Implementation of the One Company – One Mindset initiative

First culture survey launched with an overwhelming 77% RESPONSE rate and 83% POSITIVE SENTIMENT, showing a high level of engagement

158 UNEMPLOYED youth participated in learnership programmes (2021: 129 unemployed youth)

2 992 employees completed the 2022 Voice of the Employee survey with an overall score of 85.3% – THE HIGHEST SCORE OVER THE LAST 10 YEARS

2 588 employees participated in online courses (2021: 3 816 employees)

R4.8 million invested towards developing DIFFERENTLY-ABLED PEOPLE (2021: R3.6 million invested)

Human capital

Our people philosophy

The core of our AfroCentric value proposition is our passion for people. Our human-centric practices and policies have consistently enabled our organisation to attract, develop and retain a skilled and talented workforce, facilitating a high-performance culture that supports the achievement of our strategic objectives. Founded on the core philosophy of transformation and empowerment, we strive to build a diverse workforce supported by an inclusive culture.

We strongly encourage all our employees and leaders to be grounded and take accountability for their actions. We take great pride in our AfroCentric values, which are central to who we are and how we show up every day. We work tirelessly to create an environment fully supportive of all employees – nurturing mental, emotional, physical and spiritual wellbeing.

Diversity and inclusion

Transformation remains a critical strategic enabler for AfroCentric to achieve its vision of creating sustainable healthcare, thus creating a solid basis to drive sustainability for all its stakeholders. In addition, transformation is viewed as an opportunity to enable business growth while positively contributing to the economy.

Based on 4 601 active permanent employees across entities, 71% are female and 29% are male.

The ethnic representation of these individuals is as follows:

• 50% African, 2 307 actual headcount
• 17% White, 776 actual headcount
• 22% Coloured, 1 021 actual headcount
• 8% Indian/Asian, 375 actual headcount
• 3% foreign nationals, 122 actual headcount

Age range (%)

Union Members (%)

Gender (%)

Staff movement

In the past year, AfroCentric has seen an increase in women directors and senior management, but progress has been slow, and more needs to be done to improve women's representation.

During the year, we recruited 591 permanent employees, of which 42 employees resigned within the first year across entities. Females accounted for 69% of those who resigned, and males for 31%. The ethnic representation of these individuals is as follows: 46.4% Africans, 14.2% Whites, 31.9% Coloured, 4.7% Indian and 2.7% foreign nationals. First year voluntary attrition rate is 7%.

During the year, 422 employees terminated their employment with the Group. Out of total terminations, females contributed 67% and males contributed 33% of the terminations:

Employee culture journey

Our culture journey has spanned three years; however, over the years, the culture of our business has consistently been one of our most vital success factors. Supported by committed leadership and grounded by a robust set of organisational values, we have sustained a workforce of engaged, productive and happy employees.

The AfroCentric Group has grown considerably. Some of these changes have included taking on large schemes, merging schemes, partnering with new subsidiaries and diversifying our offering to distribution services, among other changes. The growth across the Group led us to review the current culture; therefore, the culture survey was launched.

Our people purpose of One Company – One Mindset was formulated from the Leaders Enablement People and Alignment Forum held during the year. Moreover, the process of embedding our values has rejuvenated the mindset of our employees. This initiative seeks to re-engage and connect leaders and employees to our desired culture.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CULTURE SURVEY

• A total of 18 questions linked to culture themes, namely strategic direction and intent, performance goals and objectives, core values leadership, customer satisfaction, team orientation and Group alignment, change orientation, learning organisation, information and communication and ethical leadership.
• Cultural results per theme were highest for customer satisfaction and performance goals and objectives.
• Lower scoring culture themes included change management, which refers to our levels of adaptability. Information and communication across the Group were also noted as areas for improvement.

83% POSITIVE SENTIMENT ACROSS THE GROUP WITH A 77% RESPONSE RATE

Employee engagement

A key driver in building a strong culture is maintaining high levels of employee engagement. Therefore, we utilise surveys to understand matters that are top of mind for our employees.

The culture, Voice of the Employee and monthly pulse surveys provide engagement platforms that empower leaders with insight into our employees' perceptions and evolving needs. In addition, our approach to employee action plans, which involve co-creation and ongoing measurement, supports continuous engagement.

