Our business model relies on having the right people with the right skills in the right positions. We invest in ongoing training and development to ensure our people can execute our strategy.
Human capital achievements 2023 |
Human capital objectives for 2024 |
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Employee value proposition
The Famous Brands employee value proposition promises to provide employees with an environment that considers their needs and recognises high-performance. The elements of this promise are as follows:
Our employee value proposition is designed to address the Group’s main human capital challenges, which include:
- Attracting and retaining talent.
- Ensuring a robust succession pipeline.
- Responding to new employee demands after the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Losing skills through emigration.
- Ensuring that the employee value proposition remains relevant.
| Read more about our transformation initiatives in our transformation report . |
Driving a winning culture
We promote a culture of values-driven leadership that connects to Famous Brands’ vision and models the right behaviours for employees to follow. We communicate our vision and ensure it is incorporated into all business plans.
Our core beliefs are embedded in our people management processes, including performance appraisals, succession planning discussions, leadership development and our Grow and Lead Awards. Every employee has a personal development plan.
The annual Voice Your View Employee Survey communicates and measures these values.
Mentoring to boost succession
All Famous Brands employees have a Personal Development Plan. Each year, the employee and manager discuss short, middle and long-term career goals and how to improve performance. Employees are encouraged to learn new skills, maximise their current performance and increase their interest and satisfaction with their current role.
In 2023, we added a mentorship programme to support the Personal Development Plans. Although Famous Brands has had a culture of informal mentorship, this is the first structured, formal mentorship programme. It is called the Growth Network Mentorship Programme, and is designed to improve our succession pipeline and our ready-now succession score. The programme assists selected employees in expanding their professional networks and leveraging their mentors’ experience. Over time, mentees should gain confidence, new skills and knowledge.
This year, 36 employees were selected for the programme and mentees are assigned to mentors for a period of nine months.
Key talent and succession indicators |
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| 98 | internal promotions (2022: 80) |
| 421 | external appointments (2022: 478) |
| 97.59% | retention rate (2022: 98.64%) |
| 29% | ready now succession score (2022: 38%) |
| 83% | of internal promotions were Black (2022: 75%) |
| 96% | of external appointments were Black (2022: 95%) |
| 8.47 | years average tenure (2022: 8.52 years) |
Grow and Lead Awards
The Grow and Lead Awards is a Group-wide annual recognition platform which recognises outstanding achievement by the administration employees. Employees who have demonstrated excellent performance and displayed behaviours congruent with the Group’s values are nominated from each business unit or department .
Voice Your View Employee Survey
The Voice Your View Employee Survey, launched in 2015, is an electronic survey distributed to 901 South African administration employees (2022: 901 employees). The survey contained 67 statements that respondents were asked to rank on a five-point scale. These include questions about culture, leadership, happiness and communication. The scale is converted to a percentage when calculating the report, and each statement’s scores are averaged to give an overall score. The overall score for Famous Brands is 77%, which places the organisation in the Top Company Category.
The Net Promoter Score is based on the question: How likely are you to recommend Famous Brands to your friends and family as a place to work? It is calculated by taking the percentage of employees who are promoters and subtracting the percentage who are detractors. The trajectory of the Net Promoter Score remains positive.
The high-level results are as follows:
- The overall response rate was 92% (2022: 89%)
- The overall score was 77% (2022: 77%)
- The Net Promoter Score improved to 21.4 (2022: 19.6)
Focusing on the world of work
Our world of work cascades the Group’s business strategy into divisional and business unit strategies down to personal scorecards, aiming to optimise business outputs and results. Our world of work also includes comprehensive onboarding and induction programmes, flexible working hours and the option for some employees to apply for four days per month of working from home.
Implementing SAGE 300 People
In 2023, Famous Brands implemented SAGE 300 People, an HR, payroll and self-service solution designed to increase an organisation’s productivity by eliminating repetitive, manual HR tasks and providing HR analytics capabilities. Employees can apply for leave and complete other HR tasks through a web-based service channel or mobile application.
Career development
Our career development opportunities include:
- Leadership development and sponsored courses.
- Technical and job-specific training, and a comprehensive eLearning offering.
- Financial assistance for approved studies.
- The opportunity to work on innovative projects.
Key talent and succession indicators |
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| 856 | total employees trained in South Africa (2022: 167) |
| R9.1 mn | total training spend in South Africa (2022: R13.3 million) |
| 31 | Internships completed (2022: 0) |
| 43 | Ethics Programme delegates (2022: 46) |
| 570 | total employees trained outside South Africa (2022: 237) |
| 633 | African, Coloured and Indian (ACI) employees trained (2022: 135) |
| 36 | employees assigned mentors (2022: 0) |
| 61 | People with Disabilities Learnerships (2022: 71) |
Leadership development
Famous Brands has several programmes to develop leaders at all levels of the Group.
