People Dynamics - Summer 2018/19 (Jan 2019)

WWW.IPM.CO.ZA SUMMER 2018/19 (JANUARY 2019) VOL37 NO.3

PROFESSIONAL

IS YOUR COMPANY BULLYPROOF?

PRIDE MULTI-TASKING

INEFFICIENCY

IPMACE2019

FEARLESS LEADERSHIP J O U R N A L

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T H E

I N S T I T U T E

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P E O P L E

M A N A G E M E N T

THE INSTITUTE OF PEOPLE MANAGEMENT - WHO WE ARE The Institute of People Management (IPM) is a professional membership body representing the Human Resource and People Management fraternity. IPM is a not-for-profit, independent body with official professional recognition from the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). IPM is dedicated to providing cutting-edge knowledge and fit-for-purpose tools for strategic, operational people management and development interventions that contribute to personal growth, profitability and sustainability of businesses large and small. The core values of the organization are member-centricity, integrity and advocacy.

Our Identity IPM has for many years been recognized as the mother body of the HR profession and people management fraternity in South Africa. It pioneered and established focused training and development programmes, HR operational tools and skills sets, recognized qualifications and set out quality assurance practices for HR and people management.

Our Strategic Intent IMP’s strategic intent is to enable members to access the most useful, distilled and freshest information, expertise and knowledge as well as training and development opportunities for continuous professional development (CPD).

Also to access systems, processes and networks in people management so as to enhance their capabilities as professionals and be well equipped to lead and influence work environments locally or internationally.

WHAT WE DO AND OFFER:

Specific Professional Designations that can conferred by the IPM are as follows, in ascending order: l l l l l l

Associate Member (IPM Assoc.)

Senior Associate Member (IPMS Assoc.)

Professional Member (IPMP) Senior Professional Member (IPMSP) Executive Professional Member (IPMEP) Fellow (IPMF)

The following are non-professional levels which carry no professional designation or letters that can be used after the member’s name: l Affiliate Member l Student Member

Professional Development Opportunities Courses, Seminars, Roundtables and Workshops Working with its partners IPM offers a variety of activities that help to enhance knowledge,

skills and experiences of HR professionals and people management practitioners.

Annual Convention and Exhibition: The Premier Event The ACE has been a premier event for the organization since its launching in 1956. During the Convention and Exhibition members and delegates have the opportunity to learn from experts in various fields, share knowledge and network with people across various industries. The Convention and Exhibition provides knowledge, information and a variety of practical takeaways that can be applied back in the workspace.

Celebrating Excellence An Annual Gala Dinner and Excellence Awards Ceremony is held to recognize HR professionals and business leaders who have excelled in their roles and helped advance the HR profession and best practice people management and leadership. n

Membership IPM offers individual and corporate membership packages. Prospective members are assessed and awarded an appropriate professional designation to signal the member’s level of professional competence. Once given a professional level of efficacy, a member is at liberty to state the designation after their name.

A member an then be registered and listed in the national register of designated professionals which is maintained by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) and is published on the SAQA website.

The Mall Offices 8th Floor, 11 Cradock Avenue Rosebank, 2196 info@ipm.co.za www.ipm.co.za @IPMSouthAfrica @IPM4PEOPLE

THEME - Fearless Leadership: Orchestrating transformation of work, workspaces and society to sustain people, profit and planet.

20 – 23 October 2019 Sun City Resort, North West Province

REGISTER EARLY Contact patricia@ipm.co.za or lavern@ipm.co.za

CONTENTS 4

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Professional Motivation

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Leadership Effectiveness

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Professional Pride

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Communication & Organisational Culture

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Employee Relations / Fearless Leadership

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Employee Relations / Workplace Bullying

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Health & Wellness

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Job-creation

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IPMACE2018 Highlights Ian Paterson

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Dr Ngao Motsei

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Dr Timothy Hutton

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Professional Motivation

GEAR UP FOR A GREAT

2019 Life is an expedition, and each year represents an exciting leg of the adventure! Are you kitted out for 2019?

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perfect kit gets you prepared for any eventuality, and is made up of mental, technical and physical readiness. We peered into what some of our fellow professionals have packed for the year:

coveted partner and worthwhile leader, where focus is on achievement of the goals for individual and group success. A positive attitude energises you to look beyond challenges, see over your competition; prove naysayers wrong and overcome defeatist attitudes. It helps you inspire success and keep energies high among those around you so that they can feed it back to you when yours is depleted.

You particularly need to arm yourself with a positive attitude, considering the unpredictable effects of the latest Industrial Revolution and other global uncertainties. Thankfully, there are signs of a slow climb out of recession and a shedding of laissez faire leadership - back toward good governance and positive country prospects.

Professionalism

Attitude

A positive, can-do attitude is always handy on any adventure. It helps you see the possibilities and opportunities where others see dead ends.

It also helps you steer through bad patches and recover quickly from setbacks such as economic slumps. A positive attitude makes you a PEOPLE DYNAMICS | Summer 2018/19 (January 2019)

Professionalism is your trade toolkit made up of your profession’s code of practice, governance principles, policies and manuals that keep you at the cutting edge of your trade. This collection keeps you well informed and equipped to deliver confidently and with excellence.

Professionalism calls for being up-to-date with the right industry

Professional Motivation

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A positive attitude makes you a coveted partner and worthwhile leader, where focus is on achievement of the goals for individual and group success.

It outlines the activity that will help you deliver on your goals, with clear measures: quality, quantity and timelines.

A good plan ensures that consideration has been given to the environment or trading terrain so that ambition is matched by resources.

Over extending resources may erode morale and induce burn out and a premature exodus - physical or otherwise. Under-stretching resources may, on the other hand, fail to focus people, retard productivity and create room for mischievous activity.

People need a good balance to allow them to be intellectually stretched, professionally challenged, and emotionally committed, motivated and technically creative.

A good plan is realistic about timelines - factoring customer expectation, governance non-negotiables, reporting cycles as well as the national and international calendar.

Optimum Health and wellness

tools; staying abreast of developments in your field, and an intimate understanding of legislation applicable to your industry in order to make well-informed decisions and give appropriate advice to your clients.

Professionalism ensures delivery of high levels of service and helps you make a positive contribution to the industry by driving continuous improvement - establishing even better ways of delighting our clients and adding tangible value to the community and economy.

As professionals, it is imperative that we actively and continuously develop ourselves. The professional world simplifies this through the Professional Designation and CPD point system. In addition to your qualifications, your current Professional Designation and CPD points help prospective clients and employers gauge the level of operation and service they should expect from you. They are critical determinants of your ability, competence and relevance within the profession.

Flailing health will sabotage your chances of success to achieve your 2019 goals.

A comprehensive fitness test helps you know what you need to manage during the course of the year in order to maintain an overall wellbeing.

The aim is to be proactive about your health and wellness and focus on prevention of illness, rather than to be overtaken by events and stuck with an irreversible condition or chronic illness.

A typical fitness test which most medical aids will cover as standard includes physical fitness, body-mass index, blood pressure, glucose, and cholesterol levels. One, however, needs to go the extra mile to include eye tests as well as check for any early signs of cancerous cells. The most basic checks, depending on risk associated with age, gender and lifestyle, include HIV test, colorectal cancer, glaucoma and skin cancer screening; mammograms, pap smear, bone mineral density for women; testicular and prostate cancer screening for men.

The goal is not to create neurosis or an obsession, but to keep a proper view of your health in order to manage it and keep it optimal. Where test results suggest that something needs to be addressed, it is well worth the effort to get a second opinion, or run it again in case of a ‘false scare’ induced by abnormal body activity.

Optional Extras

The Plan

An optional extra in your kit would be a good friend. This will be someone to bounce things off, share emotions, concerns and achievements with; someone who is good at listening; a positive person with a healthy sense of humour. If you can’t readily find a good humoured human, pets can be just as great companions on any journey.

