AngloGold Ashanti take top honours in 2017 SARA Reward Awards

At the 4 November 2017 Reward Awards ceremony hosted by the South African Reward Association (SARA), AngloGold Ashanti won both the Reward Project and Remuneration Report categories. Peet Kruger received the prestigious President’s Award.

“To be a top reward professional in South Africa, individuals need to have a mix of innovation, business acumen and technical expertise in the financial and non-financial aspects of pay,” explains Morag Phillips, Exco member of SARA, a professional body focused on promoting, developing, and empowering reward professionals and practices in South Africa.

“The design of an effective reward structure is crucial for organisations that want to attract, retain, motivate, and engage the employees that are best suited to helping the organisation achieve its goals.”

Remuneration Report Award
The Remuneration Report Award recognises organisations for how well they have demonstrated compliance with the King III principles through clear and concise disclosure of the company’s remuneration philosophy and its application. The King IV™ Report was published on 1 November 2016 and effective in respect of financial years commencing on or after 1 April 2017, and therefore not applicable to the submissions received for this year’s awards.

A panel of judges evaluated nominations against the principles of King III and considered how organisations are demonstrating the broad principles of transparency, fairness and responsible pay decisions.

Specific focus was given to how organisations report on the remuneration detail, including fixed and variable pay.

“As well as adhering to the requirements of legislation and corporate governance principles, the winners displayed evidence of a commitment to best practice in reward principles,” says Phillips. “Submissions were also evaluated based on the communication of how the company’s approach to remuneration supports its business strategy, and aligns the interests of its executives with those of its shareholders.”

Special commendations were made to Sasol and Aveng for their submissions, with the winner of the Remuneration Report announced as AngloGold Ashanti for striking a balance of sharing details in an interesting and informative way, and creating a very clear impression of the AngloGold Ashanti remuneration strategy.  There is a very clear link across business strategy, reward strategy, performance targets and performance payments.

Reward Project Award
The SARA award for the Reward Project of the year recognised a team who have been responsible and actively involved in the development and implementation of a new reward project. The winning nominees of the 2017 Reward Project of the Year Award was Anglogold Ashanti in first place, Avbob in second, and Gautrain Management Services in third.

AngloGold Ashanti was congratulated for their new share plan as a profound new approach to incentive remuneration. The approach follows feedback from shareholders to better align the interests of the company management with those of shareholders.

President’s Award
A special President's Award that honours outstanding achievement in the field of reward was awarded to Peet Kruger for his outstanding contribution to the profession over many years.  Kruger was one of the founding members of SARA in 1997 and has been instrumental in many of its activities, including starting the Reward Awards.

“By continuing to host the Reward Awards, SARA hopes to highlight pay practices that adhere to good governance and industry best practice,” says Phillips. “We hope to inspire reward professionals to always aim for transparency, fairness, and responsibility in determining how employees and executives are rewarded for their effort.”

ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: Juanita Vorster, 079 523 8374, juanita@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za

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