Be an employer of choice in the automotive industry
Introduction
The people strategy implemented over the past two years has achieved a number of successes. It focused on maturing our people policies, practices and systems to establish enabling people practices and harness the collective contributions of a diverse and inclusive workforce to drive organisational growth post the unbundling from Imperial Holdings.
During the reporting year, the people strategy was updated to address our fast-changing business context driven by digital transformation, and to ensure that our human capital management continues to support the Group's business objective to be a customer-centric and innovative organisation. The formulation of the new strategy, once again, included robust engagement with the Group's business segments on their particular human capital needs to achieve their business strategies.
The review of the prior strategy indicated that, in addition to providing standard people policies and guidance, the central human capital function will add value as a centre of expertise on people trends in a changing world of work, and as a mechanism to develop programmes that support the Group's innovation journey and the mobility of talent with the right skills across the organisation.
Our human capital purpose has been redefined to – provide business informed people practices and frameworks that accelerate innovation and organisation growth.
Our human capital imperatives are to:
- Understand, develop and facilitate mobility of critical skills for business and employee growth.
- Foster and leverage a diverse and inclusive work culture to enhance business performance.
- Develop employees and leaders who embody the Motus Way1 to enable an adaptable and future ready organisation.
The human capital management team received training to enhance their understanding of key accounting concepts, such as profit and revenue, sales and factors that impact essential business metrics. The training has assisted the human resources team to become more aligned to business and will ensure that human resources solutions are better informed by business needs.
1 Key behavioural and critical success factors that reflect the Motus strategy, vision and operating model.
The impact of COVID-19
The economic impact of COVID-19 and the interventions used to contain its spread have been widespread. Our inability to trade during the strict lockdown implemented in South Africa, required urgent measures to contain and reduce costs. Our first priority was to protect our people and stakeholders from infection, followed by measures to protect employee salaries and avoid retrenchments as far as reasonably possible. All advertising and marketing campaigns and capital expenditure were halted and executive salaries were cut. The fixed remuneration of the Group CEO and the CEO of Motus UK was reduced by 20%, and the non-executive and executive board directors and the executive committee members took a 15% cut for six months starting on 1 April 2020.
This meant that from 27 March 2020 to 30 April 2020, our employees in South Africa were paid in full by providing six days of special leave and the balance as 16 days of annual leave. We utilised the government's COVID-19 Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme funding to remunerate eligible staff. In the United Kingdom (UK) and Australia, employees were paid the maximum allowable remuneration. In the UK, we made use of the government's furlough interventions, and in line with Australia's federal government 'job seeker' stimulus package, employees worked reduced hours.
However, these measures to preserve cash reserves and protect the commercial viability of certain of the Group's operations were not enough. As a result, we had to reduce salaries and working hours, implement early retirements, revise employee benefits and embark on voluntary and involuntary retrenchments, in terms of Section 189 (S189) of the Labour Relations Act, to reduce the workforce.
Remuneration for employees earning over R250 000 a year was reduced for six months starting 1 July 2020 – the reduction being between 5% and 10% depending on the salary bracket. There will be no inflationary increase in fixed remuneration for all employees for the 12 months to 30 June 2021.
The formal S189 retrenchment consultation processes with labour unions started in May 2020, and the retrenchment process will be completed by the end of September 2020. By mid-September, there were 1 181 voluntary retrenchments, 1 216 compulsory retrenchments and 830 people had left our employ due to resignations and early retirements etc.
We have made an effort to redeploy individuals into other positions within the Group. Going forward, we will consider the impact of the reduced workforce on our employment equity, succession and talent management plans for 2021.
Our contingency plans ensure business continuity in the event that our senior leaders and executives within the business are affected by the virus.
Our strategic priorities
Talent management and mobility
- Identify critical roles and key skills required today and in the future.
- Support the business in developing and sourcing mission-critical skills that will ensure sustained and incremental business growth.
- Create guidelines to govern internal mobility and deployment of people with critical skills.
- Re-establish the performance development system.
Diverse and inclusive work culture
- Provide practices that enable the attitudinal and skills shifts that will accelerate a diverse and inclusive culture, which can be leveraged to drive business growth.
