Amazon has been growing its presence in South Africa over the last few years and plans to build a large new office in River Club, Cape Town, to accommodate this growth.
Cape Town has close links with the technology giant since South African Chris Pinkham built a team to develop Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) in the city in 2004.
The success of the Cape Town office gave the company the confidence to open a customer service operation in Cape Town in 2010.
Amazon then expanded its presence in South Africa by opening an AWS office in Johannesburg in 2015.
This was followed by the launch of Amazon CloudFront locations in Johannesburg and Cape Town in 2018. In 2020, Amazon launched an AWS region in Cape Town.
Many South African organisations are now using AWS for their cloud needs, including the Tshwane University of Technology, Sentech, and the Department of Social Development and Social Services Agency.
However, the tech and retail giant is not only looking for customer support agents.
The company is currently advertising over 200 jobs in South Africa, which include:
55 in operations, IT, and support engineering.
52 in software engineering.
24 in customer support.
14 in solution architecture.
12 in human resources.
10 in project and programme management.
10 in sales, advertising, and account management.
6 in business development.
Most of these jobs are in Cape Town and Johannesburg, but there are also many positions where employees can work from home.
Applicants interested in work-from-home positions must have an existing and dedicated uncapped fibre line that supports 10Mbps upload speeds and 5Mbps download speeds.
People with ADSL, LTE, and Wi-Fi connections are not eligible for these roles.
Detailed proof of connectivity will be required. The Internet account must be in the applicant’s name at their home address, and it should confirm it is a fibre connection with a minimum 10Mbps speed.
Applicants must also be South African citizens, permanent residents, or hold the legal right to work in South Africa.
The table below provides an overview of some of the latest positions available from Amazon in South Africa. For the complete list of vacancies, visit this page.
Hiring managers are firing up every recruiting tool they have in today’s tight labor market — including asking ex-employees to come back. Some management researchers say the Great Resignation of 2021 could lead to the rise of the “boomerang employee” in the next five years as pandemic-era labor disruptions continue to shake out.
Businesses have a lot of incentives to rehire former employees, namely saving time and money on recruiting, onboarding and getting a person up to speed to fill a vacancy. Boomerang employees are easier to socialize into a company’s culture and can bring with them skills and experience they gained from the outside.
But what do workers get out of it? After all, if people leave jobs for a reason, is it ever a good idea to go back?
When boomeranging could be a good idea
Returning to a former employer could be a good thing in some cases, says Abbie Shipp, a management professor at Texas Christian University who specializes in employee engagement over time.
As long as your resume doesn’t show a pattern of leaving and rejoining a company over and over again, “being a boomerang employee doesn’t carry a negative stigma that it once did,” Shipp tells CNBC Make It.
Rehires tend to be high performers who left their old job for an unexpected reason, like having to move away for a partner’s job, to start a family, or to accept a surprise job offer they couldn’t refuse at the time. Returning shows you left on good terms, and that perhaps you’re such a valuable member of the team that your old company wants you back.
Rehires also tend to be paid more than workers who stayed with the company, says Brian Swider, a management professor at the University of Florida and an expert on boomerang employees: “You often leave for a better offer, and then you’re brought back with a better offer.”
A job change gives you another chance to negotiate your pay and benefits, especially as employers want to fill vacancies quickly, and the spread of remote work has put more flex-work options on the table.
With that said, Swider says boomerang employees tend to be paid less than truly external hires, whether that comes down to differences in the employer’s offer or differences in how a boomerang versus external candidate negotiates for their pay. It’s possible boomerang workers are willing to sacrifice a little bit of salary for larger certainty of the organization they’re walking into and the job they’ll be expected to do, Swider says.
How to consider a boomerang offer
Deciding to rejoin an old company is a very different experience from deciding to join a new one, and it requires a few extra considerations. You have history with a former organization, and you don’t want that history to give you an overly rosy view of good experiences from the past, Shipp says.
“It’s incredibly important to take in all the information of your prior experience with the firm,” she says, noting to be extra aware of what made you leave in the first place. Are those problems still there?
If you left because you didn’t like your boss’s management style, but that person has now left the company, you might find the work experience more enjoyable. But if you left because you didn’t see a path to promotion at the company, and the organization still has a poor track record of training and promoting leaders, you alone might not be able to do much to improve the situation once you’re back.
Even if you had a great experience working there before, don’t assume you’re returning to the same workplace you once knew. The pandemic impacted every organization differently, and the business could have entirely different employee resources, workflows, business operations or objectives.
Further, the workforce could look entirely different if the company has had to deal with a lot of turnover. You might not be returning to familiar coworkers, and you might have to pick up some extra tasks if the company is working to fill vacancies.
Still, going back to a workplace where you had a positive experience in the past might be a better alternative to a current job that’s not meeting your personal and professional needs. With a boomerang offer, do you see opportunities to learn valuable skills, grow into a new role, be supported by colleagues and make use of employee benefits that work for your family?
Ultimately, Shipp says, “try not to do what most people do: selectively craft information that leads them to the decision they want to make.”
