Liberty Holdings achieves level two bee status

Liberty Holdings (LBH) has considerably improved its BEE rating with the announcement today that the financial services company has achieved a Level 2 Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) contributor status, up 13% on last year’s Level 3 rating.

Bruce Hemphill, Chief Executive of Liberty says, “Liberty is now one of the most empowered insurers in South Africa. This rating offers compelling evidence of the importance we are placing on transformation and is an indicator of the groundwork that is being done on a consistent basis to ensure the business transforms sustainably.”

Across all seven pillars of the DTI BBBEE scorecard, Liberty has shown year-on-year improvement in addition to Enterprise Development and Socio-Economic Development, which are already at maximum points. While Liberty’s employment equity and skills development ratings have consistently improved, there was a marked increase in ownership, management control and preferential procurement.

“Liberty is committed to creating an equitable workplace that embraces diversity and respects the dignity of all employees. We believe that it is critical to our long-term sustainability and competitiveness,” adds Hemphill.

According to Hemphill, more than 40% of the group’s executive management structure and approximately 68% of the staff compliment consists of individuals from previously disadvantaged groups. In addition, female employees now form 56% of the group’s workforce and this figure is likely to increase as the company refines its employment equity strategy.

“Our people are the driving force behind our success and we continue to provide excellent development opportunities across the business. In 2010 alone, Liberty set aside R21 million towards the training and development of employees with more than 75% directed at up-skilling individuals from previously disadvantaged communities.”

“In 2010, Liberty achieved the highest intake into our Learnership programme since its inception,” says Hemphill, “a fact that reflects the commitment of the business to helping to address the dire, and growing, skills shortage in the country and working with local and national government to raise employment levels by increasing the ‘employability’ of as many South Africans as possible through effective training and skills transfer.”

“Our commitment to transformation is not only based on compliance. Rather we view transformation as part of our responsibility as a leading financial services organisation operating in emerging markets, to not only become a fully transformed organisation but to effect the necessary change within the communities in which we operate,” concludes Hemphill.