Commitment to our people
Sustainability report 2024
Our culture is our strategic differentiator
As a culture driven organisation, our values and philosophies must underpin and inform people’s conduct. Our organisational design is a flat structure to show deep respect for all individuals and to uphold an environment that encourages an entrepreneurial drive in line with the organisation's purpose and business strategies.
The Investec Experience
Our employee value proposition positions our culture as the overarching, significant differentiator that guides conduct and relatedness. We enable this proposition through our workplace, how we position the employer brand, communicate with employees, prioritise diversity and inclusion and create meaning at work. Our culture drives our behaviour, standards, and expectations, is Out of the Ordinary and enables us to fulfil our purpose and achieve our strategic objectives. This unique cultural proposition is inculcated through practices that evidence our commitment to our purpose and, reciprocally what is expected of employees, in the context of high performance.
Our culture is what sets us apart. We look for people with entrepreneurial thinking who can bring fresh ideas to our business. We work in a collaborative environment and offer freedom and flexibility, as well as opportunities for growth. We employ talented people with passion, energy, and stamina, and enable them to deliver exceptional performance. Our approach is to recruit and develop based on aptitude and attitude, with the deliberate intention of building a diverse workforce.
Internal mobility is the key element of our people strategy, it drives succession, supports our One Investec Group strategy and is a valuable retention mechanism. Mobility provides growth opportunities to our people, enables the transfer of knowledge across teams andfunctions, fosters a culture of continuous learning and builds diversity of thought and experience.
Enabled by our flat structure, open and honest dialogue and ongoing, direct feedback with ownership, autonomy, and freedom to operate. Performance at Investec is a continuous feedback process designed to enhance the delivery of key strategic priorities and create a sense of individual and shared accountability, meaning and value creation. Ownership and responsibility for performance lies with the leader, the team and
the individual. While we value individual contributions, their significance
within the context of team performance is paramount. We do not only want individuals to be high performers, but we also want each
individual to contribute to the performance and devlopment of their team and the Group as a whole.
We offer a proactive and preventative programme, encompassing physical, mental, emotional and financial wellbeing, but equally respond to people’s curative needs. Wellbeing at Investec is about the health of the individual and their family. Our wellbeing strategy is globally aligned and locally relevant.
Our reward philosophy reflects our performance framework in the context of the culture. It relies on open and honest dialogue between people and their leaders, to enable us recognise and reward the contribution people make, and the value they add to the organisation. In line with our philosophy of employee ownership, employees across the organisation participate in our staff share awards and have the opportunity to benefit from our long term growth.
We ensure meaningful representation and bringing your whole self to work.
We believe that the energy we create through our physical presence is a key part of our culture. The experience of being together enables relationships and interactions that underwrite the Out of the Ordinary experience our clients expect. Alongside this we encourage high degrees of flexibility, allowing employees the freedom to operate in the context of the work, the team’s purpose and performance commitments, the needs of clients and the lives of every individual in the team.
Diversity and inclusion
Our diversity and inclusion framework has a sense of belonging for all our people as its goal. We aim to make Investec a place where it is easy to be yourself. We believe in diversity and recognise that a diverse and inclusive workforce is essential to our ability to be an innovative organisation that can adapt and prosper in a fast-changing world. We strive to foster a culture that is supportive and inclusive of different perspectives and experiences. Our workforce aims to reflect the diversity of our client base and the society within which we operate.
We enable belonging and inclusion by:
- Developing leaders to enable belonging
- Engaging with leaders, teams, and consultative forums on how to improve belonging and engagement
- Offering learning programmes that encourage dialogue and celebrate the value of inclusion and diversity
- Ongoing and enhanced, aligned support for diversity networks across the Group as well as creating awareness of intersectionality across networks
- Utilising recruitment strategies that actively seek diversity, engaging with under-represented groups, females, and people with disabilities
- Providing disabled employees with a supportive and accommodating working environment
- Delivering research and thought leadership around diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.
Investec is committed to being an equal opportunity employer. In accordance with our policies and practices, and relevant International Labour Organisation conventions and legislation, we do not tolerate any form of discrimination based on gender, gender reassignment, race, ethnicity, religion, belief, age, disability, nationality, political opinion, sensitive medical conditions, pregnancy, maternity, civil partnership, and sexual orientation. People with different abilities are an essential part of a diverse talent pool and every effort is made to facilitate an accessible environment for all.
Learning and development
As a learning organisation we aim to constantly stretch and develop our people, recognising that the calibre of our employees is a unique long-term competitive advantage. Our environment encourages individuals to be curious, express their views and drive their own learning.
We have several early career, graduate, apprenticeship, internship, and exposure programmes available across the organisation.
We invest significantly in providing learning opportunities to develop our people holistically, focusing on technical (role based) and professional skills as well as personal and interpersonal skills. We offer our employees access to programmes, conferences, seminars, and courses and provide employees with formal development opportunities through registered and accredited institutions, to enable the acquisition of knowledge and skills necessary for career development within Investec.
Performance against our targets
58%
2.1%
- Introduced Investec Spaces, a global app for digital workplace access, with ongoing enhancements
- Reviewed our Private Medical Insurance provider in the UK to ensure the best of benefits available to staff and their families
- Enhanced our South African wellbeing strategy through a safety app for employees and their loved ones, providing emergency assistance
- Introduced a staff banking programme available to all employees in South Africa
- Focused on the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace and designed learning resources on both AI and sustainability.
- Our early career and graduate strategy has attracted exceptional and diverse talent across the business
- We had 43% Board members as persons of colour (measured in terms of the Parker Review metrics) as at 31 March 2024
- Investec was rated a BBBEE Level 1 in 2024, under the Financial Sector Code
- In SA, we have financed more than R97bn of empowerment transactions since April 2018 (as defined and reported under the empowerment financing element in the Financial Sector Code)
- In the UK, we are signatories to the Race at Work Charter and continue to track progress against our commitments.
Living in society
Aligned to our purpose of creating enduring worth, we are committed to living in society in a sustainable and inclusive way, for the benefit of all our stakeholders. We invest deeply in education and job creation initiatives for our own employees as well as the communities in which we operate. These initiatives align to our support of the SDGs, particularly our commitment to SDG 4: quality education and SDG 8: decent work and economic growth.