CHRO Magazine 2021, Issue 2

FOR HR EXECUTIVES 2 | 2021 | CHRO.CO.ZA

Skynamo chief people officer Sarah Rice Loving the drama Discovery global HR executive Steve Teasdale Born to lead Derivco HR director Tracey Rowe Equestrian escapades

CARIN TAYLOR Celebrates difference

ASSORE HUMAN RESOURCES EXECUTIVE

BONGANI PHAKATHI GOOD FOR BUSINESS GOOD FOR PEOPLE

Find out how more than 45% of the ® FORTUNE 500 adapt to change.

The world’s most successful companies use Workday to keep pace with constant change. Our finance and HR system helps companies surface better insights, be more productive, and adapt quickly to a changing world. See what more than 45% of the FORTUNE 500 already know about the enterprise cloud from Workday.

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From FORTUNE. ©2020 FORTUNE Media IP Limited. FORTUNE and FORTUNE 500 are registered trademarks of FORTUNE Media IP Limited and are used under license. FORTUNE and FORTUNE Media IP Limited are not affiliated with, and do not endorse the products or services of, Workday. © 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.

CHRO

Where strategy meets culture

awards judge

Welcome The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a trying and challenging 15 months for societies, organisations and families all around the world. From an organisational opportunity perspective, what the pandemic has highlighted is the critical business roles CHROs and their human capital teams play in today’s ever-changing world.

Specifically, the intersection of strategy and culture is where HR leaders are most invaluable. To my mind, the CHRO is the “right hand” to the CEO – a creator of value, a thinking partner, a soundboard and an advisor, and a source of honest feedback. I like to think about the CHRO as the conscience of the organisation, a custodian and guardian of the organisation’s culture and values, and the epitome of a brand ambassador.

In a world where change is the only constant and employees’ mental wellbeing is ever so important, I think CHROs need to have the qualities of systemic thinking and strategic agility, purposeful leadership, courage, connection, empathy and compassion, I love the way portfolios such as chief purpose officer and chief wellbeing officer are being added to the critical roles in the human capital c-suite. More technically speaking, I think the capabilities of organisational business transformation and change management, organisational design (the ability to design organisations for speed, simplicity and agility), systemic culture analysis and organisational intelligence and data insights are but a number of strengths required for human capital leaders in the “new world of work”.

As a newly appointed member of the judging panel for the CHRO Awards, I look forward to interacting with the diverse leaders we have in this profession and contributing to the deliberations around recognising the impact so many of our colleagues have made in various successful organisations across South Africa.

CARYN BAIRD GROUP ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND HUMAN CAPITAL EXECUTIVE FIRST RAND | CHRO AWARDS JUDGE

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contents

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22 Born to lead Discovery’s Steven Teasdale has been a lifelong student of leadership since realising, at an early age, that there isn’t a much better feeling in the world than helping people grow.

40 Loving the drama Skynamo CPO Sarah Rice describes how her drama background is useful for an HR professional.

62 Equestrian escapades Derivco HR director Tracey Rowe says that in riding, as with HR, relationships are the key to success.

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THE POWER OF DIFFERENCE Workday chief diversity officer Carin Taylor talks about the importance of visibility page 18

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Insight

CHRO community

28 Tantaswa Fubu 66 Allon Raiz

52 Celebrating the year's HR heroes 58 Use your influence for change

Cover story

Features

12 Good for business, good for people Assore HR executive Bongani Phakathi shares how his varied career prepared him for doing good for people and for the business.

36 Before the breach: Popia is now in full effect 44 Get to the point: Can workplaces make vaccination mandatory?

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publishing info

Community manager 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, Paul Shiakalli, Terry Haywood Other contributors Ang Lloyd, Chuma Mxo, Khadijah Klassen, Puseletso Mompei, Roland Glass, Tantaswa Fubu, Ronda Naidu Advertising Nick Smith nsmith@chro.co.za +27 72 202 1071 Managing director Joël 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 HR 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 © 2021 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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Light at the end of the tunnel What’s the opposite of the gift that keeps on giving? Whatever that phrase is, it should be applied to 2021. The recent flare-ups of looting and arson across the country had me really considering, for the first time, the thought of emigrating. It also gave me a deeper appreciation for the work you all do as people practitioners. Every conversation I have had with HR leaders in recent times has been as inspiring as it has been insightful. When I grow up l want to be as resilient as some of you lot.

This eighth issue of CHRO magazine contains a variety of stories that I hope will capture your collective essence. In our cover story, on page 12, Assore's human resources executive Bongani Phakathi reveals how his varied career prepared him for his current position – and for dealing with Covid-19 and recent protest action. Discovery’s global HR executive Steven Teasdale, describes how he has known from an early age that he was destined to be a leader in some capacity or another (page 22). On page 28, Barloworld’s Tantaswa Fubu shares an inspiring story of resilience based on how she saw the silver lining despite losing her aunt and father to Covid-19 in quick succession, and then had to battle the virus herself.

As always, this year’s nominees for the CHRO Awards, which will be taking place in November, are a shining example of excellence with the profession. See who they are on page 52. What I found particularly insightful were the features about how HR professionals need to observe the implications of the Protection of Personal Information Act (page 36), which came into effect on 1 July, and the ways in which organisations can and cannot engage with their employees regarding the vaccine rollout (page 44).

I hope this issue inspires you as much as it has done myself and gives you the extra push to continue doing your best work for the organisations you serve.

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

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movers

enable the business to shape and craft a different future will not only be exciting but also critical to business success.”

Dieter joined Momentum Metropolitan in 2018 as group executive: people and organisational effectiveness, and in 2019 stepped into the group human capital executive role in an acting capacity.

Dr Dieter Veldsman

Dr Dieter Veldsman to join the Academy to Innovate HR in Rotterdam Dr Dieter Veldsman stepped down as Momentum Metropolitan’s group human capital executive on 15 August. He has moved to Rotterdam in the Netherlands to join The Academy to Innovate HR (AIHR), from 1 September as an HR thought leader and subject matter expert.

“I am passionate about all things in the HR and people domain and think now is a very exciting chapter as we prepare for the postCovid world of work. HR has never been more relevant and our role to

Dr Rozett Phillips joins the GIBS executive team With effect from 1 March 2021, the University of Pretoria's Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) appointed Dr Rozett (Roze) Phillips as the School’s director of value creation. Dr Phillips is the former group executive: people and culture for Absa Group. Roze will work alongside the Dean, Dr Morris Mthombeni, and become part of the executive management team to realise the school’s digitally-led and people-centred strategy.

She will be in charge of executing a holistic strategy to acquire, retain and grow the portfolio of GIBS clients. Dr Phillips holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBChB), and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA), both from the University of Cape Town, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Futures Studies from the University of Stellenbosch Business School.

Jasmin Pillay

Jasmin first joined Microsoft South Africa in 2018 as an HR director.

Before that, she held a number of concurrent portfolios at Petronas Lubricants International between 2012 and 2018, including head of HR for Africa and Middle East, head of change management for global transformation, head of change management for global sales and ops planning, and functional lead for global HR digital transformation.

Webber Wentzel HR director Rachel Masuku steps down Rachel Masuku has stepped down from her role as HR director at Webber Wentzel to take a much-

Jasmin Pillay promoted to HR consulting director for Microsoft, Middle East, and Africa Dr Rozett Phillips

Jasmin Pillay has been appointed as HR consulting director for Microsoft, Middle East, and Africa effective 1 July 2021.

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Rachel Masuku

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needed sabbatical. Having joined the law firm four years ago, Rachel says she is looking forward to recharging her batteries and starting a new chapter in her career journey “but that will be after I’ve weighed all my options”.

“I walk away from Webber with pride knowing that I have contributed to some of the changes that I see in the legal profession. I can now add this prestigious law firm to Nedbank and Sun International as my top employers,” says Rachel.

Andisa Liba is appointed lead talent and organisational effectiveness at Deloitte Andisa Liba has been appointed as the lead: talent and organisational effectiveness at Deloitte effective 1 August 2021, moving on from her role as Cisco’s HR lead.

Andisa says the new role appealed to her because “it’s the first of its kind in the audit business and I am stepping in not having to inherit someone else’s legacy but to create my own. I get to mould what this role will look like in the future.”

Prior to joining Cisco, Andisa was the head of HR at Sony Music

Andisa Liba

CHRO.co.za Dr Shirley Zinn

Entertainment, before that she held various roles at Barclays Corporate Banking as people change manager, academy manager and HR business management consultant.

Dr Shirley Zinn appointed as chairperson of V&A Waterfront board Highly experienced human resources professional and former professor Dr Shirley Zinn has been appointed as the independent chairperson of the board of directors of the V&A Waterfront.

During her career, Shirley has held human resources director positions at Reckitt Benckiser, SARS, Nedbank, Standard Bank and Woolworths. She has her own business, Shirley Zinn Consulting, and was an extraordinary professor of HR management at the University of Pretoria and recently completed her contract as an adjunct professor at the University of Cape Town.

She has also served in prior board roles at DHL: Global Forwarding SA, Starfish Greathearts Foundation, Sygnia Asset Management, Institute of Bankers, Shoprite Holdings, the Board of Cricket South Africa and on the Council of the University of Cape Town.

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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 now the number one HR website in South Africa.

The unique offering includes: • 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 • The latest and greatest HR training • A free online membership with a biweekly newsletter.

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 community manager Sungula Nkabinde today.

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

CHRO

interview

"The good we do for people has to support that commercial imperative.”

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GOOD FOR BUSINESS GOOD FOR PEOPLE Assore human resources executive Bongani Phakathi shares how his varied career prepared him for doing good for people and for the business, in a candid conversation with Georgina Guedes.

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ssore human resources executive Bongani Phakathi has seen the world of HR evolve from “personnel” to “human resources” to “human capital” in his 29-year career. “Our job used to be to keep people happy and to pay them,” he says. “Today, we think about how we do good for people and for the business. We cannot do things for people that undermine our commercial imperative – so the good we do for people has to support that commercial imperative.”

He says that the HR leadership job is a coin with two sides. On one side is the interests of the company, and on the other, the interests of the people within the company. “Whether the company is in engineering or finance or is any sector with commercial interests – you have to walk that balance.”

For example, he says in the FMCG space, the customer experience is materially influenced by the individual who faces and serves the customer as a representative of the company. So, he explains, you have to make sure that the individual is competent, capable and empowered to do the job of advancing the business.

“If they engage with a customer, the last thing you want is for the representative to constantly have to refer to someone else to resolve the customer's enquiry. The representative looks bad because you as the company have not empowered them to effectively resolve customer enquiries. The customer thinks, ‘Why do I have to deal with this

person who always has to go back to ask someone else?’”

He gives the example of, when he was working at a beverage company, a customer claiming to have found a foreign object in a bottle. “As a company, you have to make sure that your production processes are water-tight and all your representatives are fully familiar with them. When this incident happened, the customer engaged with a representative of the company. Unfortunately, the person that they engaged wasn’t knowledgeable about the production process. If they had been, they would have said that this is how the product is manufactured, so it’s factually impossible for there to be a foreign object in the bottle.

It became a PR issue, but it could have been dealt with effectively months before. If you want competent people, invest in them so they know what they are doing and how it contributes to the broader business strategy and deliverables.”

Bongani says that the same is true in the banking space. Because the environment is so regulated, what distinguishes reps is how well they understand their clients and their businesses. “In one instance, what won over a customer who was multi-banked was not how well the rep understood the banking products, it was that they understood that the client was an owner-operator and offered them estate planning services in addition to basic banking services, which was important to the client and their family. Because of that advice, they were able to win over a very big customer.”

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He says that it’s considerations like these – thinking about the relationship between staff capability and market share and credibility – that HR should be spending time on. “You have to invest in the coal face from a commercial point of view.”

Bongani believes he was well prepared for this balancing act by his early aspirations of becoming a chartered accountant. “It was one of the things to aspire to in those days if you wanted to be something important.”

He completed his BCom, but never pursued the chartered accountant career path, and instead ended up in industrial relations. “I had a mentor when I was doing my vacation practical work in the mining industry who said, ‘Industry is run by engineers and accountants. They make industries work and they make money, but they don’t understand people.’”

With that advice ringing in his ears, when his degree was complete, he moved on to the Tiger Management Development Programme, then on to Transnet, and Distell. He’s worked in the beverage, social science, steel, property, and banking sectors, and then today, is back in the mining space. Each move in this varied career has been a considered one, and he is grateful for the insights he has gained across so many different industries.

“It was not by design, but I am grateful for it. It’s given me rich experience.”

get that right, then that’s where your sweet spot is.”