They are better sensors and less talkers, if you struggle with listening.

And if all else fails, get a perfect companion off the shelf – a robot with feelings!

Your plan affirms your purpose, articulates the goals and key deliverables for the year.

A Happy, healthy and humorous 2019 to you!

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Leadership Effectiveness

your Getting Leadership Message Across

Words are potent. They have power to move people; send them to one direction or the other. Words can build, inspire and motivate. Worlds can also hurt, harm or destroy. Whoever employs them appropriately is primed for power to influence.

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Leadership Effectiveness

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When words fall short of this effect, the message has been frustrated: suspended somewhere between originator and receiver’. And this frustration presents the sender with a serious challenge: to go back and reformulate the ‘messaging’ process.

Message Blockers

BY: JOSIAS WATSON

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leader’s address or talk, email or memo, statement or post may well be made up of a collection of words or phrases, but might not automatically qualify to deliver a message. In order to qualify as a message, words have to move people towards the intended direction, or accurately convey the original intended thought.

No single tool or medium of communication is guaranteed to successfully convey a leader’s message to a heterogeneous audience.

Often, a leader needs a combination of channels or methods to ‘drive a message home’.

Poor message formulation often confuses people and leaders fail to get traction from the message. The problem may be one or a combination of these: complexity, incongruity and inconsistency.

Complexity abounds when many different thoughts and messages are issued to the same audience over a period. Particularly is this testing where some form of response is sought from the audience!

The team or audience ends up not knowing where to focus, or are overwhelmed with processing the different messages in relation to required actions.

A colleague once quipped that confusion resulting from receiving and having to act on ‘complex messages’ can only plague the one gender from Mars, because the rest of the population is made up of master multi-taskers. Sadly, nowhere in our archives could we find research that proves that great multi-taskers are equally great multiple-message assimilators. So, for now, we stand by the tested observation: that complex ‘messaging’ overwhelms receivers to a flummoxed state.

Complexity also comes from verbosity and inappropriate use of catchy phrases or fashionable expressions.

Incongruity occurs when the message does not fit the sender in the receiver’s mind. Much as this may be a subjective view by the receiver, the originator of the message does well to test his or her audience’s perceptions, to make sure that they - sender and receiver - have a common base or aligned view. No matter how sincere a leader’s message, if it doesn’t click with the image the receiver has of him or her, the meaning and intent will be thwarted.

Inconsistency comes from when (seemingly) conflicting messages have been sent to an audience, or when a message is followed (seemingly) by an incompatible action from the same source.

Unwittingly, leaders who have experienced image discord among their own employees have assumed that the people are organisational misfits, or worse still, are passively aggressive, and resolve to ‘work them out of the system’. Meanwhile, employees are simply ‘not getting’ the message and find it too much of an effort to wade through the clutter or reconcile the clashing image positions in their heads.

The simple antidote to this frustrating situation is offering words and messaging that is simple, congruous and consistent!

Simplicity, Congruity and Consistency

For these three tenets to be achieved, the originator needs to master his or her audience. S/he has to know the audience’s baseline and frames of reference which shape perceptions, and needs to understand the audience’s interpretation of the organisation’s image. Leaders need to know the gap between how they position their brand or messages (aspiration) and the audience’s view (perception) and work at eliminating this gap, even before issuing communication that requires active response from the audience.

Audience Mastery helps leaders use the right words; choose the right

To Every Science, a Formula

Words convey the intended message when they are organised and presented as complete authentic thoughts in a simple, clear, appropriate and consistent fashion. “Words will have served their purpose when people are moved towards an envisioned mental position or understanding, or motivated toward an envisaged, specific action.

language, right tone, right time, right pace and the right place. This relates to the theory of situational management, where the “maturity” of the audience determines the leader’s approach. Audience’s readiness in terms of perfect image alignment will ease the assimilation and acceptance of the message - enough to move the audience closer to the desired action.

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Technology and Jobs

A leader’s actions surpass even the most poetically worded speeches, and can beat the most expensive media campaigns. We know this, because, many a great, successful campaign has been put to a dead halt by a single improper act.

The combination of words and congruent action is what makes leaders credible, and their message believable and effective.

When leaders get it all wrong

Until this equilibrium is achieved, appropriate communication that displays genuineness of intentions, authenticity of the sender’s brand and the purity of his/her motives needs to be built at the appropriate pace.

Perception Clash and Realignment

It is worth noting that both incongruity and inconsistency may be subjective perception, as where there’s a clash between originator’s and receiver’s viewpoint.

Think of the response one famous politician gave to dispel concerns about a meeting he had with a retired leader, against fears of a faction that may be plotting to sabotage current leadership structure. Even the best communication specialists struggled to find anything clear or simple in the response.

Stemming from this, audiences could choose what to think or believe, no thanks to any of the words uttered by the leader, nor any attributed image. We choose to think this adds to lessons that no one should spend sleepless nights about ‘all things political’, notwithstanding that any perceived threat to a country’s stability can prove hard to dismiss. There, that’s a message that didn’t land – perhaps by intention.

The Crab-Parenting Factor

Perception Clash Example: Employer Branding

For instance, an HR executive may regard the organisation’s Employer Brand as prestigious and exclusive, yet prospective recruits, when viewing it against the EVP and a frame of attributes or employer image factors, might regard it as pretentious.

Once a misalignment is sensed, a target audience easily dismisses or ejects a message. In this case, the recruit’s view essentially sends the executive back to the drawing board, to realign his/her Employer Brand to the prospects’ perception, or to move the recruits’ perception.

A re-evaluation becomes necessary: • a scan of the market and competitor evaluation to ascertain the real market position of the Employer’s Brand; • further authentication by assessing alignment between Corporate Image and the Employer Brand: positioning, messaging and communication mix; • an assessment of the Employer Brand against corporate strategy and programmes; • conceptualising a revised plan for a more realistic, aligned brand evolution These actions will ensure the closing of the gap between Corporate Image and the Employer Brand as well as narrow the gap between the organisation’s brand aspirations and prospective recruits’ brand perception.

With that accomplished, a common base is set and the organisation can start pitching itself higher ever so gradually; communicating its renewed goals and progress toward becoming the ‘best in class’. That way, recruits will be attracted to the organisation (employer) to be part of a positive change and a reinvention of the organisational brand.

Effective Organisational Communication: the Best Message Catalyst

While words are potent with the ability to inspire or destroy, words require an even more powerful ally in order for leaders to have effective messages: leaders’ actions.

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A common example is when companies announce cost-cutting measures.

They cut frills off the customer offer (making front-line employees’ jobs difficult), and drop corporate perks and performance bonuses, all this while management continues to fly first class, stay in 5-star establishments and drive multi-million ticket vehicles.

Even if the ‘luxuries’ enjoyed by these managers are personally funded or upgrade favours from suppliers and do not cost the company anything, ‘the message’ received by employees is that management sacrifices nothing, while all other stakeholders have to contend with cuts.

A “Do as I say, not as I do” crab-parenting factor!

From their (limited) perspective, employees may feel duped and become agitated. Hence, the ‘cut back’ message that management is driving will land nowhere. It will, unfortunately, be frustrated even though managers may have dug out of their own pockets to maintain the conveniences they’d gotten accustomed to. Notwithstanding management’s ‘innocence’, the incongruity between words and actions compromises the integrity of the message, resulting in no one taking the call to cut costs seriously.

When leaders get it right

Messages land and become instantly effective. What leadership says instantly comes across as credible, convincing, inspiring and motivating towards appropriate action. Statements do not need second guessing.

Reports are not regarded with suspicion as contrivance or a red herring.

Corporate directives are not seen to apply selectively.

We are no crabs; we are True Leaders!

No “do as I say, not as I do” leadership can earn credibility.

