Business Connexion is committed to career-related training and development with the primary focus being on technical skills ,development. This will contribute to the group’s growth and sustainability.

Performance excellence
The group strives for a performance orientated culture where performance is formally recognised through properly constituted incentive and recognition schemes. Each employee’s performance is measured via a computerised Individual Performance Agreement (IPA) system. The IPA is utilised during the annual salary review to further embed a performance culture on a sustainable basis.

Overall accountability for meeting training targets is allocated to the respective Exco members with the numbers being monitored by the Executive: Human resources who regularly provides feedback to the Exco.

Recruitment
Attracting top information technology talent remains a focus for Business Connexion, as the group is cognisant of the fact that its greatest asset is its people.

Online recruitment continues to be a popular method of recruitment and the group has tapped into this trend by providing potential career seekers with a career portal on the corporate website to register their skills for any current or future opportunities. This career portal has enabled the group to build up a significant online internal database of potential career seekers. However, the skills shortages experienced within the ICT sector remain a challenge when recruiting for vacancies.

During the period under review, the internal recruitment team assisted in placing 440 new employees of which 52% were black.

Although the group has not been immune to the increased war for 52 talent, Business Connexion has adapted internal processes to speed up the recruitment approval process and its Human resources information services administrative team has assisted in centralising the registration and activation of vacancies. In this regard, formalised recruitment metrics ensure that the focused procurement of the required talent for the group’s continued success is optimised through an ongoing work improvement process.

The group’s internship programme, now in its fifth year, underpins its commitment to youth skills development. For the period under review the group trained 103 interns and placed 55 in permanent positions. Of these interns 95% are black and 43% are female. The group is particularly proud that, to date, it has retained some 76% of all interns placed as full time employees.

Interns not only receive industry-specific training and certification, but also receive soft skills training to assist them in adapting to the workplace. Specifically trained line managers are also appointed as mentors and coaches to assist graduates with on-the-job training and development.

Employee relations
In the absence of formally recognised unions within Business Connexion the Employee Communication Forum (ECF) serves to address collective concerns and provides input towards the enhanced wellbeing of the group’s employees. During the period under review a major intervention was launched to reposition and enhance the role of the ECF within the group.

The ECF’s democratically elected representatives meet monthly with senior management representatives in each operating division to:

• promote the interests of all employees in the workplace;
•  maximise efficiencies in the workplace through recommendations to management with respect to the perceptions, feelings and sentiments of employees, exchange information and discuss business-related issues, and in so doing contribute to the enhancement of the quality of management decisions;
• participate in joint decision-making on certain workplace matters aligned with the group’s business practices; and
• provide input on the workplace skills plan and the skills development plan to support the group employment equity initiatives and endeavours.

The sustainability of open and transparent communication channels between employees and management constitutes a non-negotiable imperative. Normal communication channels cater for both individual and collective communication. However, the ECF caters specifically for structured collective communication outside the established organisational communication processes.

In addition to the ECF there is ad hoc engagement with trade unions of which the most significant is Solidarity. Solidarity has the highest union representation in the group with seven members, down from 32 members in the previous period. It is acknowledged that sufficiently represented unions can play a role in regulating the employee/ employer relationship. In the event that this should arise, cordial industrial relationships will be maintained and governed via legitimate recognition agreements.

The group supports the constitutional right of employees to elect whether they wish to participate in organised labour, and to join a union of their choice. Management therefore neither obstructs nor favours any particular union, but has created a climate in which employees have the freedom to decide for themselves regarding any desired representation.

The Group manager: centre of excellence, in conjunction with the Executive: Human resources, has the accountability for the management of any of the current trade union interactions via mandates considered and approved by the Exco.

There has been no strike action or negative financial impact due to formal or informal collective industrial action during the period under review.

The group has well established and communicated, disciplinary and grievance policies and procedures to facilitate interaction between employees and management.

Health and safety
Continuing the drive to maintain the awareness of personal wellness and work/life balance, the group hosted Wellness Days together with Discovery Health to create awareness of health visits and allow for timeous lifestyle changes to address identified health risks.

Attendance has more than doubled from the previous review period with some 1 281 employees attending. This includes both members and non-members of Discovery Health.

The effectiveness of health and safety systems is continually reviewed with a view to reducing and minimising workplace incidents and injuries. Where incidents do occur, they are investigated, the risk of recurrence is assessed, and corrective action taken to reduce the risk of recurrence.

Monitoring of chronic health conditions is ongoing via the data provided through the auspices of the Discovery Health claim analysis which reflects the medical claim history of the majority of group employees. The top five illnesses are unchanged from the previous overview period, i.e. hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, diabetes, asthma and depression. This is in line with a similar claim patterns in the ICT sector in general. These areas are addressed during the Wellness Days.

As previously indicated, a work/life balance is singularly important within Business Connexion. The female gender component is significant at 30,5% of total headcount. Human resources policies cater for a better work/life balance through practices such as flexible working hours where operationally sustainable, family responsibility leave to cater for family emergencies and fully paid maternity leave.

Business Connexion continually reviews effectiveness of health and safety systems aimed at reducing workplace incidents and injuries and to ensure that the group complies with all requirements. Annual safety audits are conducted on group sites as well as customer sites where the group operates. Audit findings are discussed with management and agreed action steps put in place to mitigate risks. No major findings were reported during the period under review.

Comprehensive information on incidents is available for employees to review. Each incident occurrence is investigated and analysed with the intent of minimising the frequency and severity potential related to the recurrence of the incident.

In total 16 incidents were reported during the period. The incidents per category are listed in the table below. The Lost Work Day Case Rate (LWDCR) for the period is 0,0028%.

The group has a health and safety system in compliance with the requirements of the Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) 18001 standard which refers to the requirements of a behavioural based safety management system to ensure that employee behaviour drives improvement in the risk identification of hazards.

The group has successfully maintained its International Register of Certified Auditors (IRCA) rating for health and safety management at two of its customer sites and is implementing this management system throughout the group.

Human rights The human rights of employees are entrenched in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and their rights relating to the work environment are protected by the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, the Labour Relations Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHASA). The human resources policies comply with all South African legislative frameworks. In foreign countries prevailing legislation may not afford employees the necessary degree of human rights protection. The group is aware that it has a special duty of care to ensure that its own employees and those of suppliers in foreign countries are afforded the right level of human rights protection. This is particularly relevant as the group expands its footprint into Africa. There were no incidents of discrimination at any of the group’s operations during the year.

HIV/Aids in the workplace
An HIV/Aids policy is in place with a focus on the proactive prevention of this life threatening disease with the following objectives and interventions:

• implementation of HIV/Aids awareness programmes;
• promotion of equality and non-discrimination between HIV/Aids infected and non-infected employees;
• promotion of equality of treatment between HIV/Aids and other life threatening or comparable medical conditions;
• creation of a supportive environment for HIV/Aids infected employees to enable them to continue working under normal conditions for as long as they are medically fit to do so;
• protection of human rights and the dignity of people living with HIV/Aids;
• encouragement of consultation and participation of the relevant stakeholders in the implementation of HIV/Aids policy and programmes; and
•  maintenance of strict confidentiality of any HIV/Aids positive test results that employees may wish to disclose to management.

Employees have access to the Discovery Health HIV/Aids management programme. This programme provides unlimited hospitalisation and antiretroviral therapy. The services offered Include counselling and education by a dedicated case manager, approval and compliance monitoring of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HMRT), hospitalisation management and ensuing proper claims payment