He says that the industry is currently in a good space, because commodity process and the rand-dollar exchange rate have cushioned some of the detrimental effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Culture-wise, Bongani says Assore has a stable and experienced management team which has allowed for consistency and a long-term perspective to create value within the organisation. “We have strong family values, which is why people generally stay for a long period and we have built long-term relationships with customers and communities. Our Community Trusts, which form an integral part of our ownership structure, were established in phases since 2005 and had created the second highest value for public benefit from BEE deals according to Intellidex’s June 2017 Empowerment Endowment study report. These trusts continue to create greater value for their beneficiaries.”

Bongani asserts that safety always comes first for a mining company. “If you don’t have a strong safety culture, you’re going to have serious challenges in the mining sector. The only way to manage it is with a strong risk management approach. You cannot knowingly make a decision that’s going to potentially harm people, you just can’t go there. We never put profits above people.”

Crisis management

A legacy business Bongani joined Assore in 2018. Assore is a mining company, with interests in Iron Ore, Manganese and Chrome, owning both smelters and mines.

Bongani says that as the company is “blessed with good ore bodies” it can focus on long-term sustainability, built on its 85-year track record.

“Commodity prices are globally driven and US Dollar denominated. You can’t control these as a producer. You can control production costs and quality so that’s what you have to focus on. If you

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During Covid-19, Assore briefly halted mining operations for the first month of lockdown – in March 2020. It re-opened with a new set of Covid protocols in place. One of its operations in Limpopo was among the first mines to record cluster outbreaks in Limpopo. “When we saw how the protocols played out in practice, it became important to share that information with industry peers, as we had learnt from them. That’s what happened – it’s what needs to happen. The industry does a lot of sharing when it comes to dealing with the pandemic and we were all on a steep learning curve.”

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“A lot of people haven’t worked since the pandemic began and some sectors have borne the brunt of the pandemic’s economic impact.”

Bongani Phakathi Human Resources Executive, Assore Work: Bongani joined Assore three years ago, after working in HR in multiple industries, including mining, property, fast-moving consumer goods, and beverages, in a career spanning almost 30 years.

Education: BCom (University of KZN), Postgraduate Diploma in Industrial Relations (University of KZN)

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Bongani says that in the third wave, they started to see a much greater impact in Gauteng, in their corporate office. “With the transmissibility of the Delta variant, people who are mostly working from home have had to be a lot more diligent about the contact that they do have outside the home. Individuals are more likely to catch the new variant, with even less contact time and proximity to carriers, and unknowingly at times. We have also seen a greater likelihood of whole households being infected or materially impacted.”

He says that Assore has always tried to stay ahead of the curve in terms of its response. “We closed our offices when we went to Level 3, and even at Level 1 and 2, we worked on rotation. The disease was always still around, so we didn’t want to unnecessarily expose people to risk in the workplace. We’ve been doing strict screening and contact tracing, but we’ve found that the criticality for that as a first line of defence has decreased because people are getting better at staying home when they are not feeling well.”

Assore had been supporting an NGO that runs a community feeding scheme before Covid-19 hit.

When they closed down operations in the first wave, they used their canteen resources to support the feeding scheme.

“We diverted the resources we had been using to subsidise means for our staff into the feeding scheme. As a company, we got very involved, and our staff started to get involved and also donated to the scheme. We had exponential growth in the number of meals we were able to add to Soul Foods’ basket of meals. Soul Food are providing a million meals a month through the feeding scheme to persons in need. It allowed us to channel our energy towards something good.”

Bongani describes this as a “good experience” both for himself and the business. “People don’t see the levels of hunger brought on by the pandemic. We have a level of privilege and comfort. We are able to function at home. A lot of people haven’t worked since the pandemic began and some sectors have borne the brunt of the pandemic’s economic impact. So we’ve looked at what we can do and contributed our piece.”

On a personal level, Bongani has been reflecting on a hybrid working model for the future in Assore.

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He says all his mentors have told him that impactful HR is not an office job – that you have to get out there and be with the people in the business. Prior to Assore, he used to only spend about two days a week in the office, so he says he will see how much he really needs to go into the office in future.

“I am listening to what my colleagues are doing in their own environment, and then thinking about how to take that back to work. We are considering how to reconstitute workplace arrangements, and make them fit for purpose, going forward.”

When staff have been infected with Covid-19, Bongani allocated a member of his HR team to supporting that individual. This means that they get daily calls, and support with whatever it is they need to get better. He specifically spread the load so that each person is making a couple of daily calls, rather than having one person deal with all the unwell employees. “It was important for us to keep it in-house, because it’s all about the company caring about you. You’re not getting a call from a call centre agent. We talk about family values and it’s important that we live that. Aligned to the Soul Food programme we supported, we have also used our canteen resources to provide pre-packed meals for affected families during their isolation periods.”

And more recently the company was impacted by the civil unrest in KwaZulu-Natal. “This affected staff at our KZN operation, and again in living our values, we provided food parcels to the entire staff on site – contract and permanent – who had returned to work despite the challenges they were facing. This ensured that they did not have to focus on security basic necessities for their families, and compromise their return to work in the process.”

He adds that he’s a firm believer that charity begins in the home, which is “something we committed to when the pandemic first broke out by ensuring we securing the livelihoods of our staff and contractors, and these gestures are received with heartfelt gratitude.”

Time for himself When Bongani needs to relax, he avoids his home office and spends time with his family, doing DIY projects or in the garden, and enjoys listening to a broad range of music. He is a sports fan – both as

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“I am listening to what my colleagues are doing in their own environment, and then thinking about how to take that back to work.”

Mentioning mentors When discussing his career, Bongani makes a point of mentioning what he learnt from specific mentors along the way. He says that the leadership journey can be a lonely one, and that it’s always been important to him to know who to turn to for advice.

“When you start out, people speak about mentorship as if it’s a course you do, but the reality is that it is a habit, you’ve always got to talk to people around you and share your learnings and insights. Mentorship is a lifelong journey. And you also have to give back as you learn things. When you move to a different company, you have to consider what you’ve learnt and what you bring.”

a former player and as a spectator, although he says that he is cognisant of the fact that watching televised sport for relaxation is simply engaging with another screen. He said that when he and his wife decided to have children, they made the decision to be present for their children, and they spend a lot of quality time with them, and their extended family based in KwaZuluNatal and Limpopo as well.

He points out that part of his job in the human capital space is to identify and develop talent. “I consider how to mentor them and give back to them the life experience and wisdom I’ve learnt.” He remains in contact with the teams he has worked with at every company on his journey.

He believes that young people starting out need mentoring in particular, not because what they’ve studied isn’t good enough, but because experience makes all the difference.

“If you are smart and people say you are going places, it’s important to work out how to get ahead without having to re-invent the wheel.”

“On holiday, I like to get away, unwind and do nothing strenuous, and read. I find South African stories particularly authentic and humorous – they give a good perspective, especially on social issues and how they are experienced by different people. I do read some business books around leadership and culture as well.

Black Tax [by Niq Mhlongo] was the last book I finished.

I haven’t had a holiday since then.”

“When I go back and think of the people I’ve identified, it gives me satisfaction and re-enforces my faith in people.

One – a former Shop Steward – is now an HR executive for an industrial manufacturer in the Northern Cape. Another, a former PA is a Regional HR Exec. I think it’s important to always give back and share your experiences.”

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THE POWER OF DIFFERENCE “Historically, tech has not embraced people who look like me: Black people; women; LGBTQ people,” says Carin Taylor, Workday’s chief diversity officer. She talks about the importance of visibility for people who are not the norm in leadership.

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BY ANG LLOYD

rowing up in California, Carin Taylor thought she was the darkest person in the world. She always knew she was different: out of her immediate family, she had the darkest skin and she was the only girl. Her family called her “chocolate” and “beautiful”, which reinforced her sense of difference.

“I didn’t see myself as beautiful, but these names positively acknowledged my difference; ‘chocolate’ and ‘beautiful’ taught me to appreciate and understand the power of difference. These childhood nicknames taught me that beauty could be seen in any shade during a time in which the word ‘beautiful’ was only associated with white or lighter skin.”

(DE&I) strategy. It is an even more critical role in 2021, as gender equality progress has been set back due to the global pandemic, with women being disproportionately affected by the fallout.

According to PwC, Covid-19 has reversed gains made over the last 10 years for women in the workforce, causing what the global business advisory firm dubs a ‘shecession’. Even by 2030, gender equality efforts need to now be at double the historical rate. That’s an exceedingly tough task, but one with which Carin is all too familiar.

The challenges of difference

Carin’s difference was reinforced when she travelled through Asia. In China, people stared; in Korea, someone gasped; in Japan, she was treated with respect, but she could tell people were really curious about the way she looked.

“The staring and gasping were more about curiosity and shock,” adds Carin. “Travel taught me to look at people beyond the surface; along with my childhood, it sparked my curiosity about diversity and inclusion.”

As chief diversity officer, Carin is responsible for Workday’s global diversity, equity and inclusion

Before joining Workday, Carin spent just over two decades at a number of other major US technology companies, where she held various roles in DE&I, HR, finance, and customer service. The technology space has long had a boys’ club problem, and, as a Black, gay woman, Carin was acutely aware of the challenges – simply because she was different.

“Historically, tech has not embraced people who look like me: Black people; women; LGBTQ people. When I think about the challenges as well as the successes I've had, the challenges stem from being in a corporate environment that was designed decades ago for people who don't look like me.”

As she is a senior leader, visibility is particularly

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“The challenges stem from being in a corporate environment that was designed decades ago for people who don't look like me.” important for Carin because it gives other people – people who are not straight, white men – a chance to see someone who looks like them in a leadership position. For Carin, it's important to be seen at a senior level because she brings a different perspective, especially when she is the only Black woman at the table. And she believes that visibility doesn’t only apply to Black, gay women like her, either; it applies to anyone who is not part of the ‘norm’.

“It's our differences that enable us to grow,” she says.

“But an organisation needs to make sure that different types of talent, at all levels, are visible. I want to be seen, but I also want to help others understand that they can achieve whatever they want to.”

Open conversations Ticking the boxes is often a problem when it comes to representation, and some companies end up being performative to reach diversity targets. Carin believes that only when inclusion, belonging and equity become part of the conversation can meaningful change happen. A culture that welcomes difference – of thought, opinion, and perspective – is also critical. And as an organisation, Workday strongly believes in an open culture.

“A colleague told me that he didn't believe in equal pay for women,” says Carin. “I asked him to tell me why he felt this way, and we were able to unpack what pay equity meant. Turns out he thought it was something completely different. But it just shows that Workday's culture is open to dialogue; if I had shut down the conversation we would never have reached a place of understanding.”

Covid-19 has undoubtedly set back gender equality progress in the workplace, but Carin stresses that not everyone has experienced the pandemic in the same way, and organisations must look at the individual, not just the demographic, in the returnto-work process.

“If we assume that all women are experiencing things in the same way we're going to approach this in the wrong way,” she explains. “We need to also understand that the space that we're in is temporary – but we’ll need to be agile in responding to, and addressing, the issues.

“If you look at how long we've focused on diversity, we have not made the progress that we should have,” Carin continues. “But what's different now is the attention that this issue is getting, and it’s widening who this work actually impacts.” 

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UMBRELLA FUNDS HELP BOTH HR MANAGERS AND EMPLOYEES As well as offering lower costs to members, umbrella funds remove the need for keeping up with onerous governance, risk and compliance requirements yourself.

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n December last year, the 2021 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends survey predicted that HR could have a significant impact on their businesses and employees during the pandemic. In many companies, the prediction came true, as HR practitioners helped employees adjust to working from home, rolled out various wellness programmes and set up effective new lines of communication to keep staff updated at a very uncertain time.

Apart from assisting through these growing responsibilities, HR managers and directors can also help employees, at a time when they are facing even more financial challenges brought about by Covid-19.

A key decision-making position Widespread household income losses due to Covid19 lockdowns have put South Africans' retirement planning under pressure. But while workers deal with the immediate financial impact of the pandemic, HR practitioners who serve as retirement fund trustees (RFTs), together with their fellow board members, are in a significant position to review the long-term suitability of their retirement provision arrangements to maximise savings by evaluating the merits of an umbrella retirement fund over a standalone one.

This is because moving from a standalone to an umbrella fund can help funds, and ultimately households, be more efficient says Malusi Ndlovu, Director of Large Enterprises at Old Mutual Corporate.

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“What employers don’t consider is that the cost of administrating a standalone fund is largely passed on to the people who can least afford it, namely the members.”

Moving from a standalone to an umbrella retirement fund like the Old Mutual SuperFund can therefore save money for members over a lifetime of investing.

The increasing costs associated with benefits designed to protect members and their families, especially now that Covid-19 puts them at greater risk of sickness and death, means that they have even less money available to put towards their retirement savings each month, he adds.

“Well-administered and properly governed umbrella funds are more efficient because of their reduced complexity and economies of scale, says Malusi.

