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Continued effort and focus will go into
this programme as the group strives to
ensure that it remains recognised by
employees and prospective employees
as an employer of choice. Retention of
excellent people in a market abounding
with choice remains a challenge. Apart
from competitive salaries and benefits,
the group also offers a share option
scheme to senior management and an
incentive scheme with profit share to
staff – all of which is linked to
performance management.
Performance management
system
A performance appraisal system based
on the 20-60-20 rule is in place in key
divisions. The 20% are the top
performers, who are remunerated and
incentivised exceptionally. The 60% of
employees form the vital core without
whom the business could not function
optimally, and they are rewarded at the
higher end of market averages. The
bottom 20% has been identified as a
group whose performance is not up to
standard, and ABIL strives to improve
the performance of this group.
The group is focused on retaining and
attracting the correct skills, while
ensuring that it improves in terms of
gender and demographics.
Total number of
permanent employees 2 911
Male/female split
Female 59%
Male 41%
50
40
30
20
10
0
Management level split by race
Black 26%
White 74%
Black/white split
Black 61%
White 39%
Age distribution at year-end
(%)
43%
* The graphs are based on group numbers excluding Credit Indemnity.
39%
14,4%
3,6%
Under 30 30 – 39 40 – 49 Over 50
Training and development
The culture disseminated from the
centre of the group is one of structured
informality, encouraging innovation and
an entrepreneurial spirit through a nonprescriptive
management style and
freedom of departmental and divisional
activity within a broad cohesive
framework. This framework centres on
the core value of belief in the individual
and the campaign initiated through
the HR and corporate affairs department
of “putting people first” within the
context of the group’s commitment
to employment equity.
The group undertakes a number of
activities to empower and develop staff
at a technical level and from a personal
and career-enhancing perspective. The
focus of the training and development
is to build well-rounded, skilled and
professional individuals and teams who
are able to provide excellent service to
the clients.
Basic generic training
African Bank Retail staff have, since the
establishment of the Learning Academy
in 2001, all been exposed to regular inhouse
on-the-job training, provided by
21 national and regional trainers, as well
as by internal area specialists and
external consultants, brought in to train
in a particular focus area.
Sales consultants all receive basic
generic training prior to entering the
marketplace and regular upskilling as
new products and regulatory and other
circumstances require. Branch managers
are also expected to hold weekly training
sessions with their teams.
Specialised departments are responsible
for ensuring their teams are trained and
adequately skilled to meet the individual
needs of their divisions and training is
therefore on-going in all departments.
The training programme in the
Collections division, called “Winning
Teams”, is a training initiative which
moves away from traditional training
methods and is full of fun, promoting
team-building and cross-skilling
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African Bank Investments Limited