IRCennergi
Exxaro's human capital is the knowledge, skills, know-how, safety,
health and wellbeing of the people who manage our business and
perform operational activities. This includes our employees and
contractors.
Our human capital is central to the success of our
business.
Investing in, upskilling and offering an attractive value proposition increases our human capital, while safeguarding our people's safety, health and wellbeing, preserves value and prevents its erosion. Our people and partners have the skills, capabilities, mindset and passion to achieve our purpose.
We deliver value through our people strategy, which is a catalyst for the Sustainable Growth and Impact strategic objectives. The six pillars of our people strategy are underpinned by our commitment to a people-fit organisation, developing capabilities and enabling human resources through our purpose.
We also deliver value by:
Empowering our people to create impact is critical in building momentum and resilience as we progress against delivering on our strategy and business model.
| Material theme | Matter | Supporting our strategy | Our broader impact |
 Helping ourpeople thrive |
|
|
 |
20 665 employees (2022: 19 242)
6 797 (33%) permanent employees (2022: 6 745, 35%)
13 868 (67%) contractors* (2022: 12 497, 64.9%)
* Contractor total does not include Cennergi sub-contractors.
178 employees
(2022: 103)
35 (20%)
permanent employees (2022: 20%)
143 (80%) contractors
(2022: 80%)
Looking ahead
Our future focus is on building a stronger, more inclusive workforce by filling critical vacancies, empowering employees to excel through the performance achievement framework and advancing DEI at Exxaro, with particular emphasis on the inclusion of people with disabilities. We will continue to protect the safety, health and wellbeing of our employees by pursuing zero harm, reducing safety‑related incidents and preventing and managing health risks at our operations.
Read building momentum with people (ESG report) for details about our approach and performance.
The safety of our people is a moral imperative that underpins the sustainability and efficiency of our operations. We strive to achieve our ultimate safety goal of zero harm by proactively managing safety risks through strict and consistent implementation of Exxaro's five safety focus areas.
Safety is critical to achieving the objectives of our Sustainable Growth and Impact strategy. Supported by the five key safety focus areas, our safety strategy steers us in our approach to managing safety-related risks and preventing incidents.
Demonstrating our ongoing commitment to our employees' safety by hosting the leadership safety day and sustainability summit, led by our CEO
The sustainability summit allows the executive committee:
The 2023 sustainability summit was hosted at Grootegeluk on 20 April 2023.
Providing regular communication on our safety performance, which includes incidents, learnings from incidents and actions to be taken to mitigate emerging risks. Messages are shared on virtual platforms across the group
Adhering to non-negotiable safety rules that promote life-saving behaviours
Capacitating employees and raising their awareness
In 2023, this included:
Embedding risk management into our daily activities and processes to make informed decisions and plan proactively
We identify, assess and implement effective controls to address risks and opportunities with the aim of preventing and mitigating incidents and improving our safety performance. We have a high-risk task verification process at our BUs, led by site management, to verify the effectiveness of controls for highrisk activities and non-routine work.
Cennergi's windfarms comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), 1993 (Act 85 of 1993) and the LSP with the OHSA and MHSA. Cennergi's head of operations reports safety incident investigation findings to the windfarms and company boards. Site managers and health and safety representatives conduct investigations following reports from contractors. LTIs and medical treatment cases are immediately reported to the group health and safety department.
Cennergi
No
fatalities
(2022: none)
No
HPIs
(2022: none)
No
LTIs
(2022: none)
0.07 LTIFR
(2022: 0.05)
Our LTIFR increased due to an increase in hand and finger injuries associated with lifting and material handling, as well as slip and fall incidents that occurred at our BUs. We remain committed to reducing our LTIFR and will continue to intensify our daily efforts to achieve zero harm.
The leading causes of LTI and HPI incidents included:
We have revised our incident management process to enhance incident investigations, subsequent corrective actions and learnings, which we believe will reduce our LTIs going forward. This also contributed to the decrease in HPIs compared to last year.
We had four section 54(a) (mining activity stopped) (2022: seven) stoppages.
No reportable health and safety incidents were submitted to the Department of Employment and Labour (2022: none). In quarterly external compliance audits by Libryo, Tsitsikamma and Amakhala Emoyeni achieved average scores of 95.6% (2022: 96.4%) and 96.8% (2022: 96%) respectively.
