CHRO Magazine 2020, Issue 2

FOR HR EXECUTIVES 2 | 2020 | CHRO.CO.ZA

Google HR Cluster Head Avanthi Maharaj Leading with compassion Eskom Group Executive: HR Elsie Pule Power to the people Servest Group HR Director Lungile Langa Custodians of ethics

When, why, who, and how to retrench

BARLOWORLD GROUP EXECUTIVE: HUMAN CAPITAL & TRANSFORMATION

TANTASWA FUBU COMING UP FOR AIR

YOUR INTERACTIVE COMMUNITY THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

LAUNCH EVENT Accelerate your knowledge, network & career by joining 5,000+ HR colleagues for a world-class, gamified launch day on:

VIRTUAL CONFERENCE & EXPO • 5,000 HR Professionals • 10 Impact Sessions with world-class speakers • Spectacular expo with leading tools & services • Full-day gamified event • Exciting scavenger hunts and incredible prizes

YOUR INDABA IS YOUR NETWORK A true community platform for HR professionals. Benefits include weekly webinars with content matter experts and HR leaders, regular Network Conversations and a trusted environment where HR professionals can ask questions, share thoughts and make professional connections. Registrants for the HR Indaba Network launch event will automatically gain entry to the Network.

Registration is FREE for all HR professionals.

Join world-class webinars weekly. Find out more at HR-Indaba.co.za.

Cathy Mchingaidze,

CM Legal Executive Search managing director

“Thank you for hosting such an insightful webinar. Looking forward to the others on the horizon.”

Zodwa Maila,

Dark Fibre Africa talent acquisition manager

“Great session. I am truly inspired to learn that I am not alone on the journey of self-actualisation.”

Samantha de Klerk,

Specialist Human Resources at Mercedes Benz South Africa

“Thank you for a very informative session and the tips provided!”

For more information contact: Nick Smith: nsmith@chro.co.za | +27 72 202 0171

CHRO

awards judge

Welcome Time for a mindset shift

Our world today is unlike anything we have experienced before.

Many roles have become integrated; from working and leading, to home-schooling and caretaking. How we respond impacts our clients, employees, the organisation and society.

Business leaders around the world have had to refocus their workforce strategies, priorities and programmes, and the role of the CHRO could not be more important. In a world where digitisation is being accelerated, the role of the human often comes into question: “How do we integrate human and digital?”.

The answer is embedded in the role and ability of the CHRO to lead in humanising work, the workforce and the workplace.

While we may have had disruptions to our world, we have also seen the best of individuals through their response, adaptability, flexibility, innovation, ideation and collaboration. We have the opportunity to bring the best of humanity to the fore, by embracing the future, expanding our reach and extending our influence.

As business leaders, we should be mindful and acknowledge – with care, empathy and understanding – the new reality of both our clients and our employees. We need to foster an open dialogue and open practices around wellbeing. We need to move the focus on the individual at work to the individual in work.

To start the process of integrating wellbeing into the design of work, I believe there are three critical steps that CHROs should consider, namely, establishing the right ownership for care and well-being, spending the time to understand their workforce’s wellbeing needs, and engaging employees in work design deliberations.

While no one truly knows how the pandemic will end, the decisions and actions we take today will directly shape, influence, and generate the possibilities of tomorrow. And the CHRO, focused on humanising the world of work, is a key source of strength for the future-focused organisation seeking to make the most of human capital in today’s dynamic environment.

PAM MAHARAJ DIRECTOR DELOITTE HUMAN CAPITAL CONSULTING | CHRO AWARDS JUDGE

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32 Power to the people Eskom group executive for HR Elsie Pule, who has spent the lion’s share of her career at the power utility, talks about becoming an expert in the field of performance.

48 Leading with compassion Google’s HR Cluster Head for SSA Avanthi Maharaj on how it feels to build a team across Africa that will fulfil the company’s extraordinary ambitions for the continent.

56 Custodians of ethics Servest group HR director Lungile Langa shares her views on ethical leadership.

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Woe is not me

Nerisha Charlton overcomes adversity by never feeling sorry for herself page 18

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Insight

CHRO community

22 Aadil Patel 66 Elna Van Wyk 74 Judith Kamffer

12 Meet the 2020 CHRO Awards nominees

Features 36 From #MeToo to #MeNeither 40 When crisis strikes 52 When, why, who, and how to retrench

Cover article 26 Coming up for air Tantaswa Fubu, group executive for human capital and transformation at Barloworld, shares her experiences with depression and becoming the poster girl for mental wellness.

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publishing info

CHRO SA IS SUPPORTED BY THE FOLLOWING PARTNERS Principal Partners

Media Partner

Associate Partners

Managing editor Sungula Nkabinde snkabinde@chro.co.za +27 72 741 6171 Editor in chief Georgina Guedes gguedes@cfo.co.za +27 83 651 2789 Photography Patrick Furter, Ter Hollmann Other contributors Aadil Patel, Minette Smit, Marylla Govender, Judith Kamffer, Elna Van Wyk, Caylynne Fourie, Victoria Williams, Puseletso Mompei, Advertising Nick Smith nsmith@chro.co.za +27 72 202 1071 Managing director JoĂŤl Roerig jroerig@chro.co.za +27 76 371 2856 Publisher CFO Enterprises (Pty) Ltd 1 Wedgewood Link | Bryanston | Johannesburg | 2191 | South Africa +27 11 083 7515 CHRO community CHRO South Africa is the organisation for HR executives in South Africa. Our goal is to connect finance professionals online and through events and this magazine in order to share knowledge, exchange interests and open up business opportunities. For more information and membership options please visit CHRO.co.za.

Design & Layout Elizabeth Ferraris Printing Novus Holdings Š 2020 CFO Enterprises (Pty) Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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Tugs at the heartstrings CHRO

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The sixth issue of CHRO South Africa magazine is the most moving of them all. Don’t get me wrong, with only two issues being published every year, we make an effort to make every one of them special, but this particular issue has tugged at my heartstrings like none other. This pandemic has turned our world upside down and, at times, it seems as if there will be no end to the aftermath of job cuts, deaths, and general sense of despair. But the remarkable stories included in this issue give me hope that there are still many leaders in our society who are doing everything they can to ease the economic pain and emotional suffering by finding solutions to some pretty overwhelming problems.

On page 52, for example, experts tackle the hot-potato topic of retrenchments and how best to handle this worst-case scenario that so many businesses are still contending with. CHRO SA’s very own Judith Kammfer moderated a moving webinar (page 36) alongside exceptional woman leaders who explored the #MeToo movement in a South African context and discussed the role HR should play in fighting sexual harassment and predatory behaviour in the workplace. And, as someone who battles with depression, I found our cover story particularly touching. On page 26, Barloworld group executive for human capital and transformation Tantaswa Fubu is extremely candid and open about her experience with mental illness and becoming the poster girl for mental wellness awareness at Barloworld.

Meanwhile, on page 18, Mars Africa director of people and organisation Nerisha Charlton shares her tale of raising a special needs child while handling some pretty heavy projects at work, including a restructure that rendered even herself out of a job.

Lungile Langa (page 56) explores the subject of corruption in corporate South Africa and gives her thoughts on what can be done to curb it, while on page 56, experts from academia and business delve into the subject of crisis management and how HR has responded to the challenges brought about by the pandemic.

It’s a lot. But it also makes for a reading experience that will have you racing through this magazine faster than you can say "you're still on mute".

Enjoy.

SUNGULA NKABINDE SNKABINDE@CHRO.CO.ZA +27 72 741 6171

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shorts

Study reveals SA companies’ readiness for remote working under lockdown By the time remote working became mandatory, only about a third of organisations in South Africa had rolled out a digital transformation strategy. This is according to Remote Working in South Africa 2020 – a study based on telephonic interviews with 400 South African enterprises conducted by World Wide Worx on behalf of Cisco Systems – which also found that the shift to remote working had led to improved productivity for 29 percent of organisations.

Among companies that had already rolled out digital transformation strategies prior to the pandemic, that figure leapt to a massive 70 percent. The study also found that, while only 37 percent of companies had rolled out their digital transformation strategies prior to the pandemic, 56 percent stated that their digital strategy was underway, but not yet advanced, and 95 percent confirmed that digital transformation was very important for their organisations.

Before the lockdown, 57 percent of businesses had issued less than a quarter of their staff with laptops for remote work. Only 25 percent of respondents said that more than half of their staff were given laptops for remote work. After lockdown, companies reported the latter group leapt to 53 percent, while the former dipped to 28 percent.

Khaya Ngema appointed as Transnet’s CPO

Canon SA appoints Christine Masinga as HR director

Executive pay has more than doubled in eight years

Khaya Ngema has been appointed permanently as the chief people officer at Transnet. Khaya joined Transnet as the chief strategy officer in 2017 and was given the role of acting chief people officer. Khaya has extensive leadership experience in the public sector, having served the director of change management in the Office of the Director-General in Gauteng, director of strategy in the Office of The Premier in Gauteng, and the chief director of corporate services in the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism.

Christine Masinga has joined Canon South Africa as the HR director.

Formerly the managing executive of human resources at MMI, Christine has been tasked with ensuring that Canon’s HR department is well-equipped to support the company’s transformation goals. She says she jumped at the chance to join a global brand that is widely relatable, and with a background in auditing, insurance and retail, she brings with her a wealth of human resources knowledge in high-performance environments.

Over the last eight years, executive pay has more than doubled and there have been very few instances where the CEOs or CFOs among the top 250 JSE-listed companies have not earned a bonus. This is among the many findings of the fourth Deloitte Executive Compensation Report, which analyses eight years’ worth of guaranteed pay, performance variable pay and total annual pay and its growth over the last eight years, with a full examination of its relationship to company size and sectoral orientation.

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Survey reveals impact of Covid-19 on healthcare workers A survey conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) revealed how South African healthcare workers are experiencing psychological distress over the risk of contracting the COVID-19 virus and passing it onto their families.

CHRO.co.za

Among the respondents, four in five were female, two in five were nurses, while half of the participants worked in the public health sector. The survey found that there was a significant inverse association between psychological distress and general well-being in that participants with high psychological distress had low levels of general health and well-being. On the other hand, health professionals who had high general well-being had a low level of psychological distress.

CHRO.co.za is the online hub for South African HR professionals, a daily virtual pitstop for high achievers who want to stay ahead. The content portal of CHRO South Africa is experiencing spectacular growth in readership every month and is fast becoming the leading HR website in South Africa.

The unique offering includes:

The survey also looked at issues pertaining to levels of knowledge and awareness regarding the virus, with two in five participants not knowing the correct COVID-19 incubation period, while two in five of all professional categories incorrectly identified COVID-19 as being airborne.

• Interviews with prominent HR executives • Exclusive guest articles from leading experts • Profiles of the CHRO Top 100 • All new appointments of HR leaders • Fresh and provocative trend articles • Information about CHRO South Africa events • Online access to CHRO Magazine

JSE introduces new genderneutral parental leave policy

CHRO SA founder passes away

• The latest and greatest HR training

JSE HR director Donald Khumalo says the exchange’s groundbreaking move to introduce a gender-neutral parental leave policy for all employees speaks to the long-term plans they have to foster greater diversity and inclusion within the JSE. JSE employees can choose to take paid leave over four consecutive months with their partners or stagger it, allowing the first partner to take the initial four months and the second partner to be home for the next four months. More on page 24.

Alex van Groningen, founder of CFO South Africa, CHRO South Africa and young startup community platform M&A Africa, passed away in June. Alex left an indelible impression on everyone who met him and leaves an incredible legacy both in The Netherlands and South Africa.

Tributes continue to pour in for the man described by his colleagues as a maverick, fun-loving, quiet, determined, obnoxious, persistent, generous, brilliant, confusing giant of a human.

• A free online membership with a weekly newsletter

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Contribute Do you know an HR director who has great insights to share? Do you want to contribute your expertise? Do you have ideas that can help CHRO.co.za get bigger and better faster? Then contact managing editor Sungula Nkabinde today.

Sungula Nkabinde | snkabinde@ chro.co.za | +27 72 741 6171

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awards

The nominees for the second instalment of the CHRO Awards have gone beyond the normal call of duty and risen to a seemingly insurmountable set of challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

BY SUNGULA NKABINDE

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ith the inaugural CHRO Awards having successfully launched in 2019, the 2020 instalment will again showcase the best and brightest that South Africa’s human capital profession has to offer, while celebrating HR leaders in what is undoubtedly one of the toughest years for their profession. HR leaders have been instrumental in leading organisations through these uncertain times, providing much-need guidance on how best employees can be enabled to thrive in this VUCA. And, this November, CHRO SA will be celebrating those who rose to the challenge, going above and beyond for the people and organisations they serve.

awards

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Transformation & Empowerment Award Strategy & Leadership Award Learning & Development Award The CHRO of the Year Award

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The Young CHRO of the Year Award

The comprehensive and rigorous awards process is inspired by the success of the CFO Awards, which have become known as the Oscars of Finance since being launched in 2014. Having been crowned the 2019 CHRO of the Year, Paul Norman has returned to the cast, this time, as a member of the esteemed panel of judges that will choose the winner.

The CHRO Awards panel of judges are:

“We’re all very excited about celebrating the best that HR has to offer during an event our community is sure to be looking forward to given that we’ve all been cooped up in our homes for most of the year,” says Joël Roerig, MD of CHRO South Africa, the organisation that puts the event together.

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Due to be held at Inanda Club in Johannesburg on 26 November 2020, the event will give HR directors and CHROs of listed companies, large corporations, state-owned entities and government institutions alike an opportunity to be recognised and rewarded for their exceptional performance and leadership.

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The awards are: • • •

Employee Value Proposition Award Talent Management Award HR & Technology Award

Jane Waters, COO, Allen & Overy Mel Brooks, regional president, G4S Africa Moula Mokhobo-Amegashie, managing partner, Drayton Glendower & Mokhobo Professor Nicola Kleyn, dean, Gordon Institute of Business Science Pam Maharaj, human capital director, Deloitte Paul Norman, CHRO, MTN Group Raisibe Morathi, group CFO, Vodacom Richard Sutton, global stress resilience expert Professor Shirley Zinn, non-executive director Xolile Sizani, CEO, Servest Vukani Mngxati, CEO, Accenture Africa

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These are the 20 industry-leading nominees for the inaugural CHRO Awards Angie Ontong

Director, HR development, the dti Angie joined the department in 2014, before which she worked at the South Africa National Treasury as a director and HR development specialist. Prior to this, she served in various roles at Old Mutual, First National Bank Home Loans, Damelin Academy of Banking, Financial Services College, Barclays Bank, Stanbic, and Standard Bank. Angie holds a PhD in Human Capital Development Management from the University of Johannesburg, an MBA from MANCOSA, and a BCom in Banking Management from Oxford University.

