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  Sustainability Report HUMAN RESOURCES  
 
Beyond 2010
Highlights
Divisional highlights
Group at a glance
Milestones
Letter to shareholders
Directorate
Chief executive’s review
Executive management
Group financial review
Divisional reviews
  Domestic Food
  Consumer Healthcare
  Pharmaceuticals
  Hospital Products
  Fishing
  Exports and International
Sustainability report
  Human resources
  Corporate social
  responsibility
  Environmental performance
Corporate governance
Directors’ and senior
management’s
remuneration
Annual financial statements ►
Administration
Notice of annual
general meeting
 
 
Corporate Responsibility Beyond The Workplace
 
CEO’s statement
As part of the framework of South Africa, Tiger Brands is committed to making a difference to the lives of South Africans – people who are our loyal consumers and communities that house our employees. Our products and brand names have a very strong presence with our consumers and are found in most homes at all levels in our society.

We are committed to being involved in social investment because we believe it is the right thing to do; we are also committed to behaving as a responsible group on issues such as our people practices, environmental policies and corporate governance.

As a food and healthcare company with manufacturing units countrywide, we are aware of the challenges we face across most of our provinces.

We actively align ourselves with government initiatives and play a supportive role in communities. Sustainability issues are always considered within the overarching Tiger Brands vision and corporate purpose: ‘to be the world’s most admired branded consumer packaged goods and healthcare company in emerging markets’ by ‘adding value to life’.

Our goal is to work towards sustainable livelihoods by reducing dependency on welfare and encouraging a vision of a future that invites our people to move ‘beyond 2010’.

To find out more on sustainability and triple bottomline reporting in Tiger Brands, contact: ian.isdale@tigerbrands.com; on transformation and human resources: matsie.matooane@tigerbrands.com; on corporate governance, risk and environmental policies: ian.isdale@tigerbrands.com; and on corporate social investment: jimmy.manyi@tigerbrands.com.
 
Nick Dennis, Chief executive officer
 
 
Investing in the development of talent – our graduates.
 
 
Human Resources
 
Our purpose/mission as an employer
In everything we do, we seek to add value to life – to our shareholders, employees, customers, consumers, and communities’ lives.

We are in the process of understanding what “adding value to life” means for our employees. They will tell us what we consistently need to do to continue adding value to their lives. Our employees drive value for the rest of our stakeholders, therefore we need to consistently add value to their lives to deliver on our mission.

Our participation in branded consumer and pharmaceutical products affords our employees enormous opportunities to support communities and positively affect many lives.

We continue to grow, both organically and through acquisitions. There are many career and synergy opportunities presented by this growth. Our employees can move across categories, functions and industries within the group.
 
Our People strategy
We have concluded the crafting of our People strategy to take us beyond 2010. Our goal is to be the most admired employer in the branded consumer packaged goods and healthcare industries in our chosen geographies.

This will be achieved through:
Building and revitalising organisation-wide capability for change
Investment in the development of talent
Continued simplification of our management processes and systems
Fostering a people-centric high- performance culture
 
 
What we value as an organisation
As employees of Tiger, we value:
Respect
Action orientation
Teamwork; and
Imagination
 
To ensure that these are not just words, there is a 360° evaluation process to periodically assess how we are doing in living out these values.
 
Talent management and leadership development
One of our core capabilities is developing great brands. We have consistently delivered good financial results over a sustained period. It is all because we have highly talented people in Tiger.

Just as we review business performance and measure market share, we bring the same discipline to reviewing organisational talent. We have identified key positions and track the pipeline available to fill them. The group executive annually commits two consecutive days to this review process.

Our people development and internal recruitment and promotion initiatives are aligned to talent management.
 
Sharing the wealth
As part of the broader transformation agenda we decided on a two-step approach to achieving broad-based black economic empowerment. To this end our first ownership transaction in 2005 was exclusively for our employees. Over six million shares were purchased to implement this Employee Share Ownership programme. All our employees are now Tiger shareholders.