Hence, to get words to fulfil their potency, they have to be perfectly matched by leaders’ actions and perfectly aligned to organisational purpose and the version of strategy being rolled out. That way, the right message will filter all the way to the back office, to external suppliers and stakeholders - carried through people’s hearts and an unwavering commitment.

Professional Pride

Summiting

to Professional Glory and Enterprise Delivery To make the most of the rays of a new dawn, organisational leaders must inspire a strong sense of purpose, reignite professional pride in order to improve enterprise delivery and the country’s overall performance. This will bolster the economic prospects of employees and communities.

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recent cartoon did rounds in social media depicting three of SA’s post-apartheid presidents. One of them was driving a scooter labelled “Mr Delivery”. While this may be satiric, most will agree that the ex-president in question did engender a sense of urgency, particularly when it came to delivery among South African SOE’s.

During that period, SA public sector regained some respect of citizens who had written government services off and regarded stateowned entities as retirement parks. Under Mr Delivery, performance management was taken seriously both in private corporates and in government. Performance contracting and consequence management became a reality. Corporate-minded, delivery-oriented managers were happy to trade private sector executive posts and corporate operational positions ‘to serve their country’, where their talents were needed most.

HR was at pains to ensure that the migration sacrifices made by this cadre were compensated fairly and “competitively”.

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Professional Pride

Thanks to globalisation and the proliferation of multi-nationals in the country, this competitive compensation heavily swung the government salary bill curve upwards. However, enumerating the benefits stemming from higher levels of delivery, HR executives were eager to justify the sharp upswing of government departments’ and SOEs’ salary budgets.

Scorecards kept everyone in check and washed loafers and coasters off to sea. In addition to Stakeholder value or Customer Satisfaction-, Financial Performance-, Operational Efficiency and Improvement, Balanced Score Cards at this time called on executives to also deliver on Transformation objectives, mainly under People Development & Organisational Learning.

The time was right for the country to address the imbalances brought about by historical exclusion of some races from meaningful economic participation and decision-making. While the naming and weighting given to the different elements of the scorecard varied from organisation to organisation, there was a general pulling towards common high-level objectives in both public entities and private sector organisations. HR rose to the occasion and outdid itself in delivery of HR-related change, people development and a demographically transformed SA workplace.

The HR profession was a hive of activity. There was heady progress in Recruitment – some of which was about poaching exceptional talent from corporate blue chip companies – the very best, with the best delivery track record.

Then there was the massive attention given to Learning & Development. Employee upgrade was massive, with employees given access to qualifications that were previously a privilege of a few. Through in-house and on-site training sessions, as well as part-time classes or virtual training and development programmes, the country’s human capital development was fast-tracked. As part of a new culture, HR helped facilitate practical skills transfer and an acquisition of technical competencies among people of different PEOPLE DYNAMICS | Summer 2018/19 (January 2019)

social backgrounds, education levels and age groups. Gripped by a bout of FOMO, more teachers increasingly saw the fashionable role they could play in Corporate SA Inc. Unfortunately, with teachers’ focus on finally getting ‘remuneration they deserve’, little thought was given to the gap created in the school system, where services were needed for the formative stages of our youngsters education.’

It was hard blaming anyone who saw better prospects and rewards for him/herself in a new environment.

HR engaged some as custodians of in-house training, while others attached themselves with consultancies that provided HR with thirdparty contract training services. Even though income hardly compared with top executives’, but what great improvement to the slave pay teachers were subjected to until that point!

Stringent measures in Performance Management grew the demand for psychometric testing and predictive behaviour assessments in the industry. In addition to Organisational Behaviour practitioners, Psychology specialists almost became ‘mainstream’ in the workplace, as HR worked hard to lower risk potentially stemming from ‘job-candidate’ and ‘candidate-organisational’ ill-fit at recruitment stage. Line managers and Talent Management specialists also played it safe with candidates identified for succession planning and upward progression within organisations.

The work on EVP, covering career planning and employee retention programmes got exciting as there was a scramble to keep one’s best candidates from ever-lurking poachers, by offering the best conceivable packages or ‘golden handcuffs’ to top quartile star performers.

Team building became a buzzword alongside other elements of Employee Relations; HR facilitating diversity management workshops to help different groups understand and embrace diversity and change. Special workshops were designed to help team leaders exploit the complementary strengths presented by diverse teams.

Professional Pride

HR was threatened by potential loss of highly skilled talent who were susceptible to international inducements and jumped at early retirement offers or voluntary retrenchment packages that opened doors to new ventures and fresh career paths. When painted into a corner, negotiations involved securing consulting contracts with those whose specialist skills were strategically critical for the company.

Work with Organised Labour got exciting as shop stewards pressed HR execs hard to make sure that the less skilled, unionised members did not miss out on opportunities presented by this watershed era in S.A. Training plans started swinging to favour the bottom end of the workforce. Many general workers grew into supervisory roles, and the fruits of transformation were palpable across operational levels.

The symbiotic partnership between HR and the (‘black’) unions was unprecedented. That is, until the masses seemed to lag behind (once more), with the remuneration gap widening between unskilled/ semi-skilled workers and those in the higher echelons. Using the levers availed to Labour by the Constitution and international human rights codes, the unions started evoking series of strike action.

Was it the time when HR and corporate heads found a work-around and outsourced most non-core functions? Or was outsourcing a factor of global trends that promoted wide organisational re-engineering under the guise of performance improvement through streamlined operations?

So, having taken time to peer into the rear view mirror, now is a time to focus on rebuilding and reconfiguring the priorities of the worthy profession of Human Resource Management, and to restore it to the lustrous beacon of human rights it once was for all in the workplace, sweating for a shared prosperous future of SA Inc.

Think the ISO series, Six Sigma and Kaizen philosophy, to name a few.

Nonetheless, the phenomenon seemed to favour HR/ER officers and operational heads since “difficult situations” could now be handled at arms’ length and away from core operations. Non-core service centres mushroomed and call centres were becoming a formidable industry.

No one seemed to complain as companies were suddenly “enjoying” more reliability and better performance levels; customers increasingly happier with new-found convenience of instant, virtual service. Bean counters were happy with the shift made to the balance sheet, and Executives were cashing up on handsome performance bonuses earned from increased operational effectiveness and profits. The outsourced service industry had changed support service culture. There was a constant push for things being done right the first time, on time, every time. Service Level Agreements held contractors accountable and employees ever attentive.

Service became the thing for outsourced providers with management managing the third party contracts and SLA’s. For a while, everyone in front-line service was happy, including contract workers whose employment relationship fell with ‘labour brokers’. The contracts gave young job entrants flexibility to pursue further studies and work their work-schedules around classes and exams. Yes, everyone was happy, that is, until vultures in the labour broking industry allowed greed to ruin a good thing. Employee unhappiness grew; customers felt it, and voted with their feet. Companies felt it where it counts most.

Labour law specialists and E.R. consultants had a field day helping with the drafting of new legislation to address the new employment landscape. One can only laugh thinking about those who opportunistically stood with the employer when it suited their practices’ coffers, then swung to “fight for the vulnerable workers” when their consciences sensed a lucrative pay cheque, especially from a compromised, ‘defaulting’ government department.

Sadly, the exciting strategic advisory and change management role that dominated an HR Execs’ day during the early years of Mr Delivery was significantly diminished by increasing (and often irritating) employer representations at the CCMA. The attention of high-powered executives got increasingly diverted towards ‘overseeing’ favourable

litigation outcomes on behalf of ‘the employer’. Those whose heart rested on humanising the workplace and promoting people development opted out. They left for exciting but challenging entrepreneurial work and forsook the ‘safe slave’ world of guaranteed pay cheques to start their own ventures.

That was then! In fact, some of the latter scenario has continued very much into the last couple of years. Safe to say, Mr Delivery ex-president had long made his rather unceremonious exit from SA Inc’s top post.

