A workplace for highly skilled employees

Lungile Ndlovu Chief Human Resources Officer

Vodacom draws on the expertise, talent and commitment of over 5 000 permanent South African employees and nearly 2 000 employees in our international operations to deliver customer service excellence and value to all our stakeholders. Vodacom’s success depends largely on the ability of our employees to be productive, innovative and forward-thinking. Our people are our most important sustainable competitive advantage key differentiator to business excellence.

The general shortage of skilled technicians in the ICT industry is one of the most critical long-term sustainability risks facing the company. Vodacom attracts and retains talent through: leadership, business and skills training; remuneration and rewards; and compensation and benefits. In addition, an employee referral process has been established to assist in identifying potential candidates for development and promotion. Vodacom also provides wellness programmes and employee volunteer programmes as a retention incentive. In combination, these initiatives serve to provide a talent pipeline to meet the Group’s current and future human capital requirements.

Training

In the 2009 financial year, Vodacom SA invested R70 million in direct costs training employees, or 3.8% of payroll. Guided by the Skills Development Act, and in partnership with ISETT SETA, Vodacom SA contributed to the enhancement of skills for the ICT industry by hosting a total of 463 learners and interns in the business. The Group also invests substantially in the development of technical and other required skills in our international operations. For most countries the average training hours exceed the industry median while the remainder compare to Global best practice.

Rewards, remuneration, compensation and benefits Health and safety

The Vodacom remuneration committee seeks to provide rewards and incentives that are highly leveraged to performance and clearly linked to group results and individual performance. All five components of the reward strategy, including the guaranteed pay portion, variable pay, performance management, learning and personal growth, and the work environment are at all times aligned to the strategic direction and value drivers of the Group. The Group’s employee value proposition is maintained by participating in a range of niche salary surveys. Compensation and benefits are benchmarked against industry standards and guided by the relevant labour legislation.

Employee wellness

Vodacom understands that employees with a positive, committed and passionate attitude towards the company are more motivated to achieve business success, and this in turn can greatly increase their own levels of satisfaction engadement at employment at the workplace.

During the year under review, 19% of Vodacom SA employees made use of the advice, counselling and psychological support offered by our Employee Assistance Programme (“EAP”), compared with 22.3% in the prior year.

Vodacom SA promotes employee wellbeing through talent management, leadership development and wellness management, as well as the Yebo Heroes campaign, an outreach opportunity for employees to focus on underdeveloped communities, and the Yebo Wellness Champion campaign, whereby dedicated groups of employees act as peer educators assisting Vodacom employees to manage their health and wellness. Other initiatives include the Wellness Programme and the Yebo Health Challenge, which enjoyed 60% employee participation in the year under review. Vodacom also provides occupational and primary healthcare to all group employees.

Health and safety

The telecommunications industry offers a relatively healthy and safe work environment, and no work related fatalities or major health and safety incidents occurred during the year under review. Vodacom benchmarks its compliance in relation to the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 and the OHSAS18001 standard. An average score of 88.9% was obtained during the 2008 external Health and Safety Legal Compliance audit, and the company has unconditionally retained its OHSAS18001 certification during the re-certification audit in October 2008.

Following a detailed comparison with Vodafone, Vodacom will be aligning our OHS policies and procedures to ensure consistency of management and reporting.

HIV/Aids

We embarked on a sustained campaign focussing on raising awareness about HIV/Aids, encouraging our employees to know their status through voluntary counselling and testing (“VCT”) initiatives, and providing comprehensive treatment and health monitoring services. All permanent Vodacom SA employees can make use of the free Direct Aids Intervention (“DAI”) programme, which includes VCT, HIV support and treatment, doctor’s visits and anti-retroviral therapy.

50% of Vodacom SA employees participated in VCT during 2008. Actual results indicate a prevalence rate of 2.3%, well below national levels, and below the estimated baseline of 5%.