Brigitte Da Gama

Chief people officer, McDonald’s SA Brigitte is a seasoned human capital professional with a wealth of experience, spanning multiple industries. In her current role, she is responsible for payroll, benefits and compensation. She holds a Bachelor of Social Science Degree in Industrial and Organisational Psychology UCT, an Honours Degree in Business Administration and an MBA from the University of Stellenbosch. She also completed an executive learning programmes through the INSEAD Business School in France and Harvard Executive Education.

Elanie Kruger

CHRO, Tsebo Solutions Group Elanie has had a strong and diverse career in HR spanning more than 20 years, 10 of which were at board level. She is passionate about Africa and emerging markets and is a key member of the executive committee. Prior to her current role, Elanie spent 10 years at FTSE-listed energy company G4S, ultimately as the regional HR director for Africa. She also has a masters degree in Commerce and is a registered industrial psychologist.

Heidi Kornmuller

Head of HR, Coronation Fund Managers Heidi is an experienced recruiter and HR manager with extensive generalist experience in the investment industry. She is currently responsible for all people-related issues at Coronation globally. Prior to her current role, she was an HR consultant at Investec and, as a qualified coach and mentor, she enjoys consulting and counselling to help individuals navigate challenges and facilitate development. Heidi has a Business Science degree with Honours in General Psychology from the University of Cape Town.

Kyle Chetty

HR executive, Autoboys Kyle has worked within the financial services, wholesale and retail, and automotive industries in USA, SA, Botswana and Swaziland. He occasionally lectures at the Regent Business School and prior to his current role, was the human capital business partner at Cape Union Mart Group. He has a BCom degree in HR and Marketing from Regent Business School and a BCom Honours in HR Management from MANCOSA. He is also a registered professional with the SABPP and a certified Gallup Coach.

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Lee-Ann Samuel

Executive director, HR, Implats Lee-Ann, who joined Implats in 2017, has 16 years of human resources experience in financial services, mining and telecommunications. Prior to Implats, Lee-Ann was an executive vice president and vice president at Gold Fields, where her role was to provide strategic direction for the human resource discipline by pre-empting any changes that could demand the development of new strategies. She also has remuneration experience in the banking industry as a remuneration & employee benefits manager and remuneration & employee benefits planner at Absa and Nedbank respectively.

Lesley-Anne Gatter

Head of people, Investec Lesley-Anne joined Investec in 2006 and became the head of learning and development in 2007. In 2016, she was appointed as head of HR for Investec, which last September introduced flexible leave and dress policies. She holds Bachelor’s and Honours degrees in psychology from the University of the Witwatersrand, and went on to do a master’s degree in Research Traumatology from the same institution.

Linda Roos

Head of human capital, ooba Linda joined ooba in April 2014, prior to which she headed organisational development, human resources and social investment for the Petousis Family Hotel Group. Her 20-year HR career has been forged in highly salesand-service-driven organisations but predominantly in hospitality and financial services companies. She holds a BA, Communication Science degree from UNISA, a National Diploma in HR Management from Damelin and certifications from Worldsview Academy and the Institute of Bankers.

Nathan Motjuwadi

Executive, Human Resources & CSI, Capitec Bank Nathan began his career as a teacher before becoming an HR professional.

He has more than 20 years’ experience in the HR space and, prior to joining Capitec Bank, he was employed by XPS Services, Cyborg Systems, CocaCola (SA), and Danone SA. Nathan holds a University Education diploma from Vista University, and BA Honours from the University of Cape Town.

He also has a Financial Analysis for Managers diploma from Wits Business School and an MBA from Milpark Business School.

Ndivhu Nepfumbada

HR director, Africa, Transunion In her current role, Ndivhu heads up the HR function for Transunion Africa, which operates in eight African countries. Prior to that, she was the group HR executive of PPC, which she joined after gaining invaluable experience as country HR manager and executive director for Shell South Africa.

Ndivhu holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Human Resources Management from the Wits Business School.

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Michele Seroke

Chief people officer, Motus Corporation Michele has held strategic senior management and executive positions in HR at several organisations, including Eskom, Productivity SA, ArcelorMittal and General Electric. She joined Imperial Holdings as the HR director for the Vehicle Retail, Rental and Aftermarket Parts division (which subsequently rebranded as Motus) in August 2016, and was subsequently named as the chief people officer. Michele has a Bachelor of Social Sciences degree from the UCT.

Paul Vermaak

HR director, Africa, Smiths Manufacturing Paul has been working in the Automotive Industry in HR for 22 years.

He has held various HR positions within Smiths Manufacturing, ranging from HR officer and general manager of HR to HR director.

Previously, he worked as a human resources officer at Nampak from 1989 to 1991 and Transnet from 1988 to 1989. Paul holds a B.Tech, Human Resources degree from the Technikon RSA and a National Diploma in Human Resources Management from the Durban University of Technology.

Penny Hlubi

Head of HR, Bosch South Africa Penny has 17 years of HR generalist experience, seven of which were in the oil and gas sector, where she supported various global operations. Penny has also worked at Rio Tinto Mining, Abengoa Solar Power Transtel, Phumelela Business Consultants and the Sasol. She holds an Honours Degree in Industrial Psychology and is currently enrolled for a Master’s Degree in Commerce majoring in Labour Economics.

Phil Tshikotshi

Associate vice president, HR, Startek Phil has extensive experience in HR management, customer services, and team leader operations. Prior to his current role, he was Aegis Outsourcing South Africa where he spent nine years and left as a senior HR manager. Phil holds a Postgraduate Diploma in business management from Regent Business School, and MAP Business Management Marketing and Related Support Services from Wits Business School.

Phindokuhle Mohlala

Group executive, HR, PPC Phindo is a seasoned HR executive with over 27 years of operational and strategic human capital and general business management experience. In her current role, she has worked to appropriately size the organisation and reduced non-value-adding overheads and non-personal costs. Phindo has a proven record and capacity to deliver results, lead and coach diverse leaders within and outside South Africa. Phindo holds an MBL degree from the University of South Africa.

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Sharmila Govind

Head of HR, Market Area Africa, BASF Sharmila has more than 20 years of HR experience. She has held a variety of roles, including head of HR at Citibank and was seconded to the HQ for the Dutch Bank ABN AMRO in the Netherlands.

Sharmila has a BA Social Science honours degree from UKZN, an MBA on Leadership through the University of Wales and an International Executive Development Programme from Toronto Financial Services.

S’ne Magagula CHRO, Tiger Brands S’ne joined Tiger Brands after holding various human resources leadership positions at Sasol, most recently as the senior vice president for Group Human Resources. Prior to joining Sasol, she spent 10 years at Shell in various roles. She is a well-rounded and highly

experienced HR and business leader with a proven track record.

S’ne holds an MBA degree from the University of Cape Town, a certificate in Human Resources from the University of South Africa, and a BA degree fro\m Rhodes University.

Tswelo Kodisang

Chief People Officer Tswelo is a commercially-driven HR leader who has been in this role for two years. Prior to Discovery, he was the CHRO at Tiger Brands but spent most of his career working at Unilever where he left as the global HR vice-president. He holds a BCom degree in Business, Managerial Economics and Psychology from Wits, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Labour Law from the Graduate Institute of Management.

Thuli Tabudi

Group HR executive, Spar Thuli has been in the retail industry for 24 years and worked for various large companies before joining Spar in 1999 where she has remained ever since. In 1988, Thuli completed a secretarial diploma, then enrolled with UNISA to complete her B.Admin degree. She then went on to do her B.Admin Honours, followed by her Master’s and PhD degrees at the University of Johannesburg.

Vanisha Balgobind

Executive head of HR, Exxaro Vanisha is a registered industrial psychologist with 18 years’ experience in the mining industry. Her journey began when she was appointed as an HR assistant at Mondi Kraft in 1996. She joined Exxaro in 2006 as the manager for talent management and went on to hold a variety of roles before her current position in 2016. Vanisha has BA Honours in Industrial Psychology, and an MA in Industrial Psychology. She has also completed the Management Development Programme at GIBS. 

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interview

WOE IS NOT ME Nerisha Charlton, director of people and organisation at Mars Africa, has never been one to be demoralised by adversity. In fact, she says it is what gives her strength to overcome even the most strenuous of life’s challenges.

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BY SUNGULA NKABINDE

ars Africa director of people and organisation Nerisha Charlton’s story is one of perseverance, endurance and staying true to the things that really matter in life. In the face of every adversity in both her private and professional life, Nerisha has always paid more attention to what was still in her glass rather than what was needed to fill it. Whether it was half-full, quarter-full or just a couple of sips left, she has never seen it as empty.

The theme that has endured from the beginning of her career has been her dedication to her special-needs son, Tanvir, whom she has always fought for and prioritised while, at the same time, pursuing an incredibly challenging and often emotionally taxing career.

Nerisha’s father wanted her to be a lawyer but she wasn’t sure that it was the path for her so, in her first year at university, she picked subjects that were quite neutral and generalist. She found herself being more interested in psychology and decided to explore it.

After graduating, she worked at sugar company Illovo for three months in the HR team – for free – just to get some working experience.

That stint led to the start of her career in HR, a role at Pick n Pay where she really cut her teeth in an environment she describes as second to none when it comes to testing one’s self in the field of industrial 18

relations due to active trade unionism in retail.

Leaving Pick n Pay She spent five years at Pick n Pay where she was mentored and fast-tracked to greater roles – responsibilities she welcomed and carried out excellently because she believed in the work she was doing.

But it was during that time that her son had a near-drowning accident that rendered him completely disabled and it was then that her approach to work changed.

“Mrs Ackerman and the leadership team were extremely supportive when I told them I needed to move to Johannesburg to be close to the specialists that could treat my son. I was so fortunate that the organisation didn’t want to lose me, and – thinking about it now, it’s no surprise that the only other company I have fully resonated with is Mars, another family business with values that make me feel at home.”

Nerisha was transferred to the Northgate Hypermarket where she managed HR in one of the most difficult stores in the group because the trade union was quite militant at the time. She later asked to leave the company as she had an offer from AfriSam, which she took because it was very close to her home and because the working hours were attractive. This meant she could spend more time

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with Tanvir and assist more with his rehabilitation.

“It was one of the most difficult decisions I have made in my career because that organisation really showed me it cared for me as a human being and not only as a top performer. I had a phone call with Mrs Ackerman wishing me well and telling me the door would remain open for my return, which was extremely humbling.”

Why not me?

Nerisha has always kept her family close because that’s where she draws her strength from. Her family (along with her nanny) moved to Johannesburg and provided the much-needed support as she went about delivering on the human capital agenda for her respective employers. And, while she found certain aspects of the Pick n Pay envrinonment to be tough, AfriSam was in a different league.

She was part of a team tasked with restructuring the business and had to let go of 100 people. She handled every consultation herself although her own role was impacted by the restructure. It was important to her to show empathy for the impacted employees. In the midst of all this, her father was diagnosed with cancer and passed away six weeks later.

“In total, we consulted with every single person four times during the restructure. So I had about 400 meetings in three months. When my dad passed away, it was the straw that broke the camel's back because it happened at the end of a difficult few years that included divorcing from Tanvir’s father. ”Nerisha felt she needed to take some time off to regroup. She started consulting and appreciated the flexibility to work at her own pace. She was also able to play a bigger role in Tanvir’s rehabilitation and support her mother through the grieving process of her father’s passing.

On how she is able to overcome such adversity, she says it was something her parents instilled in her as a young girl growing up in Umzinto. “I have never been the type of person to wallow in self-pity thinking ‘why me?’ Instead, I would ask myself ‘why not me?’ People face circumstances far more difficult than mine and they too have overcome them so I really make an effort to not allow life’s pitfalls to dampen my spirit. My positive attitude and outlook has helped me to transcend many barriers," says Nerisha, adding that the first doctor she consulted with after Tanvir’s incident told her that he had four years to live.

“I was not having any of that. Tanvir survived way beyond prognosis and is a happy 15-year-old who lights up any environment with his smile! He still has physiotherapy weekly, enjoys good humour and has a sweet tooth like his mum. Thanks to my family’s support and consistent encouragement, we have come this far together.”

Nerisha is often invited as a speaker at leadership conferences where she always speaks candidly about the challenges life has thrown at her because that is her story and she strongly believes in “being absolutely authentic in my endeavour to deliver business results through people practices”. “The woe-is-me approach is not in my DNA whatsoever. I guess you could say, ‘woe is not me'," she says.

Covid-19 curveball Nerisha joined Mars in November 2017 because, while she thoroughly enjoyed the flexibility of being a self-employed consultant, she needed a bigger challenge. When she joined the company, she asked the general manager what keeps him awake night and he said that, while the business was on track, engagement was not where it should be, “My work started with the leadership team and the results followed,” she says. However, Covid has thrown a

Nerisha Charlton Director of People and Organisation, Mars Africa Work: With over 14 years of experience in the HR field, Nerisha is well versed in combining elements of employee relations into Mars’s recruitment and selection strategy. Prior to her current role, she was the Group HR manager at OSHO Group of Companies and the business unit HR manager for sales and marketing, shared services at Afrisam. She was also an HR manager at Pick n Pay. Education: BCom in Social Science (University of KwaZulu-Natal), Honours in Personnel Management (University of KwaZulu-Natal), Retail and HR Management (Technikon SA)

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real curveball for Mars because, while they offer an essential service, the organisation has had to adapt to new ways of working.

Says Nerisha: “In a recent open letter to employees, our global CEO said our priority has been to ‘do everything in our power to protect the health and well-being of Mars associates. That included trying to provide peace of mind by putting pay and benefit continuity principles in place, while giving people time off due to illness, quarantine, temporary site closures or reductions in working hours.’ And that’s been synonymous with our response locally.”

Mutual respect for our profession Nerisha believes that the most impactful way that HR can drive change is by showing the corporate

world that we play a critical role and that this has never been more true than it is now. “We already understand the significance of our profession and the value in putting people at the centre of business strategy. Its the rest of the C-suite that, in far too most cases, seems to still need to be convinced,” she says. “We need to ensure that senior leaders understand that, when it comes to business strategy, people are a piece of the puzzle they simply cannot do without. There needs to be mutual respect.”

She adds: "More than ever, the recent pandemic has shown us that the HR function plays a pivotal role in determining the future of business. CEOs depend on strong, capable CHROs to be co-pilots to help steer and shape the future of work, enabling business strategies to deliver sustainable, positive results.” 

