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| Jan Horn |
| General Manager Human Resources |
Supported by eleven divisional personnel managers
Human Resources
The primary focus of the human resources department is on the recruitment, training and development needs of the staff nationally, maintaining a stable relationship with the representative trade unions and facilitating transformation.
The Company is committed to a sustainable transformation programme aimed at changing the employee profile to reflect the gender and racial demographics of the customer base and the country.
The policy is to favour previously disadvantaged individuals for new positions, and during the year black staff accounted for 69% of new appointments. The total staff complement for the Group has remained relatively static at 5 870 (2004 - 5 776).
On the industrial relations front, relations with staff and the organised labour movement continue to be favourable and no industrial action was experienced during the year. In 2005 staff membership of the recognised trade union, the South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union (SACCAWU) stood at 44% for the bargaining category. A new two-year wage agreement is due to be negotiated in July 2005.
In line with the Company's commitment to training and development, 1 974 employees attended training courses during the year, including 1 468 previously disadvantaged staff. All job categories in the branch and regional operations have a specific training course and induction programme.
During the year a technology-based development programme was introduced for branch managers and a product knowledge training course developed for sales staff on the Lewis Communication System, the Group-wide intranet system.
The training and recruitment functions are managed on a decentralised basis, with 11 Divisional Personnel Managers providing a support service to the operations.
The Group operates an educational bursary scheme which assists employees in furthering their studies, as well as providing funding for employees' children for tertiary and secondary school education.
During the year 80 employees were registered for correspondence courses with the University of South Africa (UNISA) covering customer relationship, marketing and sales management.
HIV/AIDS education is integrated into the overall training programme and an information brochure, Living with AIDS, was compiled to enlighten employees about managing the disease in the workplace.
The role of the human resources department in managing the Group's corporate social investment portfolio is outlined in the Corporate Governance Report.