“With a standalone fund, on the other hand, you need an auditor, an actuary, an investment consultant and a host of communication and specialist service providers.

“An umbrella fund has the advantage of size, meaning that these costs are spread over a larger pool of contributors,” he says.

Removing pressure, renewing focus HR practitioners, especially senior HR executives, often play a vital role in a company’s retirement fund planning and administration, not only on decision-making level as RFTs but often also in the day-to-day administration and management of

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“Well-administered and properly governed umbrella funds are more efficient because of their reduced complexity and economies of scale.” funds, communication with employees and – importantly – keeping abreast of any and all governance and legal changes with regard to retirement funds.

which is exactly what a well-managed umbrella fund provides, he adds.

“These men and women generally don’t work as full-time trustees, and are not experts on retirement regulation, investing or governance, yet they are expected to accept full responsibility for the retirement savings of their colleagues.

A win-win situation Umbrella funds clearly offer advantages for business in terms of both cost and freeing up senior staff to focus on their core tasks, but Malusi also stresses the advantages they hold for the members.

“In addition, the raft of continuous changes to retirement fund legislation places a further burden on them,” he says.

With any investment, it is vital that as much of their contributions goes to the savings pool as possible, says Malusi. “At the very least, trustees, employers and employees should be investigating the merits of moving to an umbrella fund, seeing that the outcome will have significant implications for members.

What's more, having senior-level staff split their attention between their fund responsibilities and core tasks is an added cost in itself, explains Malusi. “While these costs are harder to quantify, they are significant.

They include the opportunity cost of time, skill, and other resources needed to run a standalone retirement fund.”

“In a very complex arena, it is essential to take a step back and compare the pros and cons of umbrella funds such as the Old Mutual SuperFund with typical standalone funds. This will help management and other stakeholders to make a more informed decision about their financial future,” concludes Malusi. 

In addition to lower costs for members, an umbrella fund removes these other less obvious costs companies sometimes don’t consider, relieving the administrative burden on management of having to appoint a board of company trustees and RFTs to meet the onerous governance, risk and compliance requirements.

To read more, visit oldmutual.co.za/thegreatdebate or to get more information, contact mindspace@oldmutual.com.

Each business needs five vital elements from a retirement fund – cost efficiency, good control, flexibility, good governance and employee representation – Old Mutual Life Assurance Company (SA) Limited is a licensed FSP and Life Insurer.

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Born to

LEAD

Discovery’s Steven Teasdale has been a lifelong student of leadership since realising, at an early age, that there isn’t a much better feeling in the world than helping people grow.

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BY SUNGULA NKABINDE

here is an age-old debate on whether leaders are born or made.

One thing that is for sure is that Steven Teasdale, global HR executive at Discovery, falls in the former category. Steven is a lifelong student of leadership. Despite studying finance and accounting, and spending a large part of his career as a consultant, the road has always led back to leadership and playing a key role in the development of others.

“I’m a student of leadership and, if you took that away from me, I’d be lost,” says Steven, whose penchant for and fascination with leadership began during his high school years.

“Leadership was thrust upon me from quite an early age. I had leadership roles at school and that was where I first felt the sense of purpose and meaning that comes with helping people through the journeys they were on. It was also my first taste of having to understand the

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challenges and personalities of people that were very different to me.”

From an early age, he thrived as a leader, realising then that there wasn’t a much better feeling in the world than seeing people break out of their shells and fulfil their potential, knowing that one played a role in their success.

That said, Steven was on the finance path straight out of school and joined Deloitte in London to do his articles. One of the partners of the firm wanted to grow the consulting business and put him on a project that took him away from the audit work he was doing at the time. It was then that he realised that the people element of consulting was more suited to his personality and interests.

"Consulting was a lot more fun than auditing, to be honest, because it involved people-based projects, from restructures and operational model changes to organisational design

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“Leadership was thrust upon me from quite an early age.”

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projects. So it was a time when I developed a huge passion for change management.”

He then moved on to various actuarial and financial services businesses like Mercer and Aon, which had been clients of his while he was at Deloitte.

Eventually, he joined a medium-sized actuarial investment consultancy in London where he took up a strategy role at a time when actuaries were starting to get sued for making mistakes. Prior to that period, that had been something of an unwritten rule preventing open criticism, let alone legal action, against actuaries.

“I stepped into the behavioural space particularly around matters of adapting people's perception of risk and behaviours towards risk. And, because of my academic background and my affinity for numbers, coupled with my passion for people and change management, I had a unique ability to have conversations with actuaries about how they needed to change for the better.”

leaders and how they approached roles that he hoped to one day be in. He took notes from them and tested what he had learnt when those few leadership opportunities arose.

An obstacle he had to overcome as a young leader was unlearning some of the lessons and approaches that he took from the wrong leaders who, while effective at getting the job done, often left many bodies behind.

Says Steven: “A large part of my job at one point in time involved restructuring organisations. You go in as an external party with a great idea and business case, but you overlook the impact that your plan has on people. I remember sitting in rooms with people who were so devastated that it affected me deeply.

Eventually, I came to a realisation that, perhaps, there was a better way to do things.”

Coming back to South Africa When his first daughter was born, Steven and his family returned to South Africa and he joined Eskom.

Becoming a different kind of leader

“My wife, who was born in Swaziland, didn’t feel at home in the UK and, after our daughter was born, she eventually convinced me that our children deserved to have their childhood at home in South Africa. So, after 12 years that side, we moved home,” says Steven.

During this time, Steven completed post-grad degrees in strategic finance and creativity, innovation and change, revealing the two very different worlds that piqued his interest and defined his expertise.

Reflecting on his career journey, Steven shares that, as a young professional, one doesn't really get to exhibit leadership capabilities. But as a young management consultant, he enjoyed watching other

“Asked how it all unravelled at Eskom, Steven says it was a reflection of how much politics can get in the way of organisational effectiveness."

Today, Steven is the proud father of two teenage girls, both of whom give him as much joy as they do anxiety about the next stage of their lives because “teenage boys are now very much starting to become a part of the picture.” Nevertheless, Steven remains ever grateful to his wife for persuading him to drop a very enjoyable and unique career in the UK to come back to South Africa.

Eskom’s great minds Eskom, Steven says, was filled with great minds around organisational psychology. They had a huge capability around organisational behaviour. Steven was involved in the procurement and supply chain of Eskom, which was run as a separate entity that, at the time, was the biggest logistics operation in Africa – and he was handling the people side of that operation. Within nine months, he was promoted to lead organisational effectiveness for the whole project.

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In 2013, Brian Dames took over and trusted Steven with the group’s leadership and executive talent management strategy.

“In some ways, it was the most amazing time of my life simply because of the energy and calibre of minds that came together.”

Brian directed the leadership agenda in a way that hadn’t yet been seen in South Africa. He singled key people out and removed them from the business for a period of six months, charging them with the mandate of creating a revised business strategy.

Thereafter, he ensured that, in order to deliver the said business strategy, leadership was equipped and given all the necessary resources.

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he is. More than that, he really feels a connection with his colleagues.

“I work with some really nice people. Genuine and friendly souls who are simply a pleasure to talk to and engage with on a daily basis. I love to surround myself with intelligent people that are easy to get along with because it creates a sense of excitement within myself that I've realised is essential in order to trigger my own innovation,” he says.

He brought in leadership guru Dr Andrew Johnson, who introduced concepts of leadership – such as the importance of self-awareness, servant leadership, and empathy – long before they became mainstream.

The most profound correlation between the organisation’s values and Steven’s human-centred approach to leadership is how Discovery responded to the pandemic. From the onset of the national lockdown in March 2020, the executive leadership team prioritised its people by leveraging the technology, access to medical experts and data analytics to bring employees along in their response. This led to a common mind shift throughout the organisation that has enhanced the culture exponentially.

“We built an incredibly strong force of leaders, which Brian looked after directly. It was different from common structures seen today where a leader is accountable to a division. Back then, all the leaders formed part of Brian's team whereby the top 200 leaders in Eskom were essentially under Brian's watch.”

“It led to a culture where instead of listening to the most important in the (Zoom) room, we shifted to listening to the person with the most expertise because that’s what was necessary to emerge successful on the other side of the pandemic. As a result, our engagement scores last year rose to levels never before seen at Discovery,” concludes Steven.

Asked how it all unravelled at Eskom, Steven says it was a reflection of how much politics can get in the way of organisational effectiveness. And, when Brian left, Steven felt he would struggle to live his leadership-focused purpose. He later joined Tiger Brands as the organisational development & change director. And when Tswelo Kodisang, then CHRO of Tiger Brands, became the chief people officer at Discovery, he brought Steven with him.

Steven Teasdale Global HR Executive, Discovery Work: Steve is currently leading the organisational development, wellness and transformation portfolios for the Discovery Group, where he is accountable for, among others, organisational design, workplace design, employee engagement, employee wellness, culture, internal communications, transformation, recognition and innovation.

Before joining Discovery, he occupied a number of executive roles at Tiger Brands and Eskom Holdings. He also worked for Deloitte, Mercer and Aon in management consultancy and strategy roles internationally.

The perfect fit “I feel most at home around numbers and finance, or people that speak that language. I think that's why I love Discovery. I've spent enormous amounts of time on my own journey of awareness, studying myself. I've also delved quite deeply into neuroscience in so far as its teachings can allow us to create unique solutions within our organisation,” says Steven, adding that Discovery has an incredible culture of shared value, which just resonates with who

Education: BCom Economics & Finance (University of South Africa), Post Graduate Diploma in Project and Change Management (Open University Business School), MBA, Strategic Finance, Creativity, Innovation & Change (Open University Business School)

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THE FUTURE OF HIRING IS

HYBRID HR professionals are increasingly having to bring more workers on board with tighter budgets. Ang Lloyd spoke to Francois De Wet, founder of South African one-way video interview software company Wamly, about why CVs belong in the past – and what’s replacing them.

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ccording to a 2021 Microsoft survey, 41 percent of the global workforce is considering leaving their jobs this year. But with people leaving their jobs en masse it’s predicted that an exponential need for new hires will arise – enter the Great Rehiring.

Soon, HR professionals will have to find and hire candidates quickly and efficiently. Yet a 2020 global LinkedIn survey shows that half of all talent acquisition professionals expected recruitment budgets to shrink in 2021. Francois De Wet, founder of South African one-way video interview software company Wamly, says big components of recruitment budgets used to be associated with recruiting agencies, but using the services of an agency is becoming increasingly irrelevant.

In 2021 (and beyond), how do HR professionals deal with greater hiring demand and tighter budgets?

According to Francois, organisations need to reimagine how they hire – and, just like in a new world of work, a hybrid model is the way to go.

“One-way video won't replace your entire interview process; it will speed it up.”

It’s time to ditch CVs and embrace technology In South Africa, many HR professionals are still “manual” and spend hours screening CVs. But CVs can be untrustworthy, vague and in many instances blown up – which is why we do background checks.

“I believe that HR professionals should lose the CV entirely because technology can take its place,” says Francois.

He explains that recruiters only scan CVs for four elements to get a candidate in the door: knowledge, qualifications, experience, and skills. This process can be automated through the use of rule-based online survey tools like an applicant tracking system.

If these tools are set up with the right qualifying criteria in the form of filtering questions, applicants can be quickly screened, with the successful candidates moving onto a one-way video interview. In turn, the one-way video interview requires the candidate to answer specific questions that the organisation sets up. Time can be allocated for preparing and answering (whether it’s 10 seconds or five minutes), and all candidates get the same questions and time to answer ensuring fairness as well as standardisation.

Why hybrid hiring is the future One-way interview software like Wamly is designed to be used early in the hiring process when there are several potential candidates to still sift through.

Francois emphasises that one-way video interviews are not meant to replace the entire interview process; the software just speeds things up at the

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To filter candidates, ask the right questions In the early stages of the hiring process, Francois suggests using a rule-based online survey tool. Wamly has one built in, so all you need to do is input what questions you want candidates to answer in the one-way video. Here are his tips: •

Stay relevant to the role

For screening, always talk to the requirements of the job itself.

Technical, competency-based questions are important. For example, for a managerial position, ask: “How would you describe your management style?”

•

Concentrate on the ‘top four’

That’s knowledge, qualifications, experience, and skills. Recruiters generally only scan CVs for these four elements to get candidates in the door, so approach online screening questions in the same way.

•

Culture fit comes later

Again, at this early stage, you’re looking at competencies. Use culture-fit and emotional intelligence questions for the candidates that have been narrowed down for a two-way interview.

beginning. He believes that hybrid hiring is the ideal model: HR professionals, can adopt digital tools like Wamly to sift and sort, then use traditional two-way interviews for the select few who get through the filtering.

