Governance &
SustainabilityHuman capital
We provide sustainable employment to 11 086 permanent employees within our wholly-owned South African operations.
The overarching Human Capital mandate flowing from Pioneer Foods’ business strategy is “delivering competent and committed people to drive business value”. This is paramount to our fundamental belief that our people are the creators of value in our business. The Group owes its success to the calibre, commitment and contribution of its people. Their passion and resilience have enabled the Group to build strong and trusted brands over the years.
A central Recruitment Hub optimises our recruitment rand spend, and an inclusive careers grid integrating job opportunities across divisions has been developed.
Various forums and communication channels are used to connect and engage with employees, as key organisational stakeholders. These channels include: one-on-one discussions, team meetings, departmental meetings, site meetings, business unit and group forums, electronic platforms (internet, intranet, SMS, e-mail), focus groups, management roadshows, leadership forums, company publications and newsletters, e.g. Flag Post, Newsflash, retirement newsletters, vacancy bulletins and business unit newsletters. At two-yearly intervals, the Group conducts a climate survey to gauge people’s feelings and perceptions about the Group and people practices.
As part of our roadmap to sustainability, the Human Capital function has the following key focus areas:
Culture
People draw inspiration from the Pioneer Foods Way which is an embodiment of the Group values, acceptable behaviours and its multi-stakeholder approach and engagement. The Pioneer Foods Way is the bedrock of the inclusive, values-based and performance-driven organisational culture which the Group seeks to nurture and sustain.
- Accountability and Commitment
- Adaptability
- Consumer/Customer Focus
- Development and Recognition of People
- Integrity
- Passion
Talent
Initiatives, interventions and processes provide for a Broad-Based talent pool to address current and future organisational needs. The cornerstone of our talent management approach is nurturing, development and providing career growth opportunities which include internal promotions and transfers; Management and Career Management; Leadership Development Programmes; learnerships; Graduate Development Programmes; bursaries and an educational assistance scheme. The Group Manager: Organisational Development & Talent specifically focuses on organisational development and talent.
Leadership
An integrated leadership framework is supported by our career grid, business objectives and organisational values. By doing this, we aim to develop a leadership cadre that is inspired, motivated and competent to ignite the passion for results from the broad spectrum of our employees.
Scarce skills
A cross-divisional and multi-disciplinary team is drawn from the disciplines deemed to be scarce categories. The team works with the Group Manager: Scarce Skills, whose main objective is to ensure the availability and sustainable supply of scarce skills to meet our business needs, to put measures and processes in place to ensure the availability and continued supply of scarce skills resources to meet our business needs as we continue with our capacity expansion. We have partnered with several Further Education and Training (FET) and Higher Education and Training (HET) institutions and equipment suppliers to build a skills pipeline - focusing primarily in the technical, food technology, manufacturing and information systems disciplines.
Performance & reward
Our performance management system is linked to career development. This system is benchmarked against global levels of work, performance standards, and balanced scorecard items entrenching sustainability measures per individual. We also have embarked on a journey which includes the following processes: value driver workshops, workforce segmentation and reward dialogues that will culminate in a total rewards value proposition enabling the attraction, motivation, engagement and retention of talent and sustainable business performance.
Wellness
We have a holistic wellness programme covering the psychological, emotional, physical and financial well-being of our employees. This programme has evolved from the premise that the business challenge today is to ensure that companies have well motivated, healthy and committed employees who are equipped with the adequate life-skills to make a meaningful contribution to the sustainability of the business, and society in general. Since its launch in 2008 two modules have been rolled-out: namely, personal- and financial well-being, and employee feedback has been very positive. The current wellness programme is being rolled out over a five-year period.
Employee relations
Business units within the Group have effective participative forums with labour representatives and representative unions to promote dialogue and engagement on matters of mutual interest. The Group upholds the right to freedom of association and human dignity in the workplace. There are 17 trade unions in the Group’s various business operations with a collective membership of 5,693 employees.
