Covid-19 has precipitated significant changes in the way people work, and in the expectations employees have regarding their jobs and work environment. Technology has become a critical enabler of employee performance and experience, with hybrid work and flexible work practices becoming mainstream. The importance of employee wellbeing has increased as a key concern, with leaders requiring stronger emotional and relational capabilities. Global talent shortages have reached a new high, compounded by higher talent attrition within most organisations. This challenging context compels us to be innovative in how we shape a fit-for-purpose employee value proposition and execute differentiated capability-building across the organisation.

Approach

Our people strategy drives the execution of our business strategy, supporting Tiger Brands to win in the market. The strategy sets us on a path to rigorously develop and effectively mobilise our talent, so that our people and the business achieve a leading position in the industry. The three pillars of the strategy – Talent, Leadership, and Great place to work – shape our approach to attracting and sourcing diverse, talented people who have the core, future and leadership capabilities we need to accelerate innovation and create an agile culture that is highly focused on the consumer. In 2022, we continued to build a diverse talent pipeline, cultivate core capabilities, develop leaders that inspire winning performance, and create a great place to work for all our people.

	IGNITE OUR PEOPLE
	Talent			Leadership			Great place to work
	Build a diverse talent base and core capabilities to deliver our growth strategy			Develop leadership capability and capacity to inspire winning performance			Create a great place to work to energise a consumer-obsessed and agile team Tiger
	EXECUTION EXCELLENCE
	Embed a foundation of efficient standardised processes and technology to enable winning performance and business partnering
	OUR VALUES
	We treat each other with care and respect We deliver with passion and excellence Safety and quality are non-negotiable for us We embrace diversity and inclusivity We act with integrity and accountability in all we do

Over the last three years we have built a strong foundation for strengthening our key talent pools by identifying the core commercial and specialised technical capabilities needed to execute our strategic agenda and business priorities. This forms the basis of our talent mapping, sourcing, and development actions. We have maintained a strong focus on developing capabilities internally and promoting from within the company. For key positions, we assess talent to be sourced externally to ensure that capability gaps can be closed quickly. We review our internal talent and succession plans annually to identify individuals with potential to grow further in the organisation, and we drive deliberate execution of our development plans to ensure that internal talent is ready for growth opportunities when they arise.

We have also made significant progress in the delivery of our Rest of Africa talent and capability agenda. We have registered permanent entities in Nigeria and Kenya, resourced key vacancies in our Rest of Africa business, and undertaken coaching and mentoring as part of preparations for in-market placements.

In the last two years, our attrition rate, particularly at senior levels, increased and peaked at an average of 17%. The impact of higher attrition rates on Tiger Brands has been compounded by a skills shortage in technical areas that are critical to our business. The higher attrition rate, together with our acceleration of internal appointments over the last three years, has seen us depleting our talent pipeline in middle to senior leadership levels, and creating gaps in the readiness of planned succession candidates.

We have taken various actions to address these challenges, creating a Talent Acquisition Hub in 2022 to prioritise filling vacancies, closing talent gaps and building a stronger bench. Through these targeted actions, we have accelerated targeted resourcing and our talent-pipeline building efforts. We have undertaken targeted engagements across the business, implementing learning plans that address the critical competencies required to execute our strategy and drive business performance. Although our efforts have started to yield positive results, the sourcing of critical skills remains a challenge, and addressing this challenge of attrition is a top priority. To fill roles more quickly, we have widened our talent mapping and sourcing efforts beyond our immediate industry, particularly at senior levels.

Over the last three years, we have enhanced our ability to “grow our own timber” and improved our succession bench ratio from 0:1 to 2:1, with a goal to achieve a ratio of 3:1 in coming years. In the latter part of 2022, our average attrition rate declined from 17% to 13%, below the South African average of 16%. We filled 40% of our leadership vacancies through internal career moves and promotions.

Learning and development

Our foundational talent development programmes for each employee segment ensure the steady development of capabilities we need to drive performance now, and fill our talent pipelines for the future across the organisation. In 2022, we continued to execute targeted development programmes through our learning academies, focusing on Supply Chain, Marketing, Customer, Bakeries and R&D. We also shifted the focus of the academies toward developing future-fit capabilities that will enable our digitalisation journey. We have taken advantage of the opportunities presented by remote-working arrangements to embed the use of just-in-time digital learning to accelerate the integration of learning into day-to-day work across the organisation.