VOICE OF THE EMPLOYEE SURVEY

The Voice of the Employee survey is a Group-wide initiative, including subsidiaries and entities, that:

• Measures employees' perception against key engagement drivers
• Identifies key positive drivers, including strengths in:
  • Supporting our leaders in managing hybrid teams and a high-performance culture
  • Driving a values-based culture
  • Building levels of employee engagement

2 992 EMPLOYEES COMPLETED THE SURVEY WITH AN OVERALL SCORE OF 85.27% (2021: 3 038 EMPLOYEES WITH AN OVERALL SCORE OF 82.5%)

CEO'S UPDATES

We sought to enhance authentic leadership engagements through more frequent and less curated communication from our leaders

PULSE SURVEYS

We administered a pulse survey in the Medscheme business unit that entailed:

• Monthly measure of what employees are thinking or feeling (levels of engagement)
• High levels of interest and response rates
• Excellence recognised by using our Single Service Measure Awards

Skills development

We are committed to developing our people to create a high-performance culture that achieves our strategic objectives. The Group provides comprehensive learning and development opportunities, an employee wellness programme and other upliftment opportunities.

ONLINE LEARNING

The AfroCentric Online Academy offers online training. Employees have constant virtual access to legislative courses, Company policies and functional training courses.

500 ONLINE COURSES WERE UNDERTAKEN BY 2 588 EMPLOYEES (2021: 247 COURSES UNDERTAKEN BY 3 816 EMPLOYEES)

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

During the past financial year, both Sector Education and Training Authority and industry‑funded learnership initiatives were implemented and prioritised across the Group.

AfroCentric Health worked with two groups of unemployed learners with disabilities through Business Beyond Boundaries, hosting 148 learners offsite.

AfroCentric Health hosted an additional 10 learners in our environment.

R4.8 million INVESTED TOWARDS DEVELOPING DIFFERENTLYABLED PEOPLE (2021: R3.6 MILLION INVESTED)

LEARNERSHIPS AND BURSARIES

The programmes help candidates earn qualifications and gain valuable work experience.

102 employees AND158 unemployed YOUTH PARTICIPATED IN LEARNERSHIP PROGRAMMES (2021: 124 EMPLOYEES AND 129 UNEMPLOYED YOUTH)

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Leadership development remains a key priority within the Group as part of our cultural transformation journey that started in 2019. The AfroCentric Leadership Competency Model, encompassing our five leadership competencies of ownership, credibility, influence, collaboration and entrepreneurship, drive our leadership behaviours across the Group. Leadership Competency Enablement workshops, Grow Coaching workshops and Lessons in Leadership sessions took place for all leaders across the Group to continue to educate our leaders on those competencies required of an AfroCentric leader.

Through our accredited Learning and Performance Academy, we promote a learning culture and provide opportunities for leaders to participate in one of our two Team Leader curriculum or one Line Manager curriculum intakes throughout the year.

44 Team Leaders and Operational managers attended the internal leadership development curriculums.

16 Senior Managers completed the Senior Manager Leadership Development Programme in cooperation with Enterprises of Pretoria University.

22 out of 28 EMPLOYEES WHO STUDIED TOWARDS A FURTHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING CERTIFICATE: GENERIC MANAGEMENT NQF4 LEARNERSHIP (2021: 31) OBTAINED THEIR QUALIFICATIONS AS WELL ASseven out of nine EMPLOYEES WHO STUDIED TOWARDS A NATIONAL CERTIFICATE: GENERIC MANAGEMENT NQF5 LEARNERSHIP (2021: 13)

Employee wellbeing

We recognise that employees feel more competent and valued when their holistic needs are catered for, including physical, mental, and financial.

COVID-19 MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION

The health and safety of our employees remain a top priority. Unfortunately, two employees were diagnosed with COVID Long Haul and are on temporary disability. Regrettably, we lost 19 employees who succumbed to COVID-19-related complications since the onset of the pandemic.

On 23 June 2022, the health minister gazetted that masks were no longer compulsory when indoors, and the organisation followed suit, with employees no longer needing to wear masks in the office.

1 311 EMPLOYEES TESTED ACROSS THE GROUP (2021: 1 021)

COVID-19 SUPPORT

AfroCentric continued to offer emotional and medical support through the monthly COVID-19 support groups facilitated by professional therapists and medical practitioners. The last support group session took place in January 2022. This session highlighted the importance of the COVID-19 vaccine and covered a variety of employee concerns. This also formed part of the mandatory vaccination drive initiated in October 2021.

