| The group continues to look at innovative ways of selecting and engaging new staff. All new staff participate in a detailed induction, which covers areas such as the group’s vision, mission, ethics, management team, health and safety requirements, policies, procedures and processes.
All employees are automatically included in the group’s various benefits such as medical aid, group life benefit scheme, wellness programme and free access to group products such as miTraffic, miPayslip, Look4help, Look4me, amongst others.
The group life benefit scheme is employer funded and includes death, disability, dreaded disease and funeral benefits. Membership of Discovery Health is compulsory for all new permanent employees, earning over R6 500 per month. All changes to terms and conditions of employment, including changes to significant operational matters, are dealt with in a consultative manner with staff, with the objective of mutual acceptance of the outcome.
BLD implemented a project aimed at strengthening the human resource structures and processes and aligning these with business objectives. Labournet, a leading HR solution provider, was appointed to facilitate the process. This involved a one-on-one consultation with every employee, within every region, to establish their duties, KPAs and KPIs. These are encapsulated in a job description and linked to a job grading. All performance assessments and skills development plans are referenced to the job descriptions, KPAs and KPIs. The results of the process are available online to line managers and subordinates, via the employee self-help module on Psiber. The project has enjoyed the support of both staff and management and it is intended to be rolled out to other subsidiaries in due course.
The group co-ordinates employee and social wellness days at head office on a quarterly basis, e.g. a blood drive, food parcels and winter blankets for the needy, Bandanna Day, Women’s Day and World Aids Day. A monthly internal newsletter is distributed electronically to all staff in the group, which aims to share important events, achievements, highlights, profile companies and employees and recognise those employees who are “Super Heroes”.
Blue Label management views incidents of child or forced labour as morally abhorrent. Consequently Blue Label does not allow or consider incidents of child labour, forced or compulsory labour to be a risk to any of its operations, due to the protection provided by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, the Bill of Rights, the labour laws of the country and the moral and ethical stance of the company itself.
 Employment equity
The group promotes and supports equal opportunity and fair treatment of all in accordance with its employment equity policy. The group’s recruitment policies and procedures are aimed at enabling staff and external candidates to compete for job and/ or promotional opportunities in an equitable environment where the sole criterion is merit based.
Subsidiary performance against employment equity targets is recorded and monitored and reported quarterly to the Social and Ethics Committee. The group continues to be non-unionised.
The table below reflects the demographics of the employee base for the financial year indicated, excluding international operations:
View Actual equity headcount table |
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