“The woe-is-me approach is not in my DNA whatsoever.

I guess you could say, ‘woe is not me’.”

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opinion

LET’S NOT LOSE THE TRUST WE’VE GAINED The employment relationship is currently marred by a trust deficit because, over the last few months, employers and employees have moved from becoming selfless to being selfish.

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BY AADIL PATEL

s Covid-19 drags on and a new normal becomes our reality, there has been a regression in many workplaces from a period of selflessness into a period of selfishness. A trust deficit has emerged, forcing HR leaders to look at how they can manage and inspire an anxious workforce.

When President Ramaphosa announced the national lockdown in March, South Africans applauded him and workplaces came together. Never in all my years had I seen a level of trust between employers and employees as we saw towards the end of March and the first two weeks of April. Employers always trusted employees to work from home and expected them to be at their desk.

During this period of uncertainty, employees' financial survival was dependent on employers and, as a result, they made extra effort to comply with even the most draconian of expectations.

the transition from selflessness to selfishness that was attributable to a growing trust deficit in workplaces. Employers began to default. They were not equipped with dealing with remote workers so they began micromanaging employees and expected them to be online all the time.

I see many similarities to the 2007/2008 global financial recession in that some employers have seen the economic downturn as an opportunity to get rid of non-performers.

“...selfishness began to creep in when they saw being home as an opportunity to ‘take a break’ from work…”

Trust deficit But the levels of trust slowly dissipated. Some employees were unable to grasp how to work remotely because they had household chores to contend with, as well as children and home-schooling, which added to the mix of distractions.

While they may have wanted to be empathetic, employers still had businesses to run and thus began

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There is nothing wrong with embarking on retrenchment processes in the pursuit of profitability. But if that is the path that companies choose to follow, the leaders within those organisations cannot turn around and condemn the selfishness and trust deficit within their workforces. We must understand that trust goes both ways.

We didn’t listen to the millennials From an employee perspective, selfishness began to creep in when they saw being home as an opportunity to "take a break" from work. This was understandable given that they had to manage their children's schooling, home chores, and were dealing with a heightened sense of anxiety surrounding what soon became a pandemic.

Even though they may have contemplated the idea of remote working, employers have failed to equip managers with the tools necessary to manage people working from home. I recently did a matchbook

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opinion

“Millennials have been telling us over and over again that they want to be measured, not according to their physical presence...”

survey in which 40 percent of the people I spoke to would rather go back to the office instead of continuing to bear the level of micromanagement they have had to endure while working remotely.

I think that is because, after the national lockdown was announced, there was a sudden scurry for technology that would be implemented, not to make employees' lives easier, but simply to monitor their performance – that is, checking the times that people log in and out – instead of checking whether there had been true deliverables. Millennials have been telling us over and over again that they want to be measured, not according to their physical presence, but according to their output. We have failed to heed their advice because we have not effectively prepared for this type of situation, despite having years of notice of the changes to the nature of the workplace. We only have ourselves to blame for being unprepared.

Decriminalise disciplinary procedures From an employee side, employees began to abuse policies and processes that their organisations had put in place to deal with Covid-19, such as presenting fake sick notes and refusing to come to work despite the many safety measures placed by employers. Others would say they had put themselves in

quarantine because they had been in contact with someone that tested positive for the virus in order to get time off.

But when the time came for instituting misconduct and disciplinary action to deal with such behaviour, companies needed to reform their approach to discipline to deal with this new world.

How do we deal with misconduct and underperformance at a time when we cannot hold formal disciplinary hearings because employees can refuse to attend and cannot be forced to use their own laptop or internet connection? We need something that's agile, flexible and quick. The Labour Relations Act does not stipulate any requirement for companies to hold formal criminal-trial-style disciplinary processes. This is merely something that many HR practitioners had become accustomed to doing even though it is time-consuming, laborious, and expensive.

Employers should rather do an internal investigation, and write to the employee inviting them to provide a written submission that should be taken into consideration. That way, they will still be abiding by the fairness principle of allowing employees to be heard.

This will allow us to expeditiously deal with discipline and performance during this new working world and the emergence of different forms of misconduct. 

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conversations

PARENTAL LEAVE FOR ALL GENDERS AT THE JSE In a CHRO Community Conversation, HR leaders tipped their hats to Donald Khumalo and the JSE for introducing a groundbreaking parental leave policy

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BY SUNGULA NKABINDE

he CHRO SA Community Conversations, which were introduced as a way to keep HR leaders connected since the national lockdown, and which are hosted in partnership with Workday, have been a huge success. They have been a great platform for HR leaders to ask each other questions, exchange ideas, blow off steam and compare notes on what it's like to be in charge of the people agenda during these trying and uncertain times.

In one of the more recent conversations, JSE HR director Donald Khumalo shed light on the motivation behind the groundbreaking move to introduce a gender-neutral parental leave policy for all employees at the stock exchange. The new policy enables both men and women to play a role in raising their children whether they have come from birth, via adoption, or through a surrogate.

Since early July, JSE employees who have recently welcomed a baby into their family have been able to take paid leave over four consecutive months regardless of their gender, tenure or gender identity.

Different from maternity leave, which is exclusively for childbearing employees, parental leave allows employees to stagger their time off. That means a new father, for example, can take the leave after the mother's maternity leave so that the child effectively gets eight months of parental care.

“We started this journey last year in June because we are a member of the World Federation of Exchanges, which subscribes to the 17 UN Sustainability Goals, and one of those goals is to encourage companies to

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rid themselves of gender stereotyping policies and introduce gender-neutral policies,” said Donald.

“A number of things informed our decision, not least of which was the change in society. The traditional idea of parenthood being one where families are made up of fathers and childbearing mothers is no longer the only reality. Infertility and same-sex relationships are just two examples of scenarios that can lead couples to a different path, and we felt that our parental leave policy needed to reflect that.”

Donald said the JSE had added a 'B' to their D&I strategy, which is now their Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging strategy. That is why it was important to ensure that their colleagues from the LGBTQI community are treated with respect and dignity, and afforded an equal opportunity to parent without the challenges of a binary parental policy.

At the beginning of this process, one employee told Donald that, while working for a previous employer, they had taken unpaid leave in order to look after their kids because their maternity leave policy did not allow for them to stay home and look after their children while their partner was in ICU in hospital following complications at birth.

“These are the kinds of practical considerations we took into account.”

Tough questions The hardest part about introducing the new policy was, Donald said, convincing the executive team that it would be worthwhile given the cost implications.

The leadership looked at the number of men who

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had taken paternity leave in the past and, given that the average age at the JSE is 37, there were concerns about the cost implications of a policy like this.

– who may take a four-month holiday, leaving their partners to look after the child without their help?” asked Laura.

Said Donald: “We were very clear that the benefits would far outweigh the costs. I worked very closely with our CFO to put a plan in place around what we would do if the cost would begin to escalate beyond what was reasonably expected. Among other things, we targeted a five percent headcount savings from vacant roles, the savings from which could be allocated to self-fund this policy rather than create an additional cost item.”

Donald’s response was that the JSE operates on a basis of trust, saying that employees are not monitored or policed, nor can they be, according to the law.

HR leaders congratulated Donald and the JSE for the progressive policy, which is seemingly being replicated locally. Vodacom is the most recent company to follow the JSE’s lead, announcing the introduction of a similar policy. With their interest piqued, Donald’s peers shot questions at him to find out how the JSE managed to deal with some of the challenges that can come with a policy of this sort.

Globeleq Senior HR manager Laura James asked about employees who may try to game the system.

“How can we resolve the potential issue of absent fathers – which is sadly too prevalent in this country

“It's one of the things we dealt with during the focus groups we had in the process of crafting this policy, We trust that employees will take this leave for the purpose it is intended. If they are found to be violating this trust or if it does come to our attention that an employee has abused the system, we will institute disciplinary processes accordingly,” said Donald.

Another question came from Alton's Mamcy Letuka who asked about couples in polygamous relationships, particularly given that there a number of traditions in South Africa that see men having multiple wives.

“This was another issue that came up in their focus groups and, while we respect employees’ constitutional rights, we countered this challenge by saying that employees were only entitled to take this leave for one child per annum.” 

“The traditional idea of parenthood being one where families are made up of fathers and childbearing mothers is no longer the only reality.”

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CHRO

interview

“It’s not only simply about depression. It's about destigmatising vulnerability and allowing people to find their voices.”

COMING UP FOR AIR Tantaswa Fubu, group executive for human capital and transformation at Barloworld, shares her experiences with depression and how this led to her becoming the poster girl for mental wellness within the organisation

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BY SUNGULA NKABINDE

antaswa Fubu, group executive for human capital and transformation at Barloworld, had her first bout of depression while completing a gruelling BCom accounting conversion course at the University of Cape Town.

She had completed a BAdmin (Honours) degree majoring in Industrial Psychology and Public Administration and two years later decided to become a chartered accountant. UCT’s conversion course was a one-year course that converted any degree you have from any South African university into a BCom Accounting degree.

“We started around the fifth of January and, by the time the normal students joined the university at the beginning of February, we were done with first-year accounting modules and were halfway through Accounting 2. By the time the third-year accounting students started their curriculum, we started with them. It was hectic,” she says.

Tantaswa would start classes on campus at 8am and stay until late at night because she would have to go to the library and digest all the information she had learnt, often leaving the campus

at 11pm after studying. She would then wake up at 4am to go to the gym.

“It was in that year, around June 1996, that I had my first encounter with depression. I was a young mother and a young wife while doing a three-year degree in 12 months.”

She had to be medically treated for depression and was put on antidepressants. Nevertheless, she completed the programme. However, the following year, she failed her honours.

“It was weird because in the previous year, I did 13 courses and passed all of them and the following year, I did four courses and failed all of them.

That sent me into another bout of depression, which lasted a very long time.”

Depression hit Tantaswa hard because, before then, she had never failed at anything. She decided to leave UCT to get away from the environment that reminded her of her failure, and she enrolled in a Postgraduate Diploma in Accounting at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

"I was not mature enough at the time to recognise that failing did not make me a failure. I remember crying every time the following year when I opened the textbooks because it was a constant reminder that I had failed."

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interview

lead the HR function.

Becoming a confidante Tantaswa passed her honours at UKZN, went to do her articles at KPMG, and completed both her board exams in one attempt, all the while being rated as one of the top performers among her peers at the company.

She later had a short stint with Standard Bank and, in 2002, became a manager at Nkonki, where she was made a partner a year later. She stayed there until 2006, where she left as the head of External Audit.

Throughout her career, Tantaswa has often been a confidante to her colleagues. People somehow gravitated towards her and felt comfortable enough to be vulnerable and share their innermost vulnerabilities with her, regardless of whether they were work-related or not. Her penchant for mentoring and coaching began to develop without her even noticing it was happening.

She returned to KPMG six years after leaving and joined as a partner in their technical accounting division (Department of Professional Practice – DPP).

Says Tantaswa: “I had barely been there a month when people started streaming into my office to share their problems. Some would tell me that they were not treated fairly, while others were anxious about their careers, saying they didn't feel they were going to be able to make partner.

Interestingly, even some of the partners would send their top performers to me for coaching in order to prepare them to be ready for the partner role. Even though that was never really a role I had been given by the organisation, I would get asked to help get so-and-so over the line.”

Asked what it was about her that gave people this inclination to trust her, Tanstaswa says, "If I could tell, I would probably be very wealthy right now because I'd bottle it and sell it. But, honestly, I don't know what people see.”

Like a fish to water Tantaswa's humility and magnetism did not go unnoticed. Eventually, the now-former KPMG CEO and senior partner Moses Kgosana asked her to

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“And that's how I became an HR leader. I asked him why me specifically and he told me that some partners in the people space had gone to him and asked that I be their executive partner.”

Tantaswa laughs about how Ntate Kgosana, as she calls him, gave her a month, not to think about it, but to figure out what she was going to do when she started in her new role.

But she took to it like a fish to water. As someone that had been a client of the people function, Tantaswa says she knew where to start and came up with a skeleton of a strategy.

She identified people who she believed were influencers in the HR space and shared her ideas. They loved them and, before she knew it, the strategy had legs and had been sold to senior people within the organisation.

“Literally, all I had were a few ideas written on a page. But, by the time those team members came back to me, it was a fully-fledged HR strategy and that was ready to be implemented. That experience really influenced my leadership style because it taught me that, all one needs to do as a leader is give people a vision that excites them, and thereafter allow them to bring it to life,” says Tantaswa.

Among the many changes to HR policy at KPMG was the rule that if a bursar failed their CTA (Honours) year, they would not be sponsored again. Because she also had failed that year and understood that there were sometimes real issues that real people have to deal with, she decided to give people a second chance. The rationale was, had she never been given a second chance to repeat her Honours year, she never would have made it as a CA. “I motivated the change by sharing my experience and saying 'Can you imagine how many Tantaswas have been lost already and how many more we will continue to lose if we don't fix this?'," she says. She also put a stop to the firm sponsoring the children of partners as she believed they could afford to pay university fees, and that the money could be used more effectively by students in real need. During her time

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“I was really caught unawares by the whole experience of dealing with mental illness in a work environment.”

Tantaswa Fubu Group Executive: Human Capital and Transformation, Barloworld Work: Tantaswa Fubu was appointed Group Executive: Human Capital, Internal Audit & Facilities at Barloworld in February 2017. She also serves as a board member for Barloworld Equipment Southern Africa, Barloworld Logistics Africa, Barloworld Siyakhula and Barloworld SA. Previously, Tantaswa has worked for Standard Bank, Nkonki and at KPMG as Executive Head for People & Transformation.

Education: Postgraduate Diploma in Accounting, (University of KwaZulu-Natal), BCom Accountants’ Conversion Course, (University of Cape Town), BAdmin Honours Ind Psychology and Public Admin (University of the Western Cape)

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CHRO

interview

in this role, she grew the bursary fund significantly, trying to ensure that the firm puts as many disadvantaged children through university as possible.

Becoming the poster girl for mental wellness Fast forward to 2019, where depression reared its head again. By then Tantaswa had been in her current role for close on two years and, looking back on it now, she says she should have seen it coming because she knew the signs from her previous bouts.

champion mental health in the business because I was really caught unawares by the whole experience of dealing with it in a work environment,” says Tantaswa, adding that her team started engaging with clinical psychologists and specialists to help them understand what the organisation was really dealing with. "For me, it was a very personal journey," she adds.

Emotional impact workshops

“But I kept postponing getting help. There was no time for me to be getting sick. It was a big year for me because, on top of the HC projects I was leading, I was delivering a R3.5 billion BEE transaction for the group,” she says. “But when you do not make time to address this sickness, there will always come a point where your body gives in.”

