Company
Sustainability
at Teraco
Sustainability Pillar: Social
This pillar consists of these key areas:
Safety / Growth, Health and Wellness / Diversity and Inclusion / Community Upliftment
Social
01. Safety
Protecting our people, our contractors, and our clients
Teraco Data Environments and Tiber Construction awarded MBA's highest accolade for Health & Safety on a Construction Site in 2021
Zero Harm Safety Culture
At Teraco, we strive to embed world-class safety standards into the heart of our operational culture. We place the highest priority on the safety of everyone who engages with our business and encourage a culture where safety comes first and is everyone’s responsibility.
Our Safety Objectives
20%
Reduction in Lost Time Incidents (LTI) frequency rate*
*2022 Financial Year
>0.40x
Total Reportable Incident frequency rate of less than 0.40x*
*2022 Financial Year
Build Highlights
- JB4 construction site awarded Master Builders Association Safety Award.
- A 54% decrease in Lost Time Incidents and a 49% decrease in Recordable Incidents resulted from lessons learned and safety initiatives carried over from previous capital works projects.
- Project Improvements include Safety in Design, Traffic Control & Logistics, Ladders Last, Welfare Facilities and Security Access Control.
Overall Highlights
- We continue to drive a health & safety culture through our successful Teraco Safety Champions Campaign.
- Several new safety initiatives have been launched, including “Teraco Life Saving Rules” and our 11 High-Risk Activities Campaign.
- An overall 66% decrease in LTIs and 43% decrease in Recordable Incidents
- We continue to educate our employees on safe ways of working and safety awareness through internal training.
Social
02. Employee Growth, Health and Wellness
Teraco understands the value our employees bring to our business and our communities – having an engaged and healthy workforce is vital to achieving our strategic goals:
- Our employees’ health and well-being are always top of mind.
- Supporting and upskilling our employees is an essential component of our future growth.
- Where at all possible, we promote from within.
2021 Highlights
- A successful Covid Vaccination Drive for our employees and contractors at our Johannesburg sites, with over 630 vaccines administered.
- Ongoing awareness campaigns on the Ask Nelson programme, highlighting the support available to employees and their dependents.
- 10% of our employees were supported during their tertiary studies.
- We achieved a 90% employee retention rate in 2021.
Our Initiatives
Our Human Resources team make it a priority to provide benefits and programmes that promote healthy, balanced and productive lifestyles
Teraco Company Benefits Programme – we have a comprehensive benefits programme for all permanent employees that includes Medical Aid, Life and Disability Insurance; Maternity and Paternity leave. Both our Medical Aid and Life and Disability Insurance providers have health rewards programmes in place to incentivize healthy lifestyles.
Ask Nelson – provides employees and their dependents with support and protection, creating a culture of wellness reaching beyond the workplace. The result is a passion for staying healthier physically and emotionally while encouraging engagement and loyalty. It includes a systematic programme of counselling, financial, legal and leadership support and it’s ultimately concerned with identifying, preventing and treating issues that might affect overall productivity.
Social
03. Diversity and Inclusion
Diversity and inclusion are deeply ingrained in all aspects of our mission
We believe successfully inclusive workplaces begin with thoughtful hiring and recruiting processes – we support the principle of equal opportunity and employment based on merit. The evaluation process for recruitment is based on training, skills, competence, knowledge and the need to redress the imbalances of the past to achieve a workforce broadly representative of the South African people, including representation according to race, gender and disability.
To help foster the most inclusive climate possible, we provide a diversity forum in the form of the Teraco Employment Equity Forum that represents and advocates for our staff members.
We maintain an anti-discrimination and harassment policy which includes training for all employees at Teraco.
Teraco is a certified level 2 BBBEE contributor – as a South African organisation, we are committed to the spirit of empowerment and will continue to focus on improving every element of our BBBEE scorecard
Highlights
We continue to grow with the support of a diverse and vibrant workforce:
- We have 46% female representation on Teraco Executive Leadership Team
- We hired 61 new employees in 2021
- We retained our Level 2 BBBEE Contributor Status
Total Employees
Employees by Gender
Employee Ethnicity
Social
04. Community Upliftment
Uplifting Our Communities
Teraco is committed to being an active member of and giving back to the communities we operate in:
- We initiate and support community investments and educational programmes.
