Providing business informed people practices and frameworks

Overview

Our people continue to respond to the challenges brought about by COVID-19 with integrity, agility and an unbreakable entrepreneurial spirit, contributing to Motus’ resilience and ability to navigate these uncertain times. Our leadership team has demonstrated strength and flexibility, and has leveraged its years of collective experience to remain focused on doing what is right for the short term while not forgetting our medium- to long-term strategies.

Our people are at the core of everything we do. Our success depends on a diverse complement of highly competent and experienced leaders and teams. On this basis, we grow our own talent and off er equality in our work environments, career development opportunities and creative initiatives that inspire the best in our people.

Our people strategy integrates human capital management practices to position Motus as an attractive choice for top calibre talent in the automotive industry. It is this approach that enables us to realise our goals of delivering the highest possible level of leadership, innovation and customer service to the markets we serve, and making mobility for good a reality in the Group and for our customers and communities.

COVID-19 has accelerated existing trends in remote working and propelled faster adoption of automation and artificial intelligence, requiring a more immediate need for new skills and the expiry of some skills. Aspects of this changing nature of work are likely to be permanent changes, requiring a redesign or at the very least, a realignment of workforce strategies post-COVID. While our people strategy has not changed, we have taken proactive measures to align our implementations of the strategy to the new realities of our organisation and the impact on our people.

Our focus in the past year has been on safeguarding our employees and stakeholders against COVID-19, ensuring continuity of operations and driving the recovery of our business, while at the same time building resilience and agility into our operations and inspiring our people to continue delivering their best. This has meant that some of our people-related strategic objectives may not have progressed as far as we would have liked; nevertheless, while delayed we remain committed to them.

The impact of COVID-19

The following initiatives were introduced to support our workforce and motivate our people during this time:

• We adapted our human capital management practices to support working from home (where practical) and enforce social distancing.
• We communicated regularly with employees to maintain engagement and motivation, while also being transparent on the impact of COVID-19 on trade. Much engagement took place to reassure employees returning to work that premises were COVID-secure.
• We communicated regularly with employees to maintain engagement and motivation, while also being transparent on the impact of COVID-19 on trade. Much engagement took place to reassure employees returning to work that premises were COVID-secure.
• We extended our Employee Assistance Programmes to support employees experiencing financial and psychological diff iculties, and in the United Kingdom (UK) we assisted them with receiving government support.
• Training programmes were transitioned from traditional face-to-face learning to virtual learning.
• In South Africa, we launched a toolkit to assist human resources (HR) personnel and business leaders in addressing the people-related challenges of the pandemic. Topics range from providing emotional support, communicating effectively and embedding values and culture, to how to engage with the survivors of retrenchment and manage remote productivity.

Early on in the COVID-19 crisis, urgent measures were needed to preserve cash reserves and reduce costs in the short term to protect the medium- to long-term commercial viability of certain operations in the Group. As reported in our 2020 sustainable development report, we negotiated reduced salaries for employees earning more than R250 000 a year, and no salary increases were granted, employee benefits were revised and early retirements and voluntary and involuntary retrenchments were undertaken. For most of our employees in the UK, pay reduction was 5% with no decrease for those earning less than £20 000 a year and higher decreases for those in higher salary brackets. A redundancy programme was also implemented in the UK to address the cost base. Salaries across the Group have since been restored and we increased salaries in April 2021, bringing the date forward from the annual increase cycle (normally in July), to help employees manage inflation. The increase applies to all employees other than the Group executive committee, whose increases were effective from 1 July 2021.

Headcount in South Africa reduced by 7,6% off a high base at June 2020. Of the 3 937 employees who left our employ, 34% were retrenchments and 40% were resignations with the majority of exits being at the semi-skilled level. In the UK, headcount decreased by 5,5%. In Australia we have experienced a decreasing headcount for the last three years, to align headcount to the operation’s revenue potential and to restore profitability.

Since the start of the pandemic, to compensate for the impact of the lockdowns, our employees received government relief from the Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) in South Africa, the furlough schemes1 in the UK and the Job Keeper Fund in Australia. We also took advantage of PAYE deferrals in South Africa and value-added tax deferrals in the UK. All support schemes ended by the first quarter of F2021.

Remuneration report.

Strategic priorities

Motus’ people strategy is designed to address our fast-changing business context driven by digital transformation and ensures that the manner in which we manage our people supports the Group’s business objective to be a customer-centric and innovative organisation. It takes into consideration the particular human capital needs of each business segment to achieve their individual business strategies.

Retrenchments are a last resort, and voluntary retrenchments and early retirement options are always exercised first. Where roles become redundant, we look to reassign employees into diff erent roles and/or locations supported with retraining, where required. Retrenchment processes are undertaken in compliance with all applicable regulation, and with close engagement with unions.

How we measure our performance

During the year, the Sage X3 HR platform was integrated with the existing South African payroll system. The central HR database consolidates all HR data and administration and reporting processes. Strict access control protocols apply and users of the system have received training. The integration is providing greater data accuracy.

Our performance development system tracks individual employee development plans and training. Training spend and hours of training for South Africa are independently assured once a year. In addition, workplace skills plans and the Annual Training Report are submitted annually to the relevant SETAs². The workforce composition in South Africa is measured against the Group’s Employment Equity Plan, which is discussed on employment equity. Our training and diversity and inclusion performance is measured for our businesses in the UK and Australia.

Governance of social impact.

Disputes and grievances (South Africa)

Union membership (South Africa)