Human capital: Investment and development

Our employees are essential to business performance and competitive strength and, ultimately, the sustainability of our business. Our human resources strategy is to attract and retain talented people who enhance the pools of leadership and skills for long-term growth, and strengthen the group’s reputation as a good corporate citizen.

We seek to add value to the lives of all our people by providing an engaging environment for professional growth, competitive remuneration, training support for further qualifications and an inclusive and enabling culture. We work to unlock and nurture each employee’s highest potential, to reward performance and address non-performance. We foster a culture of respect with zero tolerance for discriminatory behaviour.

Hyprop fully complies with employment laws and practices and is committed to protecting human rights. Our code of ethics and the disciplinary code are communicated to all employees.

Performance targets, training and skills development are reviewed annually and aligned with the group’s strategy.

We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment that provides equal opportunities for all employees. Our employment equity policy codifies our commitment and stipulates the promotion of equal opportunity, elimination of unfair discrimination and implementation of measures to redress disadvantages experienced by designated groups.

Workforce breakdown

Total number of employees	2015		2014
Hyprop Investments Limited – permanent employees	199*		206
Hyprop Investments Limited – contract and casual employees (mainly information kiosk and event staff)	43		81
Percentage of employees who are “permanent” (%)	82		72
Percentage of employees who belong to a trade union (%)	0		0
Total Hyprop workforce	242		287
Word4Word – employees at Hyprop sites	39		22
Word4Word – head office and regional staff	14		13
Word4Word – staff outsourced to external business	68		37
Word4Word – total employees	121		72

*	Sale of Stoneridge and transfer of staff to the new owner, contributed to the decline in permanent staff

Employment equity and transformation

We are committed to promoting equal opportunity and fair treatment by eliminating discrimination and implementing measures to redress disadvantages experienced by designated groups and to ensure their equitable representation in all occupational categories.

Hyprop’s five-year employment equity plan was approved by the Department of Labour in 2013. An annual progress report is submitted in January each year. Hyprop complies with the Employment Equity Act and is committed to ongoing organisational transformation to diversify its workforce.

Our challenge is that the current workforce is not growing, and due to extremely low staff turnover, very few vacancies become available.

Employment details

								2015
		Male					Female				Foreign nationals			Total			Total
Occupational levels (%)	A	C	I	W		A	C	I	W		Male	Female				A	C	I	W
Top management	0,49	0,00	0,00	2,94		0,00	0,00	0,00	0,49		0,49	0,00		4,41		0,49	0,00	0,00	3,92
Senior management	0,49	0,00	0,49	2,94		0,00	0,00	0,00	6,37		0,00	0,00		10,29		0,49	0,00	0,49	9,31
Professionally qualified and experienced specialists and mid-management	2,94	0,00	1,47	6,86		0,98	0,00	0,98	6,86		0,00	0,00		20,10		3,92	0,00	2,45	13,73
Skilled technical and academically qualified workers, junior management, supervisors, foremen, and superintendents	1,96	2,45	0,49	3,92		5,39	3,92	2,94	9,31		0,00	0,49		30,88		7,35	6,37	3,43	13,73
Semi-skilled and discretionary decision making	2,94	1,96	0,98	0,49		4,41	2,45	0,49	1,96		0,98	0,00		16,67		7,35	4,41	1,47	3,43
Unskilled and defined decision making	10,78	2,94	0,00	0,49		2,45	0,98	0,00	0,00		0,00	0,00		17,65		13,24	3,92	0,00	0,49
Total permanent	19,61	7,35	3,43	17,65		13,24	7,35	4,41	25,00		1,47	0,49		100,00		32,84	14,71	7,84	44,61

A – African
C – Coloured
I – Indian
W – White

Percentage of total employees by designated groups	2015		2014
African	32,8		31,7
Coloured	14,7		14,8
Indian	7,8		7,0
Percentage of total staff from designated groups	55,4		53,5
White	44,6		46,5

