“Implats employs approximately 40 000 permanent employees and approximately 15 100 contractors, none of whom are selfemployed individuals. The organisation does not have seasonal employees

Attracting and retaining talent, and enhancing the productivity of our workforce, remains a significant challenge, not only for Implats, but for the mining industry as a whole, locally and globally. Factors contributing to the challenge of securing talent in our operations include the growing competition for skilled resources, the reduced supply of skilled and semi-skilled mining talent, generally low education levels in our semi-skilled talent pool, and the traditionally poor image of the mining industry as a potential employer.

Our strategic approach to people

Our approach to securing talent focuses on ensuring that our employees are motivated, have the ability and requisite skills to carry out their duties, and that they operate in a safe, fair and ethical work environment.

Our people strategy aims to support the overall corporate strategy by ensuring that we have the right people, at the right place doing the right things. We strive to achieve this, and maintain our competitive advantage, through our talent and skills development initiatives aimed at developing individuals and teams informed by our shared values founded on respect and care. Our longer-term vision is to progressively mechanise our mining processes, while continuing to improve levels of workforce proficiency, satisfaction and diversity.

Our strategic approach to people

We made progress this year in implementing our people strategy, with a focus on three key areas:

• Motivating our people: through appropriate remuneration, recognition and reward
• Developing people with potential: by investing in skills development, talent management and team mobilisation
• Developing a fair, ethical and sustainable organisation: with a focus on instilling a culture of respect and care, and investing in diversity and transformation.

Motivating our people

A key focus this year has been on ensuring more effective communication throughout the organisation of the benefits and opportunities associated with working at Implats. This year we reviewed and have been implementing our ‘employee value proposition’ (EVP). This encompasses our programmes and initiatives relating to employee housing, skills development, health and financial reward. Our EVP is communicated through posters, graphics displayed in the workplace and in public places such as shopping malls. The underlying message is: if you work for us, this is what you will enjoy.

In delivering on our employee value proposition, we have the following strategic focus areas:

• Recognising and rewarding performance with appropriate remuneration: Through our performance management programme we have committed to offering attractive remuneration and employment benefits, coupled with effective incentives linked to our safety and production efficiencies. We undertake regular benchmarks of pay and conditions to ensure that we remain competitive. As with the other companies in the sector, this year we have continued to be faced with lower levels of mining productivity, lower PGM prices and increased costs. This has unavoidably placed pressure on variable pay elements and employees’ disposable income, highlighting the need for us to find opportunities to increase productivity levels, while seeking to further enhance efficiencies.
• Providing career advancement opportunities: This year we concluded career paths for all disciplines. Succession planning is undertaken at semi-skilled and supervisory level positions, as well as at professionally qualified (D level) and senior management (E level). Discipline-specific talent management forums and area-specific talent identification forums identify, develop and assess talent at various levels within the organisation as a line management function with the support and assistance of the talent department. We review and assess our talent pools on a quarterly basis to ensure that identified talent is considered for promotion and developmental opportunities, and share the outcomes with management and unions at our transformation committees.
• Improving the physical working environment: We have continued to invest in further improving the physical working environment, including through enhanced illumination, better underground bathroom facilities, enhanced ventilation and noise reduction initiatives, and general housekeeping measures. Improving the working environment is a critical part of our drive for zero harm, and also contributes to higher levels of employee motivation, reduced employee error rates and absenteeism, and enhanced relationships between employees, supervisors and managers. Further details on some of these investments are provided in our review of employee safety here

Developing people with potential

Our training and skills development activities go beyond compliance to promote a people-focused culture, with relevant programmes aligned to Implats’ strategic imperatives and values aimed at instilling excellence in efficiency, productivity and safety.

Our skills development, talent management and team mobilisation activities focus on three main areas: optimising team output and productivity, developing our talent pipelines and maintaining an inflow of requisite skills. These are all critical enablers for us to increase intellectual capacity within the Group and to facilitate succession planning and advancement activities, thus reducing our reliance on the external market for these skills. Talent development also supports the attainment of our employment equity targets in our South African operations. We continue to improve the measurement (both quantitative and qualitative) of the outcomes of the training and development programmes being implemented.

We also invest in developing effective leadership skills and capacity, which is critical in promoting sound employer-employee communication and relations. Developing the right attributes to deal with people challenges remains a critical priority in the current labour environment. Our targeted leadership interventions focus on developing the technical ability of managers, as well as on ensuring that they have the necessary people leadership skills.

Skills development, talent management and team mobilisation/developing people with potential

	Optimising team output and productivity			Developing our talent pipeline			Maintaining an inflow of future requisite skills
	Objective: To ensure the development and retention of talent with the requisite skills, knowledge and experience, in an environment conducive to maintaining continuity and improving safety and productivity.			Objective: To minimise avoidable turnover, secure the best available talent in the market, and recognise, develop and reward talent within the organisation.			Objective: To improve education within our neighbouring communities, identifying and developing skills in local schools, as part of efforts to improve skills in our communities.
	Key initiatives Team mobilisation: developing respect among team members and ensuring that mine overseers and supervisors are equipped to effectively lead and mobilise their teams. Shaft optimisation: focusing on direct coaching/training in mining best practices. New technology: mitigating the human element risk from our activities and promote a safe culture through new technology implementation. Technical mining training: ensuring that line managers and supervisors are kept informed about evolving standards and regulations, and new technologies.			Key initiatives Mining academy: developing an in-house mining academy to provide best practice training interventions. This training is in line with the team mobilisation initiative. Engineering training: Implats training projects to develop artisan and engineering skills. Graduate development training: awarding mine manager and mine overseer certificates, in support of joining the Implats graduate training programme. Novice mining training: training people from the local community in mining skills. ABET: offers full and part-time classes to ensure career progression and functional literacy and numeracy.			Key initiatives School adoption programme: developing management and infrastructure at targeted schools. School support programme: mentoring educators, developing school sporting facilities, offering Impala bursaries to top achievers. Bursary programme: offering fully paid high school scholarships, and offering university bursaries to learners in mining related fields.