The first phase of the BEE share ownership transaction was used to empower our staff, irrespective of race or gender. In November 2005, a total of 50 free shares were allocated to each of our employees who normally would not qualify for participation in the share option scheme, and who are not black managers.

The bulk of the remaining shares are held by the Black Managers’ Trust. In November 2005, black managers in junior, middle and senior management positions were allocated shares using predetermined multiples. Allocations to newly appointed black managers are made in January and July of each year. When current incumbents are promoted, appropriate top-up allocations will be made. To date, 52% of these shares have been allocated.

The management team participates in a normal cash settled share option scheme on the basis of attracting and retaining key talent.
 
Remuneration practices
With the conversion in October 2005 of the guaranteed pay component to Total Remuneration Package, we are now in a better position to pursue internal and external benchmarking.

As our performance management system matures and improves, we are beginning to gradually introduce performance-based differentiation.

Our variable pay instruments, such as the short-term profit incentive scheme and the long-term incentive programme, are well entrenched. In keeping with the dynamic market conditions, we will periodically review them for continued relevance and alignment with best practice.
 
Medical aid
We have an in-house medical scheme for our employees and pensioners. The scheme has 6 000 principal members and 13 000 beneficiaries. These members and their dependants have access to cost-effective comprehensive health cover.

Access to the Medical Scheme is open to all employees but affordability remains a barrier for some. We eagerly await legislation enabling the development of a low-cost medical scheme that will make private healthcare accessible to all our employees. It is expected that this legislation will be developed and passed during 2007/2008.
 
Retirement funds
On appointment our employees are offered a choice of joining either the Tiger Brands Workers Provident Fund or Tiger Brands Defined Contribution Pension Fund. Employees, who are eligible, also have the Tiger Brands Management Provident Fund as an option.

Eligibility for joining the Tiger Brands Management Provident Fund is dependent on the employee being in a management position, at Patterson band level D or above. Should an employee be promoted into a management position, the employee has the option of transferring into this fund.

The contribution rates of these funds compare favourably with those being paid in the industry. Each fund offers risk benefits, as determined by the boards of trustees of these funds, taking affordability into consideration.
 
 
Our ABET programme continues to grow steadily – Albany bakery, Pretoria.
 
 
Some important statistics
As one of the larger corporations in our country, we have created sustainable employment for around 14 000 employees on a permanent basis. Additionally we engage a substantial number of job seekers on a seasonal basis as dictated to by different industries in which we participate. For the current financial year, 2006, our total salary and wage bill is approximately R2 billion. This is a significant contribution to sustainable nation building.

The composition of our staff is as follows:
 
  African Indian Coloured White Disabled Permanent Temp Total
2006 7 733 960 2 591 2 092 45 13 421 4 257** 17 678
2005* 7 756 969 2 690 2 260 47 13 722 3 042 16 764
2004 8 223 1 235 3 121 2 989 72 15 640 2 947 18 587
2003 8 730 1 473 3 622 3 024 83 16 932 3 146 20 078
2002 6 764 1 399 3 496 2 635 52 14 346 3 099 17 445
 
Notes: *SPAR unbundling, **Combined Langeberg and Ashton Foods (seasonal business).
 
The ratio in terms of permanent positions versus temporary staff and casuals has consistently been approximately 5:1 over the previous four years, dropping to 3:1 in the year under review.

With respect to the number of employees with disabilities, the trend, as a percentage of headcount, is stable.