- We strive to invest more than R10 million annually in funding to support community causes.
- We encourage and provide opportunities for employees to contribute to our communities.
South African Broadband Education Networks
Enabling the Digital Transformation of South Africa’s Schools and Colleges
Teraco has pledged a support grant valued at R7.5m to the SABEN via the Teraco Connect Foundation:
- South African Broadband Education Networks (SABEN) is a non-profit company serving school networks and the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sectors in South Africa. It is purpose-built to solve the digital requirements of these sectors.
- Over the next five years, Teraco will partner with SABEN to support the national drive to end bandwidth poverty among South Africa’s schools and public TVET colleges.
- The grant provides SABEN with a physical presence in Teraco data centres in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg. It gives the schools and colleges direct network access to Platform Teraco, where the institutions will benefit from a highly secure and direct interconnection to Africa’s largest digital ecosystem.
Teraco Initiatives
The Teraco Connect Foundation
Consistent with the Open Access social investment mandate, the Teraco Connect Foundation has four primary areas of focus:
The Tomorrow Trust
Supporting Orphaned and Vulnerable Children through their Educational Journey
Teraco in partnership with the Tomorrow Trust participates in the following programmes:
| Matric Pass Rate | Number of Learners | Bachelor Pass | Diploma Pass | Higher Certificate | |
| 2021 | 91% | 97 | 67 | 14 | 5 |
| Total number of Learners impacted in past 10 years | – | 863 | 648 | 139 | 31 |
Skills Development & Learnership
Our focus was on the journey of 100 unemployed students (50 based in Limpopo / 50 based in Northwest Province) who are to be enrolled in a Pivotal Skills program through the MICT Seta to complete a 12-month Learnership studying a Computer Technician course as well as 50 employed students who will be undertaking an Internship studying Computer Network and Systems Engineering based in the Limpopo province.
Both Pivotal Skills programs will be managed by Level-1 BBBEE program managers who provide learning and development solutions to positively impact the well-being of employed or unemployed learners.
Supplier Development
Teraco is privileged to be a founding partner of the Tshimologong Precinct
As Africa’s largest data centre, Teraco supports the foresight and vision of Wits University and the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE) in creating a vibrant digital technology hub in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. Tshimologong will support much-needed skills development, job creation, entrepreneurship and the rejuvenation of Johannesburg’s inner city. Tshimologong, meaning new beginnings in Setswana, is an initiative by Wits University through its Johannesburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE).
The Precinct will provide an exciting environment that sees programmers, designers, developers and entrepreneurs congregating in a half-city block in Braamfontein. Teraco is a strategic partner with the likes of Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Telkom, ACSA and the City of Johannesburg.
For more information, please visit www.jcse.org.za/hub.
Teraco also supports the following additional businesses under various projects: BCNK, KMJ Services, Njinjicom, and Sukuma.
Enterprise Development
Teraco has chosen to support independent supplier enterprises with a turnover of less than R50m and black ownership greater than 51% to help smaller businesses and encourage the growth of these enterprises, which will, in turn, create jobs and economic opportunities for black-owned supplier companies and black entrepreneurs.
As part of this program, the Teraco Connect Trust supports: Collaborate Business Solutions, Lyca Xfinity, S’Fikile Consulting, Two-Seven-Six Main Street, Voimar, and Umzinyathi Telecommunications.
Highlights
R18m
Teraco has donated R18m to programs and organisations in 2021
Education
- Teraco Connect Bursary Scheme – provides bursary opportunities to deserving members of a broader Teraco community.
- Hosted 13 Teraco Tech Days in 2021 – a community initiative for the good of the Internet.
- 100 MICT learnerships – for unemployed students funded in 2022.
Charitable Donations (2021)
- R1m – To the Solidarity Fund (COVID relief)
- R3.4m – to The Tomorrow Trust
- R1m – In support of ending broadband poverty in South Africa’s schools and colleges
Supplier & Enterprise Development (2021)
- R7.5m – In SME BBBEE enterprise development spend and support in the ICT space
- R5m – In SME BBBEE supplier development spend and support in the ICT space
