The group promotes equal opportunity and fair treatment in employment in accordance with its employment equity policy. The objective is to create an environment in which all employees are able to compete for job opportunities on the sole criterion of merit.

The individual subsidiary company employee statistics are monitored by the group human resources department. The group strives to ensure job descriptions and functionalities of top, senior and junior management are accurately reflected in the Employment Equity reports submitted annually, and to align the dti Codes of Good Practice and the employment equity reports. Blue Label continues to be non-unionised.

Equity headcount by category summary 2010

The table below reflects the demographics of the employee base across the group, excluding international operations:

Equity headcount by category summary 2011

The decrease in the total number of employees compared to the previous reporting period is mainly attributable to the group’s disinvestment in CNS Call Centre, normal attrition and various cost cutting initiatives.

The group has implemented new training and development initiatives during the year as follows:

Learnership initiatives

The group has continued to partner with Bytes People Solutions in implementing various learnership programmes within its various subsidiaries as detailed in the table below:

A total of 30 learners (2010: 25 learners) within the various subsidiaries are mentored throughout the duration of the programme to ensure that they successfully complete their learnership qualification and integrate effectively into the Blue Label workforce

The group has also engaged disabled learners and has a total of nine such learners (2010: seven learners) currently engaged in the learnership programmes.

During the previous financial year the group hosted 25 learners and employed 10 within its various subsidiaries.

The Leadership Journey

Velociti (Proprietary) Limited, the group’s call centre business, implemented a leadership workshop aimed at developing its team leaders. The Leadership Journey is centred on Passionate, Assertive and Transformational leadership objectives. The workshop has been highly effective and looks at leadership and its relevance in order to transform both the individual and the business.

Community channels continued its development and empowerment of communities through the deployment of mobile technology. This allows the group to support continuing economic growth within broad-based communities, by creating jobs, developing skills and empowering South Africans through technology.

During the year under review the CC division successfully trained 1 500 “foot soldiers” in 11 communities across South Africa. In addition 16 new traditional councils have been signed up thereby creating 2 000 temporary jobs. Training provided to the “foot soldiers” includes introduction to the specific channel starter pack, the importance of retaining and recharging the starter pack, problems they might encounter when downloading the free airtime included in the starter pack and how to solve problems, how they need to dress and behave, recommended selling price and targets, what is RICA and how to operate a RICA terminal. Many of these “foot soldiers” have used this opportunity to start their own businesses or to earn additional income from the sale of starter packs.