People with disabilities as a % of total permanent headcount:
 
Year Actual number % of total headcount
2006 45 0,3%
2005 47 0,3%
2004 72 0,5%
2003 83 0,5%
2002 52 0,4%
 
Our gender track record
Women constitute about 52% of the total national population. Our transformation agenda includes the gender issue. We will continue to focus on senior and executive levels, without neglecting the junior and middle management levels. Our performance to date is as follows:
 
  Executive Senior Middle Junior
2006 13% 12% 31% 33%
2005 10% 13% 30% 35%
2004 12% 28% 32%
2003 7% 27% 37%
2002 6% 24% 34%
 
Our black management talent
In this current environment where it is a challenge to retain management talent, particularly black managers, we have been able to grow steadily. This was achieved notwithstanding our headcount movement within the five-year period. Our black managers are represented across various management levels as per the table below:
 
  Executive Senior Middle Junior
2006 13% 18% 29% 43%
2005 10% 9% 27% 42%
2004 0% 10% 25% 39%
2003 0% 8% 23% 41%
2002 0% 8% 24% 42%
 
As we had not been particularly successful at attracting and retaining black people at senior management level, we created the senior affirmative action fund. This fund is financing both senior and executive-level appointments. Where necessary, we will distort the organisational structure to ensure meaningful engagement of these senior appointments. To date, we have brought in 26 black people at various management levels as reflected below:
 
Level 2005 2006
F Band (Exec) 1 1
E Band (Senior) 6 3
D Band (Middle) 11 4
Total (Cumulative) 18 26
 
Of the 26, we regrettably lost two E-band and two D-band-level appointments, thus retaining 22.

The trend in our turnover statistics over the five-year period suggests that our focus on attracting and retaining staff is succeeding. In 2002, the overall turnover figure was 7,7, opposed to 5,5 in 2003, 5,9 in 2004, 5,8 in 2005 and 6,3 for 2006.
 
Employee rights and relations
We have a Code of Ethics which is broadly communicated and shared. We are in the process of reviewing it to ensure compliance with best practice. All new employees are given a copy thereof before their start date. This Code governs our relationships with each other, as well as with our customers, suppliers, competitors and communities.

Our employees enjoy freedom of association. To that extent we have in the broader Tiger family, 15 unions recognised and operating at the various sites.

We have a well-established workplace culture creation and continuous improvement process which was introduced in our manufacturing units around 2000. It was introduced as part of the supply chain strategy to support our overall continuous improvement strategy. The importance of this process is that it facilitates improved communication of goals, standards and values to be upheld by all, and fosters a sense of community.

We continue to make good progress in the rollout of the process as indicated below. Of the 54 sites, 71% have completed the culture Invocom creation process (Involvement & Communication), and 69% have gone a step further and are implementing the continuous improvement programme (20 Keys):
 
  Sites which
completed InvoCom implementation
Sites
implementing 20 Keys
2003 22% 39%
2004 45% 39%
2005 57% 55%
2006 71% 69%
 
As all our employees are now shareholders, the Tiger share performance is tracked on a daily basis and communicated during the InvoComs in most of the units, in the same manner as productivity is tracked.
 
People development
In 2005 we launched the Tiger Brands Academy (TBA), our in-house learning institution. Our main intention with the creation of the TBA is to build organisational capability by empowering employees with portable cross-functional skills. The spinoff is a huge contribution to national skills development, given the number of our employees and the quality of the learning programmes.

When fully functional, the TBA will have nine academies. Currently six are operational. These are the Customer; Marketing; Leadership; Manufacturing; Pharma and IT academies. Each academy has a menu of training programmes that reflect the core competencies of that particular function. Our employees attend learning modules of their choice, as long as the learning area was identified as one that needed development in their personal development plan.

To date, the TBA has performed as follows:
 
Academy Number of learners
Customer 68
IT 193
Leadership 78
Manufacturing 319
Marketing 84
Pharma 61
Total 803
 
The TBA is not linked to any academic institution. All the programmes offered are tailor-made for our specific environment and requirements. The learning programmes are provided by both internal facilitators and external providers. All external providers are subjected to a rigorous preferred provider process for quality assurance purposes.

Additionally, we support the National Human Resources Development programme by hosting 34 students on the SETA-based Workplace Experience Programme. A further 159 employees are on the Core Skills Programme.