So, having taken time to peer into the rear view mirror, now is a time to focus on rebuilding and reconfiguring the priorities of the worthy profession of Human Resource Management, and to restore it to the lustrous beacon of human rights it once was for all in the workplace, sweating for a shared prosperous future of SA Inc. This is the time for HR professionals to build, uplift and motivate people through continuously upgrading them and aligning their competencies with the talent needs of the industries making up our economy.

The core HR operational function may not have evolved much since Mr Delivery’s day – other than for automation of idiotic processes.

But the country is definitely poised for a new strategic focus by the profession. There is an opportunity to forge a positive national strategic alignment between the country’s ambitious HR-related goals and our well-loved profession. This is the time for HR professionals to build, uplift and motivate people through continuously upgrading their skills and aligning their competencies with the talent needs of the industries making up our economy.

It will take every HR professional, practitioner, consultant, executive, academic and student to resume the summit back to HR’s once revered position.

You may not quite see the dawn President Ramaphosa hailed early in 2018, but that’s because dawn takes place at different times, depending on which part of the universe you are. It’s still time: Make this YOUR dawn! Make this your DELIVERY time. Make this YOUR time to stand up for a humane and efficient workplace with the Right kind of Change!

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Communication & Organisational Culture

Harnessing the message and reaping the benefits

BY: BRIAN EAGAR

The use of technology has helped the world’s communication become more efficient.

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andheld technology has become an integral part of our daily lives, hence organisations clamouring to get it in their official media channel mix. The pervasive use of technology has unfortunately lowered the appreciation of communication for what it is supposed to be.

Since we grew up talking, we think talking always gets our intended message across. We don’t realise how delicate a message is – especially the instant, written kind we tend to use most these days.

Many years of experience taught me that effective communication is most leaders’ Achilles heel, but why then do we still get it so wrong?

A Sender’s Over-eagerness and Receiver’s Apathy I think social media is so popular because it feeds our need to be heard. You often hear that social media gives everyone a voice. It is sad, however, that so few of us use this voice effectively. Somewhere along the way we forgot to our audience. At a distance we can be

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before for your message to be worthy of your audience. We think that because technology gives us the free access to our audience, we will be heard. But we will only be heard if they know why they need to listen to us.

Your Message and Your Personal Brand

Communication influences our perceptions, directly impacting what we believe. This is why, as a leader, it is vital to appreciate the value of harnessing this powerful gift – the ability to use your words constructively to inspire and achieve. Your message is what people associate with you – it is part of your personal brand.

If you don’t focus on influencing how people perceive you as a person (i.e. your personal brand), what you say won’t matter.

You are always communicating, whether you use words or not.

Verbally you communicate messages by means of presentations, conversations and written communication, while non-verbally your body language, tone, etc. is also a message.

A message that is constructive, well-considered, supported by your example and takes your audience into consideration switches people on. However, if your messages, or lack thereof, switch people off by injecting misunderstanding, fear or misalignment in the system, team members and colleagues disengage. And with disengagement, communication – and more importantly your messages that the business needs to thrive on – will be diluted.

If your message is a drain on the system, it will ultimately impact performance, productivity and profitability negatively.

Your Message and Organisational Culture

Organisational culture and communication are interdependent - together they are the key to lifting strategy off the paper and improving our ways of working together. If the culture is left to develop by default instead of by design, the business results will be mediocre at best. Your message is key to fostering the culture your business needs to thrive. I reinforce with every team that I work with that learning to change your language will change your culture.

Be mindful of the words you speak and those you fail to speak. Use language that inspires and actions that emulate those words.

Your Message and Employee Engagement

cruel, inconsiderate, irrelevant, ridiculous or even dishonest without interruption. Then, when this habit of giving our words free reign is entrenched, it is much easier to apply it to face-to-face conversations as well.

In this modern world of instant communication, we have lost the art of considering how our audience will receive our message. We often communicate carelessly and out of context, and we interpret and jump to conclusions in the same way. We no longer need to have something worthy to say to have a voice because the internet has enough space to accommodate everyone.

Message Clutter and Diminished Appreciation

While our grandfathers bought one newspaper and read it back to front, we have access to numerous news platforms, but few articles actually get read. This increase in messages result in a decrease in time to receive these messages, making it more important than ever

Low levels of engagement are directly related to your message as a leader. ClearCompany found that employees whose managers regularly communicate with them are nearly three times more engaged than those with managers who don’t regularly communicate. This works like compound interest because Gallup also found that companies with engaged employees outperformed their peers by 147% in earnings per share. In fact, it is estimated that low engagement cost the U.S. economy roughly $370 billion a year.

Your Message and the Bottomline

The ability to communicate with one’s employees is a powerful tool that leaders have. If you don’t take care of your message, everything is lost. But, if you learn to effectively harness the power of communication, you will earn trust in your personal brand, forge a great organisational culture, and be rewarded with high employee engagement and great organisational performance.

In short, your message as a leader has a direct impact on your organisation’s and your team’s performance, productivity and profitability. It’s not about what you are saying – it’s always about what they are hearing.

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Employee Relations

FEARLESS LEADERSHIP Retrieving the Missing Middle BY: PEOPLE DYNAMICS CORRESPONDENT

A claim was once made that middle managers were the most unhappy band in the organisation.

They are the squeezed ham in the sandwich, with the bulk of operational responsibility but no matching executive authority.

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eing the ham in the sandwich from a responsibility and limited authority point of view comes with the job, and all managers would have known what they were signing up for when they accepted a line management role.

Heavy responsibility, unpredictable hours and being pulled from all directions comes with the territory. According to Yvonne Balfour, an Employment Relations advisor and former corporate middle manager at a leading broadcasting group, the most trying time for a manager is ‘when you have made all the sacrifices to keep performance high, customer satisfaction tops, and employees motivated, then have to contend with distracting pettines from the top’.

According to Balfour, who passionately affirms the assertion of middle management stress, the top executives start with

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Employee Relations

undermining and nullifying even the little authority middle managers have. They will issue instructions directly to your subordinates, often diverting them from assigned duties without your knowledge. In time, of course, your employees ignore your direction – especially if it involves more effort and harder work, which ironically would help improve the quality of their own work and help with their development.

That’s when you really feel the squeeze.

Gradually your work piles up as you have to cover more bases plus handle any overflow from the top. You begin to feel isolated and overwhelmed.

In most cases one finds that HR is too timid to confront the issues and the power play is such that situations go unresolved until things are unbearable. The day you decide to call your boss out, all hell breaks loose. The corporate bully tactics come out and you are out in the cold. The flurry of activity picks up with disciplinary processes being hashed. Finally they will be relieved of the tension.

But then, here comes the issue of the ham again. If the middle manager happened to be ‘well connected’ at Board or shareholder level, the top executive is likely to be the one to end up exiting.

Better still, the manager may just find himself or herself earning his or her full salary at home. Talk of waste of resources!

Organisations seem to think they have endless resources to finance lengthy, extravagant disciplinary processes and have used hard earned finances to to entertain executives’ personal agenda.

What does HR say?

Think of the number of employees who have had disciplinary processes stretching perpetually, some, until their official contracts lapse, up to four years into the process. Quite a few of the cases, particularly where they involve a politically empowered official, meant having the person ‘staying at home’ on full salary. Since none of the money has to come from their pockets, HR and top executives seem happy to build mountains out of moles of petty differences or

In most cases one finds that HR is too timid to confront the issues and the power play is such that situations go unresolved until things are unbearable.

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professional disagreements.

What happens when a middle manager with no political connection or high powered affiliation finds himself having to defend his integrity, professional decision-making and performance in a disciplinary process that challenges his motives and questions his fitness to operate in his role as a line manager?

