Leadership and people capabilities
Motus is a learning organisation.
Tailored training and development opportunities are delivered at all employee levels, enabling our people to grow and unlock their potential.
Our development and training approach enables the Group to achieve its strategic objectives, meet its diversity and inclusion targets, and ensure a pipeline of skilled people for appointment to critical positions when they become available. Each business segment manages its own technical and product-specific training, and the Group delivers non-technical training programmes.
What we are doing
Leadership development
Effective leaders are able to steer organisations through the changes needed to address ever-increasing technologically driven industry advances and uncertain and challenging times. Our leadership and management development programmes equip our leaders to motivate high-performance teams. Our investment in our leaders is an investment in Motus' future and creates a ripple effect that positively impacts the Group's culture.
The Motus Leadership Academy builds leaders at every level of the organisation, equipping them with the skills needed to achieve our strategic objectives and assisting them to move through progressive leadership passages from junior positions to senior executives at the right time. All programmes are run virtually.
The Executive Development Programme is used to develop ideas to solve business challenges identified by the different executive committees across the Group. The partnership with the Henley Business School uses collaborative design-thinking frameworks and is hosted on Motus Xponential (mx), our innovation platform (see below).
People development
We use a blended approach to learning – 70% is on-the-job learning including job assignments, 20% is delivered through coaching and mentoring and 10% is classroom-based or delivered online. Training focuses on addressing functional and technical competency gaps at all employee levels. The performance development approach ensures that employees receive the right training to help them meet their responsibilities and advance their careers.
We also provide employees without a tertiary education with the opportunity to manage people, resources and projects by pursuing a Bachelor of Business Administration degree through the Southern Business School. Plans are in place to bring this programme and the mx platform closer together.
This year we partnered with the national Youth Employment Service (YES) Programme, which aims to create one million work opportunities for unemployed black youth in South Africa. This is discussed on contributing to community upliftment.
In the UK, all employees have access to online learning, which includes courses on health and safety, diversity and inclusion, data protection, sales and leadership.
Our leadership development passages
Manager 101
(F2019: 28)1
Portfolio Manager Programme
(F2019: 15)1
Manager 201
(F2019: 23)1
Dealer Principal
Programme
(F2019: 28)1
programme
Manager 301
(first cohort)
programme
Executive Development:
(F2019: 26)1
| 1 | Note: managerial programmes were not run in F2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions. |
community members since the start of F2021, exceeding our initial target by 156%.
Innovation
Innovation is not new to Motus. It is a vital strategic focus area and an effective tool in deepening our competitiveness and ensuring our relevance across the automotive value chain, especially as the connected consumer becomes more prevalent in this market. Our leaders drive innovation as a disruptor of our traditional business, supporting change which is often uncomfortable.
To infuse modern thinking into everything we do, we find ways to expose our executives and employees at all levels across the Group to innovation and to deliver platforms that improve collaboration across business segments. mx is the brand under which innovation is executed. The platform is a place for go-getters, problem solvers and change makers within Motus to collaborate and shape the future of our business. It is accessible to all employees, even on their mobile phones.
The mx platform is built around the following objectives:
- Sharing of innovation knowledge: keynote and thought leadership events, articles, practical innovation workshops and training delivered on the mx platform. More than 300 employees attended a development initiative during the year and more than 1 000 attended 11 keynote events.
- Enabling internal innovation: managing engagement and communication around innovation, and publishing business challenges on the mx platform to generate ideas and progress viable ideas to implementable concepts (bottom up approach). Concepts that pass adjudication by Motus executives, receive sponsorship to mature into implementable projects. We hosted two pitching days during the year, with nine concepts selected for further development.
- Establishing strategic partnerships: developing partnerships with institutes like the Henley Business School South Africa to grow our internal innovation capability. During the year, seven business challenges as part of the Executive Development Programme were taken through the innovation funnel, with three implementable concepts developed through the Henley Work Integrated Project (top down approach).
- Creating a culture of innovation: enabling cross-functional collaboration and showcasing innovation across the Group using the mx platform.
Any employee can participate in an innovation challenge, either by coming up with ideas, assisting others with their ideas or joining a team to develop an idea or assist the implementation of an idea.
Our brand-agnostic, personal vehicle matchmaking assistant, Moov, for first-time car buyers was inspired during a Motus Design Sprint brainstorming session in 2019. The chatbot, with built-in machine learning, uses a user's personality, lifestyle and budget to match them with a vehicle, minimising the time it takes to find the best vehicle for the user's needs. Moov is a world first and provides transparency regarding total cost of ownership for first-time vehicle buyers, minimising the likelihood of customers making bad financial decisions. The project is a successful collaboration across multiple business segments, which is currently being tested in the market.
As one of our 11 events held during F2021, mx hosted an online masterclass on visualising the future with award-winning scientist and corporate innovation change catalyst, Dr David Ricketts. Dr Ricketts is an Innovation Fellow at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard. In the masterclass, attended by 140 Motus leaders, Dr Ricketts shared his techniques for discovering breakthrough ideas and trying to visualise the future. Attendees were able to discuss topics such as the expected impacts of artificial intelligence and electric vehicles on the mobility market, the world's rapidly shifting vehicle infrastructure needs, the new skills needed for companies like Motus and what to expect from new revenue streams emerging in the market.
Our innovation strategy is well defined, structured around global best practice and supported through key strategic partnerships, investment in technology, new business growth initiatives and community participation. It will ensure that we have the internal capability to continue to grow and sustain our competitive advantage within the markets in which we operate. In addition, it gives young people exposure to the executive team, and provides the executive team with the opportunity to spot talent.
