HUMAN CAPITAL
Overview
The Group aims to attract and retain talented and passionate people for our businesses and support them in their skills and knowledge development. Our businesses create a working environment which values our employees as partners in fulfilling the Group’s mission, founded on mutual trust, respect and dedication to performance, quality, and respect for each other.
Principles
The Group is led by highly motivated executives, management and support teams that help the Group achieve its corporate strategy and goals. To achieve this, the Group focuses on creating working conditions that inspire our employees to achieve set targets. Our businesses are strongly committed to labour and social standards that attract and retain excellent people and leaders whom we continue to develop through long life learning and support.
With the support from Providence Human Capital, the Group provides employment opportunities through various forms that include short-term contracts, casual positions, fixed-term contracts and full time or permanent positions. These opportunities are managed through adherence to local and international labour standards. Our employees are free to be members of trade unions of their choice in our business sectors to enable us to build sustainable relations.
In 2021, the Group employed a total of 8 805 staff of which 53.5% were in permanent employment and 46.5% as contract staff, providing a long term livelihood to a majority of our employees.
Employee Gender Ratios
The Group places much emphasis on employing women within its businesses increasing women represented to 19% of total workforce in 2021 from 17% in 2020.
Total Employees Gender Ratio
| Total Employees | Unit | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | Count | 7,101 | 6,259 | 6,410 | 6,207 | 5,534 |
| Female | Count | 1,704 | 1,320 | 1,320 | 1,359 | 1,205 |
| Total Employees | Count | 8,805 | 7,579 | 7,730 | 7,566 | 6,739 |
| % Female | 19% | 17% | 17% | 18% | 18% |
Occupational Health & Safety
The Group considers health and safety in our work place critical to all our businesses. Any incidences are treated seriously and receive the necessary attention. Regular audits are conducted to ensure safety measures are in place at all times and appropriate training conducted to ensure that all employees are aware of health and safety issues. The Group’s policy is to ensure incidences are kept as low as possible.
| Unit | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Number of Injuries | Incidences | 420 | 405 | 317 | 260 | 266 |
During the year, the various businesses provided their staff with safety training, which included the following topics:
- Emergency preparedness and response training
- Incident reporting and basic emergency procedures training
- Fire prevention and firefighting procedure training
- First aid training
- Spills response training
- Chemical usage safety training
- High voltage switch training
- Occupational health risk assessment training
- Lifting techniques training
- Machine operating training
- In-house driver training
The Group sustained a total of 420 injuries during the reporting year, which is 4% higher than last year, resulting in 1 375 days lost to injury (LTI). The businesses continue to give reinforcement training on the standard operating procedures (SOPs) specifically aimed at reducing the number of injuries sustained in the workplace.
The Group’s commitment to health, safety and welfare for all of its employees requires all businesses to ensure that they adopt and apply best practice at all times. During the year, the following training was provided by Providence Human Capital’s Research, Training & Development department on employee wellness and training selected staff as First Aiders:
- COVID-19 awareness
- Breast cancer awareness
- Mental health care
- Nurse aid
- First aid training
Healthcare for employees and their dependents
Overview
The Group looks after the health and welfare of its employees by providing primary healthcare for all either through on-site medical facilities or through cooperation with Providence Health who provide a corporate wellness program for the Group’s employees and their dependents.
Six of the businesses in the Group have clinics or medical facilities on site, while the other businesses obtain healthcare support for the employees and their dependents through Providence Health’s facilities in central Harare and Bulawayo.
During the year, the various medical facilities reported a total of 19 264 visits from employees, highlighting the value of these medical facilities for staff. On the farms, a total of 4 418 visits from the dependents of Irvine’s employees were recorded at their two clinics, while the Triple C Pigs clinic recorded 1 539 visits from their employees’ dependents. The Providence Health clinics recorded a further 3 924 visits from employees and 2 251 visits from dependents.
The table below presents the number of visits recorded at the various on-site medical facilities over the year.
Covid-19 Support
COVID-19 Support
Providence Health continued to provide the Group with invaluable support to be able to cope and deal with the COVID-19 pandemic with the principal aim of keeping all employees and their dependents safe. This was achieved through:
- Continued awareness campaigns on COVID-19 prevention
- Continuous rapid response information dissemination to all stakeholders
- COVID-19 screening at various stakeholders
- Participation in the COVID-19 vaccination nationwide campaign
- Ensuring employees have easy access to primary health care
- Covering medical bills for certain complex cases
- Providing Vitamin C, face masks, hand sanitizers, and face shields to the employees.
Providence Health is licenced to administer COVID-19 vaccinations at Providence Health’s clinics as well as via site visits to Group Companies premises.
Human development and training in the workplace
Overview
The Group strives to provide opportunities for our employees to attend relevant training courses and programmes to advance their knowledge and skills that benefit our business value chain by ensuring our production facilities maintain the highest standard and skills. Our life learning and development opportunities are available through internal and external training activities in an equitable manner.
The Group’s businesses kept their staff up-to-date by providing on the job training on subjects including the following:
- Quality control management system training
- Product quality control training
- Supply chain management training
- Food safety management system training
- FSSC 22000 food safety training
- SHEQ training
- SADMA Milling Course training
- Annual account & cycle planning training
- Tax training
- Excel training
- Customer care training
- Handling customer complaints training
- Project management training
