Cummins South Africa is the proud recipient of the Skills Development and Learnership Award at the recently held inaugural Africa-wide 2018 Africa Employee Engagement Awards at the Hyatt Hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa. The awards ceremony, attracting some 150-guests, was hosted by N2Growth Africa and sponsored by IE Business School, the international executive education school based in Spain. Drawing some 300 competitors within the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sectors, the awards focused on employee engagement within the Diversity and Inclusion, Rewards and Recognition, Skills Development and Sustainable Future segments of the workplace. Eleven category winners and 18 highly commended entries were adjudicated, judged and awarded by an independent judging panel.
Cummins South Africa’s entry focused on sustainable talent development initiatives which positively impact employees, companies, civil society-at-large and ultimately South Africa. Promoting employee engagement actions which can be incorporated into the workplace infrastructure, these programs are driven by subject matter experts from within the company. Commenting after the win, Ms Vathiswa Mkatshane, Cummins South Africa’s Skills Development Facilitator who championed the Cummins entry, said: “The competition provides the platform for business leaders to premier achievements and innovative programs to engage employees, customers and communities. For many years, we have been recruiting and developing raw talent, culminating in many of the incumbents ultimately securing permanent employment after completing their respective programs. These initiatives include Graduate Programs, Management Development Programs, Bursary Programs, Apprenticeship Programs, Learnership Programs and the recent June launch of the Technical Education for Communities initiative in Sebokeng.” The initiatives have created significant impact in the lives of Cummins employees and their wider environments. The programs are forward-focused, sustainable and add value to the job and are closely linked to the company’s business model, thereby making it tangible and hands-on. Adopting a “buddy, mentor or coach” orientation, the programs also promote skills transfer and are relevant to the BBBEE scorecard, Workplace Skills Plan and Annual Training Report.
Managing Director of Cummins Southern Africa, Mr Thierry Pimi concluded: “We are very proud of the association between Cummins and N2Growth Africa’s Employee Engagement Awards. At Cummins we take employee engagement very seriously and believe in walking the talk, so gearing our programs around empowering our people to greatness to ensure they achieve their maximum potential is part of who we are.”
Additional sponsors included FP&MSeta South Africa, MERSETA and the IPM Institute.