According to Francois, the average cost of filling a vacancy in South Africa is between R30,000 and R50,000, depending on the seniority of the role, and the average time it takes is 52 days. These claims are backed by studies conducted by LinkedIn and Deloitte. For HR professionals two key questions they need to ask is: How inefficient are we at the moment? And how much is it costing the business to get a new hire on board?

Candidates are consumers, and context matters Candidates now have a voice and a choice. Once a potential employee gets an interview request they are likely to scope out the organisation through online reviews and the business’s social media pages.

For many workers, a job is no longer an eight-to-five either; a career needs to be something meaningful, and a candidate will want to understand what their impact in their role will be.

"HR can't afford to have a negative hiring process – the recruitment journey has to start off well, otherwise candidates won’t proceed to an interview,”

explains Francois. He adds that a balance between cost and onboarding is something organisations have to consider, and efficient, low-cost software can help with this balance. However, he points out that the need to adopt solutions relevant to a South African context is often overlooked. Many HR technology systems are developed overseas, so it’s important to consider accessibility and support, for example.

“Wamly’s technology is developed by South Africans, in South Africa, and we have local support,” says Francois. The software itself only needs 2G for a video to upload, and it dynamically adjusts the video quality based on the internet access the candidate has. Each question is uploaded once completed, so there’s no massive file at the end of the one-way interview.

Many South African organisations don't yet know what one-way interviewing is and what its benefits are. But more organisations are starting to realise that they need to embrace technology to adopt a hybrid hiring model. If they don’t, they risk becoming irrelevant. Just like recruitment agencies, and CVs. 

Contact details wamly.io Francois de Wet support@wamly.io +27 82 540 5068

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WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS 2021 has been a testing year for many South African families and ours was no different. After losing my father and aunt to Covid-19, I tested positive for the virus. But, now that the dust has settled, I see the silver lining.

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BY TANTASWA FUBU

hoever said, “In every dark cloud there is a silver lining” was spot on. I doubt though that they foresaw the current state of the world and this terrible pandemic. Nevertheless, these words are more true for me now than when I first read them.

To say that this year has challenged me as a person and as a leader would be a massive understatement.

The month of January has always been a joyous one to me because it is the month of my birth, but this year, the month of January brought me much pain and misery and yet ushered the greatest gift of all times.

On 14 January 2021, we had a cremation service for my mother’s youngest sister, u’Makazi who really was a second mother to me. U’Makazi has always been an amazing person in my life, always there for me. She was there even when my parents disowned me because I dared to have a boyfriend when I was a second-year university student. But that’s a tale for another day.

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Before we could even dry our eyes, my father took his last breath at 11:42 pm that night. It rocked my world because I had barely begun my journey of mourning u’Makazi. Thanks to the healing power of time, I now realise why u’Makazi and my dad had to go together. They were the best of buds. Their love for each other was as palpable as their passionate disagreements.

All this happened while my dear mother was fighting Covid-19 in hospital. I asked the family not to tell her about her little sister’s passing. U’Makazi was my mother’s best friend. The news quite literally could have killed her. When my dad passed on, my brothers asked me what to do, and I said “There is no way we can bury my mother’s husband without her knowing. Let us tell her, but please do not tell her about her little sister.”

How we finally told her about her sister is another story.

When it rains it pours After she was discharged from the hospital, my mother moved in with me to have easier access to

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“Before we could even dry our eyes, my father took his last breath.” physios and home doctor visits. During this time, while my mom was recovering from Covid-19 and getting her strength back, I tested positive for the virus. The sickness was brutal but I had to keep a brave face. I did not want my mother and my daughters to see how sick I was. I soldiered on and ensured that everyone was comfortable.

After healing, I returned to work. I thought I was ready but I wasn’t. I often became extremely fatigued, especially in the afternoons. I was quite forgetful, irritable, and my muscles were sore to the point that, sometimes, I could not even lift up my arms. They felt lead-heavy.

I eventually went to see a functional medicine doctor (until then, I didn’t know that such a profession existed). Among many other things, I was diagnosed with long Covid and menopause. How lucky can a girl be?

Anyway, when I returned to work, I began calling colleagues who had contracted the virus and beat it, to understand how they were coping. I soon realised that people were actually not coping. The afternoons were worse. People told me they were taking naps between meetings. Others told me that they were disappointed that the business expected them to function as they did before Covid-19. My go-to response to this was that they had to, “Keep in mind that someone who has not contracted Covid-19 and survived will have no clue what you are going through.” Indeed, I realised that people equated Covid-19 recovery to flu recovery. That once you have “beat it”, you are over it.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Lead with empathy Now the leadership call was about how, then, do we ensure that the Covid-19 survivors are understood and the environment made conducive for us? I was gifted an amazing lesson when my boss (Barloworld CEO Dominic Sewela) said to me, “You do not have to attend all the meetings.” Dominic has been a beacon

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of light in what has been one of the darkest periods of my life.

He has had to deal with my mental illness (I suffer from depression) as well as me testing positive for Covid-19. I have never come across a better example of empathetic leadership. Indeed, the pandemic is teaching us as leaders how to be humane. We are being taught to listen and respond to the silent cries of our people.

The questions we have to ask ourselves as leaders in a post-pandemic world are: How do we ensure that our people do not feel “less than” because they cannot attend all the meetings on any one given day?

What does leading in a humane manner mean and how does it manifest?

The leaders that will emerge out of this era, I suspect, will be those who have internalised what it really means to lead with empathy. They will be the leaders who have wrestled with how to prioritise all the stakeholders, not just the shareholders.

And they will be the leaders who have a true understanding of how to treat our people in the most decent and dignified manner.

That is the silver lining for us as leaders. Though Covid-19 has come with all sorts of challenges, the most important challenge of all is to emerge a stronger and more humane leader. Which of you leaders are up to unwrapping this challenge, staring it in the face, and smiling at the recognition of the amazing opportunity it presents?

Similarly, the challenges that our country has faced in the recent past, specifically the looting and economic fallout thereafter, come with new opportunities. “Never waste a good crisis,” they say. It’s much easier said than done but I believe that we can make the very best of an extremely difficult situation and emerge as better versions of ourselves.

Leaders, stand up!  Tantaswa Fubu is the group executive, human capital and transformation at Barloworld.

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“The most important challenge of all is to emerge a stronger and more humane leader.”

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MAKING IT EASIER FOR PEOPLE TO FUND THEIR TOMORROW, TODAY Head of product at Discovery Employee Benefits Guy Chennells explains how behavioural economics has proved highly effective in changing people’s financial choices for the better. He also calls on retirement fund decision-makers to recognise and embrace the work required to counteract unhelpful biases and empower fund members onto a healthier savings trajectory.

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t takes more than just financial education to save more for retirement. Persuasive hightouch interaction, the personalisation and simplification of digital journeys, and rapid prototyping can all play a powerful role in helping people beat their own worst enemy when it comes to saving – themselves.

There’s a reason dieticians suggest not stocking up on junk food at home – without the temptation of instant gratification, we’re less likely to binge on bars of chocolate late at night. ‘Make the healthy option the easy option’ they say – and the same principles apply across all fields of human activity.

Behavioural economists Thaler and Benartzi stunned the retirement industry in 2003 with their paper ‘Save More Tomorrow: Using Behavioral Economics to Increase Employee

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Saving’. Through a real-world experiment, they proved that allowing people to sign up to automatically increase savings in the future dramatically improved their savings rates.

Behavioural incentives work when presented effectively The experiment involved educating members about the likely outcome of their low savings rates, and then presenting different groups with different options for how to respond. The member engagement was very high-touch – that is, it required a lot of human interaction.

This in itself tested the impact of small group or one-on-one member counselling on willingness to take action. The research found that, when appropriately informed and given an action that

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“Changing behaviour on a large scale means engaging personally and persuasively with individuals on a large scale.”

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can be taken immediately, people are more willing to make a change than one might think.

• The contribution rates for those who were offered and signed up to the Save More Tomorrow plan increased from 3.5 percent to 13.6 percent over four years.

In a 2017 Harvard Business Review article, the same Benartzi mentions a number of experiments he and others are working on to bring these and other techniques to life digitally, seeing this as the only way to get the mass impact that is so needed.

This is the world that retirement funds need to enter – a world of rapid prototyping and ever-improving excellence in helping people to make better financial decisions. Their individual decisions matter – for example, when it comes to employee benefits, impactful behaviour change requires engagement at employee level, not just at employer level.

• For those who were offered only an immediate increase, rates went up to 6.1 percent but decreased from 6.1 percent to 5.9 percent over the same period.

Both groups, then, recorded very high increases in savings. The one group, however, was able to get to savings levels that could result in a funded retirement. The other group will still end up extremely disappointed at retirement, with less than half the savings of the first group.

When systems are in place to nudge people positively and continually, and these systems are engaging and easy to use, you’re effectively replacing that late-night bar of chocolate with a handful of blueberries. It is now possible to make the easy choice – the one that leads to a funded retirement.

The key: engaging people personally and persuasively on a large scale If you have been in the retirement funds industry for any length of time, you may think such a result is ‘impossible’. That judgement is correct if it is within the old paradigm of trying to get members to increase contributions through mass, generic communications, requiring them to take active steps of their own initiative in response, and requiring an immediate trade-off between current take-home pay and retirement contributions.

By being personal and specific, offering immediate one-click actions, and presenting plans that only come into effect in the future, you can get very different results. By helping people make smart decisions in the present that guard against future temptations to spend ‘spare’ income, it’s clear that getting people to save more is not impossible.

Unfortunately, changing behaviour on a large scale means engaging personally and persuasively with individuals on a large scale. It is clear that advisers and employers cannot get to everyone, and, as anyone trying to run a corporate communications strategy has discovered, email or workplace posters do not often persuade effectively.

An appeal to decision-makers to actively help people counter their biases What stands in the way, then, of millions of people being helped to a better outcome using these powerful techniques? It is no longer the technology – we already have that. It is not digital adoption. If the global lockdowns of 2020 have shown us anything, it is that we are now thoroughly in the digital age.

The only barrier is the willingness of retirement fund decision-makers to embrace, or at least to curiously assess, what is now possible out there.

Retirement fund members are not the only ones influenced by their behavioural biases. Retirement fund and employer stakeholders are as likely as anyone else to be biased towards what they know, to be less than enthusiastic about change, and to conclude from observing peer groups that the status quo is acceptable.

There is no shame in being human – these biases all come with the skin. But for the diligent and the passionate, naming and counteracting biases is necessary work. In this case, such work could result in putting your members onto totally different retirement savings trajectories. 

Make the easy choice the one that leads to a funded retirement Traditional communication structures are important, but these alone, without well-designed digital journeys, have not succeeded to the extent that is needed.

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To find out more, please contact: retirementfunds@discovery.co.za 0860 222 999

DISCOVERY EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

IT’S MORE THAN JUST A RETIREMENT FUND Our Retirement Funds solution is designed to encourage healthy employee behaviour through unique rewards

With our Retirement Funds we reward your employees for preserving their retirement savings and investing for longer, by boosting their existing retirement savings transferred to us by up to 15%. For managing their health, wellness and finances through Vitality, we reward them with boosts of up to 15% to their monthly retirement savings contributions.

Start creating a healthier and wealthier workforce today with Discovery Employee Benefits.

Speak to your financial adviser and partner with us today @Discovery_SA

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Discovery Retirement Funds refer to the Discovery Life Pension Umbrella Fund and Discovery Life Provident Umbrella Fund. All boosts are offered through the insurer, Discovery Life Limited and only applies to investments in qualifying Discovery Funds if held until the retirement date. Early retirement, withdrawals or switches out of qualifying funds will impact the boosts. Discovery Life Limited. Registration number 1966/003901/06, is a licensed long-term insurer, and an authorised financial services and registered credit provider, NCR Reg No. NCRCP3555. Limits, product rules, terms and conditions apply.

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BEFORE THE BREACH:

POPIA IS NOW IN FULL EFFECT

“View it as an opportunity to protect all stakeholders and take business practices to new heights.”

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Popia, which came into effect on 1 July 2021, changes the landscape within which companies deal with personal information of individuals. Ronda Naidu takes a closer look at the global context of privacy and data protection and the legislation’s specific impact on human resources professionals.

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BY RONDA NAIDU he Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia) is the most recent major data privacy law in the world and is modelled closely on the EU’s GDPR General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy.

Popia gives individuals rights over the sharing of their personal information, establishes eight minimum requirements for data processing, creates a broad definition of personal information for comprehensive end-user protection, and establishes the Information Regulator (SAIR) as lead enforcer and supervisor of the law.

According to Daan Lotter, head of innovation at managed services provider Itec, Popia means many businesses will have to rethink how they reach new customers, as the days of buying a database and bombarding unsuspecting consumers with ads and marketing messages are over.

