing poor customer services. Dishonesty-related transgressions
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Human capital report continued
accounted for approximately 16% of the misconduct cases, as opposed to 29% in the
previous year. Forms of dishonesty included theft and unauthorised accessing of customer
information. In the latter part of the financial year there was a trend identified within
Vodacom of dishonesty relating to a failure to declare “kickbacks’ from suppliers, and
employees were dismissed.
The majority of the remaining matters dealt with can be broadly classified as time-related
misconduct such as abscondment and uncommunicated/unauthorised absence from work,
accessing confidential information, sexual harassment and harassment-related cases, misuse
of company vehicles and the breach of the Absolute Rules. Action taken to mitigate the risk
of reoccurrence of these types of misconduct include monthly newsletters and making
employees aware of examples of serious misconduct during training about prevalent forms
of misconduct.
The National Consultative Committee (‘NCC’) is an employee representative committee in
South Africa that aims to involve employees in aspects of decision making that affect their
work environment and enhance cooperation between management and employees. The
major issues discussed during the year were concerns about the reorganisation in the
business and requests from employees to increase some of the company benefits.
We are committed to developing sound employee relations and acknowledge the rights of
all our employees. During this year, 12 cases were referred to the Commission for
Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (‘CCMA’); six CCMA arbitrations decided in favour of
the Company, five CCMA matters were abandoned after conciliation and one was settled.
There were 59 disciplinary transgressions during the year, 15 of which resulted in dismissals.
We regularly distribute an employee relations newsletter to help limit the occurrence of
disciplinary transgressions.
The Vodacom Way
The Vodacom Way programme reinforces our five strategic priorities and aims to align our
people to a central way of doing things that will help us provide an unmatched customer
experience. Three values underpin the Vodacom Way:
1
2
Firstly, we need to
trust that each of us
is accountable and
responsible for
delivering on our
vision.
We then have to
simplify our business
by questioning our
policies and processes
and getting rid of those
that aren’t working.
3
Drive a high
performance culture
We have a number of programmes that aim
to create a culture within Vodacom of
recognising performance, as well as
motivating and coaching employees to
perform above and beyond expectations. We
look to encourage not only individual
performance, but to maximise effective
teamwork.
We recognise that reward has a direct
impact on employee behaviour and
performance, company culture and
ultimately the sustainability of the Group.
On-the-Spot Awards
Any employee, supervisor or manager can
nominate individuals or teams that deliver
extraordinary operational performance,
quality of work and/or customer care.
Awards can be either cash or non-monetary,
to be presented to individuals or team
members as a form of immediate
recognition.
Vodacom Excellence
Any person in a supervisory or management
position can nominate an individual for
Vodacom Excellence. The Chief Human
Resources Officer reviews all the
nominations on a monthly basis and selects
a monthly winner which is congratulated
at a quarterly breakfast with Group Executive
Committee, and also attends the annual
incentive trip that incorporates a learning
programme.
Vodacom annual CEO Awards
Once that’s done, speed will follow.
Over 3 000 employees have attended the Vodacom Way programme to date in South Africa.
An enhanced programme will be run in all our other markets over the next year. The
Vodafone Hub was launched in Vodacom in March 2013, which will provide information
related to the Vodacom Way, values and behaviours regularly. The Vodacom Way employee
peer review has been incorporated into Performance Dialogue reviews.
6
6
Individuals and teams who show
extraordinary and true customer obsession
as well as an innovative spirit qualify to be
nominated for the Vodacom Annual CEO
Award. Monthly Vodacom Excellence
Vodacom Group Limited
Integrated report for the year ended 31 March
winners together with new and additional
nominations are considered for the
Vodacom Annual CEO Award. Individuals or
teams can nominate themselves; can be
nominated by other employees or by line
managers and the individuals selected will
be recognised by the CEO at an award event.
Performance Dialogue
We encourage all our managers to have
regular performance discussions with their
people. Annual performance discussions,
which are compulsory, help employees
define their goals, track their performance
and assess their behaviour against the
Vodacom Way. The improvement in
performance discussions has had a positive
impact on the business by aligning
employee goals not only to short-term
financial targets, but also to our five
strategic priorities and the Vodacom Way.
Whereas managers assess employee
performance, a calibration process across
different business units makes sure that the
rating process is fair and truly recognises
individual performance aligned to business
performance.
’13
Benefits
Every April, employees are given the option
to review their death benefits and increase
their cover up to seven times their annual
pensionable salary, based on the individual’s
financial needs and circumstances. The core
death benefits payable from both the
pension fund and the Group life scheme is
three times an employee’s pensionable
earnings.
The rules of the Vodacom Funeral Scheme
allow for employees to join the scheme
within the first three months of employment
with Vodacom.
Staff retention is imperative to sustain
consistency and business continuity. In the
year we celebrated a substantial segment of
our workforce that reached five years (645),
10 years (219) and 15 years (73) service
milestone with the Company.
Reward and benefits
A pay analysis was conducted for the year
ending 31 March 2012, which analysed
average annual salaries per level, race and
gender. The results revealed that our reward
pay ranges cohere with current national
benchmarking surveys and our policies and
practices are fair and equitable in terms of
racial or gender classifications. Our
minimum pay has also been increased to
R130 000 per annum, which is significantly
higher than other companies in our sector.
The Group Reward division regularly
analyses remuneration across business
units, per race and gender groups. Any
perceived individual pay discrepancies are
escalated to Human Resources and line
management to be addressed where
appropriate. This year’s results were positive,
with Vodacom being aligned to the
requirements.
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