Clicks Group HR director Bertina Engelbrecht nominated for CHRO Awards

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Overseeing the introduction of the ESOP programme is one of Bertina's highlights since joining the company.

Clicks Group HR director Bertina Engelbrecht has been nominated for the CHRO Awards, which will be taking place on 27 November 2019. With more than 20 years’ management experience, Bertina has occupied senior management and leadership positions in a variety of private the public-sector companies. Prior to her current role, she has been a general manager for Shell SA Energy and the regional human resources manager for Shell Oil Products Africa. Prior to this, Bertina was director of organisational effectiveness at Sea arvest, has managed her own consultancy practice, and also spent eight years with Transnet.

Her involvement in the introduction of an Employee Share Ownership Programme (ESOP) at Clicks is one of the things that Bertina has been most proud of in her time at the company.   

The point of departure was to find a way to advance the transformation agenda of the organisation while also supporting the attraction and retention of scarce and critical skills. They also wanted to find a way to reward the loyalty of people who had been involved in building the company over an extended period of time. The share scheme was the answer. That said, very few companies had been able to get their ESOPs right, with many coming under criticisms for being skewed more towards the interests of management than those of employees. However, Clicks seems to have got it right, having made the first payout this year wherein employees received the first half of their benefit, the value of which amounted to almost double their annual salaries.  

“When we started the programme in 2011, we were not the most empowered or diverse organisation in terms of gender equity but we have achieved that since then and that is reflected in the fact that more than 60 percent of our employees are now female,” says Bertina

Clicks Group is a retail-led healthcare group which is listed on the JSE. Through market-leading retail brands Clicks, GNC, The Body Shop, Claire's and Musica, the group has over 650 stores across southern Africa. Clicks Group is a leader in the healthcare market where Clicks has the largest retail pharmacy chain with over 374 in-store pharmacies, while UPD is South Africa's leading full-range national pharmaceutical wholesaler.

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