Employee experience critical for workplace productivity
South Africans have had no shortage of workplace challenges over the past few years. From pandemic-induced lockdowns to navigating 'work from home' routines, and now rolling blackouts that threaten productivity regardless of location, employers have had their hands...
Could energy uncertainty herald the workplace’s next big shift?
Most South Africans are all too familiar with how disruptive load shedding can be to the average workday. While many have figured out how to work around one or two power outages a day, things get more complicated when there are multiple outages for prolonged periods...
Love is in the office air: should your business care?
Navigating office romance can be challenging. Relationships and romantic entanglements between senior executives and junior staff can introduce unexpected complexities, while inter-office marriages and affairs can introduce toxicity into the working environment. As...
Improve remote working by collaborating with employees
How we work is changing very fast. A recent study conducted among UK businesses suggests that four-day workweeks are not a bad idea. The study discovered that contrary to entrenched concerns of lazy employees and poor delivery, most of the firms involved experienced...
AI in HR: gimmick or godsend?
Companies need an internal committee as well as an industry body to ensure artificial intelligence (AI) is used responsibly for HR processes within their business and by their service providers. This is according to Carmen Arico, chartered reward specialist and...
Employee screening: a hiring necessity or an invasion of privacy?
Employee background screening has become an integral part of the recruitment process. Many companies use it as a means to not only verify potential employees' education, experience and other credentials before appointing them, but also to ensure that they hire the...
Caught driving drunk? You could lose your job
If you've ever wondered if you can actually get fired for driving drunk, you can stop wondering. The answer is yes, especially if driving is part and parcel of your daily working life. Delivery drivers, chauffeurs and employees simply driving to get to work - they can...
Cloud-based workspace management can reduce costs, improve efficiency
Real estate and facility costs make up a fifth of the average company's expenditure, which is why Covid-19, the lockdowns and hybrid working accelerated the need for an integrated workspace management system (IWMS). Fast forward to 2023, with large swathes of the...
When equity meets culture and change
The theme for International Women's Day on 8 March 2023 was "embracing equity", encouraging people to actively support and embrace equity within their own sphere of influence. Signium Global board chair and director of executive search at Signium Africa, Annelize van...
Strengthen your career prospects in the age of AI
As artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of ChatGPT and similar arrived on South African shores, the newly accessible technology rapidly started making waves in workplaces throughout the country, with uncertainty about its challenges and opportunities at various...
The importance of being an empathetic SME leader
For decades, IQ (intelligence quotient) was the ultimate sign of a competent employee and capable business leader. Today, in a climate characterised by uncertainty, rising economic pressure, changing social ideals and political turbulence, more businesses are...
Why equal opportunities are no longer enough
Even though things have changed, women still earn much less than men and are underrepresented in the workforce. In fact, just 25% of top management in the public and private sectors are women, according to a South Africa Women in Business Trends report and, according...