Sasol Reviews

Pros

Sasol is a well established (60 years) business with stability in its operations and its commitment as a responsible employer.
Sasol’s pro-employee approach made it a good employer, even in the most challenging economic conditions, accommodating employees even beyond what would be expected in the most labour protective environment.
The company’s continued growth, international footprint and diversity of operations (upstream, downstream/chemicals, R&D, new energy, retail, etc) makes it a company where people can move, while maintaining stability while achieving personal growth.

Cons

Sasol is like most multinational companies structured for shareholder and legal requirements in such a way to comply with certain reporting requirements – this furthermore necessitates formal approval processes which can be experienced as bureaucratic.
The engineering foundation of Sasol has lead to a climate where employees (including all functional areas) are challenged to have a “scientific” justification for doing work – this can be intimidating for employees who are uncomfortable with line managers who are challenging “thinkers”.

Advice to Senior Management

Sasol has a very stable and solid value proposition for prospective employees and even investors – Sasol should learn to market it as the company is expanding globally.
Sasol is known in South Africa as one of the top companies to work, this needs to be translated to other countries and communities (with corresponding Corporate Citizenship behaviour).

Pros

Security
Fairness
Stability
The employee share scheme sasol Inzalo
Yearly incentive
The work to earn incentive regarding safety and production

Cons

Some lack of discipline in the workforce.
Inability of certain management to address poor work performance.
Massive salary differences between mining and operations

Advice to Senior Management

Bridge the gap between the operations salaries and the mining salaries.
Enforce discipline in the workplace, there are a lot of people who are unemployed.

Pros

Interesting and stimulating work as part of the global petrochemical scene
A company facing many complex challenges and good growth opportunities
Willing to take risks
Can be innovative

Cons

Complex corporate politics
Increasingly bureaucratic
Over centralisation
Senior appointments sometimes difficult to understand and better candidates are often overlooked
Very slow to stop projects once it becomes clear they are not feasible or there are better alternatives

Advice to Senior Management

There are too many time consuming and costly initiatives
More focus on a clear and compelling strategy
Review and simplify the multiple reviews and committees involved in project approvals
Cull projects which are not feasible sooner. Significant money and scarce resources have been expended on project evaluations when it is evident to team members the project is not viable or there are better alternatives.
More focus on strategy and innovation and less on executing a list of projects

Pros

Remuneration is above average compared to similar employers in the market...

Cons

The culture rewards loyalty as opposed to talent and hard work

Advice to Senior Management

The key to retaining talent is rewarding hard work and talent, not how long one has been working for the company...

Pros

Work, life balance supported and great benefits

Cons

Especially in Secunda - still very Afrikaner dominated. Afrikaans spoken in meetings, even thought none Afrikaans people are around

Advice to Senior Management

Culture of Sasol especially at the bottom levels still needs a radical shange. Nice and well to speak about how it is supposed to change, but we need action