- Support the business in measuring and monitoring the attitudinal shift.
Leadership and people capabilities
- Create a behavioural profile of what it means to 'live' the Motus Way.
- Support the development of leaders and employees to enact the Motus Way.
- Support employees in becoming digitally astute.
Our risks
Regulatory and compliance risk: non-compliance with human capital-related legislation, including skills development and employment equity, could undermine the Group's reputation and result in fines.
People risk: the scarcity of qualified skills and, in South Africa, an ageing skilled working population may challenge the Group's ability to access the talent needed to resource its growth strategies.
Reputation risk: lack of effective employee engagement and failure to inculcate a culture that drives corporate citizenship may undermine the Group's reputation.
Related content
2020 performance overview
People strategy
Updated the people strategy to address our fast-changing business context driven by digital transformation.
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Differently abled people (South Africa)
Of the 146 differently abled people in the South African workforce, 47% are black and 54% are women
(2019: 269 differently abled people).
Note: reasons for material variances between years are explained in the 2020 performance sections that follow. Training has been particularly impacted by COVID-19.
Approach
Management and governance structures
People governance framework
Matters relating to human capital management are reported quarterly to the social, ethics and sustainability committee. This includes employment equity, learning and development, talent management and employee relations. Any key issues are elevated to the quarterly board meetings.
Our five-year Employment Equity Plan, which covers employment equity and skills development, is submitted to the Department of Employment and Labour as well as annual reports on our progress and compliance. The Workplace Skills Plans and Annual Training Report are submitted to the relevant SETAs1.
1 Sector Education and Training Authorities.
How performance is measured
In South Africa, targets for race, gender and disability at each occupational level are set across each business segment and consolidated at a Group level. Training spend and hours of training for South Africa are independently assured once a year. As part of the broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) scorecard, employment equity and skills development in South Africa are independently verified annually. Our performance development system tracks individual employee development plans and training.
Accountability
The development of the people practices, frameworks and broader strategy and their implementation are the responsibility of the Chief People Officer (CPO). Each business segment has a human resources executive who works closely with the CPO. Various human resources teams across business segments and geographies manage day-to-day human capital management practices.
All CEOs of businesses in South Africa are accountable for the B-BBEE performance of their areas of responsibility. 20% to 30% of their performance incentives are linked to achieving employment equity targets.
Driving a high-performance culture
(Kia example)
Kia has identified improved learning initiatives and employee engagement as key factors of success in driving a culture of high performance and innovation. The brand's first round of employee assessments targeted customer-facing employees, with 130 sales consultants participating. The assessment identified the competencies this group of employees need to achieve success as well as developmental areas that must be addressed.
Further engagement with employees at all levels will be undertaken, providing them with a clear understanding of their contribution toward achieving the brand's vision. A component of this engagement is Kia's new induction programme, which uses a new approach to deliver training content in an interactive and fun way. Training that matches development needs will take a blended approach with a focus on e-learning. Kia Accelerate, the new learning management system launched in January 2020, tailors online content to specific employee groups and assists the human resources function to better manage training and development.
In the months ahead, Kia will identify mission-critical roles and using the Group's talent management framework will identify key talent with the potential to fill these roles. These individuals will be provided with the development and grooming needed to prepare them for the transition.
Stakeholder engagement
Internal engagement
Regular engagement and collaboration takes place between human capital teams across Motus to achieve common human capital objectives. We have also increased the frequency of our engagement with our employees and aligned our messaging across business segments and geographies.
During the year, we conducted a survey to gain insights on the Group's diversity training in South Africa. Encouragingly, 92% of the 417 respondents felt that the training was valuable and 95% indicated that they would recommend it to others.
554 disciplinary, 36 grievance and 165 poor work performance hearings were held in 2020. The majority of the disputes referred to the Dispute Resolution Centre or Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration have been awarded in favour of Motus and its respective subsidiaries. Arbitration awards found in favour of Motus that are referred to the Labour Court may take two to three years to finalise under current circumstances.
External engagement
The motor industry successfully signed a wage agreement with the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) valid to August 2022. Collective bargaining agreements with NUMSA and the Motor Industry Staff Association cover 7 556 employees.
