Born to develop
Sasol executive vice president for HR Charlotte Mokoena explains the drivers of her leadership style.
“The challenge of an HR practitioner is to balance the needs of an organisation with the expectations of employees. Finding that balance is very key,” says Sasol Executive VP for HR Charlotte Mokoena.
Humility, a sense of fairness, a passion for seeing people develop and organisations succeed, open-mindedness, hunger for continuous learning, and stamina to stay the course. These are some of the traits that Charlotte Mokoena (53), the executive vice president for Human Resources and Corporate Affairs at Sasol, believes one should have to be an upstanding, inspiring manager and a senior executive.
Mokoena joined Sasol in February 2017. In her role, she has global responsibility for Sasol's Human Resources and Corporate Affairs functions. The international integrated chemicals and energy company recruited her from Tongaat Hulett, an agricultural and agri-processing business, where she spent three and a half years as HR executive.
Under her stewardship, one of the key initiatives Sasol has undertaken is enhancing the company's employee value proposition, as well as driving a companywide culture transformation programme.
The enhanced employee value proposition, dubbed Sasol Cares, kicked-off with employees participating in a “quality of life” survey to further Sasol's understanding of its South African workforce's living standards and financial circumstances. More than 7,000 responses were received, providing invaluable data that was used to design the programme.
“The survey enabled Sasol to develop locally relevant, data-driven people management solutions,” Mokoena says, “to meaningfully enhance the value Sasol offers our employees.”
In South Africa, she says, the survey revealed immediate challenges its workforce faced in respect of their financial well-being and quality of life related to debt levels, the cost of education and housing, ability to save and invest, and other obligations. In response, the company launched the Sasol Cares programme comprising several options to help alleviate some of the socio-economic pressures confronting its employees.
These options include monetary contributions to help deal with either out-of-pocket medical expenses, schools fees or servicing formal debt, among others. While only a few months in operation, Mokoena is proud that Sasol Cares has already contributed to schools fees for 14,000 dependents of employees and distributed school bags and stationery packs across 28 towns and cities.
Making an impact on lives
Corporate Affairs, the other half of Mokoena's portfolio, comprises stakeholder relations, communications, brand and reputation management, and social investment. Through the company's social programmes, ensuring Sasol genuinely and positively impacts the lives of its fenceline communities is a particular focus and deep passion of Mokoena's. She views social investment as more than just the distribution of funds and resources. “CSI is not a gift, it is a catalyst for change that drives our contribution to inclusive growth and development for beneficiaries,” she explains.
“CSI is not a gift, it is a catalyst for change.”
She notes that the strategic intent of Sasol's Corporate Affairs function rests on three pillars: the first is to make a measurable socio-economic impact as a force for good. The next is reputation, to understand stakeholder expectations and respond effectively, and the third is advocacy, to proactively influence the internal and external environment to drive mutually beneficial outcomes.
Owing to Sasol's deep historical ties to the towns of Sasolburg and Secunda in South Africa, the company plays an active role in creating an environment where communities, which include its
employees, can flourish, by enhancing the capacity of local government to effectively deliver services.
“Our footprint spans both developed and emerging economies, so we understand that our stakeholders are diverse and localised solutions, supported by data, are important to remain relevant and have the required impact,” says Mokoena.
She explains that communities expect Sasol to contribute towards improving their quality of life, by enabling them to become economically active participants in society.
“To realise their ambitions, we direct a substantial portion of our social investment funding towards education, skills and entrepreneurial development programmes. This is in addition to infrastructure programmes we support to ensure our local municipalities have stable, thriving communities.”
Sasol, for example, has played a direct role in assisting the Govan Mbeki Municipality in Mpumalanga with infrastructure upgrade projects targeting sewer systems, wastewater treatment, water reticulation and clearing of stormwater channels.
Where it all started
Mokoena was born in 1965 in Pimville, Soweto as the eldest of four girls in what she describes as a “regular upbringing at that time in South Africa”. Following the 1976 Soweto uprising, she and her sisters relocated to Rustenburg to stay with their