Introduction

 

BSi Steel has the vision to build our reputation with all our key stakeholders as being the “employer of choice” within the steel industry. It’s with this vision in mind that we have contextualised the unique, unprecedented challenges that have been faced by the company in recent times and the impact these changes are having on the performance and sustainability of our human capital.  

 

On the local front the steel market has moved from an artificially buoyant position of high demand and high profit down to a sluggish trading market in under six months. This sudden change in operating condition has resulted in immediate action being taken to boost staff morale and provide secure, inspirational leadership in these changing times. The positive attitude and proactive behaviour of our people is as important to the business in these difficult trading conditions as prudently managing our stock levels and cash flow.

 

Our steadfast commitment to continue undeterred with transformation and B-BBEE initiatives, company culture unification, skills transfer and development, talent sourcing and retention, diligent performance management, health and safety awareness and employee well being programs have given us the competitive edge over the rest of the market to face these operational pressures head on at full speed with a supportive team behind us.

 

BSi Steel Culture

 

At the forefront of our human capital intervention is to ensure that the True North principals contained in our Vision, Mission and Behaviour Code are positively reinforced on a regular basis across the Group.  It’s through this approach that we have continued to build a proactive, empowered, positive and synergistic team spirit within BSi Steel, despite tough trading conditions.

 

All our new staff go through Covey’s “personal effectiveness” training during their induction to make sure that the way we operate throughout each division of the business is centered on teamwork values and principles.

 

Our feedback and communication with staff is frequent and informal, allowing them insight into future plans for the organisation so that a sense of belonging is fostered within our work teams.  Our company magazine, “Steel Talking”, is published to all staff with the intention of making sure that everyone feels involved and informed with regard to company performance and that they build a sense of community spirit across all our regions, both on the local and export markets.

 

Annual perception surveys are run by the HR Team to gauge exactly how engaged staff are within the various teams and to help identify any weak areas, which are then actively targeted for improvement by corrective action plans.

 

Talent sourcing and retention

 

BSi Steel is critically aware that the competition for talent is of primary importance to our future success.  It’s imperative that we bring the best people into the organisation and make sure that we retain them in a fiercely competitive market. 

 

The company prides itself on a rigorous recruitment process wherein every attempt is made to match potential recruits to the job function as well as to the culture of the business. Much success has been achieved by making use of referral based recruitment and other more creative recruitment strategies.

 

 We have recently introduced a graduate development programme, where young talent is brought into the business to gain valuable work experience and at the same time for the company to have the ideal opportunity to select those graduates with the most potential to fill any vacancies. This is a win-win initiative for both parties and ensures that we build our leadership and priority skills pipeline today so that we have no shortfall in the future.

 

Retention of talent is as complex and difficult as sourcing the talent and as such we have put in place mechanisms such as career paths, regular performance measurement and feedback, incentives, recognition bonuses and aggressive development plans to ensure that we retain our talent and don’t have them leave to join other employers.

 

Leadership development

 

In order for our staff to have a meaningful, fulfilling experience working at BSi Steel we need to ensure that staff have the best leaders possible.  All our leaders from middle management level and above have a uniquely tailored Personal Development Plan, are mentored regularly by a personal coach and are continually evaluated on the impact of their leadership effectiveness through our strong focus on leadership in our performance management system.

 

Succession planning

 

At BSi Steel we believe in preparing for the future today and as such we have recently undertaken to introduce a comprehensive Succession Plan for each position in the Group on a middle management and above level.

 

All key performance area, itemised per position, is outlined in this plan with a breakdown of which other person within the business is capable of assuming this function in time to come. The exact timeline is then plotted out in terms of when the successor will be ready to fill the role so that we can co-ordinate the urgency of such placements to coincide with when these people are operationally needed to take over the reins.

 

Training and Development plans are geared around this information to ensure alignment to group strategy and if a gap is identified where no candidate is seen as a possibility from within the company relevant recruitment measures are indentified and projected according to time frame to make certain of no manpower planning shortfalls in any key position throughout our operations.

 

Employment equity

 

As an organisation we subscribe to the unique, dynamic richness of a diverse workforce equitably representative of the national demographic profiles of the countries we operate in. We believe in employing the best person for the job, irrespective of race, gender, age, or any other classification.  Our behavior code guides us in selecting people with a positive attitude and strength of personal character that elevate them above the masses out there on the job market.  Strong target areas that we would like to improve on will be to recruit and develop African Female and Disabled employees across all levels.

