Staff matters

ACCELERATING TRANSFORMATION

Nedbank is committed to the acceleration of transformation, with a strategy that is focused on the attraction, development and retention of previously disadvantaged individuals as well as the fast-tracking of identified current employees.

To this end the adoption of the 10 transformation truths, (as reflected here) indicates our firm intent to impact the entire employee value chain and make a significant difference. Transformation affects every area of our business; it is a business imperative that requires full transparency and honesty to engender trust and is the responsibility of every person to make it happen. The principles of unity, fairness and sustainability underpin all diversity interventions in the bank. Transformation is also a non-negotiable and is embedded in all business strategies and plans.

We have committed to growing our own talent pool, attracting targeted groups based on race and gender and PWDs, and contributing to the long-term sustainability of our organisation and all its stakeholders.

The formation of the PWD Forum in 2008 established a channel of communication for disabled employees. The Women’s Forum continued with its good work, and diversity has been incorporated into the Leading for Deep Green management intervention as well as the MDP. Other interventions, such as the Engeli Journey, corporate theatre and diversity management training have embedded the transformation intent into business-as-usual operations in the different clusters.

Diversity interventions have a significant impact on building a culture of transparency that is critically important to the acceleration of transformation.

The Transformation Dialogue booklet named ‘Be the Key’, covering the history of transformation and diversity in South Africa, was also produced and made available to all employees. A diversity framework has been developed to incorporate all the interventions and successful work done so far. Nedbank is truly committed to becoming a multicultural organisaton.

WOMEN’S FORUM

The Nedbank Women’s Forum continues to effectively advance gender diversity across the group. Programmes and initiatives successfully supported and implemented in 2008 included the following:

• The Cell C ‘Take a Girl Child toWork’ programme in May – the forum hosted 100 girls and exposed them to the Nedbank Group work environment.
• TheWomen Empowerment Programme – this is aimed at improving the management skills of female employees in junior management.
• Numerous presentations and workshops for female audiences on various topics pertaining to empowerment in the workplace.

PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

In 2008 additional focus was placed on PWD, which included the following:

• Specific targets were set for PWD placements across all occupational levels, race and gender. Furthermore, the group developed a PWD equity strategy to increase awareness, declarations and reasonable accommodation of PWD at Nedbank.
• The PWD Forum gained momentum in the past year and is formally represented in the Nedbank Employment Equity Forum.
• As part of the programme to accommodate PWDs, the Transformation Dialogue booklet was made available in braille.
• Part of the awareness campaign included hosting the National Paralympian team at the group’s headoffices to celebrate achievements of PWDs.

EMPLOYMENT EQUITY

A significant part of transformation is our drive to embed employment equity (EE) within our group, and 2008 saw good progress being made towards achieving our targets. At group level we have developed a detailed implementation and communications plan that is rigorously tracked and monitored. These plans are aligned to the barriers to employment equity, as perceived by our staff, that have been identified through the Nedbank Staff Survey and focus groups, across the bank.

 

EE targets

Nedbank Group’s three-year EE Plan was completed and submitted to the Department of Labour in April 2008, with both qualitative and quantitative measures in place to monitor the progress made in terms of the plan until 2010.

The group’s EE status, according to the Department of Labour’s report by occupational levels (including people with disabilities) at 31 December 2008, is reflected in the table below.

Eyethu Employee Scheme

In 2008 the Eyethu Employee Scheme continued to move towards its goal of achieving black economic empowerment and real ownership by all participating groups. The trustees of the Eyethu Black Executive Trust and the Eyethu Black Management Scheme continue to assist participants with queries relating to their individual holdings, including information sessions for new and existing participants. These sessions are part of the scheme’s commitment to offer effective financial education, provide participants with a greater understanding of shares and, specifically, encourage participation in the various empowerment schemes.

	Designated							Non-designated
Occupational levels	Male			Female				Male	Foreign nationals
	A	C	I	A	C	I	W	W	Male	Female	TOTAL
Top management	2	0	0	1	1	0	1	9	0	0	14
Senior management	44	17	41	30	7	22	90	310	25	11	597
Professionally qualified	575	317	577	522	450	582	1 767	1 779	104	99	6 772
Skilled technical	1 241	679	666	2 149	1 533	1 266	2 011	655	51	103	10 354
Semiskilled	749	308	163	1 553	860	421	687	125	7	43	4 916
Unskilled	9	0	1	11	0	0	1	0	0	1	23
Exceptions: permanent	12	2	3	6	2	3	6	4	2	0	40
staff not matched
Total permanent	2 632	1 323	1 451	4 272	2 853	2 294	4 563	2 882	189	257	22 716
Non-permanent	356	74	87	690	185	70	247	293	140	112	2 254
employees
Grand total	2 988	1 397	1 538	4 962	3 038	2 364	4 810	3 175	329	369	24 970

Note	1	Total EE permanent headcount (22 716) excludes four Imperial Bank secondees, which are included in the headcount here.
	2	Total EE non-permanent headcount (2 254) includes the payroll contractor and commission staff total reflected here, (1 849) plus 405 temporary staff.
	3	Total EE headcount excludes the international employees (1 803) as well as external entities (1 198) as reported here.