Sallies Industrial Minerals streamlines social compliance reporting with Insite
Insite helps South African mining company glean social compliance insights with ease
Sallies Industrial Minerals (Sallies) mines aggregates, dolomite, fluorspar, gypsum, limestone and silica quartz for a variety of markets, ranging from major corporations to commercial and small-scale farmers, across South Africa and the broader sub-Sahara region.
Holding mining rights at four key operations, Sallies has firmly established its presence in open-cast mining, industrial minerals processing, and agricultural inputs.
In South Africa, regulatory requirements around social compliance obligations have continued to change, and the diversity of information across the four mining operations has increased. For the Sallies team, this made managing and reporting on social compliance data increasingly cumbersome.
Recognising the need for a more comprehensive solution, Jaco Erasmus, Group Manager Technical at Sallies, engaged acQuire in 2021 to implement Insite, a social compliance solution. Jaco, alongside Hendrik du Plessis, then Social and Legal Compliance Manager turned Chief Financial Officer at Sallies, undertook the process of implementing Insite to remove the complexity from their social compliance reporting processes.
Managing social compliance data in a complex regulatory environment
The South African mining industry is governed by multiple sets of legislation with overlapping outcomes, but the legislation is administered by different government departments. The Sallies team found they were spending hours extracting and organising relevant data for specific regulations.
Prior to implementing Insite at Sallies, the management of social compliance data across its four sites was hosted in Excel. Jaco, involved in various other aspects of the business such as product development and quality assurance, found himself grappling with an intricate web of regulatory systems and a lack of transparency of Sallies’ compliance status across the operations.
“I could barely keep up. The regulatory system constantly changes and with three to four sets of legislation that overlap and have similar outcomes, but are administered to different government departments, you’re juggling a lot,” Jaco said.
“Compliance isn’t something people enjoy. It’s not about making money or running your business, but it is your licence to operate so it is business critical.”
“For us, our biggest challenge was getting the valid and correct data into, and then extracting that information out of, Excel. It’s difficult to build the same infrastructure as a data management solution in Excel, that caters to specific regulations, that you can pull reports from,” Hendrik said.
Discovering a single source of truth
Sallies decided to implement Insite, bringing their business data together into a single source of truth. Leading this process, Hendrik worked with internal stakeholders and Audrey Steenkamp, acQuire’s Commercial Account Manager Lead for Insite, to gain control over their social compliance reporting processes.
For Sallies, Insite featured a simple user interface and a means of structuring data from departments, such as human resources, procurement, training and local economic development, in one place.
“We have multiple reporting frameworks with multiple authorities, so to try to make sense of what data is required and where it belongs is quite a difficult task. Insite makes it clear what must go in a report, whether that’s for your Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment, Mining Charter Scorecard, or Social and Labour Plan report. It not only helps you organise your data but, in a sense, also your mind and how you can understand and interpret social compliance information,” Hendrik said.
Easing the burden of compliance reporting
The implementation of Insite not only streamlined the reporting process but also alleviated the burden of compliance reporting for Sallies. Insite’s structured data approach eased the generation of reports and facilitated the incorporation of regulatory changes into reporting seamlessly, reducing the time spent amending reporting targets and collecting appropriate data for Hendrik and the Sallies team.
“Keeping data in a structured way makes generating reports much easier,” Jaco said.
“If you capture your data correctly with every new supplier and employee, it shouldn’t add to your workload,” Hendrik added.
“If your data is correct and up to date, your reporting is a non-event. However, if it’s not ready then come reporting time, it’s a big issue that requires a lot of time and resources to build and sign off on each report. Insite doesn’t take the responsibility of reporting away from the business itself, but it’s there to simplify the process and support us.”
Partnering with acQuire to get the most out of Insite
Insite provides structure for organising and reporting on social compliance data, meaning Jaco, Hendrik and the wider Sallies team can understand their compliance status quickly and with ease, spending less time on reporting and more time on areas of business improvements and technological advancements for the business.
Through collaborative efforts within the business, the various departments required to report on their social compliance data are working together to maximise the benefits of Insite for their business needs.
Insite’s value extends beyond being a reporting tool; it’s a solution backed by a team offering a wealth of expertise and experience in the South African mining industry, through acQuire.
“Insite is a great reporting tool, but you still need people with intimate knowledge of the South African mining industry and regulatory framework because things do come up and can become burdensome very quickly. That’s where Audrey’s knowledge and experience were invaluable. It’s not just the technology; it’s the people and processes behind it.”
Find out more about Insite
If you’d like to learn more about how Insite can help you transform business data into social compliance insights, get in touch with acQuire.
