Our people

Datatec employs over 11 000 people in more than 50 countries across the world. The Group strives to attract and retain the best talent, and recognises that it is imperative to ensure that its people are prioritised. We believe in maintaining a fair, inclusive culture; and in ensuring that our employees have optimal working conditions and opportunities for growth and development. Through Responsible Business, we create opportunities for our employees through our diversity, equity and inclusion programmes; ensuring employee wellbeing, health and safety; and striving to be a great place to work.

Datatec is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to a working environment that is free from discrimination. We recognise the importance of purposefully embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion into our ways of working across our Group. This remains a consistent, growing focus and is shaping the values that have come to define the culture of Datatec.

Westcon International

Westcon International strives to be a place that people want to join and love to stay. It has created an inclusive culture where its people can feel and do their best. Westcon International welcomes employees of every background, race, creed and orientation and gives them equitable access to skills and development training to help them reach their full potential.

Diversity, equity and inclusion

Westcon International’s culture is built on a foundation of inclusion. The ONE Westcon programme raises awareness internally and supports in areas relating to diversity, equality and inclusion. It enables Westcon International’s people to celebrate its diversity globally and ensure its employees feel included and respected regardless of their, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, physical conditions, cultural background, or country of origin.

As a global business, Westcon International believes that through providing an inclusive environment, its employees will be motivated to make outstanding contributions and that the best environment comes from a workforce that reflects the world around us. Different ideas and perspectives help the division innovate, learn, thrive and grow in a sustainable way. That is why the executive team and entire organisation is fully committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace.

Westcon International’s leadership charter demonstrates individual commitment at the top of the business to diversity and inclusion, and sets the standards and expectations to be followed throughout all levels of the division. Westcon International has a commitment to:

• Drive the ONE Westcon agenda and strategic priorities.
• Promote an inclusive workplace where all employees have equal access and opportunity to achieve their potential.
• Promote industry-leading initiatives focused on increased representation of diverse groups at all role levels.
• Ensure all managers and leaders of its business undertake appropriate training in relation to diversity and inclusion.
• Hold relevant business leaders and functions accountable for taking appropriate action where feedback and improvements are identified.
• Celebrate and share success stories for the benefit of employees and the wider cause within the industry.

Recruiting the best talent

Westcon International’s strategy clearly articulates that the core strength of its division is its people. Attracting, developing and retaining the best employees across its international business will enable Westcon International to deliver its business priorities and goals.

After the effects of the global pandemic, Westcon International is committed to establishing and maintaining a hybrid working environment with remote/home working flexibility as a part of its talent retention approach in a changing world of “work is what you do…not where you do it”.

Supportive environment

Employee wellbeing is a priority, encompassing physical, mental and emotional, community and social, as well as financial wellbeing. Westcon International is committed to a wellbeing vision, that will enable the division to support its employees’ health and talent outcomes in order to maintain long-term performance and achieve its strategic business objectives.

Mental health awareness is a year-round focus with regular communications and events. Employee engagement is a key focus and an annual employee survey is conducted to get a better understanding of employee morale, satisfaction and engagement. Open and honest feedback is encouraged which is fundamental to shaping Westcon International’s development. Survey responses have been instrumental in setting direction for future key focus areas and ultimately make Westcon International more successful and an even better place to work.

The health and wellbeing employee resource group encourages a habitual, well-balanced lifestyle and provides support to employees. Members can share experiences and thoughts on mental health and wellbeing. Some offices have opened “calm rooms”, which provide a calming, stress-free space for staff to meditate, look after their mental health and relax. These rooms are equipped with various calming features, such as sound machines, fleece blankets and seasonal adjustment disorder lamps.

Significant investments towards employee assistance programmes have been made in various locations. One example is provision of 24/7 telephone counselling, 365 days a year to employees and their households.

People development

Westcon International launched its new learning and development policy in the latter part of FY23, which has been incorporated into its learning and development strategy in FY24. Through equitable access to skills and development training, it is supporting and growing its pool of experts and empowering people to reach their potential. This is executed through ongoing training opportunities, leadership and development training, diversity, equity and inclusion training, and promoting employee health and wellbeing.

During the year, training budgets were increased globally to support continued investment in leadership and development training. As a people-oriented business, this training helps managers lead and support teams across the globe. By leveraging technology and providing comprehensive guidance and support, numerous training programmes have been delivered from onboarding to leadership, cyber security to environmental social governance.

Westcon International’s employees come from many different backgrounds and cultures. Those differences are considered through numerous diversity, equity and inclusion training initiatives, with over 1 880 employees enrolled on these programmes.

Early careers

Westcon International’s global Level Up programme is designed to attract interns, graduates and apprentices to enhance their ability to follow their chosen career path in the future. Apprenticeships are offered in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, the Middle East, South Africa, Singapore, China, Taiwan, Thailand and North America.