International Executive Development Programme (IEDP)
This programme is designed for Exco members and other executives that would benefit from international exposure. Here, we sponsor candidates to complete a four to 17 week leadership course from leading international universities.
Executive Development Programme (EDP)
The EDP supports senior management in developing the skills to lead at an executive level. Candidates complete a short course on leadership from a top university.
Managers Challenge (MC)
The MC exposes middle management to best practices in leadership. This includes a mix of classroom training and eLearning. Approximately 18 managers are selected to participate in the challenge each year.
Junior Management Programme (JMP)
Our JMP develops employees in junior management positions who have demonstrated leadership potential. Approximately 15 managers undergo this 12-month programme each year.
Supervisory Development Programme (SDP)
The SDP is for the supervisory employees in our Manufacturing and Logistics divisions. Approximately 15 supervisors are put through this 12-month programme each year.
Our eLearning offering – iPerform
In response to COVID-19 in 2021, Famous Brands rolled out an online training and performance management system. This system gives all employees with computers access to training courses that include technical skills, compliance and life skills. This also allows us to reach more employees for training while reducing training costs. In 2022, 4 044 courses were completed, with women completing 2 285 courses and AIC employees completing 3 254 courses.
Employee benefits and well-being
We enable employees to thrive by offering the following:
- Medical aid and provident fund.
- On-site clinic at Head Office.
- Access to an employee wellness provider offering counselling.
- Death benefit and education death benefit to pay school fees and tertiary education.
- Group risk cover including disability benefit and death benefit (three times annual salary tax-free).
- Funeral cover.
- Dread disease benefit.
- Special rates across FNB and Nedbank’s banking products.
Caring for employee well-being
Famous Brands engaged Independent Counselling and Advisory Services (ICAS), a corporate wellness solutions provider, to provide employees access to an Employee Wellness Programme. The programme aims to give employees the freedom to unpack their feelings and find solutions to the many problems people experience.
The overall engagement rate, which includes uptake of all services provided, amounted to 7.3% during the period under review, which compares to 4.5% during the comparable previous period. Annualised individual usage of the core counselling and advisory services of 4.6% was recorded during the most recent period, which compares to 4.3% during the previous period and 8.2% across all ICAS client companies during the most recent review period.
The percentage of employees whose problems appear to be having a severe impact on their work is 12.2%. This compares to an ICAS average of 10.5% during the same period. This indicates that our overall employee mental well-being is resilient, despite the pressurised industry known for long and irregular working hours, demanding customers and difficult situations.
| Employee wellness |
| 76 lost time injuries (2022: 31) |
| 0 fatalities (2022: 0) |
| 1 465 employees visits to the on-site clinic (2022: 0)* |
| 1.17% lost time injury rate (2022: 1.72%) |
| 7.3% percentage of employees who used the employee wellness provider (2022: 4.5%) |
| 1.65% absenteeism rate (2022: 1.34%) |
| * | Not measured in 2022 |
Occupational health and safety
The original Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) was enacted in 1993 to protect people’s health and safety while operating equipment and machinery. This act is legally enforceable and managed by the Department of Labour. The OHSA Amendment Bill aims to ensure that businesses have a direct consequence for non-compliance. This amended bill will be gazetted and signed into legislation in the first half of 2023. The bill enforces stricter health and safety requirements for South African businesses.
Famous Brands has a positive track record of adherence to health and safety standards across the Group. Famous Brands appoints health and safety representatives at every facility in terms of section 16(2) of the OHSA. These appointments come with statutory health and safety responsibilities, which they accept in writing.
An independent third-party is appointed to verify that work environments are safe, suitable and sanitary, that employees have the correct protective clothing, and receive safety training. Management reviews feedback on suggested improvement areas based on the audits. No serious transgressions were reported to the Audit and Risk Committee (2022: nil).
New employees and contractors attend induction programmes with a health and safety component. Regular OHSA Committee meetings are conducted at all business units. Health and safety training conducted includes firefighting and first aid.
Trade union engagement
Famous Brands protects employees’ rights, including the rights to non-discrimination and freedom of association. The Group complies with South African labour laws and informs employees of these laws at induction. The Group complies with the labour laws in its other operating territories, which are communicated to employees in the countries’ business languages. Our working hours and disciplinary procedures comply with statutory requirements.
Most of the Group’s unionised workforce is employed at its logistics operations and manufacturing plants. These employees are classified as bargaining unit employees. In 2023, the percentage of Bargaining Unit employees who belonged to unions increased to 75.9% compared to less than 73% the previous year.
Famous Brands has recognition agreements with three unions, the Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU), the Security, Cleaning, Manufacturing and Allied Workers Union (SCMWU) and the National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (NUPSAW).
Our two-year wage agreement negotiations were concluded in May 2023.