Tips for a successful return
If a boomerang offer feels like a good fit for your life and career goals, there are a number of ways to make the reunion a good one.
You’ll want to balance three things, Shipp says: the prior knowledge you have with the company in order to get up to speed; the skills and experience you gained while working for another organization; and, most importantly, the open-mindedness of being a “new” teammate who’s ready to raise questions and solutions from an outsider’s perspective.
Tap your prior knowledge to do well on the task at hand, but don’t assume you know everything about the best way to do things, Shipp says, especially if you’ve been gone for a while and things have changed since you left.
Approach your network with a similar mindset and make sure to reach out to both old and new colleagues.
Be aware of and sensitive to colleagues who stayed with the company and who may not feel their loyalty has been rewarded through additional pay, perks or recognition.
Being approachable and open-minded with colleagues can help smooth some of the tension and show you’re open to “being coachable” by the people who’ve stayed, and that you’re hoping you can learn from each other.
Boomerang workers, those who leave their jobs and return later on, are on the rise — and in today's labor market, they have the upper hand. Returning to a previous employer, particularly those trying to quickly fill open roles, provides an opportunity to negotiate pay and benefits. One expert says workers often leave for a more attractive offer and are able to return to an even better one. CNBC offers some advice for considering an offer and ensuring a successful return:
Consider your previous experience with the company, including why you left.
Ask yourself if you see opportunities to grow into a new role.
Use your prior knowledge and skills to do well in your new position.
Reach out to both old and new colleagues to ease the transition.
If you’re still reeling from a crazy 2020 (and let’s be honest, a rocky start to this year), you might feel a little apprehensive about diving into 2021. Here are 21 painless ways you can get your year off to a great start:
1. Share your wisdom
Wisdom is the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight. But it transforms into something truly powerful when it is shared.
Why? Because all the wisdom in the world is meaningless without application.
Yet many leaders eschew this and choose instead to hoard their insights, fearful of giving them away. They don’t understand a simple truth: sharing your wisdom doesn’t diminish your impact; it amplifies it. And today, the best way to magnify your message is to harness the power and reach of social media.
PROMOTED
2. Get your (career) story straight
Everyone has a unique story, but not everyone leverages its power. Properly crafted, your career story helps to differentiate you from your competitors, highlight your value, and to draw others to you. It provides a common thread that weaves together your personal and professional experiences, as well as your transferable skills, making it easy for others to connect the dots. Knowing and being able to articulate your career story clearly is transformative; use it wisely.
3. Clean up your (work) environment
Your environment, which includes your friends, colleagues, location, habits, and lifestyle, impacts you far more—for better or for worse—than you realize. You can’t make a significant, lasting change without altering some elements of it. Real growth happens when we understand whom and what best supports what we want and then align ourselves with those people and places that do. Your environment always wins; make sure it supports your goals.
4. Learn to say no...
If you want to grow your career, you need to learn to say no to almost everything (and everyone) that doesn’t excite you, speak to your values, further your mission in life, or help you achieve your goals. Remember, when you say no to the things and people who no longer serve you, you can say yes to those that do.
5. ...But say yes to growth opportunities
Saying yes can be a boon to your career—it opens you up to new challenges and opportunities, invites collaboration, empowers and affirms others, and creates an environment where it’s safe to try, fail, learn and innovate.6. Work hard to brush up on your soft skills
Emotional intelligence is rooted in them, business leaders swear by them, and they remain in high demand. I’m speaking of soft skills, those frequently misunderstood and undervalued skills that power career success.
In LinkedIn’s annual Global Talent Trends report, which explores the big trends fueling the future of the workplace, soft skills topped the list.
This finding underscores a fundamental truth: At its core, business is about relationships. No matter your job function or title, to succeed, you must interact with other people. And those who find a way to combine their hard skills with soft skills create environments that empower and ignite their teams, delight their customers, and fuel sustainable growth.
7. Protect your time
Your ability to prioritize and focus your attention on tackling work projects is crucial. How and with whom you spend your time and your productivity while doing so, demonstrate your focus and commitment to what—and who—matters most. When you master time management, you’ll learn to say no, do, decide, delegate or delete tasks, batch routine tasks, eliminate distractions, embrace mono-tasking, get to know—and work—your own rhythms, and build in breaks to recharge.
8. Become more self-aware
Most think of self-awareness as knowing yourself. Self-aware leaders have a clear understanding of their strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs, motivation, and emotions. They are honest about what they want, their skills, and what matters most to them. They also have an accurate perception of what sets them apart and can then use their unique talents to magnify their impact in an environment that best suits them. Conversely, they also understand and acknowledge their blind spots and areas needing improvement.
But self-awareness is not just about knowing how you move through the world; it’s about knowing how your energy affects others. This perspective allows you to understand that everything is connected—your interactions with other people, how they perceive you, your attitude, and your responses to them in the moment—and all can be enhanced through better self-awareness.
9. Allow your curiosity to lead the way
Curiosity can be defined as a strong desire to know or learn something. But it’s so much more than that.