Tantaswa says she was giving from a point of nothingness when one day she went into a meeting with the group CEO “and all he did was ask me how I am and seconds later I was breaking down in tears.”

“He organised for one of our drivers to drive me home and then to take me to the doctor. I was booked off for three weeks, with no questions about how that would impact my leave or when I would be ready to provide input on this or that project. All my boss kept saying was that I must get the help I need and get well before I think of coming back to work.”

Up to that point, Tantaswa had already begun working on a business case around a group wellness strategy with a specific focus on mental health issues. She was quite clear of the need to create an environment conducive to people feeling safe about being sick. It was a scenario in which employees would be able to self-diagnose and seek treatment for mental health problems because they have been empowered with the relevant knowledge, are in a safe space to express through whatever workplace channels that they need help, and for the workplace to be able to facilitate that assistance in a humane manner. She wanted to create an environment where people would always be treated with dignity and respect.

Tantaswa's experience gave Barloworld (and her, as the executive responsible for wellness) a case study on how to handle mental health and allowed the company to put a face on the issue of depression.

“I also made the conscious decision to actively

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That work really prepared Barloworld for the wellness side of dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Whether it is with regard to their health or job security, employees are anxious about the future.

They are now also contending with working in this new working environment – their homes – which comes with its own variety of mental pressures and triggers.

But, because of Tantaswa's experience, Barloworld has been more proactive about mental wellness.

“Since my experience, we’ve introduced wellness workshops where employees talk about what stress, depression and anxiety are and how the symptoms manifest. Not only that, we continuously engage with employees on how best to approach what is still a very sensitive subject.”

Tantaswa says she has recently been involved in running emotional impact workshops with the help of psychologists whereby people have been able to come in groups of not more than 15 and share their experiences, anxieties, anger, and disappointments during the pandemic. She decided to introduce the workshops because of everything employees have gone through during lockdown, including retrenchments.

Says Tantaswa: “The workshops have been so well received and our people indicated that they needed to debrief. The participants were mixed and group exco could hear first hand how people felt and also our people could hear how we were also impacted by the decisions we took. We are on this healing journey because I do not want to be reactive, deal with people when they are already on the depressing side. We are trying to keep people on the healthy side, deliberately and proactively.”

To prove how important mental wellness is to an organisation, Tantaswa shares the story of a young woman in the finance division who was on the verge of being labelled as a non-performer until Tantaswa posed the question, "Has she always been a non-performer and, if so, why have we kept her for so long?”

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interview

“We also found instances of substance abuse and, whereas before, those people would be fired, we now bring psychologists in to help them.”

The answer was ‘no’ and eventually, it was uncovered that she had been struggling with depression.

In another instance, one of the divisional executives recently lost their mother and, because Barloword is in tune with the story of an African woman in this situation, who needs to go home and cook for people coming to pay their respects and plan the funeral, all the while managing her own grief, Tantaswa undertook to ensure that food was delivered to her home daily so that she didn't have to deal with that aspect of the grieving process. She also made sure to help her will all the logistics around planning the funeral. And days before the funeral, Tantaswa sent a massage therapist to her home for a much-needed massage.

It’s not just about depression Barloworld still subscribes to services like ICAS and had wellness days but those activities were quite disjointed before. Since Tantaswa's experience, the company has taken an approach that embraces the spirit as opposed to the letter of wellness policies.

Says Tantaswa: “Now when we give someone time off, we bring in a temp so that the person who is supposed to be healing is not sabotaged by the thought of work piling up while they are away.

We also found instances of substance abuse and, whereas before those people would be fired, we now bring psychologists in to help them. I'm telling you, it's been such a revelation that I even get spouses coming to see me to say ‘thank you’."

Barloworld is now at a place where the leaders are thinking about the person and how they are being impacted and taking steps to ease their burden.

That’s how they approach mental wellness. And, for Tantaswa, it’s not only simply about depression. It’s about de-stigmatising vulnerability and allowing people to find their voices.

And it's working, because now people are reporting things that could lead them to be depressed. They are talking about the issues in their families and work environments that could trigger that spiral.

It has created awareness throughout the business and, partly due to Tantaswa's experience, there has hardly been any push back from the executive leadership team.

“I think that when you go the extra mile to care for people in this manner, you inadvertently create policies and practices that can be abused but I strongly believe it is better to rather create consequence management for people who abuse the system than to not have these kinds of measures in place.” 

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CHRO

interview

POWER TO THE PEOPLE Eskom group executive for HR Elsie Pule’s entire career has been spent with the utility, barring a three-year stint at SARS. In the 20 or so years she has been with the company, she has become an expert in the field of performance.

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BY PUSELETSO MOMPEI

eading up the function of an organisation everyone loves to hate isn’t easy, but Elsie Pule’s commitment to the success of Africa’s largest energy utility is unquestionable. The group executive: HR at Eskom since 2016, Elsie Pule has been with the organisation since 1995, a streak only broken by a threeyear stint at SARS from 2010 to 2012.

Despite an enviable career, she admits that her path to HR was an unintended one. “Having grown up in Winterveldt, my world view wasn’t expansive and I didn’t know a lot about career options.”

All she knew was that she was going to pursue an education and do something to better herself and those around her. “When registering at The University of the North, also known as ‘Turfloop’, in 1985, I saw a queue for Humanities and I remembered a lady back home whom I admired, and she was a social worker. I decided to follow in her steps and enrolled for a degree in social work," she recalls.

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This led her down the path of working for Government and the NGO sector, servicing the underprivileged, children and the elderly. A pivotal experience was participating in the change management process in the early nineties when the banks moved pensioners from bank books to cards.

This was a difficult change; however, the elderly embraced it and the rest is history.

“I worked in underserved communities including Brits, Winterveldt, Moutse, Cullinan, Bronkhorspruit, Mamelodi and Atteridgeville, where a lot of the elderly had low rates of literacy and needed extra care.” She found that setting up old-age homes, luncheon clubs, feeding schemes and other social services was a momentous period that, while it was demanding, changed people’s lives. Through that and other similar situations, she built strong organising and grassroots skills, which have proved powerful assets throughout her career.

In 1995, South Africa was in its early days of democracy and Eskom was looking for talented, black professionals in its affirmative action drive.

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“I was thrown in the deep end and had never done anything like that. I travelled the world learning from leading companies, including Shell and Walmart."

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interview

Elsie had just completed her Honours in Psychology at the University of Pretoria, where the language of instruction was Afrikaans, which led her to being hired as the first African lecturer at the University of Pretoria to start the Psychology classes in the English medium. She is very proud that this opened the door for many non-Afrikaans psychology students to access an education at the University of Pretoria. Then, Eskom headhunted her to play an organisational development advisor role.

Driving performance As an advisor, she had the opportunity to carve out a niche for herself and quickly honed in on the issue of human performance to understand what causes human error and sub-par delivery. An avid behaviourist herself, she spearheaded the establishment of the Human Performance function in the Generation Division of Eskom and revealed that underperformance is mostly a function of latent organisational weaknesses including poor management decisions and inadequate policies, and often not particularly a reflection of competency.

Elsie thrives off projects with complexity and high impact. She was tasked with creating the business case to structure the Shared Services Unit at Eskom.

capitalising on benefits such as capacity flexibility and cost savings since then.”

In 2009 the South Africa Revenue Service (SARS) approached her to come on board as chief human resources officer – an offer she took up. The role aligned with her passion for serving a higher purpose and afforded her the satisfaction of knowing her decisions changed the trajectory of many young people through bursaries, graduate training and other opportunities.

“It was a complex role and I had to quickly learn about the fiscus and immerse myself in the world of finance. I started participating in the World Customs Universities, spent a lot of time coming to an understanding of how countries such as China ran their customs and helped in establishing the Africa Tax Forum, especially the staffing establishment and capabilities,” says Elsie.

She also addressed issues of compliance within SARS, and is most proud of having started the SARS Academy of Learning, which boasted a ground-breaking customs training programme that saw her team giving virtual training around the world as part of the World Customs Universities.

Coming back to Eskom

Says Elsie: “I was thrown in the deep end and had never done anything like that. I travelled the world learning from leading companies, including Shell and Walmart. I picked up best practices and led the design implementation of the unit. In 2004, we went live with the first business and have been

Elsie Pule Group Executive: HR, Eskom Work: Elsie Pule, group executive for human resources at Eskom, spent her first few career years at the utility, during which time she fulfilled various roles spanning the entire HR value chain. She has extensive experience in the field of human resources and was the deputy president of the Institute for Personnel Management for two years.

After a stint as chief officer for human resources at the South African Revenue Services, Elsie rejoined Eskom as a senior general manager for human resources and then acted as the group executive for human resources from November 2014 until her permanent appointment to the role in 2016.

Education: MA, Business Engineering, University of Warwick, (Warwick Business School), BA (Hons), Psychology, University of Pretoria, BA (Hons), Social Work, University of Limpopo

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Elsie returned to Eskom after three years at SARS and took up a general senior manager position. She was strategic in navigating her career and made sure that her tasks were high-impact, high-visibility projects, which included the Eskom Women’s Advancement Programme. This initiative has successfully moved the proportion of women in the executive band from 27 percent to 40 percent today.

She is also particularly proud of a programme that has recruited 100 youngsters as nuclear operators, 40 being female, who are now being phased in as licensed nuclear operators over a period of five years.

She admits that navigating a space like Eskom is difficult for a multitude of reasons. A World Bank study in 2016 found that Eskom was 66 percent overstaffed. Many of the challenges she has had to confront are a result of competing priorities, such as reducing the parastatal’s wage bill while finding efficiencies and balancing those against the pressure to maintain jobs in a country where unemployment is at endemic proportions.

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categorie

“Some of our most burning issues include keeping the country’s power supply going, getting the best out of talent, being agile enough to change with our rapidly transforming world and meeting demands of the future.”

Stood the test of time Elsie has served under several chief executives and boards and navigated her career through one crisis after the other, including the load-shedding that threatened to derail the 2010 World cup, labour disputes and corruption and mismanagement scandals. She has been steadfast in playing a constructive role in helping the organisation navigate these challenges.

From an HR perspective, tough decisions have seen the organisation’s headcount fall to 46,665 employees in 2019, about four percent lower than the previous year, but wider staff cuts have been resisted while taxpayers are expecting Eskom to be more prudent.

“Some of our most burning issues include keeping the country’s power supply going, getting the best out of talent, being agile enough to change with our rapidly transforming world and meeting demands of the future.”

Elsie understands the magnitude and impact of the people component at Eskom, given its role as a major economic driver and an enabler for millions.

Despite the challenges the utility faces, she believes it can become the beacon of excellence it once was.

“I have seen Eskom at its highest, when it was an award-winning, world-renowned utility company.

I have met people who have grown and achieved a lot of impact. Knowing that the organisation can achieve these heights is what drives me.” 

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CHRO

webinar

FROM #METOO TO #MENEITHER In a recent CHRO South Africa webinar, Barloworld group executive for human capital and transformation Tantaswa Fubu, Elite Wealth Assets Insurance MD Christelle Colman, and Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr director Fiona Leppan interrogated HR’s role in fighting sexual harassment in the workplace.

BY SUNGULA NKABINDE

“

It is time that, as leaders of Corporate South Africa, we clear our collective names and ensure that the environments we lead are safe for women.” These are the words of Tantaswa Fubu, group executive for human capital at Barloworld, who was part of a CHRO webinar about the #MeToo movement and the role that HR should play

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in fighting sexual harassment and predatory behaviour in the workplace. The #MeToo movement created the opportunity for women to speak out and shattered the isolation and stigmatisation that survivors of sexual crimes often experience, with even more people coming forward to share their experiences as a result. .

“And, to my horror of horrors, the people that were supporting the perpetrator and not believing the victim, were women.”

– Tantaswa Fubu In a discussion led by CHRO SA head of marketing Judith Kamffer, the webinar explored how HR professionals can create a safer workplace and help the survivors in their organisations get the justice they need. A poll of the webinar attendees revealed that 46 percent of employees felt protected and safe from different forms of predatory behaviour, while 20 percent said their companies had policies in place but did not feel sufficiently protected.

Meanwhile, 20 percent said their policies only support victims of predatory behaviour and do nothing to prevent it, and, unfortunately, 13 percent said employees were not protected against predatory behaviour at all.

“I expected fewer people to say they feel protected but, even as I say that, I truly believe 46 percent is too low. If it was an exam, that would be a fail,” said Tantaswa.

Tantaswa explained how she was once called in to deal with a case of sexual harassment where the victim was not believed. What amazed her about the entire debacle was not only that the survivor was not believed, but also that there was active support for the perpetrator.

“And, to my horror of horrors, the people that were supporting the perpetrator and not believing the victim, were women,” she said.

Tantaswa attributed this to a variety of factors, not least of which is the fact the patriarchy is so entrenched in society that even women are predisposed to believe men more than women in such instances. Another factor is that, even in companies that have sexual harassment policies in place, it is very seldom that employees know about them.

Furthermore, when new employees are inducted

into the organisation, it is rare that they are told anything about the company’s position on predatory behaviour and what it does to prevent and punish sexual harassment. Most importantly, the people who are supposed to deal with such cases are not trained on how to approach these kinds of issues.

“People don't even know how to define sexual harassment,” she said, adding that people need to know that there is someone they can speak to if there is an incident. “Also, when people have spoken up, the way you treat them has to be consistent with the commitment to care for people that so many companies claim they have.”

Said Tantaswa: “If I'm made to feel like a villain for having spoken up, I'm not going to have the guts to see the legal fight through. Also, I am going to share that experience with my friends and they too will not want to speak up. How you make the victim feel during the process is quite important. How you hold their hand through the process is vital and, this thing of asking people to prove that sexual harassment occurred is uncalled for because there are no receipts. No one is going to harass you and then give you a receipt and say 'On this day I harassed you and this is the proof.'.”

Starts at the top Christelle Colman, MD of Elite Wealth Assets Insurance, said it all starts with the leadership of the organisation, explaining that predatory behaviour emanates from higher levels in the organsation. Over the course of a 30-year career, she had been the victim of predatory behaviour from senior men in the organisations that employed her.

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“Sometimes we think that, because of the scourge of gender-based violence in this country, we are worse off than elsewhere in the world. And that is simply not the case.”

– Christelle Colman In a previous role, while attending an executive leadership conference, she sat in a corner of the meeting room because she didn't want to be close to a particular individual, who nevertheless came and sat next to her.