2020 performance
- Continued to standardise essential human capital-related policies to enhance the fair and consistent management of our people, enable talent mobility and reduce human capital costs in the workplace.
- Following an extensive evaluation and testing process, we decided to retain the existing payroll applications and we are integrating these into the new Sage X3 human resources database. Once completed, this will provide consolidated human resources reporting across all Motus businesses in South Africa.
Talent management and mobility
To improve productivity and achieve our strategic objectives, we must have a clear idea of the new and critical skills needed now and into the future.
This must be supported by effective people practices able to identify talent within the Group, source it externally and manage performance development to ensure we grow skills in these areas. Key to attracting and retaining these skills is being able to move talent between our operations, not only as secondment opportunities offering an attractive and unique employee value proposition in our sector, but to also unlock organisational value by placing talent where it can make the most impact. Success will provide robust succession planning based on the depth of the talent pipeline.
challenge
- Fierce competition for top talent, particularly relating to IT, analysis- and data-related and financial services skills.
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What we are doingThe Talent for Growth Framework, established in the reporting year, focuses on strategic talent identification and succession planning. The objective of the framework is to future proof our leadership through effectively assessing talent to identify successors, facilitate internal career growth and address any capability gaps. The process is premised on understanding the business context and the critical roles and leadership skills and talent needed to achieve current and future strategic business objectives. Once key talent for critical roles is identified, candidate successors are sourced from internal and external pipelines. Our integrated talent management approach also covers performance management, ensuring that our development programmes are fit-for-purpose, and will align employee capabilities and expectations with business objectives and career opportunities. The revised performance development approach drives better engagement between employees and their line managers, and ensures that employees are assessed fairly, developed appropriately, and rewarded and recognised for exceptional performance. It also identifies corrective development or supportive actions to manage poor performance. We are also building strong relationships with universities and tertiary institutions and introducing programmes that are attractive to graduates. |
2020 performance
Group
- Started the second pilot of the performance development approach in September 2019, which incorporates the feedback received from the first pilot. As part of this pilot, expectations and standards of performance were agreed between participating line managers and employees in October 2019, and interim performance reviews were held in March 2020. Additional engagement has taken place with business leaders and human resources managers on the flexibility and customisation of the system for each business segment. The individual performance rating score is split between performance and values-based behaviour with the ratio depending on the unique nature of the business concerned. Guidelines and training are assisting the consistent determination of values-based behaviour.
- Effective career conversations continued despite the impact of COVID-19. Our managers have had to adapt to leading remote teams, taking new approaches to performance conversations, focusing on outcomes and communicating effectively in a virtual environment.
- Participated in three career fairs at the universities of Johannesburg, Witwatersrand and Cape Town to create awareness of the Motus brand as an employer of choice. Over 3 500 students were engaged and 874 curricula vitae sourced, providing a database of young talent from which our businesses can recruit.
A participant in Hyundai's 2019 National Skills Olympics.
Diverse and inclusive work culture
We aim to drive an inclusive and collaborative high-performance culture that empowers employees to contribute to business growth, and provides Motus with diverse thinking that drives business results and improves engagement with our diverse customer base.
In South Africa, we continue to work towards transforming our workforce to reflect South Africa's demographics. Executive management recognises that this objective requires an accelerated approach to transformation and has tasked the business segments with pursuing more aggressive internal targets supported by effective plans.
challenges
- Transformation at top and senior management level given limited new management positions in a negative growth economic climate, exacerbated by COVID-19.
- Correcting the low representation of women in key leadership roles in the automotive industry.
- Attracting people with disabilities into our employ and advancing their careers.