When you’re curious, you’re open. Open to exploring new ideas, experiences, and possibilities. Open to meeting new people and learning new things. Open to leaving behind outdated mindsets and limiting beliefs to make room for your highest and best self. And it’s that openness—that curiosity—that fuels growth.
When you embrace curiosity, you transform into a lifelong learner, which is what personal and professional growth is all about.
10. Smile more
You already possess a simple yet profoundly powerful way to instantly improve your career: smiling.
Yep, smiling.
Research shows that smiling puts others at ease, makes you magnetic, inspires confidence and trust, is good for you, makes you more creative, and is contagious.
11. Get creative
Creativity is the ability to perceive the world in new ways, find hidden patterns, make connections between seemingly disparate things, and generate innovative solutions. When you’re creative, you’re able to turn new and imaginative ideas into reality. Business leaders agree that to cultivate your creativity, you should ask big questions, pay attention, be open-minded, set aside time to let your mind wander, and not be afraid to take risks.
12. Practice empathy
Simon Sinek, Oprah Winfrey, and Gary Vaynerchuk all cite empathy as an essential leadership skill. To become more empathetic, shift your mindset to put people first, seeing them as human beings rather than a means to the end of a transaction or task, ask thoughtful and probing questions that draw out implications and feelings, which in turn, fosters a deeper connection, and listen more and talk less.
When you practice empathy, you’ll better understand your customers, colleagues, and partners, and then be able to use those insights in ways to better serve and communicate with them.
13. Be brave enough to use this four-letter word
View vulnerability as a strength, not as a weakness. When we find the courage to ask for help, modeling vulnerability, it creates a positive ripple effect. We give others permission to do the same, creating a culture and environment of openness and collaboration. We lead with empathy, which enhances connection and communication, and builds trust.
14. Change your perspective
Your perspective is the lens by which you view yourself, your career, and the world. It affects the story you tell yourself and the story you tell others. It impacts your potential, and according to Gary Vaynerchuk, founder and CEO of VaynerMedia, it’s also the quickest path to success and happiness.
“Listen, if there is anything I could wish on you, more than my work ethic, or my energy, or my charisma, it would be the mindset and perspective,” Vaynerchuk said in a recent article. “So much of our lives is predicated on how we look at the situations that surround us.”
15. Move past your fear and stop hiding
Fear is a powerful emotion. It often masquerades as a cloak of protection, keeping us from doing things that may cause us harm. But sometimes, the real damage comes from the inaction that fear enables.
We avoid those things that make us uncomfortable at all costs, but there is no growth in the status quo. Sooner or later, that caution and those fears that prevent you from getting hurt or put on the spot stagnate you.
Everything you’ve ever wanted is sitting on the other side of fear; it’s time to stop hiding and go for it.
16. Understand the four words that will help you communicate and connect better
Far too often, we assume that everyone thinks, behaves, and communicates the same way we do. Worse, we make the mistake of focusing our sales pitches and communication about us rather than our intended audiences.
No matter your industry or profession, four words have the power to change your results instantly: It’s not about you.
The finest leaders understand that by putting others first and adopting a service mindset, they can improve their communication and connection, establish trust, deepen relationships, and build business.
17. Learn to be more charismatic
Charisma is more than being engaging or witty. We’re attracted to those who truly listen to us, who give us their undivided focus and leave us feeling seen and heard, those who dare to be vulnerable and who genuinely want to connect and share and treat us with respect and kindness. And in return, we offer our unwavering attention and trust.
At its essence, charisma isn’t just about your likability or ability to tell a good story. Instead, its real power has less to do with you and everything to do with how you make others feel.
18. Focus on attention and trust
Seth Godin suggests that “the currencies of anybody who wants to make change happen right now are attention and trust. And they’re in a virtuous cycle. You don’t get attention unless you’re trusted. You don’t get trusted unless you get attention.”
Kindness and respect ultimately earn attention and trust. You can demonstrate both by differentiating between good and bad attention (something that aligns with your beliefs and will be positively received), not trying to game the system (don’t use a power play to try to influence people), and by being generous (not selfish, expecting something in return).
19. Become an excellent listener
Sir Richard Branson sums up his leadership credo in five words: “Listen more than you talk.”
The benefits of listening are numerous. Active listening demonstrates respect, builds trust, and makes people feel valued. It creates a virtuous cycle: we naturally gravitate toward those who listen to us, and when we feel heard, we open up and share. Active listening also allows leaders to learn about things both good and bad, so they can discover new ideas and opportunities as well to as detect—and get creative about solving—potential problems when they’re still in their infancy.
20. Embrace the power trifecta
By focusing on clarity, consistency, and discipline, you’ll improve your communication, enhance your thought leadership, and bolster your personal brand.
When you’re clear, everything becomes easier. People understand you, what you offer, your value, what differentiates you, how you can help them, and how they can assist you. Clarity helps others know, like, and trust you. Having clarity also enables you to align your goals with a plan to achieve them—and stay away from the things that can derail you.