“He made a very inappropriate comment in front of the leadership team. Everyone laughed and I felt utterly embarrassed. He then went on to repeat the same joke at lunch and I firmly believe that this was done to put me in my place,” said Christelle, adding that inappropriate jokes made at the expense of a female colleague can be used as a bullying tactic to let her know that she is not respected and low in the pecking order of a leadership team.

She also said that, because predatory behaviour is often exhibited by high-performing individuals, it is not easy to speak up against them. When this incident occurred, she wanted to raise the issue with HR but the individual in question had been instrumental in the company achieving incredible business performance. She never reported it and, as she reflected upon her ordeal, she wondered how someone in a less senior role could possibly garner the courage to speak up against such behaviour when she, as a member of the leadership team, was not willing to do so.

It’s not a South African problem Christelle said, however, that it was important to remember that the predatory and aggressive behaviour from men towards women is not unique to South Africa.

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“Sometimes we think that, because of the scourge of gender-based violence in this country, we are worse off than elsewhere in the world. And that is simply not the case,” she said.

“In my previous life, I was the CEO of a European business with a presence in South Africa. And I was the only female CEO out of 35 countries. Whenever I attended monthly meetings in Europe, I was surrounded by European men. And let me tell you, they have a much bigger problem. The patriarchy that is entrenched in some of the well-known European companies is incredible.”

Christelle was once called to Europe to present a strategy, and there was a bully on the executive committee “who really made it his business to make life difficult for me. I had a really bad interaction with him and literally flew back to South Africa and resigned the next morning.

“I would rather leave an organisation than face that situation. I am a rape survivor. I was raped when I was 11 years old, so I am very aware of predatory behaviour.”

She said that’s why companies really have to nip this kind of behaviour in the bud. There are many companies that have and will continue to lose excellent talent if they do not address this issue.

The impact of talent attraction can be catastrophic because not only will a high-performing individual leave and never return to the business, they will also damage the employer brand when they share their story with people in their network who in

“...if an employer hasn’t taken all reasonable steps in a situation to prevent that kind of conduct, it will find itself on the wrong side of liability.”

– Fiona Leppan turn would not want to associate with such a company,

Financial damages can be hefty Speaking on the extent to which the law protected victims of sexual harassment and predatory behaviour in the workplace, Fiona Leppan, director at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, said there were many examples in case law of women who have had tremendous difficulties with post-traumatic stress disorder as a consequence of this type of conduct.

As such, employers can indeed be held liable for even failing to prevent such incidences.

“Once this type of behaviour manifests, it's got to be brought to the attention of the employer, not necessarily by the victim but through HR. The Employment Equity Act is very clear in stating that if an employer hasn’t taken all reasonable steps in a situation to prevent that kind of conduct, it will find itself on the wrong side of liability,” said Fiona, adding that, should a victim come forward with information about an incident, they have rights that protect them from victimisation.

When they provide confidential information, for example, that information must be kept confidential and if there was a person that was to release that information, it's considered a criminal offence under the Employment Equity Act. Victims are also protected against being subjected to any occupational detriment as a result of coming forward.

“The person against whom a complaint is lodged certainly can't take the stance they are going to start

finding fault in the complainant's work with the view of driving them out of the business through disciplinary processes. That will not be tolerated by our courts.”

Generally, in terms of victim remedies, she said the Labour Court has become extremely strident in exercising its powers under the EE act. This can lead to compensation claims, punitive damages, which can be awarded over and above the compensation claims.

Said Fiona: “In one decision, the judge placed great emphasis on one of those preventative measures being ongoing training in your business to highlight what conduct will not be tolerated. Also, what are the consequences? An individual who is the harasser can be sued in his own right, for damages. “There is nothing to stop the employer saying ‘I warned you not to do this. You caused me a loss and I'm suing you in order to be recompensed.’.”

Ultimately, the key takeaway from the webinar was that, if organisations are going to make any meaningful change regarding sexual harassment it has to come from the top. Leadership has to demonstrate that it is committed to addressing the issue.

“Talk is cheap. We need to demonstrate how we deal with perpetrators. If we are just going to say, this is what we believe, this is what we stand against, and people continue to be subjected to sexual harassment, the trust deficit will remain, said Tantaswa. “We have targets for diversity. We have targets for revenue.

But we are so quiet about an issue that, at its core, is about the safety and well-being of our people.” 

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feature

WHEN CRISIS STRIKES

As the world wrestles with the continued impacts of Covid-19, HR leaders are at the helm, navigating their organisations through treacherous waters.

BY VICTORIA WILLIAMS

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ince the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, HR leaders have had an increased responsibility as the custodians of the people agenda. Every decision they have made has had a multiplier effect on the families of staff, the communities employees come from, and the business itself.

Organisations experienced fallout from Covid-19 across a wide spectrum, from being completely disrupted and shut down, to continuing at least somewhat as usual, right through to being busier than ever before.

The HR response to the crisis has fallen into four important areas: physical health and well-being, remote working, issues related to jobs and work continuity, and an urgent need for mental health support for employees. Many companies had remote work policies for at least some of their employees before Covid-19, but few were prepared to have their entire staff working from home full time.

For Deb Hileman, president and CEO of the Institute of Crisis Management, a key distinction between the Covid-19 crisis and the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 is that the impact of Covid-19 has been broader and more sudden. “We saw economies crash overnight with many industries irrevocably changed. In the United States, several historic retail brands have filed for bankruptcy. Millions of people have lost their jobs forever. Leaders need to understand the depth and breadth of the crisis, and lead with empathy as they make difficult decisions.”

Professor Nicola Kleyn, dean of Executive Education at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, believes that the biggest impact of the crisis has been the destruction of the social fabric of society. “Covid-19 has revealed extreme inequality and poverty. The stress on the system has led to a rise in social unrest. Globally, we see greater populism from citizens and a greater authoritarian response from governments.”

Nicola is the co-author of When Crisis Strikes, together with journalist Francis Herd. The book looks at a variety of crises in the age of social media in South Africa and abroad, with examples of who got it right, who got it wrong and how they could have done better. She is also a judge of the 2020

Inge Walters

CHRO Awards. For Nicola, a key difference between a corporate crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic is the duration of the crisis. “A corporate crisis typically doesn’t last for several months. We don’t have any certainty on when this crisis will be over. There are so many unknowns.”

Transparent, regular communications As with any crisis, having clear communications is key. “We’ve definitely heard the importance of a lot of clear, transparent, and, maybe most importantly, very human communications,” says Inge Walters, an independent leadership practitioner and co-creator of The IgniteHer women’s development programme.

In times of crisis, Deb believes that employees tend to be overlooked. “This internal stakeholder group tends to be shoved down the priority list. Leaders make the mistake of not sharing information timeously enough. They need to be challenged to keep communicating regularly as well as finding new ways to communicate,” she says.

Nicola believes that one of the biggest mistakes that leaders can make is to go deep into a problem-solving zone at the expense of communicating

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values are still relevant or if they need to change.

The worst mistake an HR leader can make at this time is to simply be an instruction taker.”

Leaders require enhanced skills in managing from a distance, motivating employees toward a vision amid ambiguity, providing calm and clarity, aligning work among team members and building community. A common challenge for leaders is maintaining cultural connection within the organisation and helping employees fight off those feelings of isolation or disconnection. “Leaders can play a role in normalising what is happening and help team members to articulate their emotions. They can also encourage employees to check-in with one another on a regular basis,” says Inge.

Nicola Kleyn

and engaging with all stakeholders. “This is not the time to lock yourself away from the world. You need to be a visible leader. This an opportunity to deepen relationships with people. This involves constantly engaging with shareholders, customers and employees.”

Many HR leaders have had to restructure or retrench within their organisations. Inge believes that the leader needs to know that clarity is kindness when delivering difficult news. “There is a real danger of over-communicating by justifying actions or filling silences. It is important to also give space for the listener to process the bad news and ask questions.”

The role of the leader HR has a key role to play in developing leaders, ensuring they are successful and holding them accountable. Karina Jardim, Executive at MAC Consulting Human Capital Management, believes that HR leaders need to act as the compass for the C-suite. “The CHRO needs to work very closely with the CEO. This is the perfect time for HR to reset the organisation – to consider if the culture, purpose and

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“This crisis provides the ideal invitation to leaders to go deeper into their leadership abilities. This is the time to connect with other leaders outside your organisation. To see shifts in the environment and collaborate to shape where things are heading. A common mistake that leaders make in a crisis is to radically change their leadership style. Good leadership is still good leadership. Being courageous, curious and compassionate is important at any time,” says Inge.

Nicola acknowledges the conflicted position that leaders may find themselves in. “Leaders have to balance optimism and hope, a sense that we will come through this, while acknowledging the real challenges, pain and discomfort of Covid-19. If leaders can’t show empathy, they can’t lead under these circumstances.”

Deb believes that this is an opportunity for leaders to demonstrate their humanity and frailty by dropping the authority persona. “Sometimes our expectations of leaders are unrealistic. Employees are very responsive to leaders who show their vulnerable side.”

A mental health crisis Globally, employees are reporting mental health issues related to the pandemic. “We are only beginning to understand the intensity of the mental health crisis related to Covid-19,” comments Deb. Nicola also anticipates a wave of incidents of post-traumatic stress among employees during and

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post the crisis. Here HR can offer support in everything from employee assistance programmes and access to psychologists, to programmes for mindfulness, exercise, nutrition and financial counselling.

Karina feels that the key mistake organisations make is to expect their employees to separate their personal and professional lives. “Employees should be allowed to bring their full authentic selves to work each day. This includes being able to have bad days. The lines between work and home life have completely blurred – many employees are working 24/7. Here HR has a role to play in forcing people to take leave to reset and recharge.”

Burnout is also a real danger for leaders at this time. “Leaders must keep their strength up. This involves knowing limitations and managing stress.

It is important to look after oneself first. This could include meditation or taking quiet walks by oneself,” adds Deb. Karina Jardim

Preparing for future crises Deb sees two distinct camps of organisations: those who are investing in future crisis preparedness and those who don’t see the need to prepare. “Smart organisations recognise that they need to have a plan in place to deal with a crisis. They need to train and teach people how to use the plan and update this plan on an annual basis.”

Nicola believes that this crisis provides the perfect chance for leaders to take stock. “The role of the leader is to learn from this crisis and determine what permanent changes need to be made. Leaders need to build adaptive capacity and organisational resilience.” Here she thinks that South Africans are particularly strong at adapting and dealing with volatile environments.

For Karina, preparing for future crises involves building up resilience within organisations. Typically, leaders struggle to admit that they battle with resilience. “Leaders need to be coached on developing resilience. It takes discipline not to panic when confronted with a crisis or a major change. Instead of going into ‘fight or flight’ mode, leaders need to be able to pause, think and plan the next steps. If you spend your time in constant crisis mode, you are not going to survive as a leader.”

A world post-Covid The working world post-Covid promises to be quite different from that of the past. Karina predicts a continuation of today’s remote working together with many companies restructuring the operating model. “Working under Covid-19 has really shown which positions are essential and those that add no value. Here, HR will play a crucial role in rethinking and restructuring organisations.”

Nicola believes that the Covid-19 pandemic will have several positive long-term effects. This includes more acceptance of the intersection between personal lives and work. “Many women hide their home responsibilities. This pandemic will promote the lowering of these barriers and this will be positive for women with children.” She also believes that this time is an opportunity for individuals and organisations to create long-lasting goodwill in the communities they serve. “Impact can be so meaningful – there are so many ways to reach out to people and deepen human connections.”. 

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WHERE HR & COLLUSION COLLIDE Compliance Online’s Minette Smit and Marylla Govender explain why it is unwise to ignore competition law as an HR professional.

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BY MINETTE SMIT AND MARYLLA GOVENDER

R professionals currently have a lot to navigate. Covid-19 resulted in many planned and unplanned changes in how workforces are managed.

However, during these times it is important not to lose sight of other important compliance obligations, such as those relating to competition law.

A relatively recent development is a renewed focus by international competition law regulators on competition between employers in the job market. In the past two years, regulators in the United States have increasingly focused on how employers conduct themselves in job markets and this interest has spread to other regions and countries, including the EU and the United Kingdom. The

“It is now not surprising and not uncommon to see merger remedies involving a strong public interest component which is linked to employment.”

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South African competition authorities are alive to global developments and will certainly have these developments on their radar.

Most HR professionals are aware that collusive agreements between competitors is anti-competitive and, more recently in the context of COVID-19, that companies which engage in exploitative pricing practices, will likely find themselves on the wrong side of the Competition Act, with serious financial and reputational consequences.

Notwithstanding, competition law compliance has traditionally not been a high priority area in the day-to-day responsibilities of HR professionals. Many HR professionals are not aware that competition law also applies to certain employment practices and are relevant to aspects such as agreements between companies to fix employees’ salaries/working conditions, agreements to not poach each other’s employees, as well as the way that sensitive business information relating to salaries and employee benefits, is shared – especially during merger negotiations.

Concerns regarding anti-competitive labour practices were brought into sharper focus when the US Department of Justice and the US Federal Trade Commission issued a joint statement in April this year. In this statement, the agencies reiterated their no tolerance approach to companies and individuals who use COVID-19 to harm competition by

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entering into unlawful wage-fixing and no-poach agreements with their competitors.

This risk is not theoretical, there are practical examples This renewed focus of competition law on HR practices emanates from a 2018 case, when the US Department of Justice reached a settlement with Knorr-Bremse and Wabtec, two of the world’s largest rail equipment companies, which had for years maintained unlawful agreements not to compete for each other’s employees. Insofar as the employment market for rail industry workers was concerned, it was found that these “no-poach” agreements, “limited their access to better job opportunities, restricted their mobility, and deprived them of competitively significant information that they could have used to negotiate for better terms of employment.”

The aforementioned case comes some years after US-based technology companies, most notably Google, Apple, Intel, eBay and Adobe, were found to have made secret deals not to hire each other’s engineers. While these agreements may have had the effect of ensuring that new products were more consistently brought to market, it was found to have an adverse impact on employees’ job prospects and incomes. Much of this was uncovered through embarrassing emails from the top management of these companies who appeared to be knowingly colluding to impede their employees’ job mobility. On a practical level, this took the form of agreeing not to cold call each other’s employees.

Similarly, the Japan Fair Trade Commission, as well as the Hong Kong Competition Commission, have highlighted their concerns relating to potential anticompetitive conduct in hiring employees (including agreements on employment terms and conditions).

