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We are committed to the empowerment of previously disadvantaged groups in South Africa through:
- Our shareholder structure
- Our Staff Incentive Scheme
- Promoting equal opportunity and diversity in the workplace
- Skills development training in the workplace
- Our procurement policy, focusing increasingly on broad based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) vendors
- Our Transformation Committee, represented at board level
- Our Property Point enterprise development initiative
Rated the leading empowerment company in the property sector for the third year running, by the Financial Mail, our 60,7% BEE score and 85.5% in terms of the DTI Codes and Property Sector Charter Codes respectively, benchmarks best practice in the sector.
Our "AAA" empowerment rating and "Level 2 contributor" classification are based on our consistent commitment to the seven pillars of the Property Sector Transformation Charter scorecard: ownership, control, employment equity, preferential procurement, skills development, social responsibility and enterprise development. We scored most highly for ownership and preferential procurement, and achieved 100% for enterprise development.
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Growthpoint's overall BEE linked unit holding, as at 30 June 2009, excluding mandated holdings, stood at 140,900,120 linked units or 28.47% of linked units in issue (31March 2009: 140,787,710 linked units or 28.35%). The BEE ownership as shown incorporates both voting rights and economic interests, is based on the exclusion methodology and includes black participants in our Staff Incentive Scheme. | | |
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In fostering a philosophy of ownership in Growthpoint, each employee is able to participate in the Staff Incentive Scheme. As part of the management internalisation process, which began in 2007 (up to 2007, Growthpoint was managed externally by Investec), all employees were eligible to participate in the scheme and were awarded options (First Award) over linked units. Ownership vests in equal tranches over four years, with the first vesting taking place in September 2008. In total 8,5 million linked units were acquired for the staff share scheme trust and the total value of those linked units was over R90 million.
All new employees who join Growthpoint are eligible for the Staff Incentive Scheme on completion of six months' service. Ownership of scheme options awarded since the First Award vest over five years, with none of the units vesting in the first anniversary of allotment but in equal tranches starting from the second to the fifth anniversary of allocation.
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Our objective is not only to ensure compliance with the Employment Equity Act but also to integrate the principles into our business practices, to encourage a productive sustainable work environment. In the process, we will be guided by the Property Charter.
During the year, we started the journey towards this objective by:
- Completing an education and awareness process for all staff
- Constituting the statutory representative body for staff. The statutory report for a new designated employer was submitted to the Department of Labour in December 2008. Growthpoint also began educating the representative staff forum, to ensure they are aware of their duties and empowered to make this a living participative process
- Setting numeric objectives for the year ahead. From a demographics point of view, the priority is to ensure greater gender representivity at senior levels and racial representivity of around 50% by 2010
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Our procurement policy is linked to broad based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) and is stated in our procurement philosophy: “In pursuit of sustainable profits, we seek to be a positive influence in all our business activities, in each of the societies in which we operate. We do this by empowering communities through entrepreneurship, mentorship and education, leveraging the value in our diversity, and addressing climate change and the use of natural resources.”
We use preferential procurement to improve the quality standards of empowerment companies and encourage sustainable BBBEE in the listed property sector. To achieve this, we focus on helping:
- Existing vendors to achieve the ratings required for sustainable economic development
- Non-compliant vendors to become compliant so as to facilitate higher levels of preferential procurement for both Growthpoint and the vendors
In support of these objectives, we have implemented the following:
- Re-evaluated our number of vendors through a tender process and use the size of our portfolio to obtain bulk discounts
- Promote the development of small, medium and micro enterprises
- Use established empowerment platforms to encourage transformation in, and the skills development of, existing vendors
- Categorise vendors according to empowerment credentials, to monitor percentage spend
- Promote enterprise development and mentorship programmes to assist entrepreneurs through The Property Point (see "Enterprise development - The Property Point" below)
- Ensure that all certification of vendors' BBBEE status is verified by an independent vetting company. Our preferential procurement spend on BEE companies is monitored on a monthly basis, to allow for a more proactive approach to meeting company targets
- In selecting new vendors, give preference to BBBEE vendors which meet all our procurement policy requirements
In the 12 months to end June 2009, Growthpoint increased its preferential procurement spend with BBBEE companies by 59.46% in accordance with the DTI Codes of Good Practice. The objective is to maintain this level. | | |
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Growthpoint initiated and continues to manage and run Property Point, an enterprise development programme that assists small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) operating in the listed property sector in South Africa.
Property Point aims to prepare SMMEs serving the sector for a highly competitive marketplace by providing skills training and personal development. Ultimately, the objective is to help develop the SMMEs into fully independent companies, and break down the barriers between the “first” and “second” economies by facilitating information sharing.
In supporting Property Point, we not only fund its operation but also provide procurement opportunities and mentoring for participants.
Property Point is fully operational in Gauteng, and the objective is to roll it out nationally. Candidates are selected from across the spectrum of property services.
To date, achievements of Property Point include:
- More than 750 SMMEs attending training interventions hosted by Property Point. Growthpoint hosted 41 interventions covering topics ranging from industry and business compliance through to business systems and personal development training
- Initiating 62 business linkages for SMMEs with Growthpoint, to the value of over R8 million to date, creating 157 jobs
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In 2008/09, following a review of our training strategy, we embarked on "targeted" training, to align our training investment with areas we felt needed special attention in terms of client retention (e.g. client retention strategy and negotiations skills training).
Over this period, we invested R2.1 million in training for our employees (223 female and 218 male employees.) Of this amount, R899 505 was spent on SETA accredited training. Of the total training expenditure, R805 885 was spent on black employees and R1.3 million on white employees.
The percentage spend on the different race and gender groups is in line with and proportional to their representation within Growthpoint. In addition, further training is under way and these figures are set to increase significantly.
Growthpoint is also in the process of establishing internships and employee learnerships through the Services Seta. At present, 90% of our black employees have been through some form of skills development.
With the increased emphasis on training and upskilling of staff, we have committed a senior, experienced member of staff to drive and manage the Learning and Development initiative on a full-time basis.
We are also funding a bursary for a black female student at the University of Cape Town. | | |
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