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Harmony Clinic 26 May 2025





Your WSP is more than just paperwork - it’s your roadmap for employee skills development and a key to unlocking the skills development component of the BBBEE Scorecard. A well-prepared WSP not only boosts business performance but also helps close the skills gap among historically disadvantaged groups, driving inclusive economic growth.
Your WSP-ATR isn’t just a formality - it’s vital to your business’s sustainability and competitiveness. Neglect it at your peril.
If your company’s payroll exceeds R500k per annum, you must be registered to pay skills development levies (SDL). Submitting a WSP and ATR allows you to claim back 20% of the SDL via a grant from your Seta and, critically, secure 20 points on your BBBEE scorecard.
Your ATR measures your training progress against the previous year’s WSP, making it a key indicator of skills development within your company.
To ensure a smooth submission, your WSP-ATR must include:
Miss the deadline, and your business takes a massive hit. Here’s what’s at stake:
The loss of the 20 skills development points by not submitting your WSP-ATR on time will see your BBBEE level drop by two levels – your level 2 gets demoted to level 4 – with serious repercussions for your current and future business opportunities especially in the government, corporate and public sectors. No submission, no points. And any grant linked to the WSP will then also be suspended for the following year until the submission window opens again.
In essence you’re losing the benefits of two years of L&D investment, not just one.
Picture this: A company spends over R900k on training and development during the year and starts with their BBBEE verification just a few weeks ahead of the WSP submission deadline.
However, the business has no WSP in place for the coming year, no skills audits were done, nor is there any documented ATR for their training spend. This means that not only is all their L&D investment for the current year lost in terms of their BBBEE points, but they will have to wait another year to submit their WSP.
The business then decides to register a rushed learnership programme rollout before their financial year-end to make up for the error in terms of their lost skills development spend - however this provides no benefit for the current year as the learnerships will not be implemented and completed before the Feb financial year-end – which means none of the spend will fall within the current financial year. Two levels on their BBBEE scorecard are wiped out with the loss of 20 points.
There’s another big opportunity cost. By not planning ahead and having their WSP in place, the business also loses the opportunity to implement learnerships for their own employees, which would have meant their employees could improve their skills and productivity, while the business could have allocated the spend on their learnership training AND the salaries of their employed learners towards their skills development spend!
Overall, the lack of planning and knee-jerk reaction to rectify it will cost the business three times more in L&D spend than necessary.
The HR and financial directors will find themselves in a tough spot accounting to their board for the gross oversight and lack of planning.
A WSP-ATR submission isn’t just about ticking boxes for BBBEE compliance. When done right, it’s a powerful strategic tool that helps businesses build a skilled workforce, gain competitive advantage, and drive economic transformation.
It’s time to ditch the last-minute scramble and start using WSPs to fuel business growth, create jobs, and develop real, in-demand skills.