South African telecommunications service provider Telkom has announced an increase of 3,7% in its Group net revenue to R28-billion and a 15,5% increase in normalised headlines earnings for the year ended 31 March 2016. This, the company says, signals the conclusion of a successful three-year turnaround strategy.

According to results Telkom SA reduced its EBITDA loss from R2-billion in 2013 to R43 million this year, and said its operating revenue has grown 13,9% to R37,3-billion.

Growth was boosted by solid performance from its data services and the inclusion of Business Connexion (BCX) in the group consolidation, according to the company.

The telco also experienced a 2% decline in voice usage and subscriptions revenue, with more consumer investment in mobile services to replace fixed lines.

Its capital outlay increased by 17% to R6-billion because of investment in fibre, LTE & mobile, IT systems, maintenance and rehabilitation, and service-on-demand.

Employee expenses

The turnaround strategy has also been marked by a series of negotiations and engagements between Telkom SA and trade unions as the company's staff became central to the process.

In March the company was part of a CCMA (The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration)-facilitated consultation over a pending Section 189 process that would have placed 300 jobs at risk.

At the time Solidarity Deputy General Secretary Marius Croucamp told ITWeb Africa that the organisation was looking to save each one of the 300 jobs during the negotiations because Telkom is not in a position to reduce its labour force.

According to Telkom SA, over the past financial year 3, 878 employees accepted voluntary severance packages (VSPs) and voluntary early retirement packages (VERPs) and a further 437 employees were affected by outsourcing.

"As a result, Telkom company employee expenses reduced by 10%," the company expressed in a statement.

Telkom Group CEO Sipho Maseko said, "We have been mindful to retain key skills and attract new talent, especially scarce and business critical skills. Our investment in training and development is key to our efforts to transform our culture and ensure that we achieve our strategic objective of equipping our employees with the appropriate skills and experience to put our customers first in a very competitive ICT environment. We are well underway with our culture shaping programme, which began with the leadership. We believe our efforts in this regard will have a positive impact on all our employees, increasing both productivity and internal brand commitment."

Maseko added that the company will focus aggressively on fibre roll out in the year ahead, and the implementation of what it calls its "flexible and agile" operating model.

This will involve the recruitment of new interns, a process spearheaded by the launch of an 'online guerrilla marketing campaign' in June.

Telkom's Group Executive for Communication and Public Relations, Jacqui O'Sullivan said, "Throughout our turnaround, we have been mindful to retain and attract new talent, especially scarce and business critical skills. It is now necessary that we focus on becoming a company whose employees would like to recommend Telkom as a good place to work, as well as recommending our products and services to their friends and colleagues. Our culture shaping programme, which began with our leadership, is now well underway. We are adopting innovative ways to recruit talent. The Guerrilla style recruitment programme introduced a new perspective on recruitment and looked to reward unconventional thinking. We secured eight young and talented interns and look forward to helping them unlock more of their potential."