Message from the President

Dear Reward Colleagues,

The SARA Conference is just around the corner and e are all very excited. I trust to see you there and I know that you are going to be blown away by the experience.

We still have a couple of events before the end of the year so take full advantage of these to resource yourself. We would also like to extend a warm welcome to our newest members and we look forward to a great relationship with you.

Yours in Reward
Dr. Mark Bussin
SARA President

SARA Conference 2011

It’s almost fight night here at SARA and all our speakers and delegates have been training hard for this all important showdown. I don’t know about you but I can’t wait to see how our team of experts go toe to toe with some real issues. All you have to do is put on your boxing gloves and get down to the SARA Conference from 26-28 October 2011.

For all your conference news please click here.

Benchmarking in Africa – snap survey reveals the obstacles

As we all know, benchmarking remuneration in Africa is not an easy task, information is scarce and, in some cases, not a true reflection of what individuals are actually earning.  PwC Remchannel recently conducted a snap survey to determine the main obstacles that Companies experience when trying to benchmark remuneration in Africa. The results of the survey will be published on 31 October 2011, while a formal feedback session will take place at the first SARA EMG event in early 2012 where the prevalent issues will be presented and where possible solutions will be discussed.

SARA intern training goes to Cape Town

We are conducting our SARA intern training in Cape Town, this year, on the 26th and 27th of September 2011 and members are again invited to attend or send junior employees for training. Excellent prizes will be awarded for correct answers, featuring the Torch of Knowledge, Confusius the Teddy, the Egg Yoke Separator and Signed Soccer Memorabilia.
 
The two day training will start with the most basic of tax computations and then move towards the more complex.  Here’s a look at what will be covered in the training:

• Basic Tax Calculations
• Annualised Tax Calculations
• Bonus Month Computation
• Tax Refund Where Part Year Employment
• Additional Tax Where More Than One Source Of Income
• UIF and SDL
• Adding Various Allowance and Fringe Benefits and the Impact on Tax Computation of each
• Rules on Company Vehicle and Travel Allowance
• Severance Benefits Computation
• Employee Benefit Fund Withdrawal Computation
• New Rules on Medical Aid, Retirement Funding, Life Cover and Disability Insurance
• Cost to Company vs. Basic Plus Benefits
• Example of Salary Structuring
• Employee Tax Return Computation, including Medical Aid, Travel and Retirement Annuity etc.
• Expatriate Pay Approach and Computation
• Various other Classes of Payment
• Simple Cost to Company Conversion Exercise and dealing with Pensionable Salary
• Basic Rules on Share Schemes and Special Payments
• Inbound and Outbound Expatriate Employees
• Remuneration Best Pratices and Optimal Return in Investment Considerations

Limited seats are available and kindly note that attendance on both days is important.  Please click here to register and reserve your spot on a first-come, first-serve basis.
 
The training will take place at Old Mutual House, 33 Klaassens Road, Constantia, Cape Town

Be sure to RSVP by Wednesday, 21 September 2011

Annual SARA intern training proves its worth again

The annual SARA intern training was held last month on employees' tax, benefits and payroll computations. There was just under 60 attendees and, as with prior years, intense exercises on various payroll scenarios were performed. Excellent feedback was received from attendees. We are also planning a similar session in Cape Town in September and Jerry Botha has agreed to conduct this as well. There appears a real need amongst persons entering the remuneration and benefit field, as well as among some long established professionals, to come to grips with the basics of tax computations, UIF, SDL, package structuring and employee take-home scenarios and benefit planning. As the feedback has again confirmed, this is a critical component in the day-to-day activities of remuneration specialists.

