Social Management
We emphasise people-centric and effective leadership in our approach to health and safety. Our leaders and supervisors lead our efforts towards Zero Harm, and strive to ensure that the culture of the organisation puts HSE at its core. They are accountable for ensuring a safe and healthy workplace and cultivating a Zero Harm mindset, and are expected to set high safety standards, lead by example, empower employees to perform their work safely, and spend sufficient time observing, engaging and coaching teams.
HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT FRAMEWORK
To help our leaders and supervisors meet their responsibilities, we equip them with the skills to positively engage their teams, leading to improved morale, productivity and safety performance.
Employees are frequently reminded of their right to a safe and healthy work environment and are empowered to stop work and withdraw from unsafe conditions.
Our health, safety and environment (HSE) framework (above) ensures that high-impact interventions and programmes are in place to manage the various factors that impact our safety performance, from critical safety risks to the risks associated with change as well as cultural differences. The HSE framework, together with our HSE policies and standards, provide the foundation for a consistent and sustainable approach to HSE management that centres on continual improvement and a clear understanding our health and safety risks and how to mitigate them.
All Group businesses align their HSE systems and programmes to the Group standards, which provide guidance on how to manage common material HSE risks. We maintained ISO 45001 certification across all operations. OptiPower also holds the South African Institute of Welding ISO 3834 accreditation.
To continually improve, our HSE systems and processes are regularly updated so that they are user-friendly and drive safe outcomes. We also keep abreast of developments in health and safety management, and benchmark our performance against that of our clients, peers and joint-venture partners. All incidents are thoroughly investigated to determine root causes and corrective measures are taken to prevent re-occurrence.
Digitisation and new technology will play a critical role in the next generation of HSE systems, with a number of digital interventions already being implemented within the Group.
HSE training and awareness help employees to effectively apply our safety standards and controls when executing their tasks. On-the-job coaching and training is also provided. Training on change management helps employees manage change in the work environment or to our processes.
Risk management
The Group’s integrated assurance framework identifies, assesses, monitors and reports our safety risks. The major incidents prevention programme – applied across the Group – aims to proactively manage critical safety risks through safety in design and planning for safe execution. It identifies high-risk tasks and the associated critical controls needed to prevent serious incidents, and includes verification processes by leaders and frontline employees to ensure the controls are being applied and are effective.
The effectiveness of the Group HSE system and the major incidents prevention programme is assessed through our integrated assurance framework of expert internal self-assessments and periodic external independent assessments. Our critical control verifications provide datasets from which to develop management interventions. Proactive safety metrics have been implemented to identify potential failures and negative trends, and enable proactive intervantions.
Organisational learning
Numerous initiatives support organisational learning, including:
- The HSE forum (see governance below).
- A register that captures lessons learnt.
- An annual safety conference for the Group’s leaders to review safety performance and agree the focus areas for the year ahead.
- Stand Together for Safety events where key safety messages are communicated to leaders, employees and subcontractors.
- Recognition events to celebrate employees and teams who have meaningfully impacted the achievement of our safety goals.
HEALTH AND WELLNESS
Our health and wellness programme (below) is grounded in the Group’s Value of Care. Our Group standards guide operations on how to manage health and wellness risks consistently.
Health and wellness programme
HUMAN RESOURCES DELIVERY MODEL
Our value proposition to employees prioritises employee health and safety; ethical leadership; effective communication and collaboration; learning, development and mentorship; and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). We adhere to best people practices. The Group-wide human resources (HR) policy and shared delivery model define our obligations and standards in managing our employees.
All our businesses are expected to apply and uphold the following high-level principles:
- International standards of social justice, decent work and human rights.
- Equitable and inclusive working environments.
- Policies and procedures that align to the legislation and basic conditions of employment of the countries in which we operate.
- Recruitment approaches that are fair, objective and support equal opportunity.
- Remuneration that is fair, competitive and appropriately aligned to the market.
- Talent management and succession planning, particularly for scarce skills and critical roles.
- Clear accountabilities for all employees through formal documented performance management processes.
- Learning and development that enables employees to perform their roles effectively and advance their individual potential.
- Proactive, meaningful and open communication with employees, seeking their views and feedback.
- Grievance and disciplinary approaches that are fair and just, where issues may be reported without fear of retaliation or reprisal.
- Accurate employee records where personal information is secure.
The HR delivery model provides clarity on supporting the business strategy. Businesses build their own strategic workforce plans (organisational effectiveness) to support their strategies and unique context. When new businesses are acquired, we ensure that our culture and people practices are applied.
Performance management
Individual performance targets align to the Group’s strategic objectives. Specific targets across five performance dimensions (financial, leadership, relationships, operational and risk) are cascaded from the Group chief executive throughout the organisation at the beginning of each financial year. Cascading responsibilities inform team-based targets for the balance of the workforce.
Talent management and succession
Our businesses use either the Paterson or Mercer job grading systems. A conversion table ensures alignment between both systems so that our conversations about the value added by talented employees are consistent. These tools support talent mobility, ensure that employees are equitably and correctly remunerated and provide employees with clarity and incentive to grow their careers within the Group.
Talent is assessed annually for top and senior management and signed off at the Holdings Board level. Operating companies assess their middle management talent, which comprises employees who are accountable for project delivery. Successors are categorised based on their readiness (ready now, within one year, three years or more than five years). Current and potential leaders receive leadership development and mentorship to help them achieve the Group’s objectives and/or build the competencies they need for future leadership roles.
