Employment Equity

The group remains compliant with all aspects of the Employment Equity Act No. 55 of 1998. This requires timeous submission of an annual employment equity report and plan to the Department of Labour, consultation with employees, communication of the report and plan to employees, and regular policy and facility audits to ensure that no barriers to employment equity exist. Regular inspections by the Department of Labour’s inspectorate, both at store level country-wide and at the group’s head office, have confirmed compliance.

In order to increase the representation of previously disadvantaged groups at the middle and senior management levels, the group has embarked on an exhaustive consultative process to review our employment equity strategy. The key was to align the employment equity approach with the group’s new human resources strategy in order to benefit directly from enhanced and improved human resources practices, specifically in the areas of recruitment, remuneration, talent management, and training and development.

Our new strategy focuses on:

Recruitment

Improved sourcing and recruitment techniques which include the implementation of e-recruitment and targeted press advertising, will assist in sourcing and drawing more applicants, primarily black Africans. This will enable the group to better mirror the national demographics.

Remuneration

A more focused approach to salary and benefit benchmarking, involving the use of national retail and general salary and benefit surveys and the implementation of an electronic job evaluation system, will increase the internal equity score and lead to an improved fit with the market. This will have a positive effect on the retention of key employees.

Talent management

A rigorous approach has been adopted to the management of the talent pipeline. This process identifies shortages and over-supply of specific key skills at various levels. The introduction of coaching and mentoring will benefit the accelerated development and retention of existing employees who have been identified as having upward potential.

Training and development

Standardised programmes to impart skills to store managers have been introduced to assist in bringing about consistency across the group and facilitating identification of those with potential for promotion.

In addition the merchant academy, which is a fast-track programme for trainee merchandise planners and buyers, was launched during the year. Of its intake, approximately 80% were members of previously disadvantaged groups. Existing employees can also benefit by attending specific modules to up-skill themselves. Further details of the academy are provided in the talent development section below.

Centralised trainee management

Store manager and merchant trainees are now managed centrally and a standardised curriculum as described above is followed. This further benefits the consistency of skills across the group and permits regular evaluation.

Cross-divisional collaboration

An important element of the talent management and development process now under way in the group is the emphasis on providing opportunities throughout the group rather than relying on individual divisions to provide employees with their career ladder. This process is managed by the newly-established talent management department. Regular group manpower review meetings are held, where the talent of each trading and service division are scrutinised to identify employees who are ready for promotion or who would benefit from gaining exposure in a different division or role.

In addition, we ensure that the advertising of vacancies is accessible to all staff members.

Consultation and communication

The employment equity consultative forum structure has been enhanced. Apart from two existing national fora, divisional fora have been established. This change provides all employees with a greater say in all aspects of employment equity and a full programme of group-wide and division-specific communication is being launched.

Physically disabled persons

The group’s two largest office centres, in Cape Town and Johannesburg, have had full disability audits completed by a specialist consultant to ensure that these facilities are suitable for and accessible to physically disabled employees.

This remains an area of challenge for our employment strategies.

Workforce profile

In our employment equity submission of October 2007 previously disadvantaged employees comprised 83,3% of our workforce, compared to 80,7% in October 2006 and 78,4% in October 2005. The target for October 2010 is 90%, which we anticipate will be achieved, based on current progress.

The group has finalised its new employment equity plan for the three-year period ending October 2010.

The composition of Namibian employees is 93,8% representative of previously disadvantaged groups in that country.

Evidence of our overall progress in remedying imbalances in the ethnic composition of the group’s workforce over the past eight years is depicted below.

Workforce Profile Changes

This chart excludes employees of RCS Investment Holdings (Pty) Limited and its subsidiaries, as the target date of that division’s plan differs by three years from that of the rest of the group, and is thus not comparable. Those employees total 4,5% of headcount and thus do not significantly affect the statistics.

Actual employee status vs October 2010 Target

Actual employee status vs October 2010 Target

The chart above depicts our current employee status compared to our 2010 target.

The revised employment equity strategy noted above will assist in the attainment of this target.

A table indicating the change in representation of previously disadvantaged groups amongst permanent employees is provided below.

  October October October October
  2007 2006 2005 2004
  % % % %
Senior management 5,3 6,3 4,6 5,9
Specialists and middle management 29,2 29,8 30,0 27,7
Skilled technical and junior management 66,9 63,0 59,3 56,5
Semi- and unskilled employees 91,1 88,6 86,6 84,9
A table indicating the change in representation of women amongst permanent employees is provided below.
  October October October October
  2007 2006 2005 2004
  % % % %
Senior management 38,2 38,4 39,9 31,1
Specialists and middle management 63,3 63,7 63,4 63,0
Skilled technical and junior management 79,5 79,3 80,1 80,3
Semi- and unskilled employees 79,0 79,4 79,1 79,1

Namibian employees

The Affirmative Action (Employment) Act of 1998 required that as from 2001 an annual report and plan be submitted to the Employment Equity Commissioner. We have complied with this requirement each year.

In Namibia, unlike South Africa, no distinction is made between the black, coloured and Indian groups in monitoring the number of members of previously disadvantaged groups. There is, however, a concerted focus on gender.

If non-Namibians are employed, it is required that understudies be appointed and their details together with their acknowledgement of their status be included in the report.

The current composition of Namibian employees comprises 93,9% from previously disadvantaged groups with only one non-Namibian being employed.

Recruitment

This is a key focus area in ensuring that representivity is achieved. Psychometric tests used in the recruitment process have been selected that are valid and fair in the South African environment. These tests specifically assess potential as opposed to current competency and skills.

The change in the percentage of employees recruited from previously disadvantaged groups is as follows:

A breakdown of recruitment by ethnic group as indicated in our most recent employment equity progress report is depicted below: