EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Date: 26 February 2013 Time 15:30 to 17:30 Venue: SARA Offices, Bryanston Members: Mr Peet Kruger Ms Nazlie Samodien Dr Mark Bussin Mr Jerry Botha Mr Martin Hopkins Mr Kobie Joubert Ms Debbiee Lane Mitchell Dr Ronel Nienaber Ms Lindiwe Sebesho Mr Alan Seccombe Ms Yolanda Sedlmaier Ms Megan Shepstone Mr Peter J Davison Lancaster Ms Samantha van Rensburg Ms Cynthia Badenhorst Ms Marisaa Jacobs Mr Jean Venter MINUTES President Synntech Peoplee Solutions President Elect Tiger Brands Imm Past President 21st Century Pay Solutions Tax Consulting South Africa PwC First National Bank Project Manager Sasol Alexander Forbes PwC Deloitte PE Corporate Services Old Mutual Standard Bank Secretariat Secretariat General Secretary Apology Apology Apology 1. WELCOME AND APOLOGIES The president welcomed members present and noted the above apologies. 2. READING AND CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES The committeee confirmed the minutes of the meeting that was held on 12 November 2013. 3. PORTFOLIO REPORTS 3.1 AFRICAA REWARD ASSOCIATION Dr Bussin tabled a project plan for the development of reward forums in Namibia, Kenya and Zimbabwe. The plan involves an initial road show to these countries. The project plan and Secretaries: VdW & Co. SARA Executive Committee Minutes 26 February 2013
proposed budget of R40 000 covering the road show S&T costs for Dr Bussin and Ms Lane Mitchell were APPROVED. 3.2 BENEFITS COMMITTEE Mr Botha advised that the committees in Johannesburg and Cape Town are now meeting regularly and that members are finding good value in this activity. There was no budget tabled or required. 3.3 EDUCATION INTERNS Ms Sedlmaier advised that four interns were recruited and that there was a very good response from sponsor companies. Three companies also agreed to sponsor the programme for next year. A call for host companies will go out by Friday. A project plan and budget (Net Nil) was tabled and APPROVED. An unbudgeted amount of R20 000 for marketing to universities was additionally requested and APPROVED. The additional amount to be added to the budget. MINIMUM REWARD STANDARDS Ms Sedlmaier advised that the MRS was now live on an elearning platform and that the proposed update of the material was in progress. The secretary advised that the elearning platform now features an application for mobile devices such as ipads. GLOBAL REMUNERATION PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION Ms Sedlmaier advised that all the Johannesburg and most of the Cape Town courses are fully booked for 2013 and there is a long waiting list for some modules. Members noted that online training offered by WorldatWork is increasingly being used by members as an alternative to face to face courses. AGREED to schedule additional GRP courses to catch up on the waiting lists. BURSARIES [Marisa Jacobs] Ms Sedlmaier advised that five bursary candidates have been shortlisted and papers were circulated to the executive committee. The applications were all highly regarded by members of the committee. The bursaries are conditional on the candidates completing their work in four years and may be required to repay the bursaries at the discretion of the committee, if this is not achieved.
AGREED to award bursaries of R20 000 to each of the five shortlisted applicants and to increase the budget to R100 000. [Yolanda Sedlmaier / Adrie Da Silva / Cynthia Badenhorst] 3.4 EVENTS ANNUAL CONFERENCE Mr Seccombe advised that the secretariat has booked the venues and that the organising committee has had its first meeting. The proposed MC is a Mr Michael Jackson. Members suggested holding a pre conference workshop as well as an EMG conference stream using Mr Rubino if he is agreeable to this. The President to discuss with Mr Rubino. A project plan and budget was tabled and APPROVED. AGREED to proceed with a conference date holder invitation to members. REWARD AWARDS [Marisa Jacobs] Mr Joubert advised that the organising committee is recommending a restructuring of the awards. It was noted that the SARA Reward Awards will change to one Award; the Award will be called the Reward Project of the Year. The award will be open to both individual and team nominations. The prize will be split into a first, second and third place. A project plan and budget involving a net cost of R84 000 was tabled. AGREED that the conference and reward awards committees consider amending the amount that the awards event is recovering from the conference budget. EVENTS SCHEDULE A list of scheduled events for 2013 was NOTED. [Kobie Joubert / Marisa Jacobs] 3.5 EXPATRIATE MANAGEMENT GROUP Mr Seccombe advised that a programme of EMG events for 2013 has been agreed upon. Events will be held in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. A project plan and budget reflecting a R24 000 surplus was APPROVED. AGREED that the EMG can host events in Durban at no charge to delegates as a promotion campaign to attract new participants. [Alan Seccombe]
3.6 GOVERNANCE, RISK MANAGEMENT AND FINANCIALS Mr Hopkins advised that a budget for 2013 was approved by round robin which was RATIFIED. Provisional financial statements for the year ended December 2012 were tabled and NOTED. AGREED that budgets for the following year will be approved at the November meetings in future. NOTED that a process of sign off on expenditure above a certain level is to be set. [Martin Hopkins] The Risk Management committee has had its first meeting and a provisional risk schedule was tabled and NOTED. Members were asked to consider the risks schedule and to forward comments to the secretary for inclusion into the document. It was AGREED that risk scoring will be included in future versions of this document. [Martin Hopkins] 3.7 PROFESSIONALISATION Dr Nienaber advised that SAQA has now recognised the proposed SARA professional designations and SARA as a professional institution. A certificate was handed to the president at a formal function by the minister of education. The CPD policy and code of conduct is now being circulated to members for comments. Web systems using the VdW infrastructure is being planned to accommodate member self service needs, CPD and information management. An accreditation committee is being recruited. Dr Bussin suggested that the MRS designation may not be a suitable acronym for a designation. The committee congratulated Dr Nienaber and the accreditation committee members on achieving professional status for the organisation and for the good work done. A project plan and budget requesting net expenditure of R82 500 was tabled. AGREED that: a. The accreditation committee should keep a margin of independence from the executive committee and that members of the Exco should not serve on the accreditation committee. b. The Professionalisation committee reconsiders the official acronym for the Master Reward Specialist designation. c. The composition of the accreditation committee should be demographically reflective. d. The Exco approves the budget subject to the inclusion of a line to reflect the envisaged revenue from professional registration fees from members. 3.8 STAKEHOLDER RELATIONS MANAGEMENT [Ronel Nienaber / Debbie Lane Mitchell] Ms Sebesho tabled a comprehensive stakeholder management strategy, project plan and budget. The strategy included a high level overview of SARA s current metrics, stakeholder interests, initiatives and the desired state metrics. She advised that most of the stakeholder
interest information was gathered from the recent consultant workshop (30 January). She also indicated that a member survey would be undertaken to further analyse member needs. It was noted that most of the response initiatives reflected on the strategy were already accommodated in the project plans of respective portfolios. Ms Sebesho was asked to discuss those that were not yet included with the responsible portfolio leaders. The chairperson acknowledged the work done in putting together the stakeholder management strategy and noted that it would enabled SARA to align its efforts with stakeholder needs and also measure its progress using the suggested success metrics. The strategy was supported in principle and it was AGREED that: a. Members provide further inputs, if any, on the strategy, updated value proposition and proposed member survey to Ms Sebesho by 08 March 2013. b. The committee considers the needs of ARA stakeholders into the strategy and member survey. c. The committee includes relevant government stakeholders into the strategy and project plan. [Lindiwe Sebesho / Debbie Lane Mitchell] 3.9 INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Ms van Rensburg tabled a communications project plan and budget which was APPROVED by the committee. It was AGREED that the newsletters are to add value, in line with the stakeholder strategy. The public relations and knowledge management including the social media platform strategies are to be developed in conjunction with the stakeholder engagement portfolio. 4. RECOGNITION OF WORK DONE BY VOLUNTEERS [Samantha van Rensburg] The president requested members to consider and advise him appropriate ways to recognise work done by committee volunteers, for the association. AGREED to present every member who actively participated in any of the SARA committees with a citation certificate, at the end of every year. 5. BRANCH REPORTS [President / Secretariat] The Cape Town Branch was planning a total of five events for 2013 plus the EMG events. AGREED that the branches are to also submit project plans and budgets and that these are successfully integrated with other regional events arising from other portfolios. [Debbie Lane Mitchell]
6. SECRETARIAT The secretary tabled a service level agreement for the SARA secretariat, which was ADOPTED. The standard terms and conditions of services document from VdW&Co as tabled by the secretary was NOTED. Two annual reviews on service levels will be conducted to enhance the relationship between the secretariat and SARA, as well as to address any concerns from either side. 7. TALENT RETENTION SURVEY Dr Bussin advised of a project by two senior students on the subject of talent retention and proposed that SARA provide access to its membership to the students for purposes of a survey. AGREED that the secretariat can assist these particular students with access to the members for purposes of a survey on talent retention, provided that the outcomes of the study are shared with SARA members. 8. DATE OF THE NEXT MEETING 23 May 2013 [Mark Bussin / Cynthia Badenhorst] 9. CLOSURE The president thanked member and closed the meeting. Thus read and confirmed President Date