AGENDA08:00 Coffee & Networking

08:30 Welcome & Introductions 08:40 Round Table Attendee Self-Introductions

09:00 1st Presentation: Michelle Myberg, Recruitment Manager, Capfin on: Finding them: Competence & Experience Vs Aptitude? Is one better than theother?IsitpossibletofindgreatsalesagentsinCapeTown?

09:15 Q&A & Roundtable Discussion

09:45 2nd Presentation: Johan March, Senior Sales Manager, MWEB on: Engaging them: Why employee engagement matters for sales and collections agents performance and for staff retention?

10:10 Q&A & Roundtable Discussion

10:30 Coffee & Networking

11:00 3rd Presentation: Andy Searle, Associate Director, IQ Business on: Training them: How L&D practitioners can train for great outbound agents. What works and what doesn’t? What is within the scope of L&D and what is up to Operations?

11:15 Q&A & Roundtable Discussion

11:45 Wrapping Up, Thanks & Closing Comments

12:00 Workshop Closes

WELCOME To the Status & IQ Business Industry HR & Ops Exec Workshop

This new quarterly industry initiative aims to provide value to you and your colleagues through unique access to local business intelligence, specialist thought-leaders, but –most of all- to your industry peers: a niche peer-net-working-platform for facilitating industry stakeholder knowledge-sharing. We hope that these networking events lead to more sharing and collaboration amongst you and your industry peers.

This industry workshop event is hosted by Status (www.statusstaffing.com) and IQ Business (www.iqbusiness.co.za), JV-Partners who both work independently and together providing innovative human capital solutions to themarketplace.Thisindustryworkshopisthefirstofseveralmoreplannedfor2015.

Today, the workshop is focusing on human capital