Our people bring a broad range of experience, expertise and perspectives that are essential to the delivery of our strategic objectives
Our approach
Our ambition in the third pillar of our sustainability strategy is to recruit, develop and retain the best talent across the Group. Hand-in-hand with this goes our cultivation of a diverse workplace, positioning our people and business for success,and developing a winning culture that is grounded in our values and behaviour. We strongly believe that supporting and developing our people are key to helping us achieve our strategic objectives as a company. We have continued to drive and embed a winning culture across the business through the creation of key initiatives, policies, procedures, systems and controls.
Creating a diverse workplace
Savannah strongly believes that diversity throughout the organisation builds a strong workforce and improves business performance. We are committed to being an equal opportunities employer, with policies in place to ensure that the best person, irrespective of gender, race, disability, ethnicity, religious belief or sexual orientation, is appointed to a particular role or position within the organisation. Our senior management female gender diversity ratio increased to 33% in 2023 (2022: 32%). Gender diversity for the organisation as a whole increased slightly, with female representation rising to 23% in 2023 (2022: 22%). We maintained our commitment to local content in 2023, prioritising the hiring of local talent, with 99% local employees in Nigeria and 100% local employees in Niger (2022: 99% and 100% respectively). In the United Kingdom, we increased our ethnic minority representation from 38% in 2022 to 40% in 2023. This is a proud achievement given that the 2021 England and Wales census benchmark for a non-white ethnic background is approximately 18.3%.
Fostering employee engagement and ethical behaviours
At the centre of our efforts to create an inclusive workplace is our engagement with our employees. We have open, collaborative and inclusive management that prioritises employee engagement. We approach this in two ways: through a continuous feedback performance management process, with structured career conversations and regular touch points to monitor career progression; and through wider communication tools such as town hall sessions, our intranet and employee surveys.
We foster strong ethical behaviours and, as part of that, Savannah sets clear guidelines as to what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. Our Anti-Corruption and Anti-Money Laundering Policy and our Code of Ethics, set out responsibilities shared between the Company and the employee to uphold high standards of behaviour.
Our annual reporting metrics
- Number of employees.
- Total amount of training in hours.
- Gender diversity percentages for senior management and the Group as a whole.
- Percentage of local employees.
- Ethnic minority representation.
2023 performance
- At the end of 2023, Savannah employed a total of 276 people1 (2022: 277).
- We provided 15,858 working hours of training (2022: 12,754), an increase of 24%.
- Senior management gender diversity increased to 33% (2022: 32%), while our female representation across the Group increased to 23% (2022: 22%).
- We maintained our local content ratios, with 99% local employees in Nigeria and 100% local employees in Niger (2022: 99% and 100%).
- In the UK, we increased our employee ethnic minority representation to 40% (2022: 38%).
2024 objectives
- Launch a comprehensive leadership development programme tailored for our people leaders.
- Refine our performance management tool.
- Focus on implementing systematic changes to enhance our processes.
- Launch a “Centre for New Ideas” initiative.
- Launch the “Learning Management System”.
Case study: Savannah’s life-long learning philosophy
We are an organisation with a purpose at heart – delivering Projects that Matter – and every employee has a role to play in making an impact within the countries in which we operate by doing what they do to the best of their abilities.
As we grow it is important that we continue to support our employees to align themselves to this purpose.
With the introduction of SAP SuccessFactors in 2022, we now have a great opportunity to use a single source platform across all our office locations, aligning employees with the Savannah strategy and ensuring every employee understands the part they play within the business and why their contribution matters.
Employees’ objectives are now directly linked to the strategic goals of Savannah by optimising how we work, grow the business or explore new opportunities. No matter where an employee sits within the organisation, achieving their objectives has an impact.
How we work together is as important as what we do. We use the Savannah values as a signpost for a common way of working, no matter the function or location. These values allow us to speak a common language and hold each other to account for how we work together. We encourage our employees to challenge each other and deliver the best solutions with impactful results.
We believe every employee’s contribution is essential to achieving Savannah’s overall success.
In September 2022 we held a four-day Strategy Event session for our senior management across the business. During the Strategy Event, Savannah’s current strategic plan was reviewed and, through collaboration and discussion, the senior management team developed a clear vision of the future of the Company and created a roadmap to achieve our goals.
Following the Strategy Event, we have launched several initiatives identified to drive our specific goals and priorities for the year, including the implementation of new procedures to capture areas of improvement in the Company’s operations, processes and systems.
As part of the Strategy Event, Savannah identified areas where employee skills and knowledge could be enhanced to better support the Company’s goals and further develop a life-long learning philosophy.
In addition, we continue to hold regular employee workshops and “Lunch and Learn” presentations, where our employees are encouraged to engage, share knowledge and empower each other.
1 This figure includes Savannah employees as at 31 December 2023 in France, Niger, Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