• The apprenticeship scheme in the UK continues to be a success, with apprentices working in our Finance team.
• The intern programme in Spain for FY24 resulted in success as two out of the four interns on the Iberia programme were hired into roles in the Support Services Team.
• A group of 18 interns were welcomed as part of the Telefonica initiative. In collaboration with the Tomillo Foundation, this initiative arose with the objective of integrating students in internships to help the interns put into practice what they learned in their studies in a dynamic and real environment. Five out of the eighteen students have been hired into roles. They have continued to work with us with the same enthusiasm as day one. We are incredibly happy to have them on the team.
• Several new interns commenced their internships at various other locations in Europe, and with two more interns being hired in North America.
• Westcon International New Zealand continues its engagement with talent partner, TupuToa, focusing on increasing the number of Mãori and Pacific leadership within New Zealand. A number of interns have been taken on in the last 12 months from TupuToa.
• Eleven learners in South Africa have accepted permanent roles with either Westcon International SA or its supplier and enterprise development partners.

Developing talent

In Logicalis, the focus on advanced technologies requires a high level of technical expertise. Its leadership teams work closely with its strategic partners to ensure that employees are trained appropriately and have the necessary accreditations. Logicalis also recognises the important role of leaders across the organisation and in 2023 developed and launched a new Global Leadership Framework. The work for embedding the global leadership framework continued throughout FY24, with the framework becoming an integral part to all leadership programmes content and design. Logicalis also aligned with the framework when redesigning the values with the creation of ‘Better Together’ which sits at the heart of the framework model.

Following the approval from the Board in FY23, Logicalis developed a new ‘Leadership Capability’ programme in FY24. The programme was designed to address the fundamental skills and capabilities required by leaders. The programme was successfully piloted in September 2023. Logicalis have since followed up with a ‘Train the Facilitator’ programme, equipping countries to deploy the programme in country and internally reducing external spend and driving accountability in the business to invest and develop its leaders.

Logicalis continued to run its Global Leadership Academy and the High Potential programmes.

Continuous listening to employees

To enable Logicalis to understand what its employees think and feel about working for Logicalis, a continuous listening “Pulse” platform gives business leaders access to real-time feedback and analytics from their teams, where improvement opportunities can be easily identified in each operation, followed up by action plans which managers and employees agree upon together. In FY24, Logicalis conducted a review of the questions in Peakon and is investigating the frequency and type of questions to ensure that reliable data is received from the platform. In FY25, Logicalis will complete this exercise along with the introduction of values aligned questions.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion

Logicalis recognises that when people from diverse backgrounds work together, the more innovative and creative that team is likely to be. It has therefore made a commitment to increase the number of women and minority groups in the division; rooted in the belief that each Logicalis employee is accountable for the continued creation of a diverse, inclusive and high-performing culture.

Logicalis’ Global Inclusion Council is a team of global leaders who drive the creation of strategic accountability and actions to help deliver diversity, equity and inclusion (“DE&I”) objectives, provide governance and oversight on diversity efforts, and promote division-wide communication on progress. The council continues to work to identify more opportunities for Logicalis to grow and enhance its culture so all employees feel valued and can thrive.

Logicalis is invested in processes to attract more diverse candidates to facilitate diverse talent selection. It continues to roll out training programmes and courses, which include unconscious bias, the impact of micro-behaviours in the workplace, and inclusive leadership training. It has also rolled further training on DE&I specific topics. Employee resource groups (“ERG”) are an integral part of Logicalis’s DE&I strategy to support its diverse employee population across the world.

The employee assistance programmes unique to each Logicalis operation provide professional support in various areas such as emotional support, legal information, financial support, psychological support, medical information, wellbeing assessments, health and nutrition information. The employee assistance programmes strengthen Logicalis’s commitment to employee wellbeing and its EVP.

Internships

The marketing and sales apprenticeship programme in Logicalis UK concluded in FY24, with two out of the four apprentices transitioning into permanent roles. The programme is undergoing evaluation for FY25.

Logicalis Hong Kong offered a three-month internship to finalyear university students and recent university graduates, providing them with industry exposure, on-the-job training and prospects for permanent employment.

Packet Systems Indonesia hosted nine university students for an internship in FY24, offering the students hands-on experience, networking opportunities and an environment for that supports personal and professional growth.

Logicalis Taiwan onboarded two female interns in the Sales and Business Development Departments.

Unconscious bias training is mandatory for all new hires in Brazil. Brazil also has three affinity groups: LogiWomen, LogiBold and LogiPride which focus on education and offer a safe, inclusive and diverse environment. Logicalis Brazil has also held various DE&I virtual panels.

Logicalis Latin America offers an EAP which offers expert support (phone, app or website) to employees and their families for psychological, emotional, social, financial, legal and nutritional issues. The organisation continued to implement inperson health screenings at its offices and offered the employees the chance to receive their flu vaccines.

In FY25, the DE&I and employee wellbeing plans for Logicalis Latin America include continuity of the current initiatives such as unconscious bias training, strengthening the role of the ERGs with senior leadership sponsorship, internships, apprenticeships, the Level Up programme and the employee assistance programme. In addition, Logicalis Latin America will focus on replicating programmes that have been implemented in Logicalis Brazil in other operations, the launch of the fourth ERG focused on Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia (“PCD”) and Neurodiversity and the inclusion of the “Breaking Biases” training in the mandatory DE&I training.