A general worker affiliated to a union would simply call on a shop steward to represent him, which happens at no cost.

Managers, on the other hand, have to finance their own representation, which can easily bankrupt them if the matter is dragged out ad infinitum. It’s an impossible David-and-Goliath situation financially and legally, where any logical reasoning, professional or technical argument is suppressed or overpowered with jargon and legalese, with the company paying all versions of lawyers to get the outcome it desires.

Call it working the system, or what you may, but it is conduct that any self-respecting HR executive should distance himself or herself from.

Cases have to have merit to be taken through a discipline process. Professional differences, political, racial, social, tribal, cultural, personal differences or those based on people coming from different schools of thought should not lead to personal penalties and human sacrifices, but rather to proper resolution by appropriate adjudicators. Where there are irreconcilable differences based on the company’s articulated vision, position and strategic direction, this should be made clear to whoever holds a divergent position and approach, and an amicable separation reached without wasting company resources. HR processes cannot be abused to entertain personal vendettas or power struggles that lead to exorbitant legal fees or extravagant guilty handshakes.

Professional bodies which are custodians of professional conduct and practices framework, and undersign qualifications should intervene. They should be available to evaluate the merits of any case related to professional conduct or practice, and determine whether any challenge made about the action(s) is valid or justified, and whether indeed, an affiliated manager has a case to answer.

We know that bodies like Afriforum make themselves available to represent “Afrikaners and other minorities”, but who, out there, represents the rest who are charged as individual professionals or managers in their own capacity and lack the luxury of a bottomless budget?

Who is qualified to prove or disprove allegations such as “putting the company into disrepute”? Who is there to test or justify a claim of “loss of trust” between two subjects who hold two opposite and subjective views and come from different (professional) schools of thought? Who is there to determine that a manager has acted in bad faith or against the best interest of the company?

One awaits, with bated breath, the developments at professional bodies and institutes like IPM in 2019, particularly having had Workplace Bullying put in the spotlight at the IPM 2018 Convention.

The presentation: Is your Organisation Bully-proof? The Role of HR in Bullying at Work by Dr Ngao Motsei had delegates on the edge of their seats at the 2018 convention.

She has undertaken to work with IPM, in a focused campaign to tackle the issue of Workplace Bullying, which not only has led to valuable human resource exiting their professions or ending careers prematurely, but has wasted millions of rand in human-abusive processes and unjust proceedings.

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE IPM

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Bullying

in the Workplace:

Alive and Thriving?

BY: PEOPLE DYNAMICS CORRESPONDENT

Labour legislation makes provision for fair and just processes that protect the rights of all employees in the workplace. Labour unions have an impressive record for successfully representing their members to protect them from being bullied by abusive line managers.

PEOPLE DYNAMICS | Summer 2018/19 (January 2019)

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hat happens to employees who fall in the non-unionised bands yet can’t afford to pay private legal fees?

A standard HR statement on a disciplinary hearing notice that goes: “you may call witnesses… bring a union rep or colleague to represent you”, sounds fair and generous enough. Of course, calling on a shop steward to represent you is always “an option”, and frankly union reps are unlikely to say no even when an employee falls outside of the requisite band.

But the psycho-social issues at play at work are such that it would not be easy for most line managers to make such a request to a shop steward, and not because they themselves have anything to be ashamed of.

Despite the healthy tension between line management and unions, the reality is that line managers might at some stage have been at the wrong side of a case with unions in one disciplinary case or the other. Also, traditionally, unions defence approach tends to focus, or capitalise on procedural issues or legal loopholes where they find HR or management’s default on labour law or disciplinary processes.

When a case is based on alleged technical or professional

Employee Relations

misconduct, an ideal representation is one that tackles technical and professional merits – something the middle management cadre struggles to get, and would likely not find from a shop steward.

Says Alfred Mphafudi: “Unless you belong to a gang of company busy-bodies or trouble-makers and have anticipated being on the wrong side of management graces, you are unlikely to have someone with intricate technical understanding and with enough time in their hands to represent you. Within your own company, you will not find anyone with enough clout or brevity to raise their hand to represent you.”

Agrees Norma, Alfred’s colleague: “Of course, unless you are faced with criminal charges or HR misconduct, which are pretty straight forward in handling through the legal and Labour systems respectively – you are stuck.”

MY CASE “A taste of Corporate Bullying”, as related by Alfred Mphafudi:

As a senior manager I found myself in disagreement (difference of opinion) with my boss, and ended up receiving a mile-long charge

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sheet from HR. Initially, I laughed it off thinking that ‘someone’ was playing power games and just wanted to ‘clip off my wings’. The charge sheet made no sense and I called in a favour from a lawyer friend of a friend just to get advice and opinion on what I still considered silly allegations and a baffling situation.

The lawyer friend was equally flabbergasted by what he called frivolous claims that do not even qualify as charges – seemingly put together to intimidate. He suggested that I just negotiate termination and walk away as there seemed to be a fundamental difference to how we think and reason – affecting our operating styles and management approach.

To my surprise, the company wouldn’t agree on an amicable separation, which would have meant a pay-out for the remainder of my contract representing a 15-months’ worth of salary – less in real terms, considering that I had been prepared to give them time to wind things down and hand over properly.

On a subsequent meeting with the lawyer friend, he expressed his shock at the company’s refusal to have an amicable separation. He asked whom I might have upset that much in the high structures of the organisation. I told him, other than differing in opinion and approach in the running of operations, I didn’t think there was anything personal with anyone.

What he asked me afterwards got me baffled: “So, how did you get this position? Who brought you here?” I explained that I was head-hunted by an agency, invited to apply and submitted all my credentials- which were what got me head-hunted in the first place. I explained how I went through three different stages of interview process and assessments and got shortlisted with three other candidates.

“But which structure got you here?” once again, a strange question, I thought.

“The panel for my final interview was made up of six board members who included the chief executive,” I explained – thinking hard what I might be missing.

“Clearly, there’s something fishy here. I suggest you contact one of them and get to the bottom of this. You may find that you’re in the way, or… maybe there’s something personal between you and the executive management, because legally speaking there really is nothing substantial to these claims,” he mused, going through the charge sheet for the umpteenth time.

Apprehensive about uncovering a can of worms - to draw out what might be fishy or personal that some top exec might have against me or in whose way I might be standing, I asked the lawyer friend if he would approach the company on my behalf - a way of formally engaging his services. I was silently assured that a percentage of the severance the company would pay me would cover his fee.

Talk of surprises, my lawyer friend declined: “Unfortunately, I can’t take your case. Since I’m on the company database of service providers, it will be conflict of interest”. I was stunned.

But then, I had faith in my case and ‘knew’ I would prevail as I had done nothing wrong: nothing against the law, policy or company’s code of conduct. I figured it would be a matter of explaining my thought process in reaching my decisions concerning operational actions I took. Confident that I had the professional, technical and moral highground, I went into the case without professional representation and without bothering about any witnesses. There was no point in throwing away money or subjecting colleagues to discomfort on something as straight forward as that, I thought.

I was excited by the prospect of having my case heard by a neutral party who would be objective, fair and in pursuit of justice. I was surprised though, when I saw that the company had called a string OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE IPM

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Employee Relations

of witnesses, including my direct reports. I knew fully well that there couldn’t be a single thing that could be said that could find fault with my behaviour or actions – none that would corroborate their charges or find fault with my conduct. Instead, I was looking forward to the witnesses making the case for me, so to speak.

Only once did I hear someone making some allegation I found surprisingly inconsistent, but I felt that there was enough of truth in the rest of the witness that the inconsistency would be neutralised by the overwhelming positive witness. Notwithstanding, it bothered me enough that when I got home, I went through my records and was happy to find material to counter this witness’ allegation and inconsistency.

Only to be told, when I got to the hearing the next day, that the opportunity to cross-examine all witnesses had come and gone. Damn!