In 2022, we spent R96,9 million on learning and development across all sites and businesses. We had a total of 278 employed learners and 96 unemployed learners actively participating in accredited skills development interventions, such as learnerships, apprenticeships and internships. In addition, 34 people with disability (PWD) learnership candidates joined our organisation to further build our talent pipeline and address our diversity, inclusion and transformation objectives.

Our foundational talent development programmes

FUTURE TIGER		YOUNG TIGER		MID-CAREER TIGER		SEASONED TIGER
Bursaries Internships Unemployed learnerships Apprenticeships Workspace experience students Thusani Trust		Management trainee programme Learnerships Technical and functional core capability development		Internal career moves LIFT: Frontline leadership programme SOAR: Middle management leadership programme Technical and functional core capability development		Internal career moves CXO leadership transition lab International executive leadership development REIMAGINE: Senior leadership programme
		WINGS: High potential accelerated development GAME CHANGER: Leadership programme Coaching and mentoring

Diversity and inclusion

We aim to build diverse talent and continue to execute our diversity strategy to strengthen African, Coloured and Indian (ACI) representation in our workforce, champion gender equity in the workplace, and make progress with the inclusion of people with disabilities. We are making steady progress towards achieving our targets (see metrics and targets).

In 2022, 94% of our workforce was ACI, and on average 81% of internal leadership placements were filled by ACI employees. The representation of ACI employees at management level was 84% in junior management, 65% in middle management, 58% in senior management, and 60% at top management. Our management trainee intake was 100% ACI. Our full employment equity profile can be viewed in the Appendix.

Our gender equity agenda is addressed through targeted talent and leadership development programmes – women in customer, women in supply chain, and women in bakeries. The Tiger women’s network provides a forum for female employees to network, dialogue and access tailored mentorship, coaching and development opportunities. We have also integrated dialogues about unconscious bias into our leadership development programmes and culture transformation engagements.

In 2022, 31% of our workforce was female. The representation of female employees at management level was 37% in junior management, 41% in middle management, 42% in senior management, and 30% in top management. Our management trainee intake in the last year was 66% female. We made a total of 1 027 new hires in 2022 (including fixed-term contracts), and had a total of 643 terminations (excluding contracts expired) with an overall turnover rate of 6,8% (2021: 8,9%). The age structure of our workforce was 11% below 30 years, 67% between 30 to 50 years, and 22% above 50 years. Most new hires were Generation Y, between 26 and 45 years of age, with 94% of new hires ACI and 50% female. Female employees comprised 35% of terminations, and ACI employees 85,7%.

We consistently build leadership capabilities across the organisation to drive performance, support the wellbeing of employees and lead the transformation of our culture. We continue to leverage and improve our leadership assessment tools and development programmes, including mentoring and coaching approaches, to develop leaders that are inspirational, agile and future-fit.

Our flagship leadership development programmes, Game Changer and LIFT, remain effective at embedding core leadership competencies, and work well in combination with mentorship and coaching through our Leader-as-Coach programme. We measure the progress of our leaders’ using a 360° MultiRater feedback platform that captures feedback on their ability and behaviours directly from their teams, peers and line-leaders. Our targeted leadership rotations are designed to strengthen our leadership pipeline and stimulate innovation and a growth mindset across our leadership talent pool.

In 2022, we established an accelerated leadership development programme, WINGS, to fast-track the building of leadership succession pipelines and rotate internal talent faster. This programme is open for internal and external talent, and our first cohort of WINGS delegates are already placed in this first stretch assignment. Looking ahead, we will continue executing our future-fit leadership development programmes and rotations to strengthen our leadership pipeline.

OUR LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES

OUR LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES
LEADS PEOPLE		LEADS PERFORMANCE		LEADS SELF		LEADS INNOVATION		LEADS PARTNERSHIPS
Inspires winning performance Nurtures and grows talent		Shapes strategy Achieves results through others		Proactive Active listening Self-reflective Growth mindset		Consumer obsessed Market focused		Builds partnerships Builds teams

Culture

Transforming our culture and creating a great place to work remains a key focus for the organisation. The culture we aspire to has been clearly articulated – agile, innovative, collaborative and execution-focused – and our culture transformation roadmap guides us towards realising this vision. We have taken advantage of the opportunities presented by Covid-19 to further humanise our employment value proposition in ways that are starting to unlock new value through increased performance and employee engagement.

Our Voice of Tiger (VoT) employee experience and engagement survey is a key tool that informs the work of transforming our culture. Our last VoT survey was conducted in November 2021, and our actions this year were focused on addressing the key employee engagement opportunities identified. Employee participation in the survey remained at 73%, with the overall employee engagement score declining slightly from 70 to 66 in line with global trends. This indicates a generally positive work experience among employees, yet with definite room for improvement. We will conduct the next VoT survey in November 2022 to gauge our progress and inform further actions in 2023.