It is important to point out that in the context of merger enforcement, the impact of a particular merger or acquisition on employment and conditions of employment has been an enduring focus of the South African competition authorities. It is now not surprising and not uncommon to see merger remedies involving a strong public interest component which is linked to employment. This is well illustrated in the mergers involving Momentum/

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“Competition law compliance has traditionally not been a high priority area in the day-to-day responsibilities of HR professionals.”

Metropolitan, Massmart/Walmart and more recently in Pepsico/Pioneer Foods.

What should be done at a practical level?

It is important to remember that one of the basic principles of competition law is that reaching a collusive agreement with your competitor is illegal.

Within this context it is important for HR professionals to provide the required guidance to ensure that the company does not engage in the following conduct: • Discuss or enter into agreements with its competitors to fix salaries, other aspects of compensation and employment terms.

• Discuss or enter into agreements with its competitors not to solicit or hire each other’s employees.

• Not exchange business-sensitive or competitively sensitive information with competitors without obtaining legal advice.

• When participating in industry surveys or benchmarking exercises, ensure that the proper competition law compliance protocols are followed.

• If your company is entering into merger negotiations, remember the public interest (i.e. employment effects) obligations required for notifications. However, do be careful about how you disclose sensitive HR data about your company before the merger is implemented.

It is always good to have an awareness about how competition law can have an application on one’s role as an HR professional and to seek legal advice if further clarity is required. 

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Are you equipped to offer employees

holistic support?

The Covid-19 pandemic has profoundly influenced how companies operate, their commercial viability, their ability to support their people, and more. The question that now faces all employers is this: are you offering your employees enough holistic support to survive – if not thrive?

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s some employers have found out the hard way this year, the strength and fortitude of your workforce can tip the scales on your company’s success or collapse. Seemingly overnight, businesses both large and small have found themselves navigating an extraordinary operating environment in which management teams are expected to deal not only with the personal impact of Covid-19, but

also the overwhelming impact on their company and staff.

“The pandemic has thrown a spanner in the works, the likes of which we have never seen. Ways of doing business are evolving and the market is becoming more competitive in a post-Corona world – making the acquisition and retention of key staff especially critical,” notes Nonkululeko Pitje, head of Healthy Company at Discovery.

“Many workers have been thrust into new and often stressful ways of working – and it’s up to employers to find solutions that best support their staff.”

An integrated approach is required “Our scenario planning capabilities show how important it is to actively plan around employee retention and hiring,” says Nonkululeko. “It’s especially important for companies to realise that standalone solutions – like encouraging remote working, distributing health information, or providing PPE equipment – have very limited impact when offered in isolation.”

The virus and the resulting economic fallout have affected people and their families in many interconnected ways, she explains.

“Employees need to be equipped to navigate the additional stressors and complexities of working effectively during a pandemic, before issues like financial insecurity, physical and psychological health, poor time management or a lack of accountability, family demands or harmful lifestyle behaviours derail their wellbeing and productivity.”

This calls for an integrated, holistic approach that caters to the many aspects of employee wellbeing, including, for example:

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“In times like these, when so many changes are outside of our control, it’s especially important to focus on those factors we can do something about.”

•

Ongoing Covid-19 screening and prevention: This could include access to credible information, support services and app- and website-based pre-screening tools to screen employees for Covid19 symptoms.

• Health screening and prevention tools: This could include physical health checks for common chronic diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease, as well as access to wellness specialists like dieticians, biokineticists or doctors for at-risk members.

• Mental wellbeing tools: This could include an array of tools that support employees’ overall mental health, such as access to counsellors, helplines, legal advice, mindfulness apps, and life coaches.

Perhaps one of the most valuable forms of support that employers can offer is financial wellbeing support, says Guy Chennells, head of Employee Benefits Products at Discovery.

He believes that while access to budgeting tools and financial advice can go a long way in helping employees manage their finances better, behavioural incentives and tailored employee solutions are especially effective.

Incentivising healthy financial choices “In times like these, when so many changes are outside of our control, it’s especially important to focus on those factors we can do something about,” says Guy. “For example, Discovery’s employee benefit solutions drive healthy savings behaviour by motivating employees to save more, for longer, and manage their health and wellness. When they do this, we are able to reward their behaviour by adding boosts to their retirement savings.”

“This has a two-fold effect – in the present, it motivates people to make smart lifestyle and financial choices, which empowers them with the knowledge that their actions matter. It also results in physical health benefits, mental resilience and improved retirement outcomes that will hold them in good stead in the future.”

Guy is not only focused on the direct benefit of better health and financial decisions, but on changing each person’s trajectory so that they can get on track to the

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retirement outcome they want, regardless of where they are today.

One employee at a time “For example, we offer customisable pension and provident retirement fund solutions under an umbrella fund arrangement that encourage employees to reach their retirement goals with unique rewards, benefits and digital engagement. This provides people with their own personalised contribution plans to close their retirement savings gaps, where the contribution increases only take place to coincide with future salary increase.

This is more relevant than ever as Covid has put a dent into many peoples’ plans and they need a responsive, personalised plan to get them back on track.”

“Giving your employees the choice to automate contribution increases to align with their salary increases puts the power in their hands by making it easier for them to save towards their futures and respond effectively to the curveballs of life,” Guy adds.

“Forward-thinking financial choices like this, made by millions of employees around South Africa, will play an essential role in building a more resilient and economically secure nation for us all. All employers have a role to play in this kind of nation-building, so it’s worth equipping your business for the task.” 

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interview

Leading with compassion Google’s HR Cluster Head for SSA Avanthi Maharaj says joining the company was a dream come true as her role offers her the opportunity to build a team across Africa to fulfil extraordinary ambitions for the continent.

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BY VICTORIA WILLIAMS

vanthi joined Google as the SSA people partner in October 2019 and was promoted to the HR cluster head for SSA in May 2020. In her current role, she is responsible for South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana. Google’s total African team is roughly 150 people strong with goals to grow headcount and open new territories over the next few years. The internet services giant is focusing its attention on untapped African markets to bring more people online – this is part of the organisation’s ambitions to bring the internet to the next billion users.

“Joining Google was a life-changing moment for me. It has been a huge learning curve. We are on an absolute trajectory of building the Africa vision and strategy. We want to bring Google to Africa in a way that is accessible to everybody. The knowledge that people have of Google on the African continent is minute compared to that in the rest of the world. Google is not just a search function, we have so many other products and business initiatives underway,” says Avanthi.

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Permission to dream big Avanthi hails from the small KwaZulu-Natal town of Verulam. While she was growing up, her family owned a shop in Durban. She has memories of studying for her matric exams in the car outside that shop. Her career ambitions came from her mother who encouraged her to achieve academically.

“My inspiration came from my mother. She was a traditional Indian woman who was locked in a culture that was not supportive of women in the workplace at that time. She pushed both my sister and me to break that traditional mould of being a housewife or being married at an early age. She was fiercely independent and wanted to make sure that I had no dependencies when building my career.”

Avanthi realised early on that she wanted to work with people and considered social work and psychology as possible avenues. She qualified through UNISA with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, Psychology and Industrial Psychology and later a

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“The company has provided a $1,000 allowance to each employee to allow them to equip themselves with a comfortable work-fromhome space.�

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“SSA roles in South Africa are like hen’s teeth. There are very few companies that would take a chance on someone without subSaharan Africa experience.” in the best hands of care and that I had his unconditional support was a huge help!”

Certificate in Human Resources. Her first job was as an administrator at UNISA in 1996. Here her mother was once again supportive: “They phoned on a Friday to say that I got the job. The only catch was that I needed to show up for work on Monday morning. My mother and I got on a bus to Johannesburg the very next day.”

While she enjoyed her job at UNISA, she soon realised that she wanted to build a career in HR. Her route into HR was through recruiting working at recruitment agencies. She then transitioned into a role at Absa, where she was responsible for HR management of a large IT team. “My love for IT has stayed with me throughout my career. I started as an IT recruiter and I navigate to roles that have a bit of that element. This is why Google is a good match for me,” says Avanthi.

A defining role Avanthi’s career-defining role was at Mastercard where she was the HR director for SA and SSA. She travelled extensively across the various Mastercard African territories and built her ‘cultural muscles’ with on-the-ground experience with her African colleagues.

“SSA roles in South Africa are like hen’s teeth.

There are very few companies that would take a chance on someone without sub-Saharan Africa experience. I had a fierce passion for and determination to break into the SSA realm. I wanted to learn and understand what is happening on the continent,” she comments. Her husband was a true champion of her vision as travelling was a major aspect of her role. “Knowing that my kids would be

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For Avanthi, the role offered both incredible personal growth and the chance to define her philosophy as an HR leader. “Ajay Banga, the CEO of Mastercard used to say ‘I want to be the hand on your back to push you forward or catch you when you fall. Not the hand in your face to push you down.’ The fundamental goal of HR is to grow and build our people. My approach to HR is exactly the opposite of hiring and firing. It is a relationship and a dialogue between an employee and an organisation.”

Google in a time of Covid-19 The wellbeing of employees and their families is a top priority for Google. “When I joined Google, I was impressed by how inclusive and welcoming the organisation is. The employee wellness programme was very visible from the onset – looking after employees is a key differentiator,” says Avanthi.

She doesn’t foresee a speedy return to the office despite the easing of lockdown restrictions. She believes that the organisation was ahead of the curve in terms of planning their response to the virus, saying staff are equipped to work from home for the next six to 12 months. The company has provided a $1,000 allowance to each employee to allow them to equip themselves with a comfortable work-from-home space.

Google has also granted 14 weeks of ‘carer’s leave’ for employees to take in the event that one of their family members contract the virus or if they

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“Google has not asked employees to manage their psychological wellbeing in their own time. Your psychological wellbeing is part of how you deliver in the workplace” need time off to sort out schooling arrangements for their children. We don't believe that there is a one-size-fits-all approach, and we look at every request individually. Some Googlers will need more time off than others, depending on the specifics of their situation. “We understand that this is business unusual. It is such a privilege to know that your job is safe, you can still deliver and also look after your family. This ‘carer’s leave’ has resulted in huge employee goodwill and commitment. We are trying to make a better Google by being there for Googlers in the moments that matter the most,” says Avanthi.

Google prioritises employee wellbeing and psychological safety. The employee wellness resources, tools and communities available at Google are extensive. During Covid-19, the company has run online training on how to manage work life balance, psychological wellbeing and the prioritisation of work tasks. “Google has not asked employees to manage their psychological wellbeing in their own time. Your psychological wellbeing is part of how you deliver in the workplace. If we don’t take care of that element, we won’t get the best out of our employees,” says Avanthi.

phone at any time. They know that they can share their concerns with zero judgement. It’s an ongoing engagement, not just a superficial occasional check-in with employees.”

Making time to unwind Avanthi admits that finding a good work-life balance over the past few months has been challenging. “It is hard to shut down when you have a vested interest in the wellbeing of so many people. It is also tough to disconnect when your home office is a few steps away from your bedroom.”

When she is not working, she spends time with her son and daughter and steals moments late at night to binge-watch a few Netflix series. She especially enjoys sci-fi and crime series. 

Avanthi Maharaj HR Cluster Head, SSA, Google Work: Avanthi is an accomplished and seasoned Senior Human Resource Partner with a passion to lead, inspire and develop others. She has over 15 years of HR experience and, prior to her current role, spent a decade in senior roles at Multinationals such as Citibank (Assistant Vice President Senior HR Business Partner) and Mastercard (HR director, SSA).

Key to helping staff navigate the Covid-19 pandemic has been keeping the doors of dialogue between leaders and employees open. “The engagement of leadership to staff has been phenomenal; empathy and compassion has been the golden thread which held the conversations together over the past months,” says Avanthi. She believes that having an open-door policy has been invaluable: “Our employees know that they can pick up the

Education: BA, English, Psychology Industrial Psychology (UNISA), Certificate in Human Resources (Unisa), Diploma in Project Management (Damelin)

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webinar

WHEN, WHY, WHO, AND HOW TO RETRENCH

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On 29 July, CHRO South Africa hosted a webinar that examined the challenges HR leaders face when their organisations take the tough decision to retrench workers, especially during the Covid-19 crisis.

BY CAYLYNNE FOURIE

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Labour predicting a jump to 45 percent at the end of the pandemic, unless we do something dramatic.”

However, he pointed out that, while there are concerns about protecting jobs, businesses are also faced with protecting and positioning their companies in a way that they are able to survive the pandemic.

“Businesses are looking at restructuring their organisations in light of what’s happening around them,” he said. “Many are coming to the conclusion that they don’t need the same headcount as they had before the pandemic.”

“

Johan Botes

According to the National Income Dynamics Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey, approximately three million people have lost their jobs due to the economic decline as a result of Covid-19,” CHRO South Africa managing editor Sungula Nkabinda said as he introduced a webinar discussion about the right to handle retrenchments, which was hosted on Wednesday 29 July.

“This represents an 18 percent decline in employment from 17 million people employed in February to 14 million people employed in April 2020.”

He then introduced Baker McKenzie’s Employment Practice Group head Johan Botes, who provided some context around the legislative environment both locally and abroad when it comes to the way companies are responding to the pandemic.

“Prior to the pandemic, South Africa had an official unemployment rate of 27 percent,” Johan said. “It has since gone up to 31 percent, with the Minister of

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From a legal perspective, Johan said that South African law does not prohibit staff redundancies during the lockdown and Covid-19 period. “An employer can still legitimately, lawfully and fairly, terminate staff because of redundancies or operational requirements.”

However, employers do have a duty to consider all alternatives short of termination when it makes staff redundant, like the availability of government funding that has been made available.

Sungula then played a video interview with National Union of Mineworkers president Joseph Montisetse, who has been dealing with companies initiating Section 189A processes of retrenching employees en masse, as well as continuing negotiations around salary increases.

“We are currently engaging with several companies in the diamond and coal industries regarding salary increases in compliance with the Labour Relations Act,” he said. However, the union has been getting pushback from the companies within this industry, saying that their cash flows and revenues have been under pressure due to Covid-19. “But, as a trade union, our main objective is to ensure our members are getting what they are due and we do not budge.”

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The guidelines of a restructuring process Joseph advised that, when engaging with unions like NUM around retrenchments, companies should be transparent.

Sungula then introduced Mercedes-Benz South Africa executive director of HR Abey Kgotle, who said that, in any restructuring exercise, you will have different interests from the various parties you engage with.

“You have unions, whose primary interest is securing the livelihood and jobs of their members. In mining, for example, you have the DMR, which assists unions in their processes. You also have the community, because most of the mines operate within spaces where there is a very close interface with the communities,” he explained.

Abey added that the crux of any restructuring exercise is to find a way to balance all these separate interests and to get everyone to appreciate why it’s critical to undertake the exercise and how to minimise its impact.