“Legally, businesses’ terms and conditions documents will have to change. You can’t just have catch-all clauses: you actually have to get people’s express consent to gather and use their data. And if they want to be forgotten, you have to let them go,” he says.

Popia has a particular effect on the human resources function, which deals with a range of personal employee information from bank account details to psychometric tests.

Sandra Crous, managing director of PaySpace, says, “While being Popia compliant may seem like an endless maze, rather view it as an opportunity to protect all stakeholders and take business practices to new heights. Develop a culture of privacy protection starting from a management level, and filtering down to

the rest of the company to reinforce that all information should be treated with integrity.”

The eight minimum requirements for data processing as it relates to human resources and employees are: 1. Accountability: The organisation or responsible party must take accountability to comply with the Act. 2. Processing limitation: The organisation must have a good reason for processing employee information.

3. Purpose specification: The employee must know the reason that the organisation is processing their personal information.

4. Further processing limitation: The organisation must ensure that the personal information is used for its original purpose, as communicated to the employee, if it is processed again.

5. Information quality: The organisation must ensure that the personal information processed is accurate and complete.

6. Openness: The organisation must process the personal information in a way that allows the employee to know what is happening with their personal information.

7. Security safeguards: The organisation must provide appropriate and reasonable security measures for personal information.

8. Data subject participation: The organisation must communicate with the employee about processing and must allow the employee to correct or update their information.

The aim of the legislation is to promote privacy and prevent personal information from being appropriated through identity theft, for example.

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Ahmore Burger-Smidt

Daniel Lotter

Knowledgeable and proactive

ments to collect and handle a tremendous amount of employee information and if thieves can access HR records, they have struck gold, according to Ahmore Burger-Smidt, the director and head of data and privacy at Werksmans Attorneys.

Human resources now has the added responsibility of being more aware of traditional IT domain terms like hackers and phishing schemes as well as data leaks, that can also occur within the organisation. It is important to remember that Popia does not restrict itself to electronic information only, but rather extends to all personal information regardless of what form it's in. This includes images, audio and video recordings, paper-based information as well as information sent via WhatsApp. Embracing a digital working environment and a global workplace have also elevated privacy and data breach concerns.

For example, when hackers stole data from McDonald’s systems in markets like the US, South Korea and Taiwan, the fast-food giant had to notify employees in South Africa as external consultants investigating the unauthorised access picked up potential similar activity locally. In addition, regulators in the affected countries had to be notified.

McDonald’s noted that hackers had stolen employee information including names and contact information in Taiwan. It did not report on the number of employees affected though.

Laws and internal policies often require HR depart-

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“Knowledgeable and proactive HR managers are an important line of defence against phishers, identity thieves and hackers when it comes to increased targeting of businesses and their employees,” she says.

Handle with integrity It is therefore necessary for HR to understand the requirements of the Popia legislation and have an organisation-wide plan to address data and related vulnerabilities. This should include appointing an information officer, implementing a privacy policy, creating awareness among employees, as well as training around Popia and reviewing supplier contracts – all with the objective of handling data in a confidential manner and the integrity that it deserves.

LexisNexis, for example, convened a data privacy team at a global level to look at data privacy-related issues across all departments.

Gcobisa Ntshona, former HR director at LexisNexis, says, “When we heard that we needed to be Popia compliant, we carried out a requirement review that looked at what was expected of us as a firm,

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Gcobisa Ntshona

Sandra Crous

and the impact of the Act in all divisions within our organisation.

whether there is a need for third parties to assess network vulnerabilities and a plan of action for data breaches of employee information.

“This was followed by a privacy assessment, which meant doing a data review exercise around all our data assets and looking for cracks and coming up with a remediation action plan,” she adds.

Should these gaps not be addressed, then the company can experience a data breach and employees’ personal information may be compromised and the company can suffer financial losses Ahmore explains, “It's not all fines and lawsuits either, many of the costs are not as clear cut as you might imagine. Companies always need to think about reputational damage, the PR nightmare that comes with the data breach and employee disengagement.”

Training and cybersecurity There are two basic aspects that HR should consider when looking at ways to protect employee data. The first is training, which should consider the type of employee information that should be stored on the network, access rights to sensitive employee data, encryption and the context within which the information should be shared. The second is cybersecurity, with a cybersecurity strategy that includes conducting internal risk assessments, identifying members for the in-house security issues team,

Popia also expressly states the need for every organisation to appoint an information officer. This is similar to the GDPR’s data protection officer, with a few key differences in requirements. In the EU, the data protection officer must have specific expertise and training in EU data privacy law, not automatically required in every company, and can be an external person.

In South Africa, however, the information officer is compulsory for every organisation and the role and responsibilities are automatically assigned to the CEO. Although the information officer does not have to have specific experience or qualifications in data privacy, there is a mandatory requirement for the information officer to be registered with the SAIR. In addition, Popia specifies that a deputy information officer should also be appointed.

The 12-month grace period to comply with the comprehensive requirement set out in Popia ended on 30 June 2021 and the potential consequences of non-compliance can result in significant penalties – up to 10 years imprisonment and/or a fine of R10 million in administrative fees following civil action for damages instituted by the regulator or by the data subject. 

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LOVING THE

DRAMA 40

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Skynamo CPO Sarah Rice has found the old ways of doing things don’t necessarily work anymore. In this article, she describes how her drama background helps her win at HR

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BY PUSELETSO MOMPEI

ith a background in the performing arts, Skynamo CPO Sarah Rice has only been in HR for two years. She holds an honours degree in educational drama, which in the early years of her career led her to explore a lot of different avenues.

“Drama is fun, but it’s not stable. So over the years, I took on work ranging from theatre work, to au pairing, to data capturing.”

It was when she secured a job at a public relations company as a junior account executive that she found herself on a steadier path. Being in public relations allowed her to merge her understanding of how to connect with audiences in an expressive, exciting way, with her enthusiasm for sharing businesses’ stories.

her to become their head of people in 2019. It was an odd proposition, but Sarah says, “He specifically wanted someone who didn’t have a traditional HR background, but was good with people and could understand culture and leadership development.”

For Sarah, the considerations included whether she had an appetite for a complete career overhaul. “I wondered what would happen if I didn’t like HR, or wasn’t good at it. I finally realised that if the whole thing goes bad, I could go back to my old field, but I wanted to try. After about two months of mulling over it, I decided to go for it.”

Stepping into the world of HR Now that she’s heading into her third year on the job she says, “I love it. It turns out I am actually good at it and have been able to bring a specific flavour and point of view to the role. Naturally, I am

The opportunity kicked off an almost 20-year career in communication strategy, and she ultimately opened her own agency, which she headed for nine years. “What was stimulating about this work was the opportunity to help start-ups express who they are; to tell their stories and talk about their purpose and what they do.”

“...I don’t think I have ever learnt as hard or as fast in my life as I have in the last 18 months...”

In 2017, she started working as a consultant with Skynamo, a mobile field sales app for manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors. On the back of a successful working relationship, the CEO invited

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“We also called in a few stand-up comedians to do shows, and being in on the joke together was a powerful shared experience.”

ways of doing things don’t always work anymore.

There is a new type of thinking needed; start-up teams and developers are different kinds of people and need a different type of engagement. Traditional hierarchies, information flows and structures are outdated.”

She says recruiting strategies need to change, and the employee value proposition needs to be managed differently because employees expect choices around their way of working.

not the kind of person who likes too many rules and I tend to resist policies. Instead, I prefer to spend more time focusing on communicating with people and work through guidelines.”

Sarah says when she took up the role, she was enthusiastic, but knew her limits. The first thing she did was to surround herself with great people.

“I lean heavily on a colleague with an HR education, who understands the field. I also called in an HR coach. He is a man who was on the City of Cape Town’s industrial relations team. He has deep knowledge of issues like misconduct, poor performance and all the tricky processes that require you to follow the letter of the law. He is also an executive coach, so he provides personal support, but I can also call on him as a subject matter expert when I need it,” she says.

Additionally, she has set up a ‘PeopleOps Circle’, with six other individuals who are also leading HR in technology companies. “I have found that a lot of the old

Since she has taken up the role, the staff complement has grown from 64 to 120 and through that growth, Sarah says the start-up environment has been enabling for her.

“There is no way I could have done this for an established corporate or long-standing tech company. I have been able to grow with the company and being the first head of people has given me the leeway to define the role for myself instead of trying to fit into a structure someone else had created.”

Fun and lightheartedness “What I love about this company is the real sense of fun. We work very hard, but the quirkiness is what delights me. Even in stressful situations, we are super committed to maintaining connections with each other, and always looking for fun.

When the Covid-19 crisis hit, this fun-seeking outlook and Sarah’s theatre and communication background were extremely helpful when everyone was working remotely and keeping connected became more important than ever.

At first, Sarah’s team introduced an online social hour, but it became clear that the dynamic doesn’t work well on Zoom. “We realised the team needed a shared experience to bring us all together. We introduced ‘best and worst, a video series where someone would share their home life, and talk about what they were loving and what they missed about being in the office and their lives pre-Covid-19. We would get about five videos a week and edit them into five minutes that we would share at the online social hour. People were very funny and relatable, and these heartfelt videos made people feel more connected to each other.”

Sarah Rice

Chief People Officer, Skynamo Work: Sarah previously worked in the South African technology environment as a public relations and communication strategist for 20 years. During this period, she engaged with clients across all categories (from co-working spaces to incubators, start-ups to established businesses, fintech to edtech to blockchain and beyond), sizes and levels of maturity. In 2019, She shifted her focus to people and culture and joined Skynamo, where she uses her experience in communications to support the team and create an environment where people are challenged to do their best work.

Education: BA English & Drama (University of KwaZulu-Natal), BA Honors Educational English (University of Cape Town).

During this period, 45 people were hired, and it was a great tool for them to get to know the team and vice

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“Drama is fun, but it’s not stable. So over the years, I took on work ranging from theatre work, to au pairing, to data capturing.”

versa, in a light, easy way, similar to how it would be over a drink. “We also called in a few stand-up comedians to do shows, and being in on the joke together was a powerful shared experience.”

Now that some people are in the office and others working at home in a hybrid model, there was an opportunity to do mixed activities, “We ran a murder-mystery event, where someone from the office got attacked and we had to guess who the perpetrator was. It was hilarious and a huge success. We also had a match-the-baby-to-the-person challenge, we are now playing online battleships, and a hint-hunt style game is in the works.”

Fresh eyes Looking back on the last few months, she says about HR, “I love it. I don’t think I have ever learnt as hard or as fast in my life as I have in the last 18 months. It’s

so extraordinarily challenging and I have found that there is no definitive answer when it comes to people – there is only working better or less well.”

She adds that it’s important that she comes fresh to every new story that is presented to her. She says that even if you feel like it’s a scenario you have encountered before, you have to remind yourself that the story might be familiar, but it’s not exactly the same because people are different. “I hope I get to do this for a long time and keep getting better at it,” she says.

A mother of two, Sarah has a 17-year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter. She enjoys swimming in the sea and says, “I feel like it’s a huge part of my mental health and support. I also love conscious dance, it’s mid-way between exercise and meditation.” She also enjoys hanging out with friends and taking walks.

She says that getting into her new role required her to read a lot of business books, which she also enjoys, but her guilty pleasure is a great sci-fi novel.

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GET TO THE

POINT!

CAN WORKPLACES MAKE VACCINATION MANDATORY? 44

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Two eminent doctors who are working closely with the Covid-19 vaccination programme have pointed out that the mass rollout is necessary to reach herd immunity, and is a key part of the economic recovery plan for companies and the country. It is, however, important to understand the reasons for some employees being hesitant to take the vaccine.

BY RONDA NAIDU

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He added, “The original target to achieve herd immunity was 40 million citizens and we had mapped a way to reach up to 300,000 vaccinations a day including some weekend work. We had mapped it out and juxtaposed the target against supply.”

In addition, the government has stated that vaccination is not a mandatory requirement although people have been encouraged to get vaccinated in the interest of public health and safety.

S

Dr Chris Van Straten

Safe working environment

outh Africa’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout programme is underway, with the objective being to achieve the herd immunity target of vaccinating 67 percent of the population by the end of December 2021.

The rollout started on 17 May 2021, with significant ramp up and acceleration from the end of June. Initially, 32,000 vaccines doses were administered a week, and the country was poised to touch 230,000 to 240,000 a day by midJuly. However, unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng in the second week of July resulted in the programme being suspended in these areas and a subsequent drop in vaccination numbers.

This means that employers have to carefully consider several factors when deciding on whether to implement a mandatory vaccine policy in their workplaces and how to deal with a situation where an employee does not agree to being vaccinated. This approach needs to balance an individual’s rights with

“Ideally, we want to vaccinate the entire country in tandem. We shouldn’t be in a position where one region is more highly vaccinated than another.”

