Company Announcement - The Resolve Transport Management System call centre is a hive of activity, abuzz with calls, answers and problem-solving solutions from its predominantly black female operators as they expedite Imperial customer distribution activities from minute to minute. It is a new world here and it reflects the ongoing success of Imperial’s commitment to ever increasing transformation and empowerment in its companywide efforts to improve the lives of its employees, particularly those of black women.

The turnaround, not only in the fortunes of the black women who make up the large majority of the staff complement at Resolve’s call centre, but in the efficiency and overall productivity of the call centre, is well worth celebrating this Women’s Month. Resolve TMS evolved from the former Imperial Distribution and since that time has more than doubled its staff complement. Of these, over 60% are black women. This is a demographic that has not historically been represented in the logistics industry and Imperial is proud to be leading the way. Some years back, Imperial Distribution recognised the requirement for TMS and within this requirement identified an opportunity to attract, employ and develop BEE candidates. From humble beginnings of managing just over 250 vehicles a day to managing over 1500 vehicle a day the planning and call centre has seen an enormous growth in overall business and today continues to thrive and expand as Resolve TMS.

Resolve has adopted a hands-on approach to training employees in the call centre and the experience and know-how they have acquired during this process has set them up to advance their careers exponentially; enhance the quality of their lives and advance their education. Employees at the call centre are exposed to all aspects of the business, from vehicle monitoring to customer liaison, equipping them with new and diverse skill sets that will without doubt open doors for them in many other areas of the Group’s operations. However, such is the level of job satisfaction and camaraderie within Resolve that of all the black women that have joined and been appointed in the past few years, only 5% have left; and of these, all have moved on to senior positions in other companies.

Many of the black female appointees who make up the majority of the call centre have had  limited working experience, but Imperial’s commitment to transformation and the empowerment of black women is so effective that they have flourished and are now valued employees. Of the original core group of 80, 12% have been promoted into management positions within the call centre. Courses are offered to black women employees on an on-going basis and eight of them have had the opportunity to pursue courses as supervisors or advance their education in logistics. Resolve is also happy to report that they have recently been able to appoint five disabled individuals in permanent positions after they had successfully completed our learnership programme.

Resolve has not only made a huge difference to the professional lives of all our women, we have helped them emerge socially amongst their peers as confident out-going people who are now contributing significantly to the lives of their own families and communities.