Our people

Caring for the Bidvest family and driving positive change through partnerships and social dialogue

In line with SDGs aimed at good health and well-being and gender equality, the Group is committed to providing a safe and healthy workplace with equal opportunities conducive to learning and personal development. In particular, the Group continues to promote and offer out-of-home hygiene services and integrated facilities management services in order to support safe and healthy occupational environments.

The Group is proud to be a deep-rooted corporate citizen in South Africa, as it is highly engaged in community development activities, with a particular focus on enhancing education, health, economic advancement and diversity. Investing in communities and human capital and supporting local suppliers, affords us the opportunity to operate, do business in and draw skills from the communities in which we operate.

The social element of ESG is of particular importance to Bidvest as it is one of the largest private sector employers and touches multiple sectors and communities. We incorporated the Bidvest blueprint, identified risks and relevant stakeholders in formulating our aims and commitments as it relates to social matters in our ESG Framework. The measurements identified will assist in achieving these commitments in the period to 2025. As we continue on this journey, our measurement data will become richer allowing us to be even more targeted and deliberate.

By 2025 we commit to females making up 35% to 45%, African people making up 50% of middle, senior and top management in the South African operations and 90% local sourcing from South African suppliers with a Level 4 or better B-BBEE rating.

COVID-19-specific

A special tribute must be directed toward the Bidvest family of employees that have worked consciously and faithfully through these difficult times. Our employees displayed tremendous dedication, often in difficult circumstances, to ensure the continuation and enhancement of value in the delivery of the Group's products and services. Bidvest's board of directors has acknowledged this commitment and expressed its thanks and gratitude to all employees on behalf of all stakeholders.

Sadly, we lost 122 Bidvest family members to the COVID-19 pandemic and we extend our sincere condolences to the families and colleagues of these employees. Bidvest continues to provide support to employees and communities besieged by the harsh impacts of the pandemic.

The protection of Group employees, customers and communities was maintained over the past year. From the established Bidvest COVID-19 Fund ("the Fund"), some R230 million was spent toward easing the impact of COVID-19 on employees and communities. This includes compensation for employees, particularly those in the lower income brackets, who were impacted by lockdown restrictions. Risk benefits and pension fund contributions by employers remained in place for all these affected employees.

The progress of vaccination programmes globally and in particular in our key operating territories, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Ireland, is very encouraging. We have initiated a Group-wide COVID-19 vaccine awareness programme to encourage all our employees to be vaccinated. We are also improving access to the vaccine through the use of mobile vaccination clinics that are visiting our various operations. We encourage the Bidvest family to get vaccinated to protect themselves and their loved ones.

Transformation, diversity and employment equity

Our people form the backbone of Bidvest. The diversity of background, age, race, gender, religion, skills and experience undoubtedly contributes to a Bidvest that is relevant, innovative and future-fit. Our focus remains on advancing inclusion, diversity and equality.

The Group is committed to a sustainable, fair and responsible remuneration policy, from both an external competitiveness perspective as well as an internal equity perspective, which satisfies the requirements of all stakeholders. Bidvest is explicit in its commitment to income parity and recognise the growing call for disclosure of the gender pay gap. We are not currently able to report on this in a meaningful manner at an aggregated level, but we remain committed to transparency in this regard and will be implementing systems to report on this.

No material strike activity

Across the Group, 87 cases were awarded in support of employee grievances at the CCMA, labour court or equivalent processes.

During FY2021, Bidvest implemented operational restructuring plans without any material labour disputes.

Please refer to our Remuneration report.

Management control

At middle, senior and top management levels 11.0%, 15.6% and 35.9% are African, respectively. Women represent 33.1%, 30.6% and 37.6%, respectively, at the three management levels. The overall increase in the representation of Black people across all three levels of management is very pleasing but the increase in Black people in top management is the most encouraging. This is probably the biggest transition we have seen over the past few years.

Comparing Bidvest against the private sector in South Africa, the Group fares better as far as African female and overall female representation is concerned. Women represents 34% of management, a lesser proportion compared to the overall workforce.