Consistency is about aligning and maintaining your “voice” and look and feel in all your communications. It’s the way you present yourself, the way you sound, the way you write, all of the visual and verbal touch points. So much so that people come to expect—and anticipate—your specific point of view and unique perspective. Whether you realize it or not, you send a message to the world about who you are and what you’re about. Rather than make your consumers, customers, and clients guess who you are and what you stand for, make sure to communicate your intended message by maintaining consistency.
Without discipline, you run the risk of trying to be all things to all people. And doing so lowers your competitive advantage and waters down your offering. Worse, people won’t know what to think of you (if they think of you at all). Instead, focus on what you do best, and let the other things fade into the background. Promote those one or two areas in your wheelhouse and your expertise in helping others so that your name becomes synonymous with those skills. In this way, restraint can be your biggest ally.
21. Take action—now
Taking action is the one surefire antidote to combat career anxiety, doubt, and fear. Action begets more action. When you use awareness to make action an intentional habit, you train yourself to continue to take action. Over time, those small behavior changes creatively shake things up and breathe new life into old methods and routines. And combined with focused action, that newfound clarity will bring you something even better: success. ..................
The Department of Employment of Labour has called for comment on a new minimum wage target for South Africa in 2022.
Under the National Minimum Wage (NMW) Act, the National Minimum Wage Commission annually assesses and reviews the minimum wage. The minister of Employment and Labour, Thulas Nxesi, then determines an adjustment based on these recommendations.
While the government has argued that the national minimum wage can be used as a tool to lift more South Africans out of poverty, businesses have warned that further hikes would be untenable and lead to additional job losses.
Nxesi introduced the most recent minimum wage adjustment for South Africa in March 2021, taking the current total to R21.69 for each ordinary hour worked.
As in previous years, the adjustment provides exceptions for several worker groups, including:
Farmworkers are entitled to a minimum wage of R21.69 per hour;
Domestic workers are entitled to a minimum wage of R19.09 per hour;
Workers employed on an expanded public works programme are entitled to a minimum wage of R11.93 per hour.
The new recommendations
The majority of commissioners recommended that the national minimum wage be increased by 1% above inflation as measured by the consumer price index (CPI).
A minority recommended that the national minimum wage be increased by 1.5% above inflation as measured by the CPI.
All commissioners also recommended that the minimum wage for domestic workers be equalised to the national minimum wage in 2022, in line with a decision taken in 2021.
While the final totals would still need to be confirmed by labour minister Thulas Nxesi, this would take the minimum wage closer to R23/hour and see domestic workers earn a minimum wage of more than R20/hour for the first time.
Impact on businesses?
The National Minimum Wage Commission has acknowledged legitimate concerns about the impact of the annual national minimum wage adjustments on employment in the country.
The national minimum wage adjustment also coincides with the current Covid pandemic, making it difficult to evaluate and isolate the impact of an increase in the national minimum wage.
Given the current economic climate in South Africa, the effects of the Covid-19 lockdown, and the recent losses due to violent looting in mid-2021, an increase to the NMW would be catastrophic to businesses and the economy in general, the National Employers Association of South Africa said in an October report.
“In a country such as South Africa, which is already struggling with unprecedented rates of unemployment, extreme poverty, over-burdened employers and business owners, and a veneer-thin trust in the government and its ability to care for its most vulnerable citizens, and unaffordable NMW will completely maim the already crippled economy, leaving employers, business owners, their employees and their dependents destitute.”
If employers cannot afford an increase, they will have no other choice but to reduce working hours or retrench their employees, it warned.
“What government seems to fail to understand is that when one employee is retrenched, it is not only that employee who suffers. In South Africa, we live in a dispensation where one worker is generally the only income generator in a family of four or five people. This means that they would all suffer the consequences of that one employee’s retrenchment.”
The fact that an employer may not appoint a person at a rate below the minimum wage, even with the consent of such a person, robs a potential employee from earning at least some sort of living and condemns him to a life of abject poverty, Neasa said.
“It would behove the government to reconsider its future stance on increasing minimum wages and take heed of the employers’ objections to increases. Their focus should be the avoidance of catastrophic future economic implications for the country and the rise of unemployment.
“It is time for the government to take a critical view on all the legislative measures, of which the NMW is only one, and determine which deters employment.”
by Sara Prosdocimi Tag: #GTL2021 #futureofwork #labourmarket
The aim of ADAPT’s 2021 international conference was to examine the contradictions of the current labour market, trying to deconstruct them in order to rethink the value of work.
On the second day of the conference, through some legal, economic and sociological reflections that go beyond mere juxtapositions, an attempt was made to bring to the fore the economic and welfare dimension, to understand today’s meaning of work and to define “Work and its value (the institutional perspective)”, thanks to the contribution of Ilaria Armaroli (ADAPT), Bettina Schaller (WEC), Stijn Broecke (OECD) and Christina Behrendt (ILO).