VACCINATION STATISTICS

As at the end of June 2022, 68% of employees were fully vaccinated against the COVID‑19 virus. In the June edition of the CEO update, employees were advised to still get vaccinated for their health and safety.

68% OF OUR EMPLOYEES HAVE BEEN VACCINATED (2021: 46% OF EMPLOYEES)

WORK FROM HOME

Our business model innovations are aligned to help us deliver services using automated platforms, virtual interfaces and digital services. In addition, automation of business processes is assisting in moving our employees to areas where they can add more value.

Medscheme implemented a work-from-home pilot project to assess the viability of a permanent work-from-home model in 2021. A total of 1280 employees applied to work from home permanently during the pilot of this project.

Furthermore, the organisation is committed to recognising the changes occurring within all work spheres, and we are introducing a flexible working arrangement policy. This will allow employees to map out their ideal work day/week. Employees will need to apply for this and will only be approved if they qualify based on set criteria.

In working towards being an employer of choice, we understand that employees need flexibility for reasons such as parenting, medical circumstances and work-life balance, to name a few. Various working arrangements will be permitted, like flexible working time and reduced office days.

1 218 EMPLOYEES ARE WORKING FROM HOME (2021: 1 179)

MENTAL HEALTH CAMPAIGN

In the current context, both physical and mental health have become critical areas of focus across the business. As a result, enhancements in support, communication and education have been pursued. In addition, mental health services have been made available to our employees and their families.

MENTAL HEALTH CAMPAIGN THEMED "You are not alone" CONTINUED TO ENCOURAGE AND SUPPORT EMPLOYEES DURING THE PANDEMIC

Performance management

AfroCentric uses a balanced scorecard approach for performance management. The balanced scorecard provides the tools for management to drive competitive success. It translates the organisation's strategy into performance measures that provide the framework for a strategic measurement and management system. To be a progressive organisation, we continuously research best practice to build a high-performance culture.

When managing individual performance, we aim for a mutually beneficial environment where managers and employees share clear expectations and objectives from the outset. Employees participate in all phases of the performance management process and share ownership of the outcomes with the organisation.

Continuous conversations, feedback and development

Managing performance is not an annual event but a continual process of feedback and collaboration. Performance discussions are therefore expected to cover more than simply performance ratings. Instead, leaders should have regular, meaningful conversations to close performance gaps and enable individuals to understand how their performance and behaviour link to the organisational strategy and how their contributions drive business growth.

Our performance management system aims to enable:

• A streamlined performance management process to direct line managers' time from administrative activities to that of ongoing performance conversations
• High-quality performance discussions, giving employees more frequent feedback and addressing performance gaps in real time
• The creation of a high-performance culture within the organisation
• Employee lead performance management
• Difficult conversations that drive positive change

Transformation and B-BBEE

As a black-owned company and the most transformed health-related business listed in South Africa, we are committed to corporate citizenship, driving transformation and upholding our social licence to operate. The Group invests in healthcare-related companies, and our contribution to healthcare extends beyond our products and services. Our social impact starts within the Group and extends to the suppliers and communities we directly impact and the broader society affected by our health management initiatives. We value diversity, equity and inclusion at AfroCentric and aim to create an environment where differences are not only valued, but accepted and included, as demonstrated by our diverse workforce and supply chain.

B-BBEE creates opportunity while mitigating operating environment risk

AfroCentric's transformation framework supports national strategic priorities and our purpose of creating sustainable healthcare solutions to enhance our stakeholders' quality of life.

The degree of the Group's alignment of B-BBEE policies and practices to the requirements of the different transformation-related legislation in support of the South African Government's overall economic transformation includes, but is not limited to:

• The National Development Plan 2030
• The National Strategy for Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment
• The Revised Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act 53 and related amendments
• The Amended Codes of Good Practice on Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment of 2013
• The Employment Equity Amendment Act of 2014 and associated regulations
• Skills Development Act and related Skills Development Levies Act
• The Preferential Procurement Act

The 2021 B-BBEE certificate issued on 17 December 2021 is valid until 16 December 2022

Supporting our communities

We recognise that the sustainability of AfroCentric is closely linked to the socioeconomic environments in which our businesses exist. Accordingly, our role as a socially responsible enterprise includes a strong focus on supporting broader communities, and we are dedicated to improving community life and access to economic opportunities.