But still, I had the sense that the case was ‘made’ for me, despite the chairman’s refusal to accept my rebut. I was comforted by the fact that nothing said pointed to any wrongdoing anyway. Even what I wanted to challenge was merely suggestive and ambiguous – enough to cast aspersions but nothing to lose sleep over.

No guess who got a shock of his life yet again, at the end of the proceedings, when the chairman of the hearing announced a guilty finding! I thought I hadn’t heard right. It took a while to process.

Undaunted, still, I asked for copies of the proceedings’ recordings, as I intended to appeal the decision – thinking how ridiculous it was for the chairperson to have processed the presentations so differently to what I heard. Having taken some notes myself, as far as I could and gleefully established that absolutely nothing corroborated any claim of wrongdoing from the witness given, I knew the company was sunk.

Having asked the chairperson for the recordings, he told me that I had to send a formal request to HR, and I should have copies made for me.

Time for another shock…

In response to my email, HR advised me that the tape (the most crucial one with all the witnesses’ recordings) was damaged and had no content!

How could I not have thought there was a manipulation there! Where is justice?

In my eyes: here was a case of a company using its resources (well-paid HR manager and an even more handsomely paid bunch of lawyers) to cheat me out of a living, ruin my career and frankly just destroy my life!

Clearly, money won the day. In my view, the case was a stark demonstration of what corrupt power and money can buy – a marketplace I would rather not compete in. What comes to mind, though, is that even the money squandered by these ‘collusive’ individuals doesn’t belong to them, yet I was expected to fund my own ‘defence’ when I believed I had nothing to defend.

To me, it is ironic that company executives can collude with HR and legal fat cats to successfully manipulate a system that was designed to promote human rights and justice for all. The audacity and sheer immorality of suppressing material evidence when clearly recognising that it sank their case! And of course, the chairman knows that no one can replay the case and challenge his finding, so his unsupported “professional opinion” stands. Where would I get the budget to take this gross case of injustice to the courts? I just cut my losses and philosophised about how ‘the system’ wins.”

What an indictment on corporate leadership and the professional industry, but in particular to HR. There are many sides to a story, but hearing Alfred’s account makes a joke of HR processes and undermines the integrity of the HR profession.

While everyone is entitled to their opinion and we, at PD, believe PEOPLE DYNAMICS | Summer 2018/19 (January 2019)

In my eyes: here was a case of a company using its resources (wellpaid HR manager and an even more handsomely paid bunch of lawyers) to cheat me out of a living, ruin my career and frankly just destroy my life! that anyone personally affected in a case may have a good measure of subjectivity and bias, we still find it embarrassing that such accusation can even be levelled against organisations in this day and age where South Africa prides itself of upholding the Bill of Rights to honour the human dignity of every citizen.

We particularly feel a tinge of shame that anyone claiming to be an HR practitioner could allow themselves to be tainted by what clearly passes as unprofessional conduct.

This year’s IPM Convention and the road leading to it promises to rid the Profession of such libellous accusations against any HR members and clean up the image of the profession. The fact that it turns out that the HR official involved in Alfred’s case isn’t a member of IPM, precludes PD getting his side of the story and the institute following up on the case.

Notwithstanding, any professional body registered with SAQA expected to protect members of the public against unprofessional conduct or abuse falling within its ambit, is obliged to intervene whenever invited to do so, or when a formal valid complaint is issued, as long as a member or user of HR services is affected or involved.

Any manipulation or gagging of HR practitioners or any ‘fixing’ of HR processes should belong to the distant past – if ever they were a reality.

Who, in this case, gave a thought to the compromised position the HR manager may have found himself in to allegedly have the evidence destroyed? He, too, may well have been suffering from the ‘ham’ phenomenon. This is time to reclaim the dignity of the profession and the respect of our practitioners.

It also calls for the addressing of the proverbial ‘ham’ in the sandwich.

No matter at what level of operation you are in the workplace, you deserve to have a voice and sufficiently qualified representation when called to account in a dispute. The workplace allows for professional sponsorship and for representations on behalf of anyone registered with a particular professional body, irrespective of operating level or other affiliations.

Early interventions, when there are differences, is best - before they escalate into disputes, and people’s lives are unnecessarily thwarted.

As positive South Africans we remain hopeful that the purge of corrupt leadership or leadership corruption in private and public sector will mean less threat to workplace diversity and an eradication of Corporate Bullying - resulting in a fair measure of security for all honest hardworking employees irrespective of their affiliation or level in the organisational structure.

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Health & Wellness

Focus on the Present:

Just Say No

to Multi-Tasking Organisational success is often linked to effectiveness.

Effectiveness is often linked to productivity. And everyone wants to maximise productivity. Right?

BY: GEORGINA BARRICK

H

ow often have you found yourself reading emails, while doing homework with your children?

Or, taking important business calls while driving to your next meeting, and looking up to discover that you’re driving in the wrong direction? Perhaps, like me, you switch between tasks while waiting for something to download on your laptop.

The truth is that we’ve all done it. When I was younger, like a true PEOPLE DYNAMICS | Summer 2018/19 (January 2019)

Generation X’er, I prided myself on being a ‘Multitasking Master’.

As a generation, we were really sold on the belief that performing more than one task simultaneously was key to optimising productivity and efficiency. This belief was reinforced when Microsoft launched Windows in the mid 80’s. Suddenly, you could open multiple windows on screen, all dedicated to different tasks, and switch between them all seamlessly. Multitasking had become mainstream.

Today, with the help of science, I’ve come to realise that there really is no such thing as multitasking – and like with carbs and sugar, my brain and I are better off without it.

Multitasking efficiency a Reality or Myth?

Multitasking really means that we’re ‘switch-tasking’.

Because our brain can’t process similar functions like reading a book and listening to music lyrics simultaneously, it unconsciously switches between tasks, rather than trying to work on more than one task at a time. And, when we switch from one task to another, the transition between tasks takes time as our brain needs to shift attention. While this might feel seamless, each switch takes tenths

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A Stanford study (2009) into the effect on cognitive function found that multitaskers struggle to filter out irrelevant information, have greater difficulty switching between tasks and are less mentally organised. Even when chronic multitaskers focused only on one task, their brains were less efficient.

And, because switching rapidly between tasks spreads our attention thinly, tasks aren’t given the attention they need in order to be properly bedded down in memory, with the effect becoming more noticeable as we age.

Interrupted work increases anxiety levels. Researchers at UCI found that the heart rates of workers with access to email were consistently higher than those without email access. With health being put at risk, is this not a good reason to switch off email and social media alerts?

Multitasking inhibits creativity

Forcing our brains to process multiple tasks in rapid succession rewires the brain, inhibiting creativity. When we spread our attention across too many tasks at once, we use up the brain’s working memory, leaving no space for truly creative ideas and concepts.

Also, as overload makes us more anxious, we start to rely on the more primitive ‘fight or flight’ area of the brain, instead of using the frontal lobe, which controls creativity and critical thinking.

This all makes us more likely to follow conventional thinking rather than challenge it.

Multitasking hampers social connections

Jumping from task to task means that we never really spend enough time building deep connections with others. When we read the news, while talking to our children or respond to emails in meeting, we’re never truly in the moment. Our colleagues, families and friends sense this, which impacts our connection to them. Truly connecting with others is a source of deep human fulfilment – which no task can give.

Learn to Say ‘No!’

Having realised the impact that multitasking has on my brain, health and life, I now try to focus on two simple rules that help me to ‘just say no’: Prioritise only one thing each day

of a second, which adds up when you’re switching back and forth frequently.

Studies have shown that multitasking takes as much as 40% more time than focusing on one task only – which is why it’s inefficient, ineffective and impacts productivity.