Ilaria Armaroli focused on the role of industrial relations in the value of work: in particular, it was underlined how most problems of current labor law have only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. But the issues of the disputes upon markets and work can be traced back to the creation, redistribution of the value of work, and industrial relations, therefore, sought to solve these dilemmas. Actually, as Doellgast, Bidwell and Colvin argued in 2021 “The field of employment relations involves the study of employment, with a focus on how labor and management combine to create value and negotiate over its division, as well a show people experience the workplace”. Again, recalling J. W. Budd’s famous conceptualisations of work, industrial relations have served for a long time to release work from being just a curse, a necessary burden for human survival and maintenance, and a commodity, an abstract quantity of productive effort which can be bought and sold in the market. Because, as Polany said “labor is only another name for a human activity which goes with life itself, which in its turn is not produced for sale but for entirely different reasons, nor can that activity be detached from the rest of life”. In this sense, Armaroli underlined why it is so important to find new ways to assess the economic value of work and, at the same time, to acknowledge, respect and preserve different types of works such as reproductive and domestic work, and so to use the industrial relation as an instrument to solve the problems about the redistribution and the value of work.
Bettina Schaller (World Employment Confederation) started her speech from some insides of what the labor market looks right now. The question that she poses is: are we witnessing a “great resignation”? Actually, 41% of employees are considering leaving their current employer, quit rates are rising in levels never seen in years before and the trend which is recognized all over the world seems to be scarcity. Some 69% of employers report 2 difficulties in hiring, a factor which is fascinating because shortages are affecting all sectors, all industries all looking for workers right now. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the labor markets not only looking at the shortages happening, but also considering the effects of restrictions in working migration, or savings up made by workers that no longer want to return to working position with the same conditions as previously.
Of course, unemployment rates are not captured in their full extent by the pandemic restrictions on the labor market: at a global level, it is estimated that 70% of the global loss working force during the crisis is attributed to people becoming inactive (people who lost their work and are not actively searching for new jobs).
What keeps people away from work? Is it only a matter of choice, willingness, labor markets? It has been noticed that the value of work, the work-life balance now-a-days play a central role and boundaries between work and “life” are becoming more and more blurred. Money is no longer the only motivation to find a new job: the focus is on security, value, autonomy, flexibility. But also employees are expecting more from their workers, for example wellbeing, professional development, management.
Schaller affirmed that, perhaps, it is better to talk about great revaluation instead of great resignation.
Against this backdrop, another question is how HR services industry can create more value: many are the answers, such as supporting the transition to new economies; driving social purpose and social innovation, creating value by guaranteeing rights for workers; simplifying the increasing labor market complexity; acting as a solution provider in terms of risk management; delivering intermediations and making jobs markets working (creating value by contributing to economic growth).
Again, in this framework, different workers are involved: Stijn Broecke from OECD focused on group of workers who are highly valuable but are not highly valued, those who are vulnerable in some ways and have not the right recognition and protection. And, once more, the frame of what are the sources of vulnerability is very wide.
Firstly it is important to talk about the classification of the employment status of some of these workers: are they employees or self-employed? Referring to them in one way or in the other means different levels of regulations, protections, social protection, factors such as minim wage, holidays, the right to switch off, unionisations and collective bargaining and so on. To act in this issue of misclassification it necessary to make it easier or less costly for workers to challenge their employment status, or to allow labor authorities or union to take cases to courts or to act in prevention throughout inspectorates.
Secondly, strictly linked to the classification issue, it must be recognized that some workers do “live and act” in this “grey zone”. For this reason, it is important to identify groups of vulnerable self-employed workers to whom deciding which labor rights and protection must be extended and adapted; and, where necessary, to clarify and assign employer duties and responsibilities in order to fully protect those workers
Worker shortages have become an established challenge in labour markets and the Covid-19 pandemic has now exacerbated the situation by prompting a “Great Resignation”. But what is keeping workers from the labour market? And what is the value of these missing workers to our society and economies?
Certainly, the pandemic has led people to reflect on their lives and priorities. Microsoft’s 2021 Work Trend Index finds that 41% of workers are considering leaving their jobs and as unemployment rates fall, resignation rates are rising to levels not seen for years1.
Hiring is at a record high but so are difficulties in finding staff according to 69% of employers across 43 countries2. Pandemic-related factors such as fear of catching the virus and restrictions in worker migration have obviously had an impact, but labour markets have been tight for many years and data suggests that they show no signs of slowing. Meanwhile, over the past two years, labour force participation has fallen more than unemployment rates have risen. It is estimated that 70% of the global unemployment loss during the pandemic is due to people not actively seeking new employment having lost their work.
For a growing number of people this has been a conscious decision. They have realised that life is precious and want greater work/life balance. Many believe that their job prospects will improve in the future and are falling back on savings until the right opportunity comes along. When people decide to respond to a job offer, money is no longer the main factor. Security, employer values, purpose, opportunities to progress, autonomy and flexibility are increasingly important. Four in five workers don’t want to lose the flexibility they have enjoyed over the past two years and two in five are considering moving to a more flexible job.
And it doesn’t stop at flexibility. Less than 50% of workers are satisfied with their current career prospects. They want more in areas such as well-being, professional development and perks and expect their work to make them happy. Perhaps it’s not so much a Great Resignation as a Great Re-evaluation of what work means.