20 employees participated in the 2019 Women in Leadership Programme, which aims to create a pipeline of influential women leaders. |
What we are doingA key focus for the Group is providing opportunities for all employees and delivering effective collaboration platforms across multiple workforce segments, providing individuals and teams with the opportunity to share new ideas and contribute to problem-solving. In South Africa, clear, co-ordinated and targeted interventions are used to source, develop and promote candidates from designated groups to drive the achievement of our transformation targets at management level as well as other employment equity and skills development targets. We are using our talent pipeline programmes to create a pool of entry-level candidates from designated groups from which we can fill posts when they become available. We continue to maintain an appointment, promotion and training ratio of 70:30 in favour of employees from designated groups. Our 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. Our Diversity Training Programme raises awareness on the value of diversity, empowers managers to lead diverse teams and educates employees on how to work in diverse teams. |
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2020 performance
Group
- Set ambitious internal employment equity targets to accelerate transformation, particularly at senior and middle management levels. We also enhanced the robustness of employment equity reporting to the board to enable a more critical analysis of our progress.
- Improved year-on-year black representation at senior, middle and junior management levels. We narrowly missed our internal stretch targets by 1% at top and middle management level, and were behind target by 4% at senior management level due to limited recruitment at this level during COVID-19. Measured against South Africa's economically active population, African men and women are under-represented. The number of differently abled people employed in South Africa dropped due to learnership contracts coming to an end.
- Earmarked senior and middle management positions for black professionals as part of succession planning, including the appointment of two black divisional CEOs in the short term.
- Of the 2 815 people hired in South Africa during the year, 74% are black.
- Developed a disability policy to support the reasonable accommodation of differently abled people and create an inclusive workplace environment. We have also developed a disability awareness campaign to encourage differently abled employees to declare their condition and ask for reasonable accommodation. The launch of the campaign is scheduled for October 2020.
- On track to meet our 2021 diversity training target with 2 114 people attending diversity training, a 5% increase compared to 2019.
Accommodating differently abled people
(Financial Services example)
Recognising that certain differently abled people are unable to leave their homes or places of care due to their special needs but are still able to contribute in the work environment, Financial Services introduced the Vumela initiative to provide these workers with flexible and remote working arrangements in a satellite office.
After an initial successful partnership with the Ann Harding home in Gauteng, from where five people were employed, a further four people have been brought onto the programme.
All nine employees participated in a 12-month business administration learnership (NQF41), which concluded in June 2020. Three learners have been permanently employed and have participated in the Financial Services induction programme and are now well acclimated to their roles and the culture of our business.
1 South Africa's National Qualifications Framework (NQF) level 4.
Leadership and people capabilities
Effective leadership mobilises and inspires teams, engages effectively with stakeholders and steers an organisation through the changes needed to address ever-increasing technologically driven industry advances and uncertain and challenging times.
We require our leaders to be experienced and agile, have the right skills to execute Motus' strategy, make effective decisions that impact our customers and processes, and be able to motivate our employees and attract and retain talented people. Our leadership development programmes help our leaders meet these expectations and equip them to motivate high-performance teams.
The fast, supportive and compassionate decision making in response to COVID-19 is testament to the strength, agility and skill of our leadership team. Within two weeks of the national lockdown announcement, the team had a blueprint in place to take the Group forward when restrictions were lifted. This included business segment management teams working together on ways to capture demand and achieve more attractive price points for customers.
Tailored training and development opportunities are delivered at all employee levels. A focused skills development and training approach enables the Group to achieve its strategic objectives, meet its transformation targets and ensure that a pipeline of skilled people are available for appointment to critical positions when required. For employees, training and development supports them in their roles and to fulfil their career aspirations.
While our training and development programmes were suspended due to COVID-19, we are committed to maintaining our investment in skills development, with a particular focus on expanding and repeating our learnerships for differently abled people.
challenges
- Availability of skills and expertise to drive strategic objectives, particularly digital expertise, to maintain our leadership position in the fast-changing automotive industry. In South Africa, this is made more difficult due to the emigration of skilled labour resources.
- Ensuring that leaders maintain the desired management style in a pressured business environment.
What we are doing
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.
The Motus Leadership Academy provides our leaders with the skills needed to achieve the Group's strategic objectives. Development programmes target executives, women and employees identified as potential future leaders. Our key leadership programmes are:
- The three-month Executive Development Programme (a partnership with Henley Business School) to help leaders transition into strategic leadership roles.
- The seven-month Women in Leadership Programme (a partnership with the Gordon Institute of Business Science) to help women improve their efficacy as authentic and effective leaders in a male-dominated environment.