2021 performance and looking forward
Group
- Objective: continue to develop leaders and potential leaders to exhibit key behavioural and critical success factors that equip them for future leadership roles.
- Objective: drive higher and sustained engagement on the mx platform.
- Objective: further the delivery of programmes that help employees become digitally astute.
Business specific initiatives and highlights
- COVID-19 and the restrictions placed on classroom training continued to have a negative impact on learning and development in the first half of the financial year; however, Group-led development programmes resumed at the beginning of the 2021 calendar year using virtual platforms. Not only do these platforms provide remote access to training material but they also reduce learning costs. Unfortunately, COVID-19 also impacted our ability to hire the unemployed youth who successfully completed our learnership programmes early in the 2021 calendar year.
- The majority of training took place at senior management, middle management and the semi-skilled levels in line with our priorities to develop leadership capability, prepare middle managers for future opportunities and uplift workers in the semi-skilled employment band to the skilled worker level.
- 15 leaders embarked on the Executive Development Programme, 60% are black and 13% are women.
- Training spend of R144 million equated to 3,2% of payroll costs – exceeding the Skills Development Act's requirement that training spend equates to 1% of payroll costs (F2020: R177 million; 4%). The 19% year-on-year decrease in training spend reflects the transition to cheaper online learning and the 57% increase in training hours indicates good uptake of our learning programmes.
Skills development to support employment equity and transformation in South Africa, including our learnerships: employment equity and contributing to community upliftment.
- In Retail and Rental, the Car Rental division's learning management system is being expanded to cater for the Retail division as well. It will provide access to soft skills and compliance learning, and will be used by HR to communicate with the business segment's employees. It will also act as a repository for HR, company benefits and compliance information, including policies; and it will link to mx.
- Around 18% of Emerging Brands' workforce is participating in a formal academic programme (up to Master of Business Administration level), and will be further supported with key talent development plans.
- Car Rental implemented a learning strategy that gives IT employees the opportunity to rotate around specialised areas of the business.
- Autoworx is hosting apprentices for two spray-painting and panel beating businesses.
- Retail and Rental will relaunch the bursary programme in F2022 for employees wanting to gain a work-related qualification.
- Financial Services conducted a cloud technology assessment. It was decided that given the current costs of cloud computing, that Financial Services' existing infrastructure and skills are sufficient. Where specific projects are implemented, such as the new cloud-based supplier management solution, skills training on cloud technology will be part of the implementation management process.
- Aftermarket Parts rolled out a development programme for all middle managers linked to performance development. The programme will enable the business segment to identify its top talent.
Management training (South Africa)
employees participated in a managerial programme – 65% of participants are black and 38% are women
Technical training (South Africa)
of total training spend supported technical training, with a significant increase in training spend to support the development of soft skills
employees trained, 51% of the workforce
of training per employee
training spend, equating
to 5,5% of payroll costs
(reported for the first time)
- The commercial business' apprentice programme, delivered together with DAF, was awarded a Princess Royal Training Award and the East Midlands' Large Employer of the Year Award. It was also placed in the Top 100 of the National Apprenticeships Awards and in the Top 100 Companies on the Rate My Apprenticeship website (achieving a score of 8,9 out of 10 as awarded by the apprentices themselves). Over 15 000 online courses covering technical, safely and compliance training were completed.
- A total of 201 apprentices are enrolled on an apprenticeship programme with 59 recruited during the year. These programmes support the recruitment and development of future talent for the operation.
- 15 delegates are participating in a management development programme, which develops future senior managers.
- Total training spend for the year was R123 million.
- A key focus is to ensure a fit-for-purpose online learning system to offer best-in-class development interventions.
- All training has been transitioned to online platforms. Training during the year focused on health and safety and total training spend amounted to around R4 million.
- Over the long term, we will provide upskilling programmes to all employees, including English language courses and Excel training, and will roll out graduate and apprentice programmes.
Leadership development
(Kia example)
In October 2020, Kia launched its Leadershift Programme to better understand its current and potential internal sales talent within its retail operations and to develop a roadmap for talent progression. The initiative was introduced to address a high attrition rate among sales executives, support the progression from a sale executive position to a sales manager position and build a pipeline of future-ready sales managers.
Retaining talented sales employees is key; they are professionally trained, have in-depth industry knowledge and brand experience, and have long-standing relationships with customers. It was also clear that fast-tracking talented sales executives into sales manager positions was not effective, given the wide gap between a semi-skilled position and a middle management role.
Kia Leadershift Programme |
|
| Assessed all internal sales talent from a skill, behavioural and learning potential perspective, and conducted a gap analysis against the job profile and the Kia sales benchmark (103 employees). |
| Developed a pool of candidates for the Leadershift Programme (selection based on completion of the Kia Accelerate Certified Programme, achieving a targeted number of sales in a quarter, tenure of at least 12 months and a panel interview with the retail leadership team). |
| Assessed new candidates against a newly developed team leader job profile and competency framework, and created personal development plans for each team leader to address their skills gaps (23 team leaders selected). |
| Team leaders participate in a comprehensive development curriculum to develop their skills and competencies using a blended learning approach. |
| Sales managers track the candidate's performance against a set of KPIs using a toolkit. Progress is reported monthly. |
Once the bulk of the training has been completed, Kia will conduct a 360-degree performance evaluation to tailor any further development required, including one-on-one coaching.
The expected outcomes of the initiative are a higher retention of talent, a good return on training investment, a clear sales career path and job descriptions, better engagement with the sales force, employee recognition and a healthy pipeline of successors for future sales manager positions.