Diverse, equitable and inclusive work culture
In South Africa, social justice norms and labour legislation drive the advancement of designated groups (Africans, Coloured, Indians, women and people living with disabilities). We recognise that our business recovery and resilience following the pandemic depends on a culture that encourages everyone to apply their diverse thinking. This means that we must be truly inclusive, empower our people to make meaningful contributions, treat all employees fairly, and give everyone equal access to opportunities, information and resources. Leveraging our collective intelligence will drive a high-performance culture, drive business results and improve our engagement with our diverse customer base and other stakeholders.
What we are doing
The Group's diversity training and people policies convey the behaviours we expect of our managers and employees to foster a healthy and inclusive working environment where everyone can perform to their full potential. We ensure that our employment policies and practices do not unintentionally create potential for discrimination or unconscious bias behaviour. Our diversity training programmes in South Africa and the UK raise awareness on the value of diversity, empower managers to lead diverse teams and educate employees on how to work in diverse teams. In South Africa, we have development programmes and learnerships that target women and people living with disabilities, and in the UK, our apprenticeships target women and people of colour.
Women in Leadership Programme
(a partnership with the Gordon Institute of Business Science in South Africa)
To promote gender diversity in all leadership roles, this seven-month programme explores female power and encourages women to draw on their authentic leadership styles to effectively lead in a male-dominated environment. Women from across the business engage each other and explore topics relating to female experiences in the Group in a supportive way. Female industry leaders and Motus executives share their career experiences and insights with the participants. 360-degree surveys are used to identify personal development areas, which delegates work on with the assistance of their assigned coach.
People living with disabilities are far less likely to receive adequate healthcare or a good education, which significantly limits their opportunities as adults. In South Africa, around four million citizens live with disabilities, but less than 30% have access to the assistive devices (such as hearing aids or wheelchairs) that they require. Our disability policy governs the reasonable accommodation of people living with disabilities and we encourage employees to declare their conditions.
A key focus for the Group is to create effective collaboration platforms across multiple workforce segments, providing individuals and teams with the opportunity to share new ideas and contribute to problem-solving. A key initiative is our Motus Xponential platform.
Employment equity in South Africa.
Global research supports the conclusion that diverse companies outperform their less diverse counterparts, being better able to attract top talent; and improve their customer insight, employee satisfaction and innovation.
The Motus Unstoppable Disability Campaign aimed to foster a greater understanding and acceptance of disability in the workplace, and to encourage employees to declare their disabilities and apply for reasonable accommodation. The campaign was positively received by employees and managers, with initial impressions being that our people feel more comfortable to approach their managers to discuss their challenges. HR managers have recorded an increase in the number of inquiries around interpreting our disability policy, with several questions received around mental disability (depression and anxiety). Our HR managers also reported seeing a perceptible change in the way line managers are responding to issues related to disability, with the narrative changing from "this person cannot do the job" to "I think this person may be having difficulty performing their tasks due to a disability". Managers are also focusing more on how these employees can be helped. This changing narrative is critical in moving Motus towards being a truly inclusive employer of choice.
As a disability can only be recorded once a medical practitioner diagnoses it, we expect the campaign to produce more positive results in the future as employees feel more comfortable to disclose their disabilities. The final phase of the campaign will focus on sustaining the positive gains made in terms of disability awareness.
2021 performance and looking forward
Group
- Objective: align our diversity, equity and inclusion goals to business objectives; identify critical roles and workforce teams where there is underrepresentation of designated groups and set diversity targets for business segments.
Gender diversity
Women representation (Group)
of the Group’s workforce
(F2020: 30%)
Hires and promotions (South Africa)
Of the 3 395 people hired in F2021,
Of the 169 employees promoted in F2021,
- Female representation at top management level decreased by 3% but increased 7% at senior management level.
- 18 women in South Africa are participating in the second cohort of the Women in Leadership Programme (F2019: 20). The programme did not run in F2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions.
- In the UK, we shared the success of our female apprentices on social media to encourage women to join the apprentice programme.
Business specific initiatives and highlights
- Established a cross-function diversity and inclusion panel to develop a new diversity, equity and inclusion approach. The panel is conducting a benchmarking exercise to gather information on, and learn from, the transformation journeys of prominent and similar-sized corporates. Proposals for the new approach are being discussed with business segments and will then be presented to the executive committee for final approval.
- In prior years, our diversity training was conducted face to face, and was therefore not rolled out during the reporting year due to COVID-19 restrictions. Virtual diversity training programmes are being considered as part of the new diversity, equity and inclusion strategy. Going forward, our approach to diversity training will shift from what needs to be fixed to identify how to leverage what can be enhanced.
- Onboarded 70 candidates living with disabilities on a 12-month business administration learnership, which will give them work experience and a qualification upon successful completion.
- Three employment equity chartered accountants are participating in a structured development programme with mentors to become assistant finance executives.
- Retail and Rental consolidated all employment equity forums into a single employment equity committee, with members receiving training from a transformation specialist. The committee has direct access to Retail and Rental's Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Representation on the committee is being expanded to businesses outside of Gauteng.
- Ten black women are participating in Aftermarket Parts' nationwide apprenticeship programme, a partnership with the Wholesale and Retail SETA.
- Objective: identify equity champions at the executive and senior leadership levels to drive shared accountability.
- Objective: create a relevant diversity, equity and inclusion strategy and communication campaign that resonates with employees and stakeholders and fosters cultural and diversity awareness.
- Objective: conduct a baseline survey to measure the culture of engagement and inclusivity, and use this as a benchmark to measure improvement.
- Objective: continue to deliver diversity and inclusion training focusing on cultural sensitivity, unconscious bias and microaggression.
People living with disabilities (South Africa)
people living with disabilities in the South African workforce, of whom 65% are black and 50% are women
(F2020: 146 people living with a disability)
We launched the Unstoppable Disability Campaign in South Africa to actively hire and uplift people living with disabilities, and create a safe, inclusive space that welcomes and supports them to reach their full potential. The programme supports these team members by:
- Sharing statistics on the many challenges faced by people living with disabilities.
- Educating employees about how to interact with colleagues who have a disability in a respectful and well-informed manner.
- Educating employees about how Motus can accommodate their disabilities in the workplace.
- Fighting the stigma associated with mental health issues.