Remuneration and benefits

Old Mutual designs competitive reward packages within the ambit of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997, but offers benefits far exceeding those legally mandated. The minimum legally mandated benefits include a minimum wage; regulation of working time (ordinary hours of work, overtime, meal times etc); leave; termination of employment (notice periods, pay on termination, severance pay, etc). The company also offers market-related and competitive salaries; medical aid contributions; retirement fund contributions; bursaries and educational loans; housing, car, and staff personal loans; examination awards; long leave and service awards.

Head office employees enjoy various onsite benefits that do not specifically fall within the benefit framework including: cafeteria and shopping outlets; the gymnasium; free parking and various club memberships, including the Old Mutual Sports Club.

On average Old Mutual pays its staff above the market average for employees in the financial sector. Our key specialists, such as Information Technology, Actuarial and Accounting staff are particularly well remunerated relative to their peers in the industry. The distribution of increases in 2004 resulted in an improvement in the position of junior non-specialist employees relative to the market.

At the executive level, and in line with the Old Mutual strategy, there is now greater emphasis on variable as opposed to guaranteed pay. The principle is to reward high performance with high pay. The intention is to support a high performance culture within the organisation. Executives are incentivised via an executive share programme. Share allocations are determined by the achievement of company-wide, own business unit and personal performance.

To further encourage that culture, all permanent staff members are eligible to participate in their business unit short-term incentive (STI) schemes. The schemes are registered annually and payment is based on the achievement of predetermined business unit results for the financial year. Business units differentiate the level of payments to staff members based on the individual's performance and that of the team.

Net Job Creation

The following table indicates, by province, the net jobs created and the staff turnover rates throughout Old Mutual as at end-December 2004:
 

	Net Jobs Created	Staff Turnover
Western Cape	(100)	10.2%
Gauteng	(41)	27.5%
Mpumalanga	(9)	16.9%
Northern Cape	(4)	19.1%
Eastern Cape	(50)	17.4%
KwaZulu-Natal	26	19.5%
Free State	(39)	15.0%
North West	0	20.4%
Limpopo	51	40.0%