- The 12-month Dealer Principal and Portfolio Manager programmes, which focus on black employees with the potential to become dealer principals and portfolio managers.
The Motus Technical Academy – the largest training academy for motor artisans in South Africa - trains around 2 000 apprentices a year (for Motus and its peers).
2020 performance
Group
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- Introduced two new managerial development programmes. One is designed to upskill newly appointed line managers to manage people and business challenges effectively. The second is a refresher course for experienced middle managers, covering how to lead teams effectively and teaches interpersonal skills such as conflict management, communication and managing team dynamics. The programmes together reached 51 employees.
- The intakes for the Executive Development, Women in Leadership, Dealer Principal and Portfolio Manager programmes were suspended due to COVID-19 but will resume in January 2021.
- Continued to expose Motus executives and employees to innovation through the following initiatives:
- Our membership with Plug and Play in Silicon Valley.
- Innovation sprints in partnership with XU Exponential University in Berlin.
- Collaboration across business segments and businesses on proof of concept projects.
- The launch of the Motus Xponential (mx) innovation digital platform (see be an employer of choice in the automotive industry).
- Our training spend of R177 million (South Africa), exceeded the Skills Development Act's requirement that training spend equates to 1% of payroll. However, it was below the 6% required by the dti Codes2 for the skills development of black employees, impacting our scorecard rating. 71% (2019: 70%) of this training spend was used to develop black people and 18% (2019: 14%) to develop black women.
- Introduced standard operating procedures applicable across the Group to enhance the accuracy of training data.
Business segments
- Kia and Renault implemented new learning and development systems, and Car Rental is investing in the upskilling of its IT resources.
- Financial Services continued to deliver training through two e-learning platforms. The first supports continuous professional development accredited courses ('fit and proper' training), full product training and cybersecurity courses. The second provides product training in a fun game format. Financial Services also launched an 18-month Trainee Manager Programme for high performers with the potential to grow into a managerial role. Candidates are awarded a full NQF5 qualification upon completion.
- Motus UK ran a management development programme for a selected number of leaders, which is expected to improve customer and employee satisfaction as well as financial performance. A series of virtual workshops were also launched to help leaders increase their legitimacy, trust, contribution and accountability during a crisis.
2 Department of Trade and Industry's amended Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment Codes of Good Practice.
Driving employee innovation
Innovation is not new to Motus, standing us in good stead for the rapid technological advances being made in the motor industry today. In October 2019, we launched the Motus mx digital platform to harness the talent and energy of our employees and to foster a culture of innovation in our business. The platform provides innovative thinkers, creative problem solvers and people interested in technology with the opportunity to learn and share information on new ideas and technologies, thought leadership, and innovation and automotive trends.
mx drives collaboration between teams, departments or employees that would not normally engage with each other in their day-to-day business operations. It also showcases our innovation initiatives to employees and key stakeholders.
In addition, the platform is used to deliver relevant training and online courses, including the 'embracing entrepreneurship and start-up' masterclass and 'how to bring innovation into your job' workshop. Future courses will cover artificial intelligence, digital disruption, the future of work and Industry 4.0. mx will help the Group to identify employees who are highly engaged in innovation and will enable an annual innovation audit to measure the perception around innovation within the business.
We held a one-week innovation sprint, challenging employees to develop testable prototypes to improve the way we sell vehicles to first-time car buyers by reducing the average vehicle sales transaction time. During October, two teams developed fresh, fun and engaging approaches targeting different audiences and needs. Both solutions are being tested – paperless deal files at Kia and Renault dealerships and, Moov, a web-based chat functionality that matches first-time buyers to a deal that meets their requirements.
The Motus Training Academy offers full apprenticeships and learnerships for motor, diesel and motorcycle mechanics, autoelectricians and spray painters. These programmes address youth unemployment, developing quality artisans and making them more employable in the automotive industry. A key focus is to target female apprentices.