Percentage of total employees by designated groups

Employee earnings ratio

Performance per employee by net operating income and distributable income, as a measure of productivity, is benchmarked annually against peers

Number of employees				Net operating income per employee			Distributable income per employee
2015	2014	2013	*	2015 R000	2014 R000	2013* R000	2015 R000	2014 R000	2013* R000
199	206	209		7 029 21% increase year-on-year	5 824	2 525	6 631 19% increase year-on-year	5 576	2 474

* Six-month period

Employee retention

Motivated by a stimulating working environment, competitive remuneration and fair reward, the commitment of our people to the group is reflected in high retention, especially at senior level. While low staff turnover ensures continuity and aligns group performance with our long-term strategic objectives, we remain mindful of the value of fresh insight and aim for an appropriate balance between internal and external appointments.

Employee retention 2015	Hyprop %	Average service (years)
Top management	100	12
Senior management	91	8
Middle management	92	9
Administration	91	9
Maintenance	98	9
Total	93	9

Movement

	(number of employees)
	2015	2014
Internal placements	7	4
New appointments	16	17
Dismissals	1	2
Resignations	13	8
Section 197 transfers	11	0
Employee turnover (%)	7	5

The number of people who departed, relative to the total number of employees at year-end.

New appointments

	2015	2014
Black	44	63
Coloured	37	13
Indian	7	6
White	12	18

Skills development and training

Our training and development programme takes account of our own requirements, skills shortages in the property industry and transformation imperatives.

Training needs are identified during the employee review process. In addition, the group-wide skills base is objectively assessed to identify focal areas for training in the year ahead.

The objectives of our training strategy include:

	Enhancing knowledge and the skills base
	Enabling employees to contribute to our business and growth
	Encouraging further education to enhance competence in current positions and increase eligibility for promotion
	Supporting employment equity initiatives.

One of our primary objectives is to establish a succession plan by developing junior managers for middle management roles.

During the year, a combination of internal and outsourced training sessions covered key areas:

Training spend*

	2015 R		2014 R
Leadership	690 634		312 474
Business operations	536 753		292 782
Graduate programme	85 250		87 652
Green building leasing principles	9 789		60 101
Leasing and administration	63 000		31 500
Health and safety	6 406		137 786
HIV/Aids training and information	52 349		53 153
Total	1 444 181		975 448

* The actual training spend for the year exceeded the budget by 3%

Value of training

			2015						2014
	Cost of training R	Training cost as a %	Number of people trained	Number of training interventions	Average spend per training intervention R		Cost of training R	Training cost as a %	Number of people trained	Number of training interventions	Average spend per training intervention R
Black	152 392	10	83	249	612		212 539	22	60	160	1 328
Coloured	37 363	3	40	120	311		118 131	12	37	100	1 181
Indian	223 063	15	16	51	4 374		64 421	7	10	32	2 013
White	1 022 378	71	103	309	3 309		580 357	59	92	320	1 814
Non-South African	8 985	1	3	11	817			0
Total	1 444 181	100	245	740	1 952		975 448	100	199	612	1 594
Male	657 007	45	114	336	1 955		439 592	45	93	254	1 731
Female	787 174	55	131	404	1 948		535 856	55	106	358	1 497
Total	1 444 181	100	245	740	1 952		975 448	100	199	612	1 594

Performance management

Performance reviews of individuals are conducted annually, with biannual performance reviews against targets set out below:

Performance against these targets carries a 90% weighting at executive and senior management level. Employees are rewarded on company targets, as well as an individual performance assessments, which are conducted annually with employees on the self-service system, after performance discussions.

Individual performance evaluations cover:

	Professional conduct
	Business processes
	Customer service
	Business operations
	Employee management
	Implementation of company strategy

Bonuses are approved by the remuneration and nomination committee and are payable in December. More detail on our remuneration policy appears in our Remunertaion report.