Employee wellbeing

The Covid-19 pandemic has fundamentally reshaped the employer-employee relationship at Tiger Brands, with acknowledgement and respect for the unique lives and experiences of different employees becoming critical to our success. We have further humanised the employee-employer relationship at Tiger Brands in ways that are starting to unlock value through increased performance, engagement and talent market attractiveness. We have embraced hybrid and flexible work arrangements to meet the need of employees for personalised work conditions and autonomy in choosing where and when they work. Our employee wellbeing programme, THRIVE, is playing a critical role in enabling our people and their families to get support and build the resilience needed to navigate work-life integration issues, and address physical, emotional and mental-health challenges.

Reward and recognition

Our reward strategy is designed to reward winning performance to motivate excellence in executing our strategy, and to enhance our ability to attract, develop and retain high-calibre talent. We review and refine our reward and recognition strategy annually to stimulate performance, align with market benchmarks, and meet the interests of our employees and shareholders. We reward performance fairly and responsibly, in accordance with the reward philosophy outlined in our remuneration policy, and in alignment with International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions and relevant national legislation. We conduct assessments on pay fairness, and annually ringfence and manage a separate budget to address identified pay disparities.

Our remuneration strategy is aligned with the key performance indicators (KPIs) used to measure and reward performance against our strategy. Our reward framework follows a “total reward” approach, consisting of guaranteed pay and variable pay, and a range of market-relevant benefits and professional growth opportunities that recognise individual and team performance. Our short-term incentive (STI) scorecard has recently been revised gradually to strike a better balance between a focus on financial and non-financial strategic aspects of performance. Remuneration incentives are indirectly linked to sustainability performance via weighted measures for achieving strategic objectives in efficiency, quality and safety see management.

Eligible employees received STI payments in 2021, and will receive further payments in 2022 based on the achievement of performance KPIs.

Our refreshed recognition platform, Tiger Stripes, has reinvigorated the practice of giving regular recognition for a job well done. These incremental votes of recognition, culminate in our annual Tiger Stripes awards ceremony.

More information on remuneration is reported in the IR, available at www.tigerbrands.com

Employee relations

We aim to build and maintain meaningful collaborative relationships with all our key stakeholders, including our representative trade unions and employees. Our employee relations partnership framework guides our approach, and we work continuously through direct engagements and site partnership forums to maintain a stable employee relations environment across all our sites. Our CEO and executive team are involved in employee relations engagements on strategic issues, including engagements with trade union partners. As a basic foundation, we align and comply with ILO conventions and all labour-related legislation relevant to the countries where we operate.

In 2022, we re-invigorated more regular engagements between site leaders, staff and union partners on matters of mutual interest. Our intention is for increased interaction to support relationship building, and thereby help us address challenges more proactively together before they become disruptive conflicts. There have been no reported instances of non-compliance with labour standards.

We successfully concluded 23 site negotiations out of 27 planned without industrial action. Regrettably, we experienced one protected strike at our Snack & Treats site due to a wage dispute. The strike commenced on 8 November 2021 and employees returned to work on 20 December 2021. The strike lasted 29 working days and one public holiday with a total of 279 079 manhours lost. Our efforts to stabilise employee relations at this site are starting to yield positive results, and we are leveraging the recent challenge as an opportunity to build a stronger relationship with our employees going forward.

We have started creating space for employees to propose big ideas, pilot solutions and get these executed at speed through an AGILE project delivery methodology that takes them to scale fast and delivers value for the business. This year we piloted Tiger Trolley – an online e-commerce platform that makes Tiger products available to staff at affordable prices. This idea came to life through an engagement between our CEO and young talent, as part of a series of executive team engagements with key talent that we started in response to our Voice of Tiger Employee Engagement Survey. Employees can opt to have their shopping deducted from their monthly salary, and have it delivered to their site or home within 48 hours. The platform helps employees save money on their grocery shopping in a tough economic environment, and this contributes significantly to our Employee Value Proposition. The success of Tiger Trolley highlights our ability to harness cross-functional collaboration towards sustainable business innovation. What is our order conversion? 39% have registered, 53% have ordered How many orders have we delivered? 768 orders to date <10 hours What is the value? R627 000 value of orders How much have we saved people? R400 000 savings made How satisfied are employees? 65 net promoter score