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Cafés across all our operations, with the aim of promoting open
conversation and collaboration, generating new ideas, and
enhancing our customer experience excellence programme.
Through our ‘Conversations in Leadership’ initiative, Vodacom
executives have been engaging with global thought leaders with
the goal of stimulating innovation.
Our annual People Survey, conducted by independent
consultants, tracks how engaged, well managed and ‘included’ our
employees feel. We compare our scores with a high-performing
peer group and other Vodafone Group companies to assess
whether we are creating the right environment for our people to
excel and grow.
This year, Vodacom continued to show positive trends on most
dimensions within the survey. Our Engagement Index improved by
three points to 79^, while the overall workforce participation rate
(across all operations) increased by two points to 88%. Areas
identified as requiring more focus include empowering our
employees through simpler internal processes, and improving
cross-team collaboration.
Promoting diversity and inclusion
We encourage greater levels of diversity within our organisation.
This is important not only to address historic imbalances, but also
helps us to serve our customers more effectively by enhancing
our pool of experiences, perspectives and ideas. As a company
with roots in South Africa, we are committed to delivering on the
ideals of Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE)
and employment equity. In our South African operation, black
representation in the workforce is 73%, with 55% at senior
management level and 58% in the Executive Committee. Women
represent 47% of the workforce, with 30% at senior management
level. Our BEE scorecard performance in the employment equity
element maintained a positive trend, until the revised Codes came
into effect late in the financial year. The revisions are stricter on
the economically active population (EAP) statistics, and on the
recalculation on black females aligned to EAP for all levels.
(Further details on our BEE performance are provided in our
Sustainability report.)
We have various initiatives aimed at promoting gender diversity
and supporting women in progressing their careers at Vodacom.
These include female leadership development programmes
undertaken in partnership with the Gordon Institute of Business
Science and the North West University, a women’s network forum
mentorship programme with Wits Business School, and our
involvement in the United Nations HeForShe initiative. As a result
of all these initiatives, Vodacom was recognised as a champion in
promoting gender diversity in South Africa at the Annual Gender
Mainstreaming Awards.
In addition to driving gender diversity, we have initiatives
protecting the rights and interests of people with disabilities, and
we have established a network for lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender/transsexual and inter-sexed (LGBTI) employees. To
achieve a truly inclusive working environment, we have
implemented the rollout of unconscious bias training across all
markets. Our Vodacom Group EXCO attended the course, providing
them with an opportunity for personal reflection and action
planning to eliminate any practices reflecting unconscious bias.
Our safety performance
We are saddened to report one workplace-related fatality
this year: in Mozambique, on 20 January 2017, a young boy,
Nelson Harrisse, was fatally injured in a traffic accident involving
a Vodacom contractor.
Road-related accidents remain the highest causal factor of safety
incidents (59%) followed by collapsing structures (12%), and slips,
trips and falls (11%). South Africa accounted for 69% of safety
incidents (2016: 67%), with 22% from the DRC (2016: 20%).
Our lost-time injury frequency rate was 0.05 (2016: 0.11), once
again less than our target of 0.25 To encourage improved road
safety, we have revised our occupational driving standard, which
also applies to all suppliers. In South Africa, our award winning
Road Guardian programme has contributed to a reduction in the
number and seriousness of vehicle incidents.
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