Empowering employees in a digital age
The people we work with are our ambassadors and our key biggest differentiator
The rise of technology and the gig economy (an environment in which temporary positions are common) have accustomed people to knowing their voices are heard. Our staff members are used to rating everything, from restaurants to transport or accommodation, so doesn’t it stand to reason they should also evaluate their employer and workplace?
As a Future of HR Hall of Fame award recipient, I have had the privilege of being part of transformation in the world of work, with its increased pace of change and the impact of new technology. The client and business landscapes have evolved and so too has the workforce and people agenda in how we lead, develop and nurture talent. These changes have also brought some benefits in that they enable flexible working conditions and diverse approaches to learning from various sources, greater efficiencies and enhanced performance.
As a leading insurance provider, Santam regularly conducts culture and engagement surveys, the results of which inform our employee value proposition and people practices. Although our culture and engagement index is consistently good (around 80%) we are never complacent. We know that in order to remain a Top Employer we need to keep enhancing and sustaining a forward-looking organisational ecosystem that enables our people to learn, grow and thrive.
To build and retain a strong pipeline of talent and potential successors, companies need to meet the global best people practice standards and champion diversity as a core business goal. Santam has been prioritising its people for 99 years (100 in 2018). We believe in delivering insurance “good and proper” — an ethos aligned with our values and extended to our employer brand. Here are some of the ways we empower our people in order for us to earn their partnership in delivering on our promise as a business:
The employee pulse
Employee engagement is critical for the success of our business and the engagement surveys, which provide us deep insights across various dimensions of our culture and people practices. The results are shared with all employees across the organisation as well as in each business unit. Our leaders work closely with their teams to develop and implement clear, tailored improvement plans that align with Santam’s overarching strategy and our aspirations as a Top Employer. We tap on the retention index and employee engagement index of each business unit to proactively enhance our retention and talent management strategies. Our line managers take their role of people management seriously, while the HR team proactively partners with them to ensure that they have the capability, tools and strategies to excel in this critical role.
Empowering people to progress
For me, talent development is one of the most exciting parts of people management. There’s nothing more fulfilling than watching a young professional go through our various development programs and emerge on the other side brimming with confidence, fresh ideas and the ability to contribute to the Santam business, irrespective of their level. For an integrated talent management strategy to work, it needs to align with the business strategy and enable us to develop deep pipeline of critical skills and potential successors. For Santam, this is about deliberate and focused investment in our people to help them thrive in their roles. Often these development areas are informed by our strategy and the dynamics in the business environment; for example, the dominance of tech and innovation has catalysed the demand for leaders with the ability to spearhead and manage change across the business.
At Santam, we believe that the bulk of the learning happens in the work environment, so we offer numerous programmes that have been developed internally, in partnership with our managers, to accelerate development.
Leadership development
Santam also encourages non-linear career growth, often facilitating lateral movements for staff across business units or into a different scope entirely. This helps to create challenging growth and development opportunities — and that’s the key. Leaders participate in rigorous action learning initiatives that involve solving real business challenges aligned to the company strategy, as they go through the various development programmes at junior, middle and senior management levels.
Cultural sensitivity is vital when working with colleagues and business partners across Africa and the world. Santam’s footprint extends across 31 countries including Francophone Africa, Angola, Morocco and Lebanon.
Developing Future Leaders
Our Young Professional Framework is very much informed by the changing nature of work as well as the generational diversity of our staff profile — particularly the need for collaboration, effective communication and flexible working conditions. Young people need to be able to engage with their colleagues, especially in a multi-generational workplace like Santam. Our young professionals framework is one of those initiatives that we implemented to facilitate knowledge sharing, networking and collaboration among our young talent. Cross-pollination can only occur if colleagues recognise each other as valuable resources to be tapped into. We are in the process of implementing an integrated, cloud-based talent management solution to further enhance our employee experience and ensure that our people are highly engaged.
Championing transformation and diversity
Our three-fold transformation agenda is informed by our business strategy and sense of purpose rather than the desire for compliance. The strategy prioritises transformation across the workforce, workplace and marketplace. An increasingly diverse marketplace calls for a diverse workforce, in the same way that a diverse workforce enables us to understand and service a diverse marketplace. All employees are partners and ambassadors in our transformation journey — it cannot be limited to leadership and HR. Our people contribute immensely to us creating and sustaining an inclusive environment where everyone is valued and welcomed.
Santam’s footprint extends across 31 countries so we include understanding, leading and managing diversity in our leadership development, which helps to foster strong cultural intelligence and insight, and an adaptable leadership style that functions in different environments.
Top employer status: proof of our investment in people
Being certified a Top Employer gives us a clear indication that we’re on the right track in terms of the way we invest in our work environment and our people. We see this as confirmation that the Santam work environment and people practices that are conducive to helping people to learn, grow and perform at their best. We will continue to challenge ourselves and obtain feedback from our staff, in our endeavour to be a great place to work. They are our ambassadors and our key biggest differentiator, so their experience and feedback matters the most.