In the future, if employers are to attract the talents they need, they are going to have to take this into account and look to meet worker expectations. This is where the HR Services Industry has a role to play. In several ways, we can create more value in the world of work for everyone – individuals, society and businesses. We are committed to achieving this by supporting transitions to new economies, driving social purpose and social innovation, simplifying labour market complexity, providing risk management solutions and delivering responsible intermediation.
Let me give some examples. The OECD estimates that half of all adults are not engaged in adult learning, and the pandemic together with digitisation has amplified this. Millions of workers around the world take advantage of training schemes offered by our industry and, as the need to move to new occupations and sectors increases, so our career management and guidance services will become increasingly critical too. Job-to-job transitions are on average 30-50% faster when a career management firm is involved3.
Our industry is critical in keeping people attached to the labour market. 72% of agency workers remaining employed having started out with a job in the industry and the sector is effective in bringing unemployed and inactive people into the labour market – particularly for young people, a segment that has suffered disproportionately from the pandemic.
Accessing social protection has proved a particular challenge for some categories of workers during Covid-19. When it comes to accessing benefits such as unemployment pay, sick pay and health insurance, some gaps remain between employees on open-ended, full-time contracts and other types of employment relationships. In our sector, we havelong advocated for similar levels of protection for all workers, irrespective of their employment status, and we have developed various schemes that serve as best practice models. For example, agency workers often benefit from sectoral supplementary provisions to top-up their access to benefits, with social partners engaging in collective bargaining and developing sector funds and solutions such as portable rights to improve access to safety nets, training funds or schemes to improve access to health insurance.
Our industry also contributes to economic growth, by creating formal jobs and thus lowering unemployment. It provides an early indicator of where the economy is heading and most recently saw positive growth in Q1 2021 signalling a turning point, even though the year-on-year figures were still negative.
In sum, Covid-19 has accelerated the deep transformations already taking place in our labour markets. With expectations changing, the value of work is changing too and the HR services industry has a vital role to play in helping people and organisations adapt to new realities and redefine the value of work.
63% of employees with a bad manager are thinking of leaving their company within the next 12 months.
We asked respondents the following question: Rate your manager on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being a “terrible” manager and 5 being a “world-class” manager.
An encouraging 65% of respondents considered their managers “world-class” or “good.” Only 13% said their managers were “terrible” or “not-so-great.” The remaining 22% chose “average.”
Of the employees with bad managers (“terrible” or “not-so-great”), 63% are thinking of quitting in the next year. Only 27% of employees with good managers (“world-class” or “good”) said the same.
“I’m thinking of leaving my company within the next 12 months.”
“Being part of a fast-growing company, I cannot afford to lose our people and the institutional knowledge they hold, so I need to stay close to their needs and identify challenges before they become unsolvable problems. Customizing my management style to each one of my team members helps to get them engaged with their job and the mission we are pursuing. Showing interest in their success and challenges by exploring these topics during a stay interview increases their knowledge of being appreciated and allows me and other leaders to solve any issues before an exit is needed.”
Maribel Olvera | SVP at The Predictive Index
The No. 1 skill employees feel their manager lacks is communication.
We presented respondents with a list of common managerial skills and asked them to select three their managers lacked. They chose: “Effective communicator” (18%), “Drives team morale” (17%), and “Asks for feedback” (17%).
When we compare this year’s results with the results from our last People Management Report we see that communication has shot up four spots on the list, from number five to number one.
Have managers gotten worse at communicating over the past two years? It’s possible. More likely, though, forced remote and hybrid work has opened employees’ eyes to the need for clear communication and information sharing. Remote employees often feel “out of the loop,” and the problem only gets worse when some team members are working from the office.
Top 5 skills managers lack
36% of employees say their manager is burned out.
While 36% of respondents said “My manager seems burned out at work,” the percentage only increased when asked about their own burnout (40%) and their team members’ burnout (45%).
Percentage of employees who agree with the statement
The lack of communication is even more pronounced among respondents with burned-out managers.
Next, we examined these most lacking skills across two groups: employees with burned-out managers, and those without.
Of the employees whose managers are not burned-out, only 12% cited “Effective communicator” as a skill their manager lacks. That percentage jumped to 25% among employees with a burned-out manager.
Good communication takes effort. It’s hard work. And when managers are running on empty, they don’t have the energy to do things like tailor their natural communication style to meet each employee’s preferences.
Employees who believe their manager lacks effective communication
Individual contributors are the least engaged.
We also asked respondents about their current level of engagement. Consistent with the 2021 Talent Optimization Report, individual contributors are least engaged (67% are “engaged”), followed by managers (73%).
“I feel engaged in my current role.”
“Many Individual contributors get energy from being around colleagues even if they don’t depend on them to complete their job. Remote work has eliminated the opportunity to engage with colleagues daily, thus creating a ‘Meaningful Interaction Bubble.’ Leaders must be proactive to ensure individual contributors get enough interaction to maintain energy and purpose in their work.”