Dr Stavros Nicolaou, group senior executive of Strategic Trade at Aspen Pharma Group, said, “Ideally, we want to vaccinate the entire country in tandem. We shouldn’t be in a position where one region is more highly vaccinated than another.”

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the company’s responsibility to provide a safe working environment.

According to the revised Covid-19 Direction on Health and Safety in the Workplace, which was published in May 2021 by the Department of Employment and Labour, employers should take steps to generate awareness and educate employees on the Covid19 vaccine. In addition, the direction indicates that employees should be given paid time off to be vaccinated and paid leave in the event of side effects.

“The key principle of these guidelines is that employers and employees should treat each other with mutual respect. A premium is placed on public health imperatives, the constitutional rights of employees and the efficient operation of the employer’s business,” reads the guidelines.

Companies considering mandatory workplace vaccination programmes are advised to undertake a risk assessment that considers the risk of transmission, age and co-morbidities. Employers are then required to formulate a clear mandatory vaccination plan that identifies employees to be vaccinated, the process followed to comply with the requirements and whether it will be mandatory for identified employees to be vaccinated.

“I got vaccinated and my stress levels decreased dramatically.”

Tamara Parker

On the latter point, where vaccination has been identified as a mandatory requirement, there are further obligations for the employer. These include informing an employee of the mandatory requirement, their right to refusal as well as consultation options with a trade union, worker or health and safety representative.

Should an employee refuse vaccination, then the onus is on the employer to ascertain whether the reasons for refusal are valid and reasonable, and whether provision can be made for the unvaccinated employee.

It is only, after following these steps, that the employer should consider dismissal for operational requirements and the related labour processes and laws. In essence, the employer should be able to prove that being vaccinated is an inherent requirement for the job.

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nation rollout programme, has been very open about his experience.

“I got vaccinated and my stress levels decreased dramatically. Physical and mental health are connected and we need to ensure that the workspace is safe in both areas. Even in the C-suite, people are experiencing stress, anxiety, depression and burnout,” he says.

He adds, “I have also tried to understand why some people are reluctant to get vaccinated. Some of the reasons are worth understanding, for example if a family member has previously had a severe allergic reaction, then that experience scares people as they believe the vaccine may result in an anaphylactic reaction.”

Dr Stavros Nicolaou

However, these are separate things, as Dr Stavros points out.

Context and leadership Although this is the formal approach to vaccination in workplaces, there is also merit in HR professionals understanding the context within which people are hesitant to be vaccinated and for leadership to share their vaccination experience.

Dr Chris van Straten, regional medical director of Clinical Governance for Africa at International SOS, who received the J&J vaccine quite early in the vacci-

“Whether an employee has been vaccinated or not is personal information, which should be respected.”

“No one can predict the long-term effects of vaccines.

They are different to pharmaceuticals. If you get the vaccine now, you will have to wait 15 minutes before leaving, this is because if an anaphylactic reaction were to occur, it would happen within those 15 minutes,” he said.

From a global perspective, over 3.5 billion doses have already been administered over the past eight months and the safety and efficacy parameters are looking extremely good.

Practical workplace considerations Whatever the vaccination roll-out policy is going to be for your company, it is clear that HR professionals are going to have a lot of work on their hands in the coming months. Tamara Parker, the CEO of Mercer South Africa, says that employers might be required to keep track of which employees have been vaccinated and which haven’t, to make decisions about the return to office work, business travel or interac-

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tion with customers. “However, whether an employee has been vaccinated or not is personal information, which should be respected,” she cautions.

For those who opt to remain unvaccinated, or who cannot for medical reasons, Tamara says that employers will need to keep the necessary safety measures in place, including social distancing, mandatory mask wearing, frequent sanitisation, temperature monitoring and symptom checking.

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“This would help to keep both those who are vaccinated and those who are unvaccinated safe without ostracising either group from the workplace,” she says. “Employers will also need to be more accommodating of employee needs and be more flexible during this time, for example, if one feels safer working from home as opposed to in the office, this should be considered. This will lessen anxiety and make all employees feel respected and valued.” 

By July 2021, the following countries have made Covid-19 vaccines compulsory: • Australia: For high-risk aged-care workers and employees in quarantine hotels, and paralympic athletes heading to Tokyo because unvaccinated members on the team could pose a health risk.

• Britain: For care home workers from October.

• France: All health workers and anyone wanting to get into a cinema or board a train will need to show proof of vaccination or a negative test.

• Greece: For nursing home staff and healthcare workers from September. Only vaccinated customers will be allowed indoors in bars, cinemas, theatres and other closed spaces.

• Indonesia: Mandatory, with potential fines for refusing the vaccine.

• Italy: Health workers, including pharmacists, and those who refuse could be suspended without pay for the rest of the year.

• Kazakhstan: Mandatory vaccination or weekly testing for people working in groups of more than 20.

• Russia: Cafes, bars and restaurants can only serve people who have proof of vaccination, immunity or a negative Covid-19 test.

• Saudi Arabia: Vaccination required to enter any governmental, private, or educational establishments and to use public transportation.

• Turkmenistan: For all residents aged 18 and over. *Data from a number of news sources, including Reuters

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partner

AS COVID-19 ACCELERATES VIDEO RECRUITMENT, CAMMIO SELECT SHINES Privacy and protection of candidate data set this video recruitment tool apart from standard meeting apps.

T

he hard lockdowns related to the Covid-19 pandemic have highlighted the indispensable role of video recruitment. Roland Glass, chief business officer at TalentSmith, explains that in the US, UK and Europe, companies had already identified the inefficiencies of traditional recruitment practices, which were largely dependent on in-person interviews on premises.

The shortcomings for organisations of such a one-dimensional approach to recruitment include high levels of subjectivity, recruiter bias, efficacy of the actual interview, poor data points when comparing candidates, and lack of structure in the manner in which candidates are evaluated.

There are also challenges from a candidate perspective. The most obvious is submitting a paper-based CV for a role, which provides a list of achievements and experience but does not give the hiring manager or recruiter an opportunity to connect with the person behind the piece of paper.

“A hiring manager or recruiter can look at 20 CVs and have no understanding of personality or character of individuals. With video recruitment, it is now a portfolio of the candidate, the real context of that candidate, not just a CV as the initial tool. This starts to talk to cultural alignment as well,” Roland says.

Through a video recruitment tool, like TalentSmith’s Cammio Select, candidates can submit applications in an asynchronous manner, with the option of a practice environment and redoing responses as some candidates may be using video recruitment for the first time.

Roland also points out that a number of meeting applications, like Zoom and Teams, are not suitable

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for recruitment. It is therefore important when looking for a video recruitment tool to keep the following in mind: •

F unctionality to create a company-branded environment,

•

P rotection of personal information of candidates,

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P rovision of a feedback rating system on the platform,

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Ability to track candidates,

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Allows collaboration on the platform, and

•

llow other decision-makers in the hiring proA cess to view information.

As a European product, Cammio Select is GDPR compliant and meets the highest in global standards of data security.

Time and quality In addition, Cammio Select provides an AI assessment tool that develops characteristic profiles of candidates built out of the video interview, using the Ocean personality test methodology.

“Features and functionality that come with Cammio are far more supportive to the company and candidate going through the hiring process than a standalone virtual meeting platform. In addition, it can reduce screening and interview time from an hour or more to just five minutes per candidate,” says Roland.

This type of time-saving is indispensable for HR professionals working within the complexity of high-volume recruitment, a geographically dispersed business, or who are hiring across different time zones.

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“Video recruitment works extremely well in areas where there are low points of differentiation in credentials.”

It is also useful for instances where it is challenging to differentiate based on skills and expertise and the recruiter needs to move quickly to understand whether there will be a cultural fit between the candidate and the organisation.

“Video recruitment works extremely well in areas where there are low points of differentiation in credentials. For example, in the retail and call centre sectors, recruiters need to know whether candidates are customer service oriented and video recruitment works well for that,” Roland points out.

Built for South Africa There are also advantages specific to a South African context, where data and ICT access can be a challenge for candidates. In addition, the labour market is structured differently to the EU, US and UK as recruiters deal with a high volume of applications for a single role. In this respect, Roland advises that recruiters be conscious of how video recruitment pricing models work.

“Look at how the licensing works as if pricing is based on the number of applications like it is in some countries, that may not work. I advise recruiters to rather look at the number of hires or roles, rather than applications. It’s also important to have local support, training and account management services,” he points out.

Cammio Select was customised for the South African candidate market.

“Candidates can complete the interview on any device, for both asynchronous and synchronous.

There are low minimum requirements around data speed. There is no log in, no downloads required.

The user experience is streamlined. The candidate can either join a live panel interview, one-on-one live interview or an on-demand video interview in which the candidate would submit a video at a time that suits them in terms of privacy and quietness,” he says.

He adds, “It is also very engaging as it’s not just a text-based application and it is customisable from a language perspective.”

The need for recruitment to keep up with technological and generational changes that have been taking place across the world for a number of years, and now accelerated by the pandemic, leads Roland to believe that the future of recruitment lies in a fit-forpurpose, end-to-end video experience like Cammio Select, which ensures data privacy, consistent employer branding and is conveniently integrated for maximum efficiency.  For more information, visit talentsmith.com.

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The nominees for the 2021 CHRO Awards have responded to the challenges of 2020 and delivered the highest standards of HR excellence.

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BY SUNGULA NKABINDE

t’s that time of the year again when we lift our hats and celebrate the best that the HR profession has to offer. For the second year running, CHROs and HR directors have faced unprecedented economic, policy and wellness challenges in the workplace. This year’s edition of the CHRO Awards will recognise HR leaders that have helped their organisations weather the storms while priming their people to excel in their roles.

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 glittering ceremony will be held on 18 November 2021 at Inanda Club in Johannesburg, where directors and CHROs of listed companies, large corporations, state-owned entities and government institutions will be recognised and rewarded for their exceptional performance and leadership.

•

Jane Waters, COO, Allen & Overy

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Tumelo Seaketso, director, organisation transformation, Deloitte Consulting

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Moula Mokhobo-Amegashie, managing partner, Drayton Glendower & Mokhobo

The awards include:

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Professor Nicola Kleyn, dean, Gordon Institute of Business Science,

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Paul Norman, CHRO, MTN Group

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Raisibe Morathi, group CFO, Vodacom

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Richard Sutton, global stress resilience expert

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Professor Shirley Zinn, non-executive director

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Xolile Sizani, executive director, Nzuri Management

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Vukani Mngxati, CEO, Accenture Africa

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Employee Value Proposition Award

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Talent Management Award

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HR & Technology Award

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Transformation & Empowerment Award

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Strategy & Leadership Award

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Learning & Development Award

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The Young CHRO of the Year Award

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The CHRO Awards panel of judges are:

CHRO

awards

THESE ARE THE 20 INDUSTRY-LEADING NOMINEES FOR THE 2021 CHRO AWARDS: Akhona Qengqe

Chief people officer, Yum! Restaurants International Akhona joined Yum! Restaurants International in 2015 as the director of Africa franchise development. She later became the director of transformation and diversity employment and began her current role last year. Prior to joining Yum! Restaurants, Akhona was the head of convenience retail at Shell South Africa, and before that, the national convenience operations manager at Engen.

Anne Grunow CHRO, Fedgroup Anne has spent more than three decades in the field of human resources and has been the chief human resources officer at Fedgroup since 2011. Prior to joining Fedgroup, she was the human resources manager at Formax for 11 years. She holds a BA (English and Industrial Psychology) from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a higher diploma in education from the same institution.

Beverley Bennett

Head of HR, Curro Holdings Beverley is an experienced expert with a proven track record of 23 years in HR and has been in her current role since 2018. Prior to joining Curro Holdings, she was the group human resources manager at The New Reclamation Group for seven years. She also previously held HR roles at De Beers, ArcelorMittal and Vesco, where she began her career.

Candice Watson

Group human capital executive, AECI Prior to joining AECI, Candice worked at British American Tobacco, starting in the role of area head of talent and organisational excellence before taking on the role of human resources director. She was also previously the HR director at Pernod Ricard, HR business partner for Africa at Lenovo, HR managing executive at Barloworld and HR consultant at Standard Bank.

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Celiwe Ross

Human capital director, Old Mutual Limited Celiwe started her career in the mining industry after graduating as a mining engineer and spent two years with the global search and leadership advisory firm Egon Zehnder. She joined Old Mutual in 2017 as the executive assistant to the chairman and CEO before taking on the role of chief of staff later that year.

Dean Naidoo

Chief people officer, Zutari Dean Naidoo has been the chief people officer at Zutari since 2015.

With over 20 years’ experience in HR, he was previously the group human resources director at Redis Africa for seven years. Prior to that, Dean was the GM for HR at Sovereign Health (which was later purchased by Momentum and is now known as Momentum Health) for 9years. He also spent time at NMP (which became Medscheme) as the HR officer and later the HR manager.