Multitasking means more mistakes

Because the brain never really focuses on any one task, multitaskers have more trouble tuning out distractions, make more errors, remember fewer details and take longer to complete tasks than those who work only on a single task at a time.

Most of us generally shift attention every three minutes. But, as it takes 15 to 18 minutes of concentrated work to enter what’s called a ‘flow state’ - the state of deep consciousness where we work at optimal levels - we’re unlikely to ever enter ‘flow state’ and perform better.

Multitasking affects brain health

Evidence has shown that chronic multitasking can impair cognitive function, affect short term memory and increase anxiety.

Each day, try to focus on only one task at a time, for a length of time.

This helps to avoid switch-tasking and opens up the possibility of entering a flow state. If you can’t set aside a whole day per task, try to set aside blocks of time, an hour or more is ideal, to work only on one thing.

Schedule limited time in your day for admin tasks like answering emails, and switch off email and social media alerts. Try to limit unnecessary meetings. For me, understanding that I don’t need to respond to everything has been life altering.

Do creative tasks in the early morning

If you need to write a report, design a strategy or conduct an annual goal setting session, set aside time first thing in the morning, when you’re fresh and rested to get creative tasks done - before your mind gets cluttered.

Multitasking Effectiveness is a Myth!

Multitasking is the art of doing twice as much as you should, half as well as you could. How is that effectiveness? Go forth and focus on one thing at a time, and your health and overall wellbeing will thank you, and so will your productivity monitor!

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Job-creation

Evolution to match the Revolution

The S.A.- Davos Mission BY: NALELI WASA

The South African Minister of Trade and Industry is part of the country’s 56-strong Davos delegation intent on convincing the world that the country is open for business and safe to bet on.

PEOPLE DYNAMICS | Summer 2018/19 (January 2019)

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ith scores of Africans waiting impatiently for employment opportunities to make a living, the 2019 Davos delegation needs to pull a very impressive trick out of their hat. And trying, it sure is. We just need to make sure that we are ready!

What got us begging so desperately?

Countries that have embraced globalisation and are steeped into westernised lifestyles can’t but make the most of what the international economy dishes out. We are one such, swinging between the first-world and third-world extremes, depending which street you are on. The situation is such that the have-nots can no-longer be overlooked, ignored or pacified.

You likely have figured this out already, but global development trends are essentially for the convenience of the first world. That’s a world with shrinking populations and a predominantly skilled workforce. Think tanks in these countries are focused on easing or minimising work to maximise leisure and family time. We are talking of countries whose people yearn to assert their individualism and independence; seeking jobs for self-expression, mental stimulation and exploration. And the Fourth Industrial Revolution delivers this.

In contrast, we live in a country and continent seeking survival, development and security. And, for now, add to the list: good oldfashioned jobs.

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and it spews out within minutes what a human decision-maker would have spent hours agonising on.

Evolving to meet the Revolution

@PRESIDENCYZA

The Fourth Industrial Revolution compels you to be comfortable with all things mechanical and electronic. It also compels one to be auffaire with science, maths and technology, which is essentially an ability for reasoning, systematic and critical thinking – determining why things happen in certain ways and how variables can be manipulated to achieve different, specific results, and how new stuff can be designed and developed - using imagination or referencing.

As an evolving 4IR native you should be comfortable with the concepts of critical thinking, conceptual thinking, design thinking and of course, programming and coding. This sounds daunting, but this is something that came naturally to all of us as kids, thanks to unrelenting curiosity. Curiosity is at the heart of development and that’s something we can all grow back to.

Why?

Our population is ever growing despite relatively high mortality rate brought about by poor health and social conditions.

Our education lags behind, and is often not on par with what the global economy demands for the first world lifestyle imposed on us. While expats can extend their career playground with exciting assignments on our continent; few of us get to the first world to become more than help – robbing our countries of any forex or significant advantage from HR exports.

Our think-tanks grapple with how to deal with lost generations, displaced or disengaged youth. We struggle to keep up with the demands of a third world workplace that breaks the connection between parents and their kids. Hence, our kids are neither ‘well’ educated nor well socialised – leading to little creativity, zilch entrepreneurial initiative and very low job prospects.

Taking charge and turning the tide

It is from think tanks and summits that we realised the need for the country to reinvent itself. While figuring out the perfect ‘how’, we are on a clean-up path to try and restore good governance and responsible leadership as WEF started preaching in 2016. Like a good ‘learning organisation’, we listened. The reformulation of education to factor STEM is slow but making some inroads. Workplace conscientisation about Digi-Human optimisation is gaining momentum. Not only are our kids learning coding and programming, we are slowly evolving into tech-centric animals, even making the most of our smart phones for the first time!

In a Davos interview, Minister Rob Davies clarified what may well be the country’s stand on Trade and Industry and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

He makes it clear that there is no avoiding the imposition of the Fourth Industrial Revolution as it invades even economies that ‘do not need it’. He acknowledges that in the developed world, the last thing this Revolution is concerned with, is what is primary for South Africa – jobs for the masses. Leading economies are merely using 4IR to maximise their advantage and edge out the competition, sometimes using developing countries.

Essentially, 4IR replaces labour-intensive jobs with automated systems - employing programmed computers instead of human resources. It also replaces jobs posing danger or risk of physical harm with remote-controlled robots, and jobs featuring complex calculations are replaced with programmes featuring algorithms, where humans merely teach the computer the rules and basis for decision-making,

A country on a mission

The delegation in Davos is set to convince the world that not only are we good, eager consumers (for retail business investors), but we are also a people on a strong economic growth path. We are hungry to re-establish ourselves as an international industrial hub. We have decent infrastructure; plenty of human resource with base skills and boundless potential; a high level of hunger - thanks to long spells of unemployment and skewed economic benefits that for a long time favoured only a few, pre- and post- apartheid.

At the core of the country’s investment hunger is joblessness.

The entire delegation acknowledges that South Africa is on the hunt for investors who will help bring industrial business back into the country. It has been made clear that whatever investment agreements are entered into, South Africa will be considering investment that will help fight the scourge of inequality in the country. This means staying clear of deals that do not assist to uplift the bulk of South Africans, who up to this point, have suffered economic exclusion and neglect.

Paraphrasing the minister’s undertaking about 4IR and any deal brokering, the ministry is committed to ensure that any reforms, changes or modernisations the country adopts will address themselves explicitly and directly to inclusivity and to development. In the Fourth Industrial Revolution dispensation, prospective partners would have to allow the country space to develop its own Digital Industrial policies. Any move to force us into adopting rules that gets us favouring one player over another in typical hegemonic games, will simply mean no deal.

New Dawn Romance and World Economic Realities

Of course, as a country we are taking in a new dawn – enjoying the fresh injection of positive energy. The world – particularly investors, on the other hand, will need more than great lyrics and promises. As one journalist would say: “Capitalism is not about romantic reforms.

It cares less about inclusivity, equality programmes and job creation. It wants to roam free to where it will benefit the most – hence ‘free market system’.”

What the South African delegation is courting in Davos are captains of capitalism.

As a country we need to work collectively to prove ourselves a safe investment choice, reliable to deliver good financial returns. All this, while we fast-track our evolution and sharpen our skill-set to thrive and take advantage of any prospects that will come with new industrial investments.

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Organisational agility

It’s unthinkable that anyone in HR or People Management would have missed IPMACE2018: the 62nd Place&image(s) in Annual IPM Convention Exhibition, held in November!

this area

Much as we would like to capture the vast wealth of knowledge and depth of wisdom shared by local experts and international leaders there, we can only bring you a snapshot.

Structural Resilience IPMACE2018 Delegates and e-PD subscribers may still get access to the full programme content.

By: Ian Paterson

Organisational Agility and !"#$%&'(#)%*+,&'-&./'+&#0%#

Structural Resilience BY: IAN PATERSON

PEOPLE DYNAMICS | Summer 2018/19 (January 2019)

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Structural Resilience By: Ian Paterson

Is your organisation

Bully-proof?