Group key performance deliverables (KPDs) Outcome	June 2015 %		June 2014 %
Western Cape region	110,7		106,23
Pretoria region	115,2		106,2
Johannesburg region	112,13		114,62
Group Performance against KPDs	122,0		115,9

Scoring methodology
Underperformed	Achieved 70% of target
Below expectations	Achieved 80% of target
Solid performance	Achieved 100% of target
Above expectations	Achieved 115% of target
Stretch	Achieved stretch targets (130% of target)

Additional human capital measures
Total working days	55 352
Total number of person days lost due to absenteeism (sick, family responsibility and maternity leave)	1 321
Percentage of total person days lost due to absenteeism – calculated or reported (%)	2
Total number of person days lost due to industrial action (ie strike action)	0
Percentage of total person days lost due to industrial action – calculated or reported	0

Employee relations

The national human resources manager is responsible for employee relations. A disciplinary and grievance policy governs these employee relations and is available on the company intranet, in hard copy at each management office, and on the website.

There were four disciplinary cases during the year, resulting in one dismissal. One grievance was reported.

Employee benefits

To entrench Hyprop as a preferred employer, we offer a range of employee benefits that exceed legislated minimum standards, including:

	Membership of a defined contribution pension fund with death, disability and funeral benefits
	Four months’ partially paid maternity leave (paid at 55% of cost to company)
	Annual leave rises to 20 days after five years with the group
	Employees qualify for six days’ paid study leave for approved qualifications.

Non-discrimination

Discrimination is not tolerated. Any reported instances are immediately and appropriately dealt with under our code of ethics and conduct and related disciplinary procedures. Relevant policies are regularly reviewed, updated and distributed to employees.

No incidents of discrimination were reported during the year.

Labour relations

Hyprop has no unionised employees and there was no impact on business from industrial or labour unrest during the year.

Hyde Park Corner, Johannesburg

Health and safety

Our policy is to create a safe and healthy working environment, with procedures to manage occupational incidents and compensation claims in line with legislation. In brief, we aim to:

	Provide a health and safety programme that is effective, of high standard, and continuously reviewed and improved
	Comply with relevant statutory provisions for health, safety and environmental matters that affect employees, customers, contractors and the public
	Ensure all employees are properly informed of their responsibilities for health, safety and environmental matters and discharge these effectively
	Encourage employees to participate in preventing accidents and preserving health
	Provide the resources and training to achieve these objectives.

Each shopping centre is responsible for executing this policy on site through its operations manager. At group level, the national facilities manager is responsible for bi-annual audit reports, drawing on reports from each centre.

All centres conduct regular health and safety training for employees, while third-party suppliers perform annual health and safety audits.

All construction projects have health and safety consultants who represent Hyprop and monitor activities on site regularly. On large and complex projects such as Rosebank Mall, the contractor has its own health and safety officer managing contractor teams and subcontractors.

There were no serious casualties or injuries during the year at any of our properties or projects.

HIV/Aids
Number of employees and contractors who were able to access and receive voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) for HIV/Aids	247
Number of employees and contractors tested for HIV/Aids	200
HIV/Aids prevalence rate among employees (%)	5

HIV/Aids remains an issue in South Africa that could affect the wellbeing of our employees, leading to emotional distress, absenteeism, employee turnover and lower productivity. As a formal risk assessment found the impact of HIV/Aids on the group to be negligible, Hyprop does not have targets for addressing its direct impact, nor does it have strategies for addressing indirect business risks (eg effect on customer base/supply chain).

Our formal HIV/Aids policy, reviewed annually, provides guidelines on creating a non-discriminatory workplace, dealing with HIV testing, confidentiality and disclosure, providing equitable employee benefits, dealing with dismissal and managing grievance procedures. It also ensures affected employees’ rights to confidentiality.

Where employees willingly disclose their status, Hyprop encourages openness, acceptance and support.

Every year, HIV/Aids awareness days are held at each centre office by professional nurses, with an external healthcare service provider conducting voluntary counselling and testing programmes. This offers the opportunity to test for HIV, cholesterol and stress levels.