Talent Development
Talent development principles
Skills development is one of the key components of the group’s process of talent management, and remains a critical function in view of the prevailing shortage of skills in South Africa and the intense competition around attracting and retaining talented employees. Our performance management philosophy underpins our talent development approach, with targets and objectives discussed and set for each employee in March of every year and progress reviewed six months later. Through this process developmental needs are identified and individual training plans put into place.
Training and development is largely centralised to ensure consistency and best practice, and is benchmarked locally and internationally. High value is placed on the competence of those undertaking the training, and consistent input and evaluation ensure high standards are achieved.
Talent development focuses on the scarce and critical skills areas of management and leadership development; merchant development (buyers, planners and designers); field manager and store manager development; and financial awareness.
Skills legislation
The group is registered with the Wholesale and Retail Seta (W&R Seta) as well as the Services Seta, and is represented on the Wholesale and Retail Seta Standards Generating Body and various other fora.
Management and leadership development
The group’s leadership strategy aims to develop capability and competence at every leadership level in the organisation. Our leadership development framework is embedded in a leadership pipeline model that governs career management and succession planning as well as targeted development interventions. This pipeline and its alignment to our competency model aim to ensure that leaders at various levels are measured, assessed and developed in accordance with an appropriate model of behaviour and competencies for their career progression.
An assessment centre approach, where each leadership level is assessed and measured against appropriate patterns of behaviour and competence, is currently under development. Progression to the next leadership level is based on mastery of these factors and leaders are given sufficient time to achieve proficiency.
Merchant development
Our merchant trainee development programme is a structured programme available to new and young talent in the group. Run over a period of 18 to 36 months, it combines technical and generic programmes to build the capacity of the trainee buyers and planners who are given the opportunity to spend time in various areas of the group’s businesses, gaining valuable hands-on experience and knowledge. The programme is supported by a coaching initiative by which each trainee receives training from a technical coach as well as a senior mentor, and they enjoy a high level of exposure to and interaction with senior management throughout this programme.
Our merchant academy for existing merchants offers various technical programmes designed to support the building of technical competencies, and the curriculum is based on an integrated approach, yet has flexibility for customisation across the divisions. It harnesses the existing talent within the group by using skilled staff members as in-house facilitators, so encouraging multi-skilling and the use of best practices by all merchants.
Our supply chain programme is a training and development programme designed to support the group’s supply chain initiative. It aims to give exposure to the generic principles of supply chain management; exposure to the technical aspects of new supply chain processes being put into place; and basic awareness training on the crucial communication required to support collaborative relationships internally and externally.
Field manager and store manager development
Our retail managers development programme is a tailored programme aimed at our high-potential senior black field managers, and focuses on the leadership competencies required to assist trainees to make a smooth transition to the next leadership level in the organisation. It combines generic leadership development, facilitated discussions on topical issues, exposure to black business leaders and technical development.
Our field academy is a structured programme available to all area managers, aimed at improving their competencies in the fields of technical issues, leadership, management and coaching.
A comprehensive store managers’ curriculum has been designed to enhance and develop the technical and management competencies of store managers, comprising formal face-to-face workshops as well as self-teach distance learning workbooks. The workbooks are based on the unit standards found in the curriculum of national certificate candidates, with operations qualifications at levels 2, 3 and 4. They have all been registered as skills programmes with the W&R SETA. The outputs in the sales associate and store manager performance review documents have each been linked to one or more of these training interventions, thus making it easier for line management to identify the appropriate developmental option to recommend when competence is not at the required level.
Developing manager’s programme
The developing manager’s programme caters for career progression opportunities for store staff members other than store managers, and candidates are identified on the basis of their potential (evaluated before they are accepted on the programme). An appropriately trained coach/mentor and registered assessors are allocated to each learner. The advantage to the business of the programme should be the availability of a pool of competent staff ready to fill managerial vacancies in any of the divisions throughout the group. Additions to the curriculum are the cell phone and cosmetic academies which will focus on the technical skills required for these specialised products.
Financial awareness
A money management intervention, in partnership with Old Mutual, has been introduced to raise awareness of basic money management tools. Finance for non-financial managers is based on the unit standards found in the National Certificate: Operations qualifications as level 2, 3 and 4. These programmes make up one of the generic training interventions offered.
Research and development function
A new research and development function has been integrated into the group Human Resources division which straddles the dual themes of organisational development and talent development and planning. This key role serves to ensure that these critical HR functions are kept abreast of industry trends and practices – both nationally and globally. Key aspects include ongoing benchmarking, surveys and dialogue with key personnel within the group and externally to source new products and services as well as adapting existing models. A major part of this function is innovation and constructive change in order to develop, engage and retain our staff in all facets of the business.