 

We have an Employment Equity Committee, which sits once a quarter to give feedback to top management on the progress made towards the EE Plan targets, as well as to discuss any attitudes/perceptions in the workplace to do with employment equity. A mutually beneficial relationship with our Trade Union, NUMSA, is utilised to embark on meaningful conversations on how to ensure that there is no discrimination in any policy or practice within the business. Our current Employment Equity Plan runs through to October of 2010, at which time the next 5 year plan and equity targets will be established by the committee.

  

Transformation and Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment

A stable, demographically representative economic market in South Africa is fundamental to the sustainability of the business and our future growth on the local market. BSi Steel has embraced transformation within the organisation and we are proud to have been independently rated by EMEX as a LEVEL 7 B-BBEE contributor as at April 2009.

 

Most important to us is that Transformation is not a stand-alone strategy/committee and therefore we have woven our Transformation and B-BBEE strategic plan into our overall Company Strategy so that the alignment of the two strategies is guaranteed to make business sense at all times.

 

It is our intention to work toward achieving a LEVEL 6 rating in our next assessment at the end of the 2010 fiscal.  In order to achieve this improved rating we will be prioritising skills development initiatives (learnerships, internships, experiential learning and disabled training) and undertaking more synergistic enterprise development initiatives that feed directly into the business synergies. With our commitment to Employment Equity and Skills Development our objective is to improve our management control scorecard element over time and continue to look at economically sound B-BBEE ownership measures.

 

Our preferential procurement practices will continue to focus on developing business links with black owned and black SMME suppliers and further to this we hope to see Arcelor Mittal coming through with a B-BBEE rating before our next rating is concluded mid 2010.

 

BSi Steel is a community focused business and we have always contributed extensively to non-profit organisations across our operating regions. Beneficiaries include Hospice, Reach out with Love, PMB Community Chest, Icare, Little Eden, the Starfish Foundation and many more.

 

It’s our intention to continue helping those in need over the coming year, however in addition for the coming year we are going to be awarding bursaries to under privileged students and making sure that such bursary awards feed sustainably into our graduate development programme wherever possible.

 

Skills development and training

 

In order to remain competitive, stay abreast with current technology and be seen as an employer of choice, BSi has recognised the utmost importance of strategically aligned skills development and training for all our staff. Of primary focus within our training and development strategy is to ensure that we facilitate the advancement of staff to reach their own personal stretch goals of developing within the company over a long term career. 

 

Much of our training budget is spent on the training of interns and learners, on leadership development, ERP systems and on staff in the lower echelons of the business who need basic education skills training (ABET) in order to improve their quality of life. Our Skills Development Committee ensures that all training is approved by line management and our trade union representatives in order to offer meaningful training to uplift all levels of the organisation.

 

Our challenge for the coming year is the introduction of internally created training interventions for every position in the organisation to increase efficiency and knowledge base at core level within the company without having to rely exclusively on generic external training programs. Our vision is to be a centre of excellence and in order to do so we need to have a system of continual evaluation and improvement with appropriate learning interventions that maximise the transfer of skills and competencies.

 

Safety, health and the environment

Working with steel products and heavy machinery requires that we put safety first at all times.  Our safety procedures have recently been fully audited and our documentation updated to reflect current best practice that is being rolled out to all staff via our health and safety committees on each base.

 

In addition we take care of employee well being by offering wellness campaign free medical testing, stress management, counseling, HIV and AIDS awareness and give advice on matters of personal finance.

 

New HR information system

 

Over the course of the last year BSi Steel has invested in developing, testing and installing a new HR Information System – VIP Genesis.  This new system will automate and standardise HR reporting and at the same time give line managers direct access to staff information in order to make quick, empowered decisions with regard to their Human Capital.

 

BSi Steel has had a challenging 2009 year with many peaks and troughs, but one thing that has remained constant throughout this last year and will remain unchanged as we look forward into the coming year is that our people make BSi Steel what it is and what we invest into our people is the level of success we can expect to see from our results.

 

A very simple concept, but then again one of our main Behaviour Code elements at BSi Steel is to KEEP IT SIMPLE!

 

 

Chantal Lombaard

GROUP HR EXECUTIVE