Dieter Veldsman

HR thought leader, The Academy to Innovate HR Dieter’s nomination is for the work he did as Momentum Metropolitan’s group human capital executive – a role he stepped down from in August 2021. From 1 Spetember 2021, Dieter will be in the Netherlands as an HR thought leader and subject matter expert at The Academy to Innovate HR (AIHR). He is now a registered organisational psychologist.

Donald Khumalo

HR director, Johannesburg Stock Exchange Donald has spent much of his career in the financial services and telecommunications sectors. His HR journey began with a brief stint at diamond mining company De Beers in 2002. He held a few roles at Sanlam, Absa and MTN. Prior to his current role, he was the executive head of HR for the Enterprise Business Unit at Vodacom.

Eswhin Booysen CHRO, In2food

Eswhin is a human resources professional with more than 15 years of experience both in South Africa and Internationally. Prior to joining In2Food, he was the head of human resources at Vedanta Zinc International. Eswhin previously worked as an organisational effectiveness and transformation specialist at Anglo American, for three years.

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Hope Lukoto CHRO, BCX

Hope has been in her current role since joining BCX in 2018. She is also the owner, organisational consultant, coach and facilitator at Thariwa Holdings, which was founded in 2015. Prior to that, Hope was the head of human resources at FNB for nine years and held the role of senior human resource consultant at BMW for three years.

Jasmin Pillay

HR consulting director, Microsoft Middle East and Africa Jasmin joined Microsoft SA as the HR director in 2018. Prior to that, she held a number of concurrent portfolios at Petronas Lubricants International. Jasmin has also worked at Afrizulu Consulting, Aspen Pharmacare, PwC Appointments, Kelly Human Capital and Staffing, Concept Communications Public Relations, and Sancon Refrigeration.

Jeanett Modise

Group HR director, Sanlam Jeanett joined the Sanlam Group in 2014. She later became the CHRO for Sanlam Investments Group before taking up her current position.

Before joining the Sanlam Group, she held executive roles at SAP Africa, AngloGold Ashanti, the Industrial Development Corporation, Mutual & Federal, Hewlett Packard SA and the Department of Public Services and Administration.

Julia Modise

Chief people officer, Bridgestone SA Julia has over 23 years’ experience in the field of human resources.

Prior to joining Bridgestone, she was the executive search consultant for Spencer Stuart Executive Search and Leadership Advisory, which she joined after fulfilling the role of general manager HR at Multichoice Group. Julia has also been the executive head of HR at Growthpoint Properties and group HR director at Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Holdings.

Kim Usher

Group HR director, Illovo Africa Prior to joining Illovo Africa as the group HR director, Kim was previously the HR director at ABI, the soft drinks division of SAB Miller, which is now a subsidiary of AB-InBev. In fact, she played a significant role in the integration with ABI and SAB Miller over a period of three years.

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Lebitso Mokgatle

HR Executive, ENSafrica Prior to joining ENSafrica as the HR executive in 2014, Lebitso Mokgatle was the general manager of human resources at Hollard. She also previously worked for Absa as a human resources business partner and was the HR manager at Deutsche Bank.

Lebo Lekgetho

HR Executive, Reutech Kelebogile Lekgetho has been the HR executive at Reutech Solutions since October 2019. Prior to joining Reutech, Lebo served as the senior HR manager at Nashua. Before that, she served in various HR leadership roles, including HR manager for The Paarl Media Group and Times Media Group, as well as an HR officer for the National Regulator of Compulsory Specification and the South African Bureau of Standards, respectively.

Neridha Moodley

People and culture leader, SNG Grant Thornton Neridha has been with SNG Grant Thornton since 2001 and has been actively involved in human resources for over 15 years. In that time, her role has evolved over the years from a purely transactional HR role to one that is more transformational in nature, through the merger with SizweNtsaluba and subsequent integration with Grant Thornton.

Ruth Wotela

People wellness executive, Silverbridge Ruth has been involved in the human resources space since 2007 when she held the role of human resources consultant at HR Outsource.

In 2009, she took on the role of recruitment consultant at Initiate International. Prior to Silverbridge she was the management trainee: industrial psychology at JvR Consulting Psychologists.

Tarryn Swemmer

Chief of staff, Decision Inc Tarryn has over 15 years’ experience in human resources. Prior to joining Decision Inc as the chief of staff in 2018, she held various roles at McKinsey and Company, where she built her career over an 11-year period. Tarryn’s final role at McKinsey was that of regional human resources leader for the Africa, Middle East and Eastern European offices.

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THE 'OSCARS' OF SA HR

18 NOVEMBER 2021

The Polo Room, Inanda Club, Sandton CHROAwards.co.za

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event

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Use your INFLUENCE for CHANGE The annual CHRO and CFO South Africa Women’s Event kicked off Women’s Month with 120 HR and finance executives and their mentees participating in an online immersion where they could share ideas, learn from thought leaders, and be inspired.

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BY CHUMA MXO group of over 120 female finance and HR executives gathered on 4 August for a unique online immersion titled Brave New Workplace. The top CFO and CHROs of South Africa leading organisations had each been asked to invite one of their mentees to share ideas with their peers and thought leaders.

Of course, there could be no discussion about the current state of affairs without referencing the Covid-19 pandemic, but rather than dwelling on what has been, the focus of the event was to consider the lessons learnt in the past year and work out how these could be applied in building a compassionate, empathetic and human-centric future workplace.

their experiences and learnings from the last year.

Themes like the importance of setting boundaries, and practising what you preach emerged.

“A big challenge from an HR point of view was to try to get leaders across the line to guide and mentor people,” said Lebitso Mokgatle, HR executive at ENSafrica. “And to say this is what has worked in the past but it does not necessarily work now.”

She said that one thing that has come into sharper focus for her in the last year was compassionate and empathetic leadership. “Most people required their leaders to show empathy and compassion because of the trials and stress of lockdown. “What I saw is that the leaders who had developed the connections and relationships with their teams prior to lockdown were better able to engage with their teams once we were on lockdown working virtually.”

The event started with four quick “snapshot” interviews, in which executives authentically shared

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Thought-provoking keynote

event

“South Africa has a hit rock bottom stage which only can go one way and that is back up.”

Then the keynote speaker, Ambassador Nozipho January Bardill, came into the Zoom “spotlight” and delivered a powerful address with the theme, “You can’t change the world, but you can change your sphere of influence”.

Nozipho acknowledged that the event was taking place during a raging pandemic when there is a lot of pain, despair and broken hearts.

“Personally, I have lost that sense of freedom and physical health because I have had Covid-19 myself and had to deal with it. I have also dealt with a little bit of mental health where you don't know whether you are coming or going.”

But Nozipho says in all of that, the pandemic became an opportunity for her to write a book “Write to Speak” and was also an opportunity for her to say, “You can affect us but you can't paralyse us.”

“This took some influence but because we were in the same thinking space it was not a hard decision to make. And I think that's the challenge for many of our organisations going forward — that we are going to have to change the norms and look at ways our organisational systems and policies work and change them drastically because many people are dealing with the long Covid.”

Nozipho shared another issue that has come to her world, which is that there are many women that she knows who have experienced gender-based violence at home.

She explained that looking at the issues of the pandemic from the institutional perspective and sitting on various boards, she has noticed that it has affected the way leaders influence people.

“One of our colleagues got really ill from the disease and had to undergo surgery because it affected her brain. She took leave and was away for about two months and unfortunately she was reinfected. In the end the issue of sick leave had to be addressed in the organisation.”

Nozipho shared that because the hearts and minds of the company leadership were in the right place, very quickly they had to change their organisation's sick leave policy and make it individual specific.

Partners supporting the CHRO & CFO South Africa Women’s Event The great mix of inspirational speakers, thought-provoking interactions, and exciting gift boxes was made possible with the support of leading partners of the CFO and CHRO communities, Workday, Dimension Data, Momentum Corporate and CaseWare Africa. The contribution of these great partners underpinned the delivery of a truly stellar event.

“And the question is, what provision are we making for women who are victims? Are we sticking to the claim that the public and the private should be kept forever apart or taking a more radical view on this? Are CHROs and CFOs aligned in their thinking on these matters? Should shelters be offered by companies as well as counselling or should companies advocate for justice and the rule of law to protect the women and their interests who are at work and at home?”

Nozipho said the women of South Africa should remember that they are a large portion of the population in the country.

“We occupy 52 percent of the demographic space in the country. We have struggled for a more just, equitable and peaceful country for many years before, during and after 1956. We continue to insist that we need to end the violence and femicide that has been labelled as the second pandemic in our country and we will continue to strive for equality of opportunity in how we are treated in our families at home and the division of labour at home.”

She added that women must continue to fight for the access they have to senior positions at work and how equally resources are shared (equal pay

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event

to work of equal value), to better care facilities for working moms (maternity and paternity leave) and other demands that will forever be their desire for a happy and fulfilling life.

She concluded, “Happy Women’s month to all of you, we have big problems in our country. We have learnt a lot from the Covid-19 virus as it has touched us deeply in our souls but we still have a lot of work to do. I believe South Africa has a hit rock bottom stage which only can go one way and that is back up.

“We can make a difference and influence our institutional situations, we can take a bit of more time to think about how we can do thought leadership differently and together we need to come out of our silos and work in collaborations, partnerships and find solutions to our social and economic problems.”

The Zoom chat was overflowing with comments of endorsement and support for Nozipho’s message, making it clear that her words touched a chord, and that South Africa’s women leaders are ready to be agents of change.

The keynote was followed by a panel discussion with a number of different women leaders, highlighting how to shape the future workplace.

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Moving into thriving Caryn Baird, group organisational development and human capital executive at First Rand Group said that there are a number of things to think about when driving the shift from surviving to thriving.

“In reality, pandemics like this change us, we are not going to be the same again after the uncertainty, change, trauma and loss we have experienced. While there is no silver bullet in making the shift to being a thriving organisation, in my mind, organisations that thrive are able to embrace and find opportunity in the disruption. They are able to be responsive and agile, ask the question, ‘What does this mean for us and how do we use this inflection point to redirect?’ and to make courageous decisions to ‘flex’ and pivot in whatever way is needed.”

It was clear from the interactive activity that followed, hosted by leadership practitioner Inge Walters, that South Africa’s finance and HR leaders are focused on making courageous decisions for themselves and others. The women in attendance were challenged to formulate their next steps towards thriving, and it is clear that much soul-searching and empathetic consideration will be driving tomorrow’s Brave New Workplace.

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interview

QUESTRIAN SCAPADES

Tracey Rowe says that in riding, as with HR, relationships are the key to success. In this article, she shares a few lessons on what HR practitioners can learn from equestrian sport.

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BY PUSELETSO MOMPEI

erivco’s HR director Tracey Rowe’s first brush with horses was as a baby, when her parents put her in a saddle as soon as she could sit. This encounter would lead to a lifelong passion for equestrian sport, stir up her competitive spirit and be a source of exhilaration and joy for decades.

Africa’s Pony Club Junior Equestrian team and a competitive rider, mainly in three-day eventing.

Also described as an “equestrian triathlon”, this competition tests the overall abilities of horse and rider at dressage, cross-country and show jumping.

Tracey grew up in Johannesburg, and her mother was passionate about animals and volunteered with the SPCA. So, when an injured, neglected pony was found in a gutter, they were keen to nurse it back to health, and they eventually adopted it. The pony turned out to be Tracey’s first equine friend.

She learnt to ride properly on him, even though he had never been ridden before. She believes that being cared for, loved and recognised brought out his best side and built up the trust between them.

It was a life lesson that applies to horses, but also in HR. “Based on someone’s CV or how they perform in an interview, we sometimes misunderstand people. We judge their abilities, previous experience, or passion, without knowing more, and miss out on big opportunities. It is valuable to dig a little deeper so you can grasp someone’s potential beyond first glance.”

Throughout her youth, Tracey stayed in the saddle, eventually becoming a member of South

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However, as school and, later, work demands took over, Tracey sold her horses and left competitive riding. After she completed a BA in law and history at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, with her mother’s encouragement she enrolled in secretarial college to learn to touch type. Meanwhile, her dad

“For me, riding has given me an outlet, a release, an ability to go out and just get perspective. And with the stressful year we have had, we really need to find pockets of time to reflect and think.”

CHRO

interview

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interview

occupied by people who were not sure what they wanted to do, and used HR as a parking lot. Now HR attracts people who appreciate that it is a science, requires studying and understanding people’s behaviours, what drives them and having insight into what makes them tick,” she says.

“...It is valuable to dig a little deeper so you can grasp someone’s potential beyond first glance.” wanted her to broaden her horizons, so after a year of secretarial college, she went to the UK. While temping as a secretary at SG Warburg & Co (now known as the Union Bank of Switzerland, UBS), she found herself in HR when someone vacated a role, and she acted in a support role while the company looked for someone new in the interim.

