If you’re an employer in South Africa who employs between 50 and 150 or more employees, you are required by law to submit an Employment Equity Report for 2022 to the Department of Labour, either annually or bi-annually (depending on your workforce size).
But, even if you’re willing and able to report on your transformation progress, you still need to make sure you’re prepared before you start the submission process, which can be long and arduous.
Here’s a checklist of everything you need to be prepared for your employment equity report submission.
Your updated and current employment equity plan
This plan is critical to your business – and your reporting process. It needs to outline how you will implement affirmative action, what you have planned for transformation in your business, what your specific, measurable, attainable and time-bound targets are, and how you are going to achieve them. The plan should be easy to understand, communicated to all employees and include representation from all levels. This will form the basis of your transformational goals – and should be front and centre when you’re reporting.
All forms and supporting documents
As part of your report, you will be required to fill in various forms. The EEA2 Report form is 12 pages and will ask for details around, among other things, workforce profiles, occupational categories, occupational levels; which includes numbers of employees in different positions, employees with disabilities etc, workforce movements, disciplinary actions and skills development and training. The EEA4 form is an income differential statement. You will also need to supply the relevant supporting documents.
Relevant stakeholder involvement
You will need to report on lot of information, and all relevant stakeholders will need to be consulted and available to give feedback where needed. Forms also must be completed fully and signed by the Chief Executive/Accounting officer, who should be on hand when it’s time to submit.
Capacity and resources
Employment Equity Reports adhere to strict submission deadlines, and there are penalties for late submissions (or for not submitting at all!). Before you start, you need to ensure you have the capacity to complete the task, so that it doesn’t fall to the wayside. It’s also imperative to get expert advice where needed. You will need an experienced person to review the forms to ensure compliance and consistency. And, if they understand the labour law process, it would be even better! Remember: Once the reports have been submitted, you cannot make any changes, so it needs to be right the first time.
Need guidance?
At Nova, we understand that submitting an employment equity report can be daunting and difficult (not to mention time consuming). And, the deadline for the 2022 submissions is 15 January 2023! Luckily, we can offer Employment Equity support, by drafting your EE plan, forming your committee, facilitating your first meeting, drafting the related policies and managing your reporting submission process.
