The influence of capacity building on employment equity implementation and employee performance : a case of a private company in the financial industry

Abstract

Balancing employment equity with employee performance stands as the prominent pressing challenge facing Human Resources Managers in South Africa. The rise in demand of employment equity appointees and the lack of skills and accommodation amongst these employees hamper employment equity implementation and their performances at the workplace. For this reason, a pool of employees from the designated groups remain stuck at the unskilled and semi-skilled skills levels. Hence, in the South African context and against this background, the purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of capacity building on employment equity implementation and employee performance in the financial industry in South Africa, with Ithala Development Finance Corporation Limited serving as a case study. For the purpose of this study, the mixed methods research design was utilised, adopting concurrent triangulation. The main data collection instrument was the questionnaire, while individual interviews were undertaken on a selective basis with a limited number of respondents. For the quantitative part of this study, the target population equated to 302 employees and a sample size of n=172 was considered appropriate. In respect of the qualitative part of this study, the target population was 10 respondents comprised of line managers and human resource personnel. Eight respondents were selected from this group. Inferential statistics were used in this study to test hypotheses and predictions. The key findings revealed that capacity building is imperative in promoting the implementation of employment equity and improving equity-employee performance. The key findings also indicated that a culture of fairness is crucial in the organisation particularly in terms of opportunities for all employees. The notable key findings from the interviews revealed that employees from designated groups also neglect the available professional development programmes offered by the employer, which indicates that they are also personally not prepared to take up new challenges. Thus, based on the empirical findings in this study, an integrated model was developed which is useful for future organisational plans. The outcomes and recommendations of the study may prove beneficial for future goal-oriented strategies by human resource managers at Ithala Development Finance Corporation Limited and may also prove useful to other companies with similiar organisational settings. The study contributed new insights and builds the knowledge base on how capacity building influences Employment Equity implementation and equity-employee performance. The study concluded that future studies should be conducted with more than one organisation so that the results can be generalised.