John Eades | CEO at LearnLoft
73% of companies are currently hiring.
Most employers aren’t just looking to retain their teams amid The Great Resignation, they’re also looking to expand them. Between backfilling roles and growing teams, hiring managers and HR teams are going to be very busy (if they aren’t already). Seventy-three percent of respondents indicated their companies are currently hiring.
According to the 2021 Talent Optimization Report, 73% of companies plan to hire more than 100 people this year. And so the stakes continue to rise. If confident leadership and cohesive teams weren’t critical to the mission before, they are now.
Is your company currently hiring and/or growing?
68% of companies have or plan to have some hybrid teams moving forward.
We asked respondents whether their company had any hybrid teams—teams composed of in-office and remote workers. 59% of respondents said their company has hybrid teams (38% have “a few” hybrid teams while 28% said “most” teams are hybrid). Additionally, 9% said “No, but we will in the future.”
Does your company have hybrid teams (a combination of in-office and remote employees)?
Choose all that apply
“Businesses fundamentally changed when COVID hit. They had to pivot quickly to not only send their employees home, but move all processes and strategies (hiring, onboarding, internal communications, marketing, selling, etc.) to an online model. With the world opening back up, there’s no reason to assume that we would (as businesses, or people) return to a world before COVID. Many businesses learned how to streamline, how to become more efficient, and how to better trust and enable their employees during COVID. It makes sense that hybrid teams will become the new norm, for businesses who can make it work.”
South Africa’s courts recently dealt with the case of an employee who did not follow Covid-19 regulations at work and was subsequently dismissed.
In this case, the employee was an assistant butchery manager employed at the applicant, noted Werksmans Attorneys.
He was also a member of the applicant’s in-house ‘Coronavirus Site Committee’ and was responsible for, among others, informing other employees of the procedure to be followed if they were exposed to Covid-19 as well as symptoms they should be aware of.
The employee used to travel to and from work with a colleague who had exhibited Covid-19 symptoms and was booked off from work for four days. His colleague was admitted to a hospital a few days later and was told that he had tested positive for the virus.
At the time that his colleague initially fell ill, the employee began experiencing chest pains, headaches and coughs. He was booked off work between 6 – 10 July 2020. He returned to work despite his symptoms, and even after he became aware that his travelling partner and colleague tested positive for Covid-19.
The employee underwent a Covid-19 test on 5 August 2020 and was informed on 9 August 2020 that he had tested positive. However, the employee had still reported for work on 7, 9 and 10 August 2020. In fact, he personally came to the employer’s premises to hand in his positive results.
The employee was observed on video footage at the workplace hugging a colleague a day after he had tested positive. The colleague he was hugging had recently experienced post-surgery complications. The video footage also showed the employee walking around the workplace without a mask.
Dismissed
Werksmans noted that the employee was charged with:
Gross misconduct relating to his alleged failure to disclose to his employer that he went for a Covid-19 test and was awaiting his results;
Gross negligence in that after his Covid-19 test result came back positive, he continued working and had therefore put the lives of his colleagues at risk;
Furthermore, during this period it was alleged that he had failed to abide by the health and safety protocols in the workplace.
The employee was subsequently dismissed for his actions. Following his dismissal, the employee referred an unfair dismissal dispute to the CCMA on the grounds, among others, that he had not been provided with any clear direction or instruction from the employer and that he was ‘subjected to victimisation’.
The CCMA held that the employee was required to inform the employer that he underwent a Covid-19 test and was guilty of failing to report his test.
The employee was also found to be grossly negligent and ‘extremely irresponsible’ as he had reported for duty after he received a positive Covid-19 test result, failed to inform the employer of the same, hugged fellow employees and walked around the workplace without a mask on.
However, the CCMA held that in the circumstances, the sanction of dismissal was not appropriate considering the employer’s disciplinary code, Werksmans said.
“The conduct, as exhibited by the employee called for the sanction of a final written warning in terms of the disciplinary code.
“As the employer could not justify the sanction of dismissal, the CCMA held that it was substantively unfair and ordered that the employee be reinstated without back-pay and a final written warning be placed on his record.”
Labour Court’s ruling
On review, the Labour Court held that the findings made by the CCMA commissioner were entirely disconnected from the evidence that was placed before him.
“The Commissioner had concluded that the employee’s actions were ‘extremely irresponsible’ in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and this, the court stated, should have confirmed the sanction of dismissal and that the employer’s disciplinary code was merely a guideline insofar as issued of sanctions were concerned,” Werksmans said.
Ultimately, the court held that the dismissal of the employee was appropriate given the fact that:
He was aware that he was in contact with a person who had tested positive for Covid‑19 and had himself experienced symptoms;
He had endangered the lives of everyone at the workplace including his colleagues, their families and communities;
He was a member of the ‘Coronavirus Site Committee’, he should have easily recognised his Covid-19 symptoms, and should have known what to do when in contact with exposed to someone who had tested positive for Covid-19;
His conduct was inconsiderate and nonchalant in that he ignored all health and safety protocols in the workplace;
He walked around the workplace without a mask and hugging colleagues, thereby placing everyone he had been in contact with at great risk;
He did not show any form of contrition on his part. He was also dishonest in that he sought to conceal the date upon which he received his Covid-19 test results.
