WoolWorths holdings limited 2013 good BUsiness JoUrneY report

Transformation and corporate social investment
BBBEE SCORECARD
BEE Verification Agency CC was once again appointed to
provide an independent BBBEE verification process for the 2013
financial year. Through the external assurance received from the
agency, we have achieved a 80.45 score, taking Woolworths
from Level 4 (2012) to a Level 3 BBBEE Contributor status (see
www.woolworthsholdings.co.za for the BEE Certificate for 2013).
The graph below depicts progress made in each of the BBBEE
scorecard elements against our 2013 objectives. Details on the
individual sections of the BBBEE scorecard follow below.
BBBEE EMPLOYEE SHARE OWNERSHIP SCHEME
The BEE Employee Share Ownership Scheme (BEESOS) was
established in July 2007 with the intention of empowering and
benefiting Woolworths employees. A Board of trustees, with a
majority of employee representatives, was established, chaired
by Dolly Mokgatle, and the trustees met twice during the year
with full attendance at both meetings. The trustees exercised
the voting rights of the preference shares at all the company’s
general meetings. Our BEESOS Trust continues to disburse
financial benefits to staff participants, who have collectively
received R144.3 million (2012: was at R82.7 million) in dividend
payments from inception of the trust to 30 June 2013. The total
number of employees who benefited from the BEESOS as at
24 June 2013 was 6 687 compared to 7 157 in 2012. The decrease
in numbers is due to labour turnover. This has impacted our
equity ownership score as it has decreased from 7.89 in 2012 to
7.63 in 2013. The full benefit of the BEESOS will be realised in 2015.
MANAGEMENT CONTROL
Woolworths continues to focus on representivity of black
non-executive directors and senior executives through:
• Deliberate strategy to ensure, not only diversity of skills at
board level, but diversity of decision making through diverse
demographic representation.
• Succession planning and talent management processes.
The management control score has increased marginally from
9.7 in 2012 to 9.75.
EMPLOYMENT EQUITY
Diversity of workforce and compliance with the Employment
Equity Act are critical for the transformation of Woolworths.
This is embedded and aligned to the business strategy,
succession planning, talent management processes and
employee engagement. There has been extensive work done
to ensure integrated and sustainable Employment Equity (EE) Act
compliance and consultation across the business via diversity
committees in all business units. These committees are meeting,
on average, on a monthly basis. The mandate of these
committees has been well-defined through training of diversity
committee members. The continuous improvement of Integrated
Performance Management (IPM) has now seen BBBEE and/or
transformation included in individual employees’ performance
goals. Individual goals coupled with an effective tracking and
measurement capability, contribute in embedding BBBEE as a
way of working that is integral to business strategy. There has
been more focus put on the management of barriers to EE by
integrating these identified barriers into the HR strategy.
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT TRAINING
Woolworths is committed to the skills development of our
employees in line with our business strategies and country’s
progress against target 12/13 FY
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Equity
ownership
Management
control
Employment
Equity
Skills
development
Preferential
procurement
Enteprise
development
13 Target 7.5 9.7 12.8 11.5 15.0 15.0 5.0
13 Actual 7.6 9.8 10.9 13.2 18.99 15.0 5.0
SED
Go to www.woolworthsholdings.co.za
2013 GOOD BUSINESS JOURNEY / WHL 37