DOTACTIV CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

A company's measure of success goes beyond its bottom line. 

Today, how a company gives back to its community, positively impacting the environment and acting for the greater good - not just for profit - is critical. That’s where the corporate social responsibility of DotActiv comes in.

What is corporate responsibility? 

Corporate social responsibility, also known as CSR, is the concept that a company is responsible for doing good. CSR means that a company should self-regulate its actions and be socially accountable to its customers, stakeholders, and the world. 

But what does this mean in practice?

At DotActiv, we currently focus on seven core CSR areas, which cover our ethical, economic and environmental responsibility.

1. Ethical Responsibility: We have an unwavering commitment to our values and ethics

Our values are the soul of our organisation, and our soul is not for sale. 

We didn't come up with DotActiv's values randomly. Instead, we considered each carefully to lay the foundation for our current and future success. They are in place for us to establish and maintain structure and have a healthy balance between colleagues, customers and shareholders.

Our values come from a family mindset that promotes:

 

• Trust, 
• Respect, 
• Teamwork, 
• Recognition, 
• Continuous improvement, and 
• Personal growth.

 

We believe that a quality culture starts at the top and filters down.

No company is perfect, and we are no exception. But we have an unwavering commitment to upholding our values without compromise. We do this not because it makes good business sense but because we don't want to be a cold, clinical organisation that fails to see the human side.

2. Economic Responsibility: Our expanding international income creates long-term career opportunities here in South Africa

Over 2000 retail professionals in more than 110 countries trust DotActiv’s software and services to achieve their category objectives. We deliver meaningful and measurable results for the retail industry across the world. 

Our Board of Directors are deeply committed to developing and implementing strategies that continue to pave the way towards achieving our mission. Our talented and passionate Management Team work tirelessly to achieve our mission by implementing strategies and enabling our colleagues to be bold in serving the needs of our global customer base. 

As a team, we are adamant about achieving our mission while not compromising on the values that form the foundation of our unique culture. 

It allows DotActiv to explore more global opportunities, which means we benefit from sustainable economic growth and employment opportunities within South Africa. It ultimately proves that we serve our clients with long-term satisfaction and long-term career growth for our colleagues.

3. Economic Responsibility: Our investment in training translates to meaningful learning opportunities for young professionals

Our CEO, Kyle Dorfling, says: “One of the things that makes me so excited about our company is seeing and enabling people to grow and flourish. When people grow, it's extremely rewarding which is why this is such a big part of DotActiv’s overall purpose.”

Yet another exciting way that DotActiv ensures inclusivity and transparency for our talented colleagues is by investing in their future. 

There are a few things more daunting than starting in a new role right after completing your studies and feeling like you have no idea how to overcome this transition period. We ensure fair and quality training materials for our young professionals wanting to make a lasting impact. 

We believe in a learning culture and sharing knowledge, which forms part of our values. Adopting a learning culture impacts the long-term success and economic sustainability of DotActiv directly.

4. Economic Responsibility: We sponsored external studies to complement your career at DotActiv and beyond

At DotActiv, we want to create a culture of learning, and how could we achieve this if we did not promote furthering your education? That’s why we value continuous learning and encourage anyone who wants to study further. 

We offer opportunities to assist our employees with the costs associated with further education and paid study leave. The aim is to ensure that DotActiv supports anyone within the company who wants to take up valuable and relevant external studies. 

We recognise the organisational benefits of encouraging professional development amongst our colleagues. 

Our commitment to professional development reaps many benefits, including: 

 

• Decrease in staff turnover, 
• Strengthened company-wide commitment, and 
• Reduction in skills gaps by upskilling the workforce.

 

We also recognise that our colleagues might have career dreams, and we want to help them achieve these. By helping our colleagues attain their goals, we can assist them in creating meaningful careers with us while creating a workforce filled with talented individuals on a mission to achieve their purpose.

5. Environmental Responsibility: We embrace working from home to reduce our carbon footprint

In early 2020, COVID-19 forced businesses into a widespread lockdown, including DotActiv.

Since working from home, we've witnessed an environmental benefit - a reduction in carbon emissions from people commuting to and from offices. Once the hard lockdown ended, we adopted hybrid work, allowing our non-customer-facing colleagues to continue working remotely to reduce their environmental footprint.

It not only has the benefit of lowering fossil fuel consumption derived from less commuter traffic but also allows us to save on costs surrounding fixed assets and office-related expenses.

6. Economic Responsibility: We empower women in the workplace

Striving for equality and diversity is an ongoing effort. We believe in empowering our female colleagues in the workplace to have control over their careers. 

What’s more impressive is that even though we are a software technology company, our business comprises 74% women (as of November 2022). Yip, you read right - 74%.

We recognise that we can invest in many other ways to promote equality, diversity, and female empowerment, but here are some of the strategies that we have implemented thus far:

 

• We make a point to diversify positions of leadership,
• We pay equal wages for equal work and experience, irrespective of gender,
• We continuously improve and implement inclusive policies, such as fair family planning policies,
• We promote an environment of safe and open communication, and
• We mentor and support each other.

 

7. Economic Responsibility: We have transparent salary brackets and job gradings

At DotActiv, we believe in being transparent, fair and ethical. That is why we have a job grading system in place. This system ensures that we are objective when deciding on new hires, promotions, and increases.

A Job Grade is a method to decide the impact, seniority, and expectations for a specific role. In the best cases, a Job Grade will reflect the knowledge, skills, and responsibility needed to perform the job. Thus, when we create a job profile, we often start with the job grading exercise to determine the day-to-day tasks involved in this role. 

It involves determining the complexity, decision-making, and skills level required for each job, which is then categorised accordingly. We don’t look at the person but rather at the role.

The idea behind having such a system in place is to ensure that we have an objective method which allows our employees to grow. Our job grading system allows for lateral growth (moving between the bands within a grade i.e with experience or an increase) and vertical growth (moving up to a new job grade, i.e promotion).