The court concluded that at no point was the employee victimised. In fact, all the evidence put forward by the employer pointed to the employee being grossly negligent, reckless and dishonest. Therefore, the trust and working relationship between the employer and employer could no longer be sustainable.
The court set aside the commissioner’s award and held that the employee’s dismissal was substantively fair.
“This case emphasises the obligation placed on employees to always abide by Covid-19 health and safety protocols in the workplace, as the failure to do so may result in termination of their employment,” Werksmans said.
Commentary by Jacques van Wyk (director) and Andre van Heerden (senior associate) at Werksmans Attorneys.
Ongoing attempts both at the European and national levels to restrict agency work risks jeopardizing the key contribution that the sector can make to the recovery of European economies and the sustainability of their labour markets.
Menno Bart is a Member of the Executive Committee of the World Employment Confederation-Europe and Dr Michael Freytag is Public Affairs Manager at the World Employment Confederation-Europe.
The private employment services industry is a key actor in the European economies, helping to match demand and supply of labour, managing labour market risks and fostering more inclusive and dynamic labour markets. This positive role of our industry has been demonstrated again in the past months, as economic activity in the agency work sector showed a fast and strong recovery as the Covid-19 measures were eased, reaching pre-crisis levels in several European countries.
Yet, we see more and more attempts both at the European and national levels to restrict agency work, often motivated by the willingness to address working conditions of agency workers and to maintain/reinforce the temporary nature of agency work. This was a key element in the reforms in Germany that introduced a maximum length of assignments for temporary agency work and in Italy. Discussions on the temporary character of agency work and the protection of agency workers are also key elements of national discussions on agency work regulation in Spain, where there is a current debate around the range of labour contracts used in the agency work industry and in Sweden.
The private employment services sector fully supports appropriate agency work regulation in Europe. Providing decent and meaningful work is at the heart of our mission. There is already a wide array of EU regulations covering our sector: the Directive on temporary agency work, the Directives on Health and Safety at work, the Posting of Workers Directive and EU legal instruments regulating the protection of third-country nationals. As World Employment Confederation-Europe, we consider that this framework is adequate and up-to-date. There is no need to amend or revise it.
At the same time, EU Directives can only unfold their full potential in unlocking the economic and social contribution of the temporary agency work and in ensuring adequate protection of agency workers if they are correctly transposed, applied and enforced at a national level. For the Directive on temporary agency work, for instance, this means that national regulation needs to be appropriate, and any unjustified restrictions must be lifted. At present, the agency work industry in Europe is still facing many unjustified restrictions that limit its contribution to more inclusive labour markets, such as sectoral bans, the strict maximum length of assignments or restrictions on the range of labour contracts that can be offered to agency workers. Progress should be achieved in this area by reviewing existing, national regulations and working jointly at the national level to remove unjustified restrictions.
A second, equally important component of the Directive on temporary agency work is the principle of equal treatment. When assessing the implementation of the Directive in 2014, the European Commission concluded that the principles of equal treatment and equal pay have been correctly transposed by all EU Member States. Based on the Directive, derogations remain possible through collective labour agreements and this option is being used by several European countries. For example, when it comes to pay, derogations are allowed in the case of open-ended contracts, providing pay between assignments. The Posting of Workers Directive extends the protection granted by the Directive on temporary agency work to agency workers who move across borders in the EU single market when providing a service. These European rules ensuring the protection of agency workers, continue to be appropriate and we fully supported them.
The World Employment Confederation-Europe also encourages further dialogue and exchange between sectoral social partners at the EU and national levels to ensure that the dual objective of the Directive on temporary agency work-appropriate regulation of the sector and protection of agency workers – is reached. Reforms and changes in national regulation on temporary agency work should always be assessed in the light of the guiding principles of the Directive on temporary agency work. In many European countries, sectoral social partners have been committed to settling pay and working conditions for agency workers. An important role is played in this context by bipartite funds in the area of training, working conditions and social protection, which play a prominent role for example in The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy and Spain.
With regard to work mobility and the provision of services within the EU, the World Employment Confederation-Europe supports the EU Directives that are in place. The focus should be laid here on the application and enforcement of the existing acquis and on the dialogue between social partners, national authorities and EU bodies, such as the European Labour Authority and the European Platform tackling undeclared work. The World Employment Confederation-Europe has observer status at the Platform tackling undeclared work and is an alternate member of the Stakeholder Group of the European Labour Authority, thus contributing actively to discussions on the enforcement of existing EU law to ensure the protection of agency workers.
As Europe comes out of the Covid-19 crisis, actions that will support recovery are critical. Allowing the private employment services sector to fully play its role in fostering more dynamic, inclusive and adaptable labour markets is one of them. Only if this approach is followed, can our industry – and specifically agency work services – continue to be a key partner for not only recovery but also to further reform our labour markets and make them more resilient for the “new normal”.