We implemented the following initiatives to demonstrate our commitment to achieving zero harm and preventing safety incidents following the tragic fatality experienced at Belfast mine in 2022:
Group
One year fatality-free
15 August 2023
Grootegeluk
11 years fatality-free
Leeuwpan
33 years fatality-free
Matla
Six years fatality-free
Belfast
One year fatality-free
Mines in closure
13 years fatality-free
FerroAlloys
26 years fatality-free
Cennergi
Seven years fatality-free
We were honoured to be recognised at the 2023 COALSAFE Awards, where we received several awards in the safety category for fatalityfree production shifts at various operations, an LTIFR of 0.00 at Leeuwpan and an outstanding award for most improved dust milestone at Grootegeluk.
Looking ahead
Maturing our safety culture through training and development will be a continued focus as we prioritise zero harm and protect the sustainability of our business. Alongside this, we plan to:
We recognise that a physically and psychologically safe workplace is inextricably linked to successfully delivering on our strategy. Integrated health and wellness builds resilient employees and host communities by enhancing quality of life, boosting morale, improving productivity and ensuring safety.
Preventive, holistic and employee-driven health and wellness underpins our approach. Our integrated health and wellness strategy, which is aligned with legislated basic conditions of employment, enables us to create an empowering environment for our employees. We offer an employee wellness programme, which addresses employees’ financial, emotional, social, and mental, occupational, environmental, spiritual and physical challenges, and their impacts. We also host complementary awareness campaigns, testing drives and initiatives.
Our integrated health and wellness strategy is supported by our culture themes (ESG report)
| Employee wellness programme |
8.9%
utilisation (2022: 12.68%) |
Demographics
|
| 6.4%
Proactive Health Solutions benchmark |
||
| Non-occupational diseases |
93 new
diabetes cases (2022: 24) |
|
| 334
hypertensive employees and contractors (2022: 92) |
||
|
Occupational diseases |
Occupational diseases remained at 23 (2022: 23) No cases of silicosis (2022: none) |
|
We measure our performance against mining industry targets set in 2014. 2023 was the last year we measured our performance against these milestone measurements, as new milestones will be communicated in 2024.
Cancer awareness campaigns and testing drives targeted at breast and testicular cancer
Wrapping trees with pink cloth to show support for those suffering from breast cancer
Providing mammograms and education on men and women's health via the pink truck
Participating in the parkrun for breast cancer
Initiatives per operation
Cennergi employees use the group's employee health and wellness programme and attend sessions arranged for Exxaro BUs. Cennergi held medical screening (including blood pressure, blood sugar and HIV screening) and financial wellness interventions to improve the health and wellness of its operations team in 2023.
Looking ahead
We will continue to actively manage health and wellness in the group with a specific focus on implementing continuous heat stress monitoring, advancing the electronic occupational health and hygiene management system and archive, and implementing health and wellness wearables at Belfast to track real-time employee vitals. We also plan to acquire additional specialised human resources.
We meaningfully engage with our employees to understand their material needs and concerns and maintain our employee value proposition as an employer of choice. Engaged employees are more productive, which enhances safety at our operations and supports the sustainability of our business.
Employee engagement is supported by the embedding of our values and culture, effective communication and a commitment to constant improvement. Our employee relations strategy enables us to manage and respond to employees' needs and expectations. DEI is central in our approach.
Grounded in our purpose, values, vision, culture and strategic objectives, our DEI strategy:
Our new persons with disabilities policy supports the objectives of the DEI strategy in ensuring persons with disabilities have equal access to employment, training, skills development opportunities and career pathing.
Cennergi's employment equity committee guides and monitors transformation and skills development and oversees implementation of the employment equity plan, which aligns with legislation and the Department of Employment and Labour Codes of Good Practice.
Strategic priorities
Employee turnover
Employment equity
Housing
Trade union representation
Workplace harassment
Eliminating discrimination and resolving grievances
Share ownership
Each GreenShare beneficiary received a R10 209.92 cash payment
Cennergi consistently meets job creation targets and did not incur contract termination points or penalties from the DMRE in 2023
Looking ahead
In advancing our DEI journey, we plan to launch a new DEI e-learning programme to provide a comprehensive training opportunity for employees. We will also focus on achieving the objectives set out in our performance achievement framework, namely:
We empower our employees by offering learning and skills development opportunities to ensure a healthy talent pipeline of core and critical skills. Our community-based skills development programmes, which are aimed at educating marginalised groups and youths, support our employment equity targets and ensure a feeder line of trained and skilled candidates.
Attracting, developing and retaining skilled people strengthens our ability to deliver on strategic objectives, ensure business continuity and preserve the value we create for our employees and communities. Talent management is a critical sustainability factor and part of our employee value proposition.