Horse-riding has also shifted, she says: “When I was younger we were taught to kick like crazy to get your horse to go and pull on the reins to gain control, but this has evolved into controlling your horse by applying the right pressure through your legs, and with a very soft hand. The way that you position yourself in the saddle has changed and the judging criteria of the shows has also adapted and is a lot more technical. The terminology has changed a lot too.”

The power of relationship For Tracey, it was challenging to start riding seriously again because she needed to build a relationship with her horse. “I also needed to build up my own confidence. You do not just get on a horse.

You need to understand it, build a relationship, develop trust and build confidence to have a successful partnership.”

She admits to knowing absolutely nothing about HR, had never heard of it, but discovered her passion for people and found she had a knack for it.

After three years in the UK, she returned to South Africa where she completed her postgraduate studies in HR and a master’s degree in leadership, performance and change management.

Circling back to riding “Through the years, riding remained a passion and I would ride whenever I got the opportunity, whether it was in the Berg, in a game reserve or on a beach.

“I always knew I wasn’t completely done with riding and it niggled at the back of my mind all these years. There is such a special connection and bond that you develop with your horse over time. It was something I missed a lot, and always knew I would start again, but didn’t know when.”

Last year she started to give it proper consideration and after some reflection decided it was time. She bought a horse called Night Fury and started riding again. Two months ago she entered her first show after a 30-year absence.

Tracey found that riding, like HR, has evolved. “You would think HR is HR, but it has changed a lot over time. The way HR is run now is so different to how it was in the past, and it’s grown from being often

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Tracey says that in riding as well as with HR, relationships are golden. “Whether it is with your horse, or people in your team or people in another division, it takes time to get to know them. People are complicated and complex, and so are horses.

They’re also incredibly intelligent, and they can read and pick up on the energy and people’s vibes.”

Tracey points out that horses feed on the rider’s energy and showing up in a bad mood can result in a bad riding day. “Similarly, how you show up in the workplace affects your team. If you're impatient, anxious or upset, people can read that, and they will respond accordingly. From an equestrian perspective the same principle applies: if you show up frustrated or irritated, the horse will act out.”

Getting back into the game Even though she is naturally competitive, when it was time to compete, Tracey was nervous. The competition was in Shongweni, the same place she had had her last show 30 years ago. “Despite the tension, I was incredibly determined to go for it. My attitude was that even if we came last it didn’t matter. Just being there and taking part in the event

CHRO

interview

“If you're impatient, anxious or upset, people can read that, and they will respond accordingly.” and feeling the buzz of competing again was amazing.”

Even with the nerves, it turned out that Tracey’s flair on her horse was still there, and she scooped second place. “The result was affirming. It was great to know that I could conquer something that meant so much to me after such a long absence.”

Returning to riding has been a very humbling experience, she says. “When I finished riding as a teen, I was at the top of my game, and here I was starting again in my late forties right at the bottom.” Tracey says this is a life lesson: “Sometimes you have to start over after you have accomplished success. Life may take you down a new road and you have to be willing to take some risks and learn again.”

The gift of space in a narrower world Now revelling in her reclaimed passion, Tracey advises everyone to find something that they are passionate about outside of work.

“It’s become so difficult with Covid-19 for people to be out and about. Before the pandemic people had various outlets to find space, whether it was to work, social activities such as places of worship or sport,

which stimulated different facets of our lives. The pandemic has narrowed that down considerably, giving us very little time to spread our wings and do something joyful.

“For me, riding has given me an outlet, a release, and the ability to go out and just get perspective. And with the stressful year we have had, we really need to find pockets of time to reflect and think.”

Firmly back in the saddle, Tracey is geared up for 2021 and it will be great to see how the next chapter of her journey goes.

Tracey Rowe

HR Director, Derivco Work: From the Natal Midlands to overseeing HR operations in the Middle East, Derivco HR Director Tracey Rowe’s career has given her and her family the opportunity to discover the world. Prior to her current role, she held senior HR management positions at Deutshe Bank, Investec SA, and J.P Morgan.

Education: International Executive Program (INSEAD), MPhil, Leadership and Change Management (University of Johannesburg), MDip (Honours), HR Management (University of Johannesburg)

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CHRO

opinion

CULTURE STILL EATS STRATEGY FOR BREAKFAST Organisations’ work-from-home strategies might have many (predominantly temporary) upsides but they are the biggest contributor to the atrophy of culture.

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BY ALLON RAIZ

or decades now HR specialists and business strategists alike have been convincing us that “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. We have been presented with research papers, studies, models and a plethora of other material persuading us that this is indeed the truth. An organisation with a great culture combined with an average strategy will outperform an organisation with a great strategy and a toxic or weak culture. And I, like many others, bought this concept.

My day job is building entrepreneurial businesses. Over the past 21 years, I have been building an organisation called Raizcorp, which provides entrepreneurs with the support they need to scale their businesses. Having firsthand experience of building my own business and the direct experience of helping to build over 13,500 other small and scaling businesses, I totally buy into the adage that culture eats strategy for breakfast. Very often, business

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concepts and ideas that have become popularised are more appropriate for a large corporate business and have less relevance to small businesses. But in this case, the adage is relevant to businesses of all sizes and ages.

Enter Covid-19. Across the globe, businesses adopted a work-from-home (WFH) policy in order to reduce the spread of the virus and to ensure that their staff were safe. The tech sector, especially in the USA, became the biggest proponents of this move. Large international brands made statements in the press that WFH is a policy that they will most likely adopt permanently. Thousands of articles were written about all the benefits of working from home – the efficiencies, the time saving of not sitting in traffic, the benefits of not being disturbed. It is a powerful argument, and in many instances probably true. Corporates were loving the savings in printing, travel, toilet paper, stationery, etc. Many decided to shrink to smaller offices, others to go all the way, sell their offices and become a new-age WFH virtual business.

CHRO

opinion

“Small businesses tend to compete on the agility their culture provides and thinner margins. A loss of both these competitive edges was an existential threat.”

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“...businesses which take too long to get back to work in a full-time or blended approach will pay the ultimate price for that decision.” kitchen with relatively bad connectivity and no privacy? How has their experience of WFH been? Has it been one in which they could concentrate and remain productive for months or years? Many of these employees began to feel like they were under house arrest, and eventually began to meet their friends or family in other locations, just to get out.

Go to any shopping mall during the day and you will witness thousands of people (many of whom are supposedly at home being efficient) socialising and interacting, just needing different scenery to their kitchen wall. And I don’t blame them.

My conversations with and exposure to the experiences of the over 500 entrepreneurial businesses we are incubating at the moment told a completely different story for small businesses. It started with many small businesses which, taking their cue from larger and better-resourced corporates, began to do the same thing. The cost-saving and efficiency arguments were incredibly compelling to startup or small businesses where financial resources are scarce.

WFH does not suit everyone The media was also filled with articles about mental health issues being on the rise, and depression medication being prescribed at significantly higher levels than before Covid-19. Could some of that depression, anxiety and other mental health issues be related to the fact that humans are social animals? Could the spike in mental health issues perhaps be related to the fact that people have felt more isolated, disconnected, alone? Could it be that, once the novelty wore off of not having to get dressed in work clothes, people actually missed dressing up and going somewhere every day? Could it be that the majority of people who have been proponents of WFH have reasonably nice homes equipped with a comfortable chair, efficient Wi-Fi and the privilege of a private room in which to work?

What about the people in the majority of workforces out there, especially those who work for small businesses, who probably have had to sit on a dining-room chair all day in the dining room or

Twelve months into the WFH experience, many of the drivers of the approach in the USA and beyond have begun to reverse their positions. The WFH experiment has not worked as well as they had anticipated. Of course, there are some instances where it has been ideal but, for the majority of these organisations, things started to go awry.

Articles began appearing in the press with titles like “The office is not dead,” and corporates began to send one of two messages to their staff – they were either going to move to a blended approach or come back to the office completely once the vaccination numbers are sufficiently high.

Culture decay is a bigger risk for small businesses Why this reversal or part-reversal of policy? My view is that, while WFH might have many (predominantly temporary) upsides, it is the biggest contributor to the atrophy of culture.

Corporates would never have felt this as instantly

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“Could it be that the majority of people who have been proponents of WFH have reasonably nice homes equipped with a comfortable chair, efficient Wi-Fi and the privilege of a private room in which to work?” as smaller businesses. When a small, growing business takes on a new employee, that person represents a much higher percentage of the total staff number in the organisation. The average job tenure in a small growing business is also generally lower than the average tenure in a department of a corporate. These two factors mean that the onboarding of a new employee in a WFH context makes it almost impossible for the culture to be inculcated in the new employee of a small business. New employees would not assimilate the purpose and mission of the businesses they have just joined in the same way that they would have in a pre-Covid-19 context. Entrepreneurs picked this up almost immediately and, as a result, by far the majority of them began to bring their teams back to work, albeit in a split team manner (the classic team red and team blue).

Smaller businesses have also been less effective in managing outcomes or outputs as well as their more established corporate counterparts. Their systems to do so are less developed than those in the corporate environment so the WFH approach also led to a massive decline in productivity over time, resulting in lower margins. Small businesses tend to compete on the agility their culture provides and thinner margins. A loss of both these competitive edges was an existential threat to these smaller businesses and, as a result, many simply insisted on a back-to-work strategy, even if it was in different teams.

Corporates took longer to feel the decay in culture.

But it did happen. There is a great story I am aware of about one of the large law firms which insisted

there would be no WFH after lockdown Level 5 ended. They are currently in a state of massive expansion when so many of their competitors who bought into WFH are in a state of intensive decline.

The culture and connectivity in this non-WFH firm have remained strong as their competitors have slowly but surely became less effective and competitive.

As South Africa’s vaccine rollout begins to gain momentum and more and more work-going individuals are vaccinated, I predict that more corporates will begin to reverse their WFH policies.

Some might fully reverse them, some might take a blended approach and by far the minority will remain as fully WFH businesses. When I speak with many corporate CEOs, they say that they know all too well the downsides of a WFH policy but they are in a moral bind of not wanting to be responsible for anyone being forced back into an office and then, heaven forbid, contracting the virus (which, by the way, they may contract at the grocery store on the weekend or at the coffee shop where they met their friend).

As a strong believer in the culture-eats-strategy-for-breakfast mantra, I am convinced that those businesses that take too long to get back to work in a full-time or blended approach will pay the ultimate price for that decision and shed thousands of jobs as a result. But, there will always be an agile, alert entrepreneurial business out there to see these opportunities and build a business around them. 

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team

I used the lockdown period as a time of introspection When the Covid-19 pandemic started, we were all under the assumption that “this thing” would only last for a couple of months. But as the lockdown period kept on increasing, the realisation hit, that it might just be here for a while.

When that realisation sunk in, I decided I needed to make immediate and major changes. Whereas many people developed cooking or baking skills, started exercising or discovered many other hidden talents, I chose a different route.

After deep introspection known as Muraqabah in the Arabic language, I delved into my religion. A year of isolation and a copious amount of prayer later, I decided to start wearing the niqab. The niqab is a piece of cloth tied over the headscarf (hijab) that covers the face of the wearer. For Muslims like myself, wearing the niqab connects us to Allah (God).

So the next step was to inform my work family about the new developments. At CHRO South Africa we have a culture of bringing our whole selves to work so when I sent an email with the subject “Jazzy new KK” to my colleagues, It was unsurprising that everyone took it in their stride.

At CHRO South Africa, we are a group of awesome individuals, who come from different backgrounds, who have different ideologies, thoughts, and views, but the one thing that we all have in common is the respect that we have for each other and one another’s beliefs. And above all, we love what we do. And the same relationship we have with each other extends to our work communities as well.

So my question to you is, how does your spirituality tie in with your work life?

Like I mentioned, I’m a firm believer of performing introspection, of having daily talk-throughs and taking daily stock with myself as a business owner or manager would do with their team members.

This has allowed me to be open to change, allowed me to look at every challenge and take it as a learning and a self-development opportunity.

And I use this focus on development as a holistic approach to how to become more mindful of myself, those around me, the situations around me, for my own mental clarity and peace in my personal life and in my work life.

Yes, the pandemic has presented challenges. This is not a situation anyone wants to be in, but it has brought about some positive changes and silver linings.

Yes we are surfing different storms in our personal and work lives, and yes we don’t know what the next day will bring. But the one thing one can be sure of is that when you take care of your own peace of mind and create your own zen while still embracing life to the best of your capabilities, the future tends to look a lot less bleak.

KHADIJAH KLASSEN MARKETING MANAGER CFO SOUTH AFRICA KKLASSEN@CHRO.CO.ZA

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