EMPLOYEE RELATIONS
We adhere to legislation and collective bargaining requirements when demobilising, retrenchments are a necessity during cyclical downturns or when our efforts to find other opportunities for redundant roles fail. Across the Group, we uphold the right to freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining.
Our relationships with union representatives and officials are professional and constructive to support fair wage agreements and minimise disruption to work schedules. Industrial relations and engagement strategies are developed and implemented prior to starting any project.
LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
All employees receive the appropriate training for their roles, and new employees are trained on the Group’s Values, systems and processes during the onboarding process. Our learning and development initiatives include skills development programmes, learnerships and apprenticeships that provide work experience and on-the-job training, coaching, and undergraduate and postgraduate bursaries as well as scholarships.
Our training initiatives are monitored to ensure we gain an appropriate return on our investment. Most of our training spend supports the development of technical, safety and new technology and/or digital skills, and aim to address the growing shortage of tradesmen.
Line managers are also expected to provide continuous coaching to the individuals and teams they manage.
Bespoke virtual reality tools place us at the forefront of machine-specific operator training in the mining sector.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION
We are committed to being aware of and responsive to the specific DEI priorities of the different countries and cultures in which we operate. Guided by the Group DEI policy, all Group businesses have policies appropriate to their regions of operation.
Our DEI interventions create awareness of unconscious biases as a fundamental means of changing behaviour. We ensure that any unfair discrimination is eliminated and fair treatment is provided to all. Operating company MDs are responsible for setting and delivering against the DEI targets applicable to their operations.
All South African businesses have employment equity plans that guide recruitment and plan for opportunities created by retirements and new projects. Employment equity committees monitor workforce transformation and assist with barrier analyses to identify policies and practices that may hinder the appointment and advancement of black South Africans.
The Group chief executive chairs the quarterly transformation steering committee, which also monitors employment equity progress. Group operating company MDs and their respective HR heads as well as the director responsible for broad-based black economic empowerment attend the committee. The committee encourages robust debate on new hires and promotions that align to our employment equity objectives. Executive management and social & ethics committee review performance on DEI programmes and provide objective challenge and guidance to ensure continual improvement.
Our interventions to improve employment equity apply across all employment levels, with skills development being a key underpin. Our mentorship programmes are designed to transfer skills and experience to less experienced employees.
Cementation Americas’ Canadian and American operations have working groups that promote diversity and inclusivity among all stakeholder groups, identify and remove barriers that inhibit DEI, and ensure that Cementation Americas does not inadvertently promote or reinforce these barriers in its public image or business practices. DEI training programmes are in place in both operations and virtual panel sessions are available to employees who want to learn more about DEI in the workplace.
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
Safety
Our lead safety indicators drive proactive action to improve lag indicator performance. Our health and safety measures include our joint-venture partners and subcontractors.
Our lag indicators include lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR), total recordable case rate (TRCR), total injury frequency rate and all incidents frequency rate. Lead indicators include leadership engagements, hazards observations, high potential hazards, critical control verifications, critical safety standards violations, high potential incidents, work stoppages and audit findings, among others.
Long- and short-term goals are in place to measure our progress towards Zero Harm – our ultimate objective for all projects.
Number of fatalities, fatal injury frequency rate and LTIFR are externally assured annually.
Human capital
Our key HR metrics are mostly measured at a Group level and include avoidable turnover, learning and development spend, training hours per employee and the representation of women overall and at management level. Certain metrics are calculated for specific operations such as avoidable turnover per region, and employment equity.
HR data is collated by the corporate office to ensure that our reporting is appropriate and accurate. The social & ethics committee and the remuneration committee monitor and measure our HR metrics at every meeting.
Employment equity data is externally verified annually.
Additional information: refer to our 2024 Indicator Report below.
GOVERNANCE
The Board, supported by the social & ethics committee, is responsible for overseeing health and safety-related matters. The social & ethics committee approves our HSE framework, policies, standards and guidelines, and oversees the implementation of our HSE management system, ensuring our programmes are effective and align to best practice.
The HSE and risk forums ensure that our prioritised health and safety initiatives are consistently applied Group-wide, monitor progress against these initiatives, facilitate the sharing of information and lessons learnt from high-risk incidents that could have resulted in a potential major incident, and monitor the Group’s key health and safety metrics. The HSE forum also supports the sharing of insights on innovative thinking and new technologies that support our HSE objectives. The forums report to the Board and its relevant committees on our health and safety performance and progress.
Each business has its own HR function, which ensures that it is responsive to key local laws, culture and priorities. The corporate office develops and oversees the implementation of Group HR policies, principles and key initiatives, sets minimum requirements and reports on these to the remuneration committee and the Board. This supports efficient HR practices and consistent HR governance and management approaches.
The decentralised HR functions implement Group requirements at business level and partner with business to support the resourcing of projects. The HR forum of global HR leaders meets quarterly to plan initiatives, review policies, share knowledge, and address the sourcing of skills. It also focuses on remuneration and succession.
Group operating companies review their HR metrics monthly, and the Board receives regular reports on HR initiatives and performance.
Additional information: governance of sustainability.
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