Our Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) programme – based on literacy and numeracy – continues to grow steadily. A total of 115 employees completed the programme last year. We currently have 710 learners on the programme, at different levels – from basic orientation (BO) to level 4 – as per the table below:
 
Tiger Brands ABET Programme
Active
Learners
Literacy Numeracy
BO 1 2 3 4 BO 1 2 3 4
710 12 171 188 187 121 2 7 11 9 2
 
Employee wellness
In 2006 we piloted a comprehensive wellness programme which focuses on three key streams: emotional, physical and financial health. We prefer this approach because we believe that when employees are holistically cared for they perform better and deliver sustained results.

Some of the topics covered under emotional health include coping with conflict, managing change, stress awareness and understanding and working with different personality types.

Under physical health, various types of tests, including blood pressure, eye, cholesterol and glucose, are conducted for interested employees. We further offer Primary Care and Occupational Health Care to our employees via an on-site clinic system for employees at the manufacturing sites. These services are offered free of charge to all employees, irrespective of whether they are on a permanent or temporary contract.

We continue our HIV/Aids support programme at all sites especially for employees not on medical aid. In 2006 we rolled out further awareness sessions and opportunities for voluntary counselling and testing. Just over half the sites have already been visited, with the remainder to be completed before the end of the year. Of the sites visited, a total of 944 employees were counselled and tested. The results indicate a prevalence rate of 6,14%. Employees testing positive, go for regular monitoring and are provided immune boosting supplements. Antiretroviral treatment is not provided as employees on medical aid are able to access ARVs through the medial aid, and employees not on medical aid have access through provincial clinics. We will continually review this approach and take appropriate action as necessary.
 
Health and safety
As a food and healthcare company, the health and safety of our employees and the end consumer of our products is important to us. As a minimum all our operating sites have Health and Safety committees. Aspects of health and safety form part of the culture creation and continuous improvement process referred to under Employee rights and relations. We also have an external body auditing our performance on a regular basis. The audit results are shared not only with the executive team but also with the risk committee.
 
 
As a responsible organisation, our objective is to find ways to give back to our
communities and country as a whole – Beacon day for Heartbeat.
 
 
BBBEE and transformation reporting framework
Broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) is a national imperative that we align ourselves with. When the final version of the Codes is promulgated, there is expected to be an initial 12-month period within which all participating companies will be required to undergo a verification process and be issued with a formal BEE rating.

We are continuing with transformation efforts in the directions indicated by the draft Codes and will undergo verification within the required period. Since 2005 we have been using the draft Codes to measure our performance.

Our employee share ownership transaction implemented in October 2005 was the first phase in the BBBEE participation. Plans are under way to effect the second phase.

We are making steady progress in management control both with board appointments and the appointment of senior black people in group executive positions.

Employment equity and skills development are part of our business operations and have been the focus over many years. The sections on employee composition and people development expanded on our performance to date.

Enterprise Development is a category where recognition is given for efforts of the group towards the creation or further strengthening of enterprises to increase economic activity, and thereby increase employment opportunities. We have a number of initiatives in this arena. We have chosen to focus on projects where the buying power of the group or its market reach can be used to develop opportunities for entrepreneurs.

One example is the Emergent Tomato farmers in Limpopo province.

We are a major purchaser of tomatoes as input to our manufacturing operations. Common problems amongst emergent farmers are:
a) Access to finance
b) Need for technical advice and assistance in farming activities
c) Access to reliable markets for product.
 
We have a scheme operating in the Limpopo province where selected emergent farmers are provided with loan finance for seedlings, and are supported by regular visits by our agronomists. We undertake to buy their full estimated crop at a guaranteed price, although the farmers are not obliged to sell to the group. Our undertaking is by way of an underlying guarantee against which further operating finance can be obtained from commercial institutions if desired.

The scheme has been running over the last two seasons. Currently there are 30 individual emergent farmers and three collectives who are supported by the scheme. Based on the success of this initiative, we are currently considering other agricultural inputs for similar initiatives.
 
   
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