Management demographics by race and gender (top, senior and middle management)

LEVEL	African male	African female	Coloured male	Coloured female	Indian male	Indian female	Total	White male	White female	Total
EAP %1	42.8%	36.0%	5.2%	4.3%	1.7%	1.0%	91.0%	5.1%	3.9%	9.0%
Top
June 21	5.8%	5.2%	5.8%	4.9%	10.1%	9.7%	41.6%	45.1%	13.3%	58.4%
June 20	5.1%	6.6%	3.0%	4.5%	11.1%	6.3%	36.6%	53.9%	9.6%	63.5%
Senior
June 21	9.3%	6.3%	8.3%	3.0%	13.5%	5.1%	45.4%	38.4%	16.2%	54.6%
June 20	9.3%	6.9%	6.8%	2.9%	11.3%	5.4%	42.6%	38.9%	18.5%	57.4%
Middle
June 21	24.2%	11.7%	6.6%	4.2%	8.0%	4.7%	59.4%	23.7%	17.0%	40.6%
June 20	24.6%	10.3%	6.8%	4.4%	8.3%	4.3%	58.7%	25.8%	15.4%	41.2%

1	Economically active population.

The overall appointment of Black people across all three levels is 74% of the total appointments made over the year. Black appointments in Financial Services, Freight and Services have all exceeded 80%. Whilst we have to strive for a 90% placement rate, the current achievement is extremely commendable. The percentage placement for each demographic grouping is still not aligned and this will remain a focus area.

Management appointments (FY2021)

LEVEL	Total Appointments	African male	African female	Coloured male	Coloured female	Indian male	Indian female	Total	White male	White female
Top	16	6	2	–	1	1	–	10	5	1
Senior	60	12	11	–	3	7	1	34	23	3
Middle	557	162	129	48	17	36	32	424	100	33
Total	633	180	142	48	21	44	33	468	128	37
% of total appointments		28%	22%	8%	3%	7%	5%	74%	20%	6%
EAP target %		42.7%	35.8%	5.2%	4.4%	1.7%	1.1%	90.9%	5.1%	4.0%

Health, safety and wellness

Approximately 72,000 of the Group's employees in South Africa have benefited from the Fund since its inception to date. The cost of COVID-19 testing for employees not on medical aid is also borne by the company in which the person is employed. At the end of FY2020, the Group introduced an employee wellness programme, which was rolled out to all employees across South Africa, recognising the importance of mental health, wellness, financial and trauma counselling, particularly in light of COVID-19.

Bidvest is committed to investing in its human capital and ensuring that everyone receives support when they need it most.

Utilisation of the facility has been increasing

	30-Jun-21	31-Mar-21	31-Dec-20
Total employees registered on programme	91 022	91 022	91 022
Total engagement number	1 475	258	264
Individual cases	866	226	186
Group intervention participants	262	61	107

The most common categories of cases presented across the Group relates to relationship issues with mental health coming to the fore as the second highest category. Every division receives a quarterly report providing more detailed information and data specific to its businesses and employees. Our businesses are realising the benefits of the programme and more and more running internal campaigns in conjunction with third-party service producer, ICAS, to create awareness about the programme and its benefits.

Top 5 presenting problems

Executive programme

At the start of the financial year, we also introduced an executive programme that was made available to the Exco as well as the divisional CFOs. The purpose of the programme is to provide support and guidance to the Exco members on a very holistic basis that covers both personal and professional aspects of their lives. The programme is by no means academic but completely customised to suit the specific needs of the individual. The objective is to assist our most senior executives and leadership to be the very best that they can be in business, health, family and as leaders of the organisation.

An Executive Care Programme through ICAS also ensures and encourages executives to become more vigilant about undergoing their annual medicals and to become more conscious of the importance of health and lifestyle in general.

LTIFR and fatalities

Consistent with the Group's aim to provide a safe and healthy workplace, an improved loss time injury frequency rate ("LTIFR") of 1.12 was reported.

LTIFR

Learning and development

The Group endeavours to continuously develop the skills of its employees, specifically in the industries in which he or she operates. Established training academies not only meets internal needs but also those of the industries in which the Group operate.

PHS joined Chwarae Teg, a charity inspiring gender equality in Wales, which offers leadership qualifications and mentoring opportunities for women in Wales.

