Human Capital
Over three-quarters of our management team are black people, but we need to invest more in occupational training for the benefit of all employees.
Human capital scorecard as at June 2009
| Total headcount
28,162  4.72%
|
The percentage
of flexible
employees 33% 4.72% |
Unionised
staff 35% 4.72% |
Black
professionals
as a % of all
management
and professionals 77%  4.72% |
Employees
with medical
benefits
(includes
OCSA) 38% 4.72% |
| SA retail peer 71.85% |
SA medical aid
membership 14.3% |
|||
| HIV
prevalence
6.44% 0.40%
|
Staff turnover 9.34% 9.46% |
Average
minimum wage R2,139 4.85% |
Training spend
expressed per
capita of total
headcount
(R30,828m)als R1,261 36.76% |
Note: Percentages, except black management and professional staff are reported as a percentage of 18 302 permanent staff. |
| SA national 10.90% |
SA retail peer 11.75% |
Sectoral
determination R1,947.24 |
SA retail peer R1,315 |
|
Scorecard commentary
Massmart’s level of black management representation (77%) is among the highest in the industry. Our ongoing objective is to achieve 80% representation by June 2011, but we must address the fact that we have insufficient representation (26.5%) where it matters most, at top management level. This is an area of continued focus for us.
Another one of our goals has been to extend access to affordable, private healthcare to more of our staff members. We launched the OCSA scheme in 2008 to drive this and during the past 12 months, 1 939 employees have signed up.That’s a 9.75% increase in the number of permanent staff members who now enjoy access to private primary health benefits compared to last year.
We’ve seen a slight rise (0.4%) in the HIV infection rate, mainly attributable to the fact that more employees are using our voluntary counselling and testing programme. One of our concerns in this regard is the number of HIV-positive employees who have not registered for treatment. We estimate this is as many as 31%, so we are intensifying engagement with employees to encourage those affected to register.
A further recent health initiative we’ve launched for employees, a voluntary screening programme for early detection of priority illnesses, has delivered good results. To date, 7 601 staff members have been screened for cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes and obesity resulting in early detection of these ailments for many employees. Our group-wide TB analysis questionnaire engaged as many as 5 676 employees and resulted in 53 referrals.
We also focused on investing more money in the scope, quality and intensity of the occupational training we offer our employees. Whilst this led to improvements, we are disappointed that only 30% of participants who attended executive and leadership training courses were black people. We’re working to correct this. Our graduate trainee programme aimed at recruiting talented young, primarily black graduates, continues to surpass expectations. This year alone, 50 new graduates joined our team through this initiative.
Finally, the Group was impacted by labour unrest in two divisions during the year. In December 2008, the South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union (SACCAWU) declared a dispute with Makro over the introduction of a 40-hour rolling week. Then in July 2009, the union declared another dispute with the chain, this time over wages. During that same month, SACCAWU also declared a dispute with Game in relation to the implementation of a biometric time and attendance system. All three disputes led to protest action, which was resolved to the mutual satisfaction of all parties.
Massmart is committed to:
Increase black management and professional representation as percentage of managers and professionals to 80% by June 2011.
Increase medical cover access to 60% of permanent staff by June 2011.