He echoed Joseph’s advice that transparency is critical during restructuring exercises. “Being transparent about the challenges you are facing makes it easier for people to understand where you are coming from and why it is so crucial for you to undertake the restructuring process.”

He stressed that it is important to have an open mind when going through a restructuring process, because the more you engage with the different parties involved, the easier it is to find a solution that you might not have thought of.

“With South Africa having all these structural problems, it also becomes critical for your business to play a part in helping to resolve some of these challenges, as they can have an impact on the sustainability of your business.”

Abey Kgotle

Impact of retrenching Johan said that one of the things leaders of organisations often don’t think about is the intangible effect of redundancy and restructuring on the staff that are left behind.

“Research has shown that 76 percent of the staff that remain behind said that they were less productive following such an exercise,” he said. “The psychological impact is very difficult to show on a spreadsheet.”

He explained that organisations who have gone through this process usually see an increase in absenteeism and presenteeism as employees are less motivated and aren’t as loyal as they used to be.

Abey concluded that, when companies are considering restructuring, they need to ensure that they do it quickly and with empathy and ensure the safety and wellbeing of the employees that are left behind, as you will need them to help you carry the business through the restructuring.

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“You have to realise that, if you don’t put your views forward, your passivity can compromise the entire organisation.”

CUSTODIANS OF ETHICS Revelations from the Zondo commission and transgressions from companies such as KPMG and Steinhoff have highlighted the reality that there is an ethics problem in South African government and business. In this article, Servest Group HR director Lungile Langa shares her views on the subject of HR’s role in driving ethical leadership.

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BY PUSELETSO POMPEI

ungile Langa, HR director at Servest, says that corruption and wrongdoing often seep into organisations because a lot of people look away or do not raise the alarm when they encounter concerning activities.

She emphasises that, “as an HR professional, your voice is important and if you don’t raise a concern as soon as you are aware of something out of place, it raises questions about your credibility and in the long-term, can negatively impact the integrity of your organisation.”

Lungile notes that a lapse in ethical judgement happens both in the public and private sector.

Cases of transgressions from companies such as KPMG and Steinhoff illustrate that unethical behaviour cannot be restricted to any one sector.

Cases have illustrated that, whenever misconduct is uncovered, the fallout can be considerable given breach of trust with stakeholders. The damage to an organisation’s reputation can be difficult to repair.

Beauraucracy the culprit.

Lungile notes that in the private sector, speed is often a priority, so approving budgets and signing off spend in the private sector is tied down with less bureaucracy. She notes, however, that in public entities, there tends to be a much longer, more cumbersome procurement process.

“For example, when selecting vendors, you undergo a tender process that involves a panel.

There are also checks and balances in the private sector, but ethics can be compromised by the need for speed. The risk in that arena arises when you have an HR professional with no integrity bending the rules at the expense of the company,” she says.

In the public sector, cases of ethical transgression have evoked anger and demands for accountability. Public Service and Administration Minister Senzo Mchunu recently established the Public Administration Ethics, Integrity and Disciplinary Technical Assistance Unit, which will conduct ethics profiles on all employees in the public administration.

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The unit was created to support and provide technical assistance for the management of ethics, integrity and disciplinary matters relating to misconduct in the public administration; Develop norms and standards for the above; build capacity around the disciplining of misconduct; strengthen oversight of ethics, integrity and discipline; and to intervene in cases where systemic weaknesses are identified; promote ethics and integrity; and cooperate with other institutions and organs of state.

The Minister indicated that precautionary suspensions related to unethical behaviour stood at 444 cases on 31 December 2018.

Sometimes a matter of self-preservation Reflecting on cases where HR professionals allowed unethical activities to take place in the workplace, Lungile suggests that, when it comes to things like irregular appointments, HR’s choice to turn a blind eye can be a move of self-preservation. “In these instances, HR casts aside their conviction in favour of going along or wanting to please the CEO or COO. This can happen when the HR professional is invested in avoiding any confrontation or maintaining the peace by not being firm or pushing back on unethical behaviour.”

She says it is important for HR to set boundaries, especially in issues that fall in their scope of responsibility. “Even if line management controls the budget, you must understand that you are an expert in employee behaviour and competencies, and should not defer a decision as pivotal as hiring, without expressing your professional opinion.

You must ensure that your advice is taken seriously, and not succumb to pressure from above to go with certain decisions that are wrong.”

Strong leaders are required Lungile adds that HR professionals can sometimes be too focused on keeping the peace. That said, they do need to take up their rightful place and prioritise doing the right thing over pleasing others.

“You have to realise that, if you don’t put your views forward, your passivity can compromise the entire organisation.”

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The role of whistle-blowers in exposing wrongdoing has come to the fore in many of the prominent cases presented at the Zondo Commission and beyond. High-profile cases have ranged from questionable recruitment to wrongful dismissal at organisations such as SAA and SABC after whistle-blowers stepped forward to expose activities, and HR has a key role in protecting them.

“As the keepers of culture,” says Lungile, “HR practitioners should lead the charge in creating an environment where staff have safe avenues for reporting wrongdoing.” This includes setting up channels or facilities that enable employees to reliably make safe disclosures of unethical conduct.

Protect whistleblowers According to the South African Board for People Practices, HR should take the lead when it comes to whistleblowing, especially in cases where there is reluctance to investigate. Some of the foot-dragging is based on internal politics and bias, for example when a high performer or senior executive is implicated.

HR needs to ensure that those involved in an investigation are able to act impartially so as to not compromise the investigation process.

Additionally, they should ensure that investigative practices do not breach ethical and legal requirements and continually monitor the investigation for signs of blind adherence to initial assumptions, which may have been inaccurate as they were of necessity based on incomplete evidence and preconceived theories.

Workplace whistleblowers can rely on the protection afforded by the South African Protected Disclosures Act (PDA), and the Whistleblowers Act, provided that they made a protected disclosure.

The act encourages employees to raise alarm where they are aware of criminal or other irregular conduct in the workplace, whether this is in the public or private sector. It seeks to create a culture of disclosure of information on unlawful or wrongful conduct by providing protection against reprisals. The aim is to eradicate criminal

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“As the keepers of culture, HR practitioners should lead the charge in creating an environment where staff have safe avenues for reporting wrongdoing.”

Lungile Langa Group HR Director, Servest Work: Lungile’s 20-year career has included serving in executive roles at various JSE-listed companies. She has experience as an HR leader, including 12 years at executive management level. She served as an HR executive for Telkom. Prior to that, she was the head of HR at Momentum Retail. She also has her own industrial psychology consultancy.

Education: BA, Psychology (University of Johannesburg), M Phil, Industrial Psychology (University of Johannesburg)

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“The Minister indicated that precautionary suspensions related to unethical behaviour stood at 444 cases on 31 December 2018.” and irregular conduct by organs of the state and private bodies.

HR needs to ensure that whistleblowing is also reflected in the organisation’s policies and ensure implementation of Protected Disclosures Act, which states that employers should authorise appropriate internal procedures for receiving and dealing with information about improprieties, and take reasonable steps to bring the internal procedures to the attention of every employee and worker.

Integrity is instilled from the top In terms of whether integrity is inherent or learnt, Lungile says some people are naturally inclined to view the world a certain way, or they can be taught as they progress in life. “In HR, everything we do leans on integrity; in this field if you don’t have honour you won’t last. As a leader in this role, you are expected to set the tone for the rest of the organisation. You have to be an example, walk the walk, safeguard the integrity of the organisation and make sure that policies and issues of discipline are upheld.”

Codes of corporate governance (such as King IV), the Company’s Act and similar around the

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world are putting ethics management at the top of the leadership agenda, Lungile says, adding that accountability circles back to you as an HR leader. “You are ultimately responsible for providing procedures and guidelines for discipline in the organisation, which can make you unpopular, but is part and parcel of the job."

Embedding ethics and integrity in the formal sense requires a concerted effort which entails having a strong code of ethics in place which sets professional standards and expectations of behaviour for everyone in the organisation. Additionally, ethical conduct has to be led from the top.

Lungile emphasises that setting standards and creating a culture where ethics are respected, depends not only on the leaders of the organisation, but also on the reputation and standing of the HR professionals in the organisation.

“Ideally, you want your organisation to view HR as a critical function. In some organisations, HR is still perceived only as a support function, rather than a strategic partner. A highly respected HR office is often hard-wearing and therefore the professionals in that division have to be empowered to act on behaviours that don’t meet the organisation’s ethical standards.” 

L&D CHRO

partner

OVER A GLASS OF VINO Learning and development (L&D) budgets are often the first to be cut when companies attempt to survive harsh economic conditions. But Skillogical is working with Winetech to redefine return on investment of L&D to ensure it continues to build its people capacity despite the current economic reality.

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he SA Wine Industry has to survive in such harsh conditions, initially brought about by the ongoing drought and recently by the implications of the lockdownrelated regulations. Winetech learning and development manager Kachné Ross is responsible for promoting competence in the industry by making sure L&D initiatives address the needs of the industry. They enlisted the help of HCM Solutions provider Skillogical to enable their workforce to be more resilient.

The four stakeholders

Kachné is a qualified viticulturist but because of her passion for people development, she spent most of her career educating the wine industry. She lectured at the Agricultural College Elsenburg for six years and focused on farmworker development for two years thereafter at Vinpro. Her dream is for her department to provide development opportunities, through L&D systems, for the entire industry.

Understanding and addressing these perspectives is vital in ensuring the four stakeholder groups remain committed to building or enhancing competence in the industry.

“A fresh look at defining return on investment (ROI) of L&D seems to be vital for ensuring the industry continues to build its people’s capacity despite the adverse economic realities,” says Kachné.

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To get them right, Kachné says skills development initiatives are dependent on buy-in and support of four stakeholder groups, namely, providers, employers, learners/employees, and sponsors and industry bodies.

“Each of these stakeholders has a different perspective on what they ‘invest’ in addressing competency needs and what is perceived to be the ‘return’ on the investment made,” she says.

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Providers

Kachné says the learning offered by providers should be cognisant of workplace needs. This implies a concerted effort to ensure the learning programmes being offered are not only focussed on filling seats and generating revenue but also on impacting the critical knowledge, skills and attitudinal aspects of

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practitioners. Providers’ initial investment in developing programmes needs to be followed up with an ongoing confirmation that their programmes address workplace needs.

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Employers

Workplace support in identifying and addressing competency gaps and encouraging the integration of newly developed skillsets is a vital component in promoting productivity and reaping benefits from time and resources spent on people development.

“Besides encouraging employees to pursue lifelong learning principles, workplaces are indispensable for entrenching newly developed skill sets,” says Jurie van Zyl, Skillogical’s people development advisor, adding that workplaces will only be willing to support and participate in the development of people if there is a clear link between the time supervisors and employees are expected to devote to skills development and productivity and profitability.

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Furthermore, direct financial support and sponsorship to minimise direct training cost is not enough motivation to encourage employers to participate in skills development initiatives. Employers will only invest if their return is articulated in terms of measurable cost saving and an increase in productivity.

3

Learners/employees

Kachné says the effort expected of people to actively participate in learning and development initiatives goes beyond financial cost. Family time, extra workplace effort to complete portfolios of evidence and dedicated time to study requires sacrifice.

Says Kachné: “These mentioned sacrifices or ‘investments’ need to be outweighed by an increase in workplace confidence and employability brought about by a curriculum vitae that not only contains formal qualifications but also testimonials of workplaces vouching for competence and ability to contribute to healthy workplace interaction, cost-saving and productivity. Increased employability is the

“The emphasis on achieving targets should balance work placement with the traditional learner throughput focus.”

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only return that justifies the investment made by employees and learners.”

aspect that could support the investment made by the other three stakeholder groups," says Kachné.

4

ROI metrics

Sponsors and industry bodies

Employer interest in skills development pivots on productivity as the driving consideration and for employees it is employability. National socio-economic imperatives form the third set of drivers for skills development.

Jurie emphasises that the key to developing a process for recording and reporting on L&D ROI is the development of metrics that can be quantified by stakeholders. Metrics are defined as standards of measurement by which efficiency, performance, progress, or quality of a plan, process, or product can be assessed.

“The emphasis on achieving targets should balance work placement with the traditional learner throughput focus. Financial aid from sponsors is important, but the impact of creating employment opportunities and supporting work-integrated learning as additional ‘investment’ seems to be the vital

“Winetech is proposing a process and a system that will allow stakeholders to record their specific ‘units of measure’ before, during and after learning interventions. The following table suggests the units of measure for the four stakeholder groups,” says Jurie.

STAKEHOLDER

UNITS OF MEASURE

CALCULATION METRICS

Providers

• Cost of training

• Time and cost to develop learning programmes • Man-days to facilitate and assess learning • Cost of supporting infrastructure such as e-learning platform

C

M

Y

CM

Employers

• Various units that could ultimately be related to monetary value

• Workdays allocated to learning & development

MY

• Wastage

CY

• Breakages • Work procedure turnaround time • Applicability of outcomes to workplace requirements • Manager/supervisor support time

Employees

• Applicability to work

• Satisfaction with the learning programme

• Personal benefit

• Worktime used • Personal time used • Application to workplace • Employability

Sponsors & industry bodies

• Learner targets & cost

• Number of learners completing the course & employed after a year • Cost per programme

“Besides encouraging employees to pursue lifelong learning principles, workplaces are indispensable for entrenching newly developed skill sets.”

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CHRO-Awards.co.za

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Cost to company Elna van Wyk, head of group disability and underwriting at Momentum Corporate, explores the impact Covid-19 will have on employees’ mental health and disability claims.

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BY ELNA VAN WYK ovid-19 has brought unprecedented disruption to our lives and economy. It is clear that the stresses are significant and an increase in mental health-related disability claims from employees at all levels, including management, seem inevitable.

While some people have become overproductive while working from home, many are struggling with motivation. The possibility exists that a productivity slump could follow, threatening economic growth if not managed by managers in organisations.

managers. Decision fatigue refers to the idea that willpower or ability to make good choices deteriorates in quality after an extended period of decision-making. Forced to make hard decisions with potentially severe consequences throughout the day, leaders might experience growing difficulty in accurately assessing the risks associated with different courses of action.

A recent study by North-West University and the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG), which looked at the specific impact of Covid-19 and its related lockdown measures on people in the workplace, found that almost half the employees surveyed (46 percent) are at high risk of what researchers call pre-TSD (pre-traumatic stress disorder). As women tend to have additional domestic responsibilities on top of their professional ones, the current work-from-home scenario could see women – especially those in leadership roles – disproportionately impacted by stressors related to Covid-19.