Best regards,
Jerry Botha

A salute to our new members

New Members	Date joined
University of Pretoria	11 August 2011
MPACT Limited	25 August 2011
BMG (Div of Humulani Marketing Pty Ltd)	25 August 2011
Intelligence Services Council	5 July 2011
AGS Frasers International	8 July 2011
Neotel	13 July 2011
Emergence Growth	20 July 2011
Servier Laboratories	28 July 2011
Aurum Restaurant Co. (Pty) Ltd t/a McDonald's SA	28 July 2011
Diversey South Africa	6 May 2011
Evraz Highveld Steel	11 May 2011
Vale South Africa (Pty) Ltd	23 May 2011

SARA graduates

We congratulate our new GRP graduates:

• Karen Schlemmer
• Natashe Rensburg
• Ncamsile Mbuli

Message from the President

Dear Reward Compatriots Exciting times lie ahead of us in the Reward game. We have the SARA Conference taking place in October and while on the topic don’t forget that the SARA Reward Award nominations are now open, so get your nominations in early before the closing date. I’m also very excited about our new social media venture – If you haven’t heard yet SARA has created a new profile on Twitter and Facebook, so follow us and start tweeting. In this month’s edition of the SARA newsletter we also get to meet our four interns and I must just say a big thank you to all the companies who have availed themselves to host them. There is much to read in the newsletter so I from me happy reading! Yours in Reward Dr. Mark Bussin

SARA Reward Award nominations now open

SARA Reward Award nominations are now open, so get those nominations in before 19 August 2011. Remember, that there is a new category this year called the Remuneration Report award, these nominations must be in by 8 August 2011.

Sponsored by PwC Remchannel, the SARA Reward Awards is in its 9th year and the showpiece gets better every time. This year SARA has introduced a new award - the Remuneration Report Award.

In this category, the remuneration report of the nominee company will provide clear and concise disclosure of the company's remuneration policy and its application. As well as having regard to the requirements of legislation and corporate governance principles, the report will provide evidence of a manifest commitment to best practice and communicates how the company's approach to remuneration supports its business strategy and aligns the interests of its executives with those of its shareholders.

Remuneration reports published prior to 30 June 2011 and in respect of financial years ending on or before 31 March 2011 are eligible for nomination.

The awards categories are as follows:
The Strategist title
The Practitioner title
The Team title
The Remuneration Report award

Please click here to submit your nomination.
Be your contenders ringman and nominate him or her for the title by 19 August 2011.

SARA Conference 2011 - Sponsorship

The Executive Team of the South African Reward Association is very excited to announce the annual SARA Conference, scheduled for 27 – 28 October 2011.
 
We intend to cover all aspects of total rewards in different streams with presentations covering total remuneration, remuneration governance, employee benefits, work-life balance, career and development opportunities, performance and recognition.

In an effort to ensure that the conference continues to remain current and appropriate for our members, we intend to include case studies, simulations, panel discussions, debates, etc. on contentious total reward issues that we believe many of our members are experiencing.

SARA is looking for members to sponsor items for the conference delegates.  Any companies who contribute sponsorship will receive acknowledgement for their contribution during the conference.
 
Sponsorship is available in the following three tiers and exposure will be allocated accordingly:
Platinum sponsor, Gold sponsor and Silver sponsor.

We are looking for the following items to be sponsored for the Conference:

• Conference satchels
• Stationery
• A refreshment break or lunch (with branding opportunities in the catering area)
• Gifts for lucky draws during the conference
• Any items that could be included in the conference bags
• Cocktail Party on Thursday afternoon, 27 October
• Coffee station
• Smoothie station
• Golf Day – Saturday, 29 October

Should you wish to sponsor any item, please contact Marisa Jacobs, at the SARA Secretariat, at marisa@vdw.co.za or (011) 789-1384 and advise accordingly.
 
We look forward to hearing from you.  Thank you for your ongoing support and we trust that this will be a worthwhile event which will support our mission of “developing and promoting reward practices”.
 