The Role of HR in bullying at work

BY: DR NGAO MOTSEI PEOPLE DYNAMICS | Summer 2018/19 (January 2019)

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Future-fit workforce

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Structural Resilience

Human capital the key

By: Ian Paterson

to shaping organisations for sustainable and profitable growth BY: DR TIMOTHY HUTTON

PEOPLE DYNAMICS | Summer 2018/19 (January 2019)

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PEOPLE DYNAMICS | December Summer 2018/19 - January (January 2019 2019)

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PEOPLE DYNAMICS | Summer 2018/19 (January 2019)

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OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE IPM

IPM 2019 Events Calendar Date(s) Programme/ Workshop Event Name

Date Partner/Presenter

CPD Points

Non Member

Member

0.5

R500

Free

1

R580

R350

Women’s Leadership series Organisations pre2 August 2019 Feb 10 The Role Summit of HR in helping IPM pare for, and navigate the Digital Economy – Women’s Leadership Summit series A Strategic Response to the 4th Industrial 29 August 2019 Revolution

HR Managers, HRCape Town 1 Practitioners

R980

R550

Feb 13

IPM

IR, Labour Relations Managers & Corporate PR

0.5

R500

Free

+ Labour Law Consulting/ Ivan Israelstam

CEOs, HR Executives, Labour Specialists

1

R980

R550

HR Students, Representatives, Lecturers/Educators

1

R500

Free

HR Executives, Senior Managers

4

R5150

R4150

Human Capital & Remuneration Specialists

1

R500

Free

Talent Agenda Series

19 – 20 March 2019

Jan 24

Learning & Development Community of Experts + TPI* - Round Table The Young Professional 06 June 2019

Jan 27

Case Law & Related Lessons for Sound

L&D Specialists

+ Cliffe Dekker & Hofmeyr /

People Dynamics Feb 23 Themes Healing the Toxic Some and Topics for Labour 2019 Relationships SA - Seminar • UnpackinginIPMACE2018 • 28 Geared upIPM for HR a Great 2019 Feb Student Forum • Fired up for Fearless Leadership • HR: Taking Context to Strategy; • 2-3 Strategy toHR Plan; Plan to -Successful Mar Leadership Seminar Execution

Intermediate to Senior/ Durban Executive

Johannesburg

20 – 23 October 2019

Research Community of Expert Practitioners Round Table

Hogan Lovells, Sandton, Johannesburg Johannesburg

Women’s Leadership Summit series Relations - Breakfast 31 July 2019 Management of Employee Michael Yeats

IPM 63th Annual Convention

Target Audience Venue

Sun City, North West

December 2018 / January 2019 + Accenture*

+ Mavis Ureke

• Performing with Passion Remuneration & Benefits Community Experts – + CDH • Driven by Love for What we do Round Table • Loving the Team; Loving yourself February 2019 Mar 13 HR for Entrepreneurs IPM • HR: CorporateTools Identity, Employer Brand, EVP and Recruitment Strategy Mar 28 Organisational Effectiveness + QBIT/Sibongile Mogale*

Small Business operators

1

R580

R350

COO’s & OE Executives

0.5

R500

Free

Mar 29-30

Managers

4

R5150

R4150

Human Capital Specialists, HR Line Managers

6

R7850

R6550

Facsimile: National Office Telephone: Apr 11 Social Media & Corporate Strategy + 33Emerald* Email:

HR Executives, Managers ,

1

R1800

R1600

Apr 20

HR Business Partner Community

+ Accenture*

HR Practitioners

0.5

R500

Free

Apr 21 Branches:

Freedom & Youth – Leadership Discourse

IPM

Youth & Young Managers

Mar 9

Community of Experts - Round Table

Emotional Intelligence for Effective Management

+ Mavis Ureke

Apr HR8th Master Class - Workshop + TPI* The3-5 Mall Offices Floor, 11 Cradock Avenue Rosebank, 2196

+27(0)11 544 4400

+27(0)86 545 9723

Website: www.ipm.co.za of Experts – Round Table

info@ipm.co.za Corporate Strategists

0.5

R350

Free

Western Cape, Johannesburg, KwaZulu Natal, Lesotho, Mahikeng, Mpumalanga, Polokwane, May 9 Coaching & Mentoring Community of Experts + TalentLine* Managers Pretoria, Nelspruit, Botswana and Limpopo

0.5

R500

Free

May 16-17

HR Metrics - Workshop

+ HR Touch/Maggie Mojapelo

Human Capital Specialists, HR Managers

4

R5150

R4150

May 23

Employment Law & Industrial Relations

+ Cowan Harper & Associates

IR Specialists, Labour Union Officials

2

R1800

R1600

May 25-26

Job Evaluation - Workshop

+ 21st Century

Human Capital & Recruitment Managers

4

R5150

R4150

May 31

Disciplinary Enquiry Plans - Workshop

+ CDH

Line Managers, HR Managers & Employee Relations Officers

1

R1800

R1600

Jun 1-2

HR Metrics – Workshop

+ HR Touch/Maggie Mojapelo

Human Capital Specialists, HR Managers

4

R5150

R4150

Jun 6

Employee Wellness Community of Experts – Round Table

+ ICAS/Juanita Simpson*

HR Managers, COO’s, SHEQ Specialists

0.5

R500

Free

Jun 8

The Latitude of Employment Contracts - Workshop

+ LLC/Ivan Israelstam

Line Managers, HR Managers, Employee Representatives

1

R980

R550

Round Table

CONVENTION THEME: FEARLESS LEADERSHIP Orchestrating transformation of work, workspaces and society to sustain people, profit and planet.

The annual IPM Convention and Exhibition challenges HR practitioners, consultants, business leaders and business owners to reflect on the value they deliver for their organisations and acts as a catalyst to assist with continuous improvement and lifelong learning for better business results.

Another key attraction is the Annual Gala Dinner and Excellence Awards ceremony. The awards are designed to recognize Excellence in People Leadership.

IPM Excellence Awards AWARDS CATERGORIES The following awards are on offer and are awarded annually during the annual Convention and Exhibition, normally held in Q3 each year: l l l l

Business Leader of the Year l HR Director of the Year HR Practitioner of the Year l HR Team of the Year Emerging HR Practitioner l Branch of the Year HR Book of the Year (South African and/or African Author/s only) l HR Research of the Year HR Student of the Year (drawn from Universities/Further Education Colleges/Learning Institutes with IPM Student Chapters)

For more information, please email Patricia or Lavern: lavern@ipm.co.za / patricia@ipm.co.za

ABOUT IPM The Institute of People Management is a professional membership body representing Human Resource and People Management fraternity. We are a not-for-profit, independent body with official professional recognition from the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). We dedicate our efforts to providing knowledge and tools for strategic and operational people management and development that are dedicated to personal and organisational growth, profitability and sustainability of businesses. Our values are membercentricity, integrity and advocacy.

BECOME A MEMBER OF IPM IPM offers professional, non-professional, individual and corporate membership options.

Membership Benefits include a periodic print copy of our journal, People Dynamics and discounts on our suite of Programmes and Events including our flagship Annual Convention and Exhibition. We are able to arrange mentoring and coaching programmes at discounted rates for members. Members are also able to access a variety of Community of Experts (CoEs) forums. Members can be assessed and awarded an appropriate professional designation signalling the member’s level of professional competence, which can be used after their name.

EVENTS AND WORKSHOPS We offer development events to equip HR, People Managers and Business Leaders with the skills they need to become better at their jobs. We conduct in-house training tailored to meet the organisation’s needs.

By becoming a member of the IPM you can enjoy phenomenal discounts when attending our special events.

To take up IPM membership or find to find out more about IPM training, visit www.ipm.co.za / email info@ipm.co.za