“Not every employer can afford an employee assistance programme, especially at this time.”

On the other hand, the risk of employees not taking leave and getting burnt out increases the risk of mental health-related disability claims. Already at Momentum Corporate, nine percent of all disability claims are related to mental health. This percentage increases for younger employees, with 26 percent of all disability claims in 2020 for those under 35 years related to mental health.

While many people have lost their jobs, others who have returned to work are experiencing a lot of anxiety in navigating a sea of health and safety measures and a different work environment. For many people working from home, it has also meant a new level of multitasking and trying to do everything at once: working, looking after children and managing a household.

Managers have to support employees and be mindful of the challenges they face, such as isolation, distractions at home, concerns about family and friends, anxiety over workload and working remotely, or the death of a loved one. Managers have to do this while dealing with the same issues in their own lives.

The uncertainty of the pandemic is having a dramatic effect not only on people with existing mental health issues but also on those with no psychiatric pre-existing conditions. We are seeing this

Impact on decision-making Dealing with organisational challenges to keep businesses afloat can lead to decision fatigue for

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“Managers have to support employees and be mindful of the challenges they face... while dealing with the same issues in their own lives.�

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play out drastically in our claims area, and a likely increase in psychiatric disability claims means employers need to be equipped to deal with this and try to mitigate it where possible. There will be a need for support interventions that minimise the risk of disabilities related to mental health as workplaces adapt to the new normal.

Not every employer can afford an employee assistance programme, especially at this time.

Fortunately, some large insurers offer telephonic counselling as a value-added benefit. Certain leading umbrella retirement funds also offer basic financial literacy as part of their benefit counselling services. This support may be essential for employees dealing with financial pressures.

Where a disability does occur, it is more essential than ever to make sure claimants have access to professional rehabilitation and wellness services through their insurer. These services minimise business disruption and facilitate a speedy, efficient return to productivity.

Addressing the nation’s mental health Participating in a recent Momentum Covid-19 webinar, specialist psychiatrist Dr Mashadi Motlana said there is a larger issue to be addressed on a collective level.

“We are facing what I believe is an institutional stigma in terms of how healthcare spend is distributed. Only five percent of our national health budget is spent on mental health,” she said.

“In addition, the healthcare system is biased towards spending on tertiary care such as psychiatric facilities, and the majority of cases that should be treated in primary healthcare facilities are missed or not adequately managed. We need to make proactive efforts to shift the focus to identifying and intervening earlier and promoting psychological well-being.”

Preventing lifestyle-related disabilities The value of good health and healthy behaviour cannot be overstated as we emerge from the grip of the pandemic. Top group insurance service providers offer engagement programmes that incentivise employees to follow healthy lifestyles. Certain leading employee benefits service providers also reward the actual company for encouraging behaviours that drive employee engagement and productivity

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with rewards they can spend on employee wellness initiatives, or for employers trying to get back on their feet within the Covid-19 context, on safety measures for workplace reintegration or to support staff working remotely.

On the plus side, Mashadi said she was seeing an increased willingness to open up about mental health in the face of this pandemic. “I can’t stress enough the importance of needing to carve out time for self. Covid-19 is helping us to learn tools that we should always apply in our lives,” she said.

“I believe that time management is perhaps the most critical of these tools, especially as the lines are now so blurred between our work and private habitats.”

Also presenting at the webinar, organisational psychologist Ingra du Buisson-Narsai unpacked how neuroscience can help employers cope with disruption to normal routines and the difficult decisions they need to make during these times.

“Covid-19 has shown us that when humanity is united in a common cause, we can change rapidly and phenomenally well when we act coherently and constructively,” said Ingra.

This means we first need to face the facts to minimise fear, then find the focus to enable growth and change, and finally flourishing to build mental stamina. She said there are seven factors we can deploy “to build an upward spiral of flourishing” instead of a “downward spiral of languishing”.

These factors include rebooting, renewing, reflecting, rebalancing, reframing, reconnecting, and refocusing.

I believe South Africa does not have the core standards to address mental health. Working with an experienced employee benefits provider can help with earlier detection and interventions that can prevent long-term disability related to mental health.

At Momentum Corporate, we work with our employer clients to implement such much-needed core standards. This includes preparing a plan for mental health at work, promoting effective people management, routinely monitoring employee mental health and well-being, developing awareness about mental health among employees, and encouraging open conversations about mental health and the support available for struggling employees. 

When the swirling mist and changing landscape clouds your thinking ... when the usual paths are blocked, and the obvious solutions no longer take you forward ... as an HR practitioner, you need a fresh set of eyes;

an employee benefits adviser who thinks differently about changing times - someone who sees new paths to your destination.

mca@momentum.co.za

momentumconsultantsandactuaries.co.za

Momentum Consultants and Actuaries (Pty) Ltd is an authorised financial services provider (FSP7677) and a subsidiary of Momentum Metropolitan Strategic Investments (Pty) Ltd and rated B-BBEE Level 1. Š2020 Momentum Consultants and Actuaries.

CHRO

partner

GEEKING OUT

TECHNOLOGY MAKES LOCKDOWN MORE CONNECTED & MORE HUMAN

Workday country MD Zuko Mdwaba says that systems and solutions have made business – and human connection – possible in the time of Covid-19.

BY GEORGINA GUEDES

“

Global insight

Covid-19 has been an equaliser across the globe. It has been testing the level of readiness for catastrophe of companies all around the world. And, as we are experiencing in South Africa, we are all in the same storm, just in different boats,” says Zuko Mdwaba, the country MD of Workday.

However, he points out that South Africa was already dealing with a struggling economy that has entered into a technical recession, so the longer-term challenges are harder felt by South African business. Balancing the conflicting demands of public health with the hardships that result from the economic downturn has been enormously difficult for the government.

“One of the biggest challenges in South Africa is that we were facing these enormous socio-economic challenges, which are now amplified in the Covid-period. People are equally worried about contracting the virus and about not being active in the economy. As a country, we are taking a huge knock,” Zuko says.

Around the world and in South Africa, Workday has more than 3,200 customers, which gives them great insight into assessing the impact of Covid-19 on businesses. “When you listen to people or finance leaders talking, one of the key things that they say is important is data. In weekly meetings with executives, they need to make informed decisions, and those decisions are informed by data, which gives them a sense of what’s happening in their organisation,” Zuko says.

He explains that Workday makes a significant contribution in this space, because at the core of everything that the company does is to enable agility in an organisation through data. “In South Africa, in this period, we’ve been instrumental in helping our customers to navigate their businesses in these tricky times. It’s something that speaks to how these organisations have taken the approach of creating environments with a level of flexibility.

We are living in a world where business can either disrupt or be disrupted, so businesses have to be very agile – and Workday is supporting that.”

“When overnight, you have people working from home, it becomes important to understand the profile of these people, so that you can provide the support that’s supposed to be provided.”

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“We’re going through a double-whammy as a country – with the struggling economy and the pandemic…”

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“We can’t take people’s home situations for granted and expect them to jump from one call to the next...”

ers to be aware of the impact that lockdown stress is having on people’s mental health. “We can’t take people’s home situations for granted and expect them to jump from one call to the next. We have to acknowledge the difference between introverts and extroverts and that they may have different levels of comfort with online engagement. We need to be aware of these challenges and talk about how to counter them, to ensure that people are constantly doing other things, being active.”

While technology is certainly helpful in supporting agility, Zuko says that, perhaps surprisingly, it’s the way in which it supports the human touch that has made it so invaluable during the Covid-19 lockdown periods.

“When overnight, you have people working from home, it becomes important to understand the profile of these people, so that you can provide the support that’s supposed to be provided. The data you have is going to be able to help you to understand them – for example, you might know that someone who lives in one area will need more support than another person. You’ll be able to know when it’s someone’s birthday, or if they are having a child and respond appropriately even when everyone’s working from different locations.This information is all now contained in the human capital records within our clients’ organisations.”

SA business taking a leap From his vantage point, heading up an organisation that supports corporate agility, Zuko believes that South African businesses were not ready for the shift to working from home, and that it required a big mental adjustment from a lot of managers.

“Working remotely requires a certain level of trust, and it’s easy for leaders to believe that if they can’t see people in the office, then they’re not as productive. Managers have had to get used to it.”

And yet, he points out that it has emerged that many people were actually a lot more productive working from home than at the office. “Cases like this have been an eye-opener for many leaders. People were working from 7am to 7pm. The Workday can also help in instances like this because, while people might be working hard, employee engagement is still important.”

He adds that it’s extremely important for manag-

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Workday, for example, has held events where employees shared stories of holidays that they had taken or wanted to take. Zuko says some organisations are offering online fitness classes or times during which meetings aren’t allowed. “These things might seem small, but they are quite crucial for our sanity.”

A personal perspective As a technologist, Zuko says one aspect of lockdown that’s been exciting for him has been the flood of emerging technology. “If it weren’t for technology, we wouldn’t be having this interview.

Machine learning, AI, cloud, blockchain and others on the horizon are giving birth to new ways of doing business. These emerging technologies are defining the world of work, and how that will look post-Covid when we continue working remotely.

Certainly, technology is a big part of that.”

On the other hand, from a personal perspective, the lockdown has presented challenges in the way that he parents his children. “I’ve always believed that technology is good, but that you have to manage it with children. I’ve always limited device time, but overnight schools went remote, and now children have to be on these gadgets from 7am until one in the afternoon, and they still want to interact socially in that space.”

He laughs: “We need a support group for parents.

This part has come as a bit of a shock to me.”

Zuko says that with the capabilities of technology and the support that people are able to give one another in these difficult times, he believes that South African business will pull through. “We’re going through a double-whammy as a country – with the struggling economy and the pandemic – and the biggest reality is that all of us are trying to sail through these waters and get to the other side.

Something that’s encouraging is that historically, South Africa is a nation of very resilient people, so I am quite confident that we’ll get through this.” 

The finance, HR, and planning system for a changing world.

In a world that’s always changing, you need systems that help you tackle new challenges, evolve, and grow. And while no one knows exactly what the future of their business will look like, we do know the partner and business system that will get you there.

Workday. For a changing world.™

workday.com/za © 2020 Workday, Inc. All rights reserved. Workday, the Workday Logo, and “Workday For a changing world” are trademarks of Workday, Inc., registered in the United States and elsewhere.

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Working from home is no walk in the park It’s nearing the end of Women’s Month as I’m writing this. The baby is napping and I have a few moments to check my emails, cross off a few items on my to-do list and perhaps have a cup of coffee before she wakes up and demands my attention. This is working from home. For me at least.

I’ve been working from home since March – when lockdown and Covid were still terrifying monsters to a very pregnant working mother of a toddler. Every time Zoom asked me to ‘join with video’ I became acutely aware of the toys strewn on the floor in the background and the bags under my eyes. Not to mention the chaos that would ensue the moment it was my time to unmute – dogs barking at hadedas on the lawn, toddler tantrums and a husband taking his own Zoom calls in the background.

Like most South Africans, I was exhausted and defeated by mid-April.

It seemed like I was fighting a losing battle – on all fronts. The future of our business – and the job that I love – was being threatened by this pandemic; my toddler clung to me because she wasn’t receiving the attention she so needed and I was about to bring another little life into this world without any support from family or friends. I kept reminding myself that women have survived worse and birthed children under worse circumstances. I kept telling myself that I was lucky to still have a job, a doting husband, and my health.

Fast forward a couple of months and I’m in a CHRO Community Conversation on Zoom with some of South Africa’s leading women executives. Myself and Cebile Xulu, HR director at Mondelez, and friend of our community, end up in a breakout session together. I can hear her kids in the background and I’m rocking my baby to sleep. We talk about the limiting beliefs that sometimes hold us back. I engage with women who have partners and children in the background, while the dinner is still on the stove – who, somehow still found the time to seek out community. “This is it," I think to myself as I listen to almost every woman laughing, saying “I thought it was just me.”

Sure, Covid is still very scary. Yes, I’m still worried about my daughters' futures, the recession, and the state of our country. And, of course, working from home is tough with distractions, nappy changes and load shedding. But I keep reminding myself that women have survived much worse and that they will keep surviving whatever is to come because of communities like this one. So, after a sleepless night, too much coffee and dry shampoo, I unmute, join with video and unleash my chaos onto the world.

JUDITH KAMFFER HEAD OF MARKETING CHRO SOUTH AFRICA JKAMMFER@CHRO.CO.ZA

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Membership Opportunities

Invest in your people and boost your success and that of your business

Support the CHRO community with a membership and grow the brightest stars in your HR team.

Your support allows CHRO South Africa to keep growing the community that helps you and your peers boost your knowledge, network and career. A membership is also the best professional gift for two direct reports. They will be able to attend and benefit from all CHRO events in 2020, receive the CHRO Magazine 2020 editions and will be invited to join weekly online CHRO Community Conversations.

Meant for: CHRO / HR Directors and up to two handpicked senior direct reports.

Immediate Benefits: Support the CHRO South Africa community Exclusive invite to all CHRO Summits Exclusive invite to CHRO Awards Exclusive invite to CHRO Day

Exclusive invite to CHRO SA Community Conversations (Online) All issues of CHRO Magazine delivered to your desk Weekly newsletter

Corporate Membership Investment:

R40,000 ex VAT per annum Terms and Conditions CHRO South Africa reserves the right to decline memberships.

Calendar of Events:

14 October 2020

HR Indaba Network

26 November 2020

CHRO Awards

Contact: Nick Smith | nsmith@chro.co.za | 072 202 1071 | CHRO.co.za

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Product rules, terms and conditions apply. Discovery Health (Pty) Ltd; registration number 1997/013480/07, an authorised financial services provider, and administrator of medical schemes. Discovery Retirement Funds (the Fund) refer to the Discovery Life Pension Umbrella Fund and Discovery Life Provident Umbrella Fund. Limits, product rules, terms and conditions apply. Discovery Life Limited, registration number 1966/003901/06, is a registered long-term insurer, and an authorised financial services and registered credit provider, NCR Reg No. NCRCP 3555. Discovery Primary Care is not a medical scheme. The cover is not the same as that of a medical scheme and is not intended to be a substitute for medical scheme membership. Discovery Primary Care is offered by Discovery Life Limited, registration number 1966/003901/06, a registered long-term insurer and an authorised financial services and registered credit provider NCR Reg No. NCRCP 355555. Discovery Vitality (Proprietary) Limited, registration number: 1999/007736/07 is an authorised financial services provider. Product rules, terms and 76 conditions apply. Discovery Primary Care is administered by Discovery Health (Proprietary) Limited, registration number 1997/013480/07, an authorised financial services provider.