Dr. Mark Bussin
SARA President

Meet our 2011 interns

Nqobile Dlamini Qualifications: BSocSci Honours (Industrial Psychology) UKZN Sponsor company: HayGroup	Yoliswa Mqoboli Qualifications: BCom Honours (Business Management) NMMU Sponsor Company: Vodacom
Essaivani Padayachee Qualifications: BCom (HRM) Currently studying towards BCom Honours (HRM) UNISA Sponsor Company: Barloworld Equipment	Mike Zondani Qualifications: BA Honours (Industrial Psychology) NMMU Sponsor Company: Barloworld Logistics

SARA Interns - Host Companies needed

We are full steam ahead with developing our four new SARA Interns, however we still require more companies to host them. Each organisation can host the interns for a day or two to expose them to corporate experience in the field of remuneration or even sponsor a relevant training course.
The following dates are still available:

• 9 & 10 May
• 7 June
• 28 & 29 July
• 1 to 4 August
• 10 to 12 August
• 22 to 24 August

The learning curriculum is as follows:

• Expatriate Pay
• King III
• Labour Law and Reward
• Remuneration policy and strategy
• Basic Pay
• Job Evaluation
• Role profiles
• Broad-banding
• Salary structuring
• Tax and Total Package
• Short term incentives and variable pay
• Long term incentives
• Remuneration committees
• Software skills
• Presentation skills

The four interns have already spent time at 21st Century for the annual Boot camp and they have attended workshops like Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel facilitated by Debbie Munger. They have also attended GRP 1. They have been hosted by Averile Ryder Reward Associates, Deloitte and Transnet. Over the next few months, they will be visiting Mabili Reward, Hay Group, PWC Remchannel, Sasol, Standard Bank, TalenTek, Jerry Botha, Avusa, FNB and Ericsson. They will also attend GRP 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9 and 17.

If you would be interested in participating please complete this form (click here) and email it to Yolanda Sedlmaier at ysedlmaier@deloitte.co.za to advise her as to which aspect of the curriculum you would like to provide exposure to the interns. Alternatively give Yolanda a call on 083 443 6017. We look forward to hearing from you.

Dr Mark Bussin & the SARA Intern Committee

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook

SARA has created a new profile on Twitter and Facebook. All news items, alerts, event info, and job vacancies will be posted to our new Facebook and Twitter pages and we encourage members and persons in the industry to follow us on these channels to keep abreast of the latest happenings at SARA.

Those accustomed to receiving updates by email need not worry as this communication channel is still open. However, social media channels are well suited to facilitate more regular updates, discussion, collaboration and networking - outcomes which we believe will further the interest of our members

If you are on Facebook check out our photo albums from last year’s SARA Award Banquet and tag yourself and people you know.

SARA EMG: Breakfast event on 25 May 2011

SARA EMG presents "Cross-Cultural dynamics of International assignments into Africa- What are the implications for the company, assignee and family?" presented by Dr Marius van Aswegen (Managing Director of Xpatweb (Pty) Limited) on 25 May 2011 at Country Club Johannesburg, Woodmead, starting at 07:00.   Please RSVP by 20 May 2011. Please click here to register. This event is sponsored by Vodacom.

SARA - Emerging HR Practices

The last two decades have been the era of the emerging market Multi National Corporate (MNC).  The Emerging country MNCs (EMNCs) have developed HR practices that are unique but transferable across borders.  We in conjunction with GIBS are conducting  research  looking at the transferability of Emerging Market HR practices into other contexts. We are hoping to include the results as a conference track at our conference in October. We strongly believe that Western HR practices cannot be applied into the South African (and emerging market context) without significant modification.  In addition we are convinced that practices developed in an emerging market context are often more flexible and appropriate in other emerging markets than those adopted by the Developed Market firms.  

We are looking for examples of HR practices that differ from those of Western firms but have proven robust enough to use in other countries.  Alternatively we are looking for examples of HR practices that have been significantly modified from Western practice so that they are relevant to emerging markets.
Also, if programmes are modified, does it in any way influence/dilute culture?
 
Please assist us with a paragraph or two briefly explaining your unique approach to an HR practice or alternatively your thoughts on the subject by sending your response to Debbie Lane Mitchell debbie@sara.co.za by no later than 20 May 2011.
 
Thank you for taking the time to submit your views.
 
Yours in Reward
Dr. Mark Bussin
SARA President