We achieve this through:
Cennergi prioritises internal recruitment of high-potential employees to retain talent and grow management expertise. Employees receive STIs based on individual and company performance. Cennergi invests 1% of its payroll in employee training and development. Line managers conduct performance appraisals twice a year to determine training and development needs.
Zero talent management-related grievances lodged in 2023 (2022: zero)
R193.5 million invested in job-related skills development (functional and technical training) (2022: R198 million)
R7.6 million invested in community development, such as portable skills training (2022: R8.2 million)
R126.6 million invested in bursaries, training professionals, internships, learnerships and skills programmes (2022: R101 million)
R22 million in support for Youth Employment Service (YES) partners to train and develop youth from our host communities (2022: R10 million)
126 employees (89% black people and 58% black women) in our 24-month mentoring programme (2022: 40)
R0.95 million invested in adult education and training (2022: R1.57 million)
Appointed 16 external Paterson D band (middle management) and 43 internal candidates (2022: 16 and 40)
Appointed three external black candidates and nine internal black candidates Paterson E band (senior management) candidates (2022: one and three respectively)
| People development training expenditure | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
| Total training (Rm) | 358 | 331 | 276 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total training (% of total payroll) | 6.22 | 6.0 | 5.8 |
| Training of black people (Rm) | 318 | 275 | 222 |
| Black people trained (% of total payroll) | 5.54 | 5.0 | 4.7 |
In accordance with its aim to further the objectives of diversity and inclusion in the energy sector, Cennergi recruited eight new employees in 2023, of whom 75% were female (six African women) and 25% were male (two African men).
We track our performance against the strategic objectives of the talent management strategy:
Line managers are no longer required to approve employment applications made by their team members, allowing employees to freely explore internal growth opportunities. This resulted in an increase in internal applications, with 1 598 applications in the Paterson DL band and higher in 2023 compared to 760 in 2022. We also reintroduced a revamped employee referral reward programme, which offers employees rewards for referring successfully appointed candidates.
* South Africans at local universities.
Looking ahead
Our focus is on enabling responsive, agile talent acquisition to fill critical vacancies and providing a marketplace for internal employment opportunities, supported by an online platform. We are also focusing on streamlining our internal policies to reduce the number of policies and improve policy management and employee access.
Legacy artisan trade qualifications expired at the end of 2023. This will require involvement in newly developed qualifications through the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations.
We believe that all people have inherent fundamental human rights regardless of their differences. We are therefore committed to respecting and protecting the human rights of all employees and stakeholders. We strive to be a responsible steward of natural assets and social capital to uplift host communities.
Recognising that our operations could cause adverse human rights impacts, we have a human rights policy (updated in 2022) which outlines our expectations of employees, suppliers, business partners and other parties directly linked to our operations, products and services. We also perform regular due diligence reviews to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for our response to human rights impacts.
We address key human rights issues in the following areas:
Cennergi ensures human rights considerations are adequately managed and addressed through human resources policies and a code of conduct and grievance procedure aligned with South African human rights legislation. Cennergi is also committed to the IFC's Performance Standard 2 on labour and working conditions, which requires companies to treat their workers fairly, provide safe and healthy working conditions, avoid using child or forced labour and identify related risks in their primary supply chain. Consistent with Exxaro, employees can report human rights violations to supervisors, line managers, the people and performance department or anonymously through Exxaro's fraud and ethics hotline.
Exxaro is trending positively against the five global trends listed in the Ethics & Compliance Initiative's Global Business Ethics Survey® 2023 report
196 employees participated in DEI courses (such as workplace harassment and diversity and inclusion) during the year
There were no human rights grievances lodged against Exxaro in 2023
191 fraud and ethics allegations were reported (164 to the fraud and ethics hotline) managed by internal audit (2022: 213)
23% resulted in disciplinary inquiries
Out of the 22 disciplinary hearings that were concluded, 19 ended with findings of guilt, while one resulted in a not-guilty verdict (2022: 41)
Two employees brought Exxaro before the Council of Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. In one instance, the Commissioner decided in favour of Exxaro, and in the other instance, the matter was resolved through a mutual agreement (2022: none)
We conducted an evaluation of Exxaro's business relationships with suppliers referenced in the state capture report and developed guidelines on how to deal with suppliers mentioned adversely in the media.
Looking ahead
We experienced delays in appointing a partner to conduct a due diligence review on our processes, however, due diligence is now underway with completion anticipated in the second quarter of 2024. Our focus will then be on addressing the gaps identified in the review and conducting training for employees. We also plan to roll out the ablution facilities project in 2024, which is currently in the planning phase.
Report Index