Key data
| 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | ||||
| Number of employees (Group) | ||||||
| Total number of employees | 17 499 | 18 628 | 18 306 | |||
| Total number of employees in South Africa | 13 743 | 15 028 | 15 163 | |||
| Number of non-permanent employees in South Africa | 416 | 965 | 596 | |||
| Regional breakdown (Group) | ||||||
| South Africa (%) | 79 | 81 | – | |||
| Australia (%) | 3 | 3 | – | |||
| UK (%) | 18 | 16 | – | |||
| Female representation (Group) | ||||||
| Overall (%) | 30 | ■ | 30 | – | ||
| Top management (%) | 15 | ■ | 15 | – | ||
| Senior management (%) | 19 | ▲ | 18 | – | ||
| Employee representation (Group) | ||||||
| Percentage of employees covered by collective bargaining agreements (%) | 43 | 45 | 45 | |||
| Executive development (Group) | ||||||
| Number of participants in the Executive Development Programme | Deferred1 | 26 | – | |||
| Percentage of participants in the Executive Development Programme that are women (%) | Deferred1 | 30 | – | |||
| Number of participants in the Women in Leadership Programme | Deferred1 | 20 | – | |||
| Managerial development programmes (Group) | ||||||
| Number of participants² | 211 | ▼ | 654 | 489 | ||
| Percentage of participants that are black (%) | 70 | ▲ | 59 | 55 | ||
| Percentage of participants that are women (%) | 25 | ▼ | 33 | 17 | ||
| Motus Technical Academy³ (South Africa) | ||||||
| Number of apprentices enrolled | 795 | ▲ | 686 | 875 | ||
| Percentage of apprentices that are black (%) | 86 | ▲ | 80 | 81 | ||
| Number of apprentices that qualified as technicians | 95 | ▲ | 93 | 104 | ||
| Overall training statistics (South Africa) | ||||||
| Training and development spend (Rm) | 176,6* | ▲ | 137,4 | 132,4 | ||
| Training and development spend per employee (R) | 12 850 | ▲ | 9 1435 | 8 7325 | ||
| Number of training hours | 864 0144* | ▼ | 1 178 027 | 1 053 020 | ||
| Training hours per employee | 63 | ▼ | 785 | 695 |
| 1 | Deferred due to COVID-19 and will resume in January 2021. |
| 2 | The 68% decrease is due to the impact of COVID-19 on face-to-face training. |
| 3 | Reflects the apprentices supported by Motus meaning that they are paid from our payroll but do not necessarily work in our operations. The Academy also trains apprentices from other businesses. |
| 4 | Overall training hours decreased due to the impact of COVID-19 on face-to-face training, however, training spend increased as online training costs increased and learner stipends and training staff salaries continued to be paid despite restrictions. |
| 5 | Scope changed to South Africa. |
Satisfied with performance.
Area for improvement.
* Assured (see the independent limited assurance report).
Employment equity (South Africa)
| Men (number) |
Women (number) |
Foreign nationals (number) |
Black representation (%) |
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| Occupational levels | Black | White | Black | White | 2020 actual |
2020 target |
2019 actual |
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| Top management | 1 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 30 | 31 | 31 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Senior management | 34 | 60 | 17 | 14 | 3 | 40 | 44 | 36 | ||||||||
| Middle management | 537 | 642 | 221 | 258 | 15 | 45 | 46 | 43 | ||||||||
| Junior management | 1 331 | 590 | 461 | 327 | 34 | 65 | 65 | 63 | ||||||||
| Semi-skilled | 3 862 | 783 | 1 800 | 802 | 52 | 78 | 76 | |||||||||
| Unskilled | 1 056 | 20 | 382 | 0 | 16 | 98 | 97 | |||||||||
| Non-permanent | 253 | 27 | 114 | 15 | 7 | 88 | 89 | |||||||||
| Total employees | 7 074 | 2 128 | 2 997 | 1 417 | 127 | 73 | 73 | |||||||||
| People with disabilities | 37 | 29 | 32 | 47 | 1 | 47 | 64 | |||||||||
Verification by AQRate.
In the period 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020, 2 815 employees were hired with 60% being at the semi-skilled level and 74% are black people. 4 049 employees exited the Group with 54% being at the semi-skilled level and 71% being black. Of these exits, 47% were resignations and 17% retrenchments.