BidvestALICE and the Microsoft AppFactory programme

The Group recently launched the Bidvest Technology Internship. This internship programme is run by the ALICE team under the auspices of Microsoft's EEIP AppFactory initiative. The aim of the internship programme is to provide talented and passionate youth an opportunity to harness and develop their technological skills. In turn, this internship creates a pipeline of digitally equipped resources eligible for employment both within Bidvest and beyond - ultimately uplifting the digital skill set of our country to be future ready. The internship uses a focused hands-on approach that involves working with project owners in the BidvestALICE team on real software development projects and, under the supervision and mentorship of dedicated mentors.

Jointly funded by both Microsoft and Bidvest, the internship started on 1 March 2021 and will run for nine months. It will focus on grooming the interns on both technical and soft skills-with the intention of readying the interns for the business environment equipped with the digital skill set to be holistically successful. The soft skills include immersion into the Bidvest culture and businesses, understanding workplace etiquette, CV preparation, personal branding coupled with motivational and entrepreneurial guest lecturer topics. The technical skills will focus on development, data engineering and data science (Artificial Intelligence and machine learning) skills, thereby creating the digital workforce required for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Bidvest Education Trust

The Bidvest Education Trust ("BET") was established in 2003. It is aimed at children of Bidvest employees that fall within a certain income bracket. The bursary covers school tuition fees as well as ancillary costs such as uniforms, stationary, etc. The scope was expanded in 2019 to also include tertiary bursaries.

Given the extraordinary impact of the pandemic, the BET trustees agreed that the school bursary scheme will continue to support the child of an employee who passed away due to COVID-19. Where an employee was retrenched as a result of business restructuring, the learner will continue to receive the benefit of the bursary for a full academic year following the termination of employment. The children of 37 former employees benefited from this.

Procuring local

The Group is increasing its support of local businesses in their growth aspirations. Across the Group's businesses, 52% of its local procurement spend was with suppliers holding a B-BBEE Level 4 and better rating. By moving all local procurement away from poorly rated, or even non-compliant, suppliers, the Group has the opportunity to direct more than R20 billion incremental local procurement spend to transformed businesses.

Socio-economic spend

In the financial year ended 30 June 2021, the Group spent R27 million on socio-economic development projects.

Socio-economic spend (%)

The Group’s businesses engage in a range of corporat social responsibility projects and initiatives to support the communities and the environments in which they operate and to leverage their respective operational capabilities in furthering these projects.

WOZA Bursaries: R2.5 million

As an extension to the WOZA Matrics programme, Bidvest awarded bursaries to 16 matriculants from disadvantaged backgrounds. These students are enrolled at various universities across the country where they pursue a diverse range of academic studies: medicine, engineering, economics and statistics.

Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Response Fund: R10 million

Over the past five years, there has been an alarming increase in the number of reported cases of violence against women in South Africa. This fact has been clearly highlighted by numerous high-profile incidents of femicide, which, of course, represent just a fraction of what we know about the violence women face in their homes and communities. It is estimated that 51% of South African women report experiencing gender-based violence ("GBV") at least once in their lives, while 76% of men admit to perpetrating violence against women. Despite substantial ongoing efforts to tackle the scourge of GBV, more work still needs to be done in South Africa.

To play its part towards creating a better and safer South Africa, the Bidvest Group donated to this GBVF Response Fund, which was launched by the President of South Africa, in conjunction with the International Women's Forum of South Africa, in February 2021.

Female Academic Leaders Fellowship Programme: R5 million

This is a fund established by Dr Judy Dlamini in her capacity as Chancellor at Wits University. The fund will be used to develop a pipeline of African and Coloured Female academic leaders. Whilst this programme is being established at Wits University, the intention is to roll it out to all other universities across the country.

Food distribution programme: 37,000 hampers, valued at R27 million

• This entailed the purchase and distribution of food hampers to over 10 000 households in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and the Northern Cape.
• A total of 20 000 food hampers to Bidvest employees in KwaZulu-Natal post the week of social unrest. A portion of this was allocated to local community members and families who assisted our businesses in cleaning up the areas surrounding our affected businesses.
• A total of 7 000 food hampers to households in Gauteng (Alexandra and Thembisa areas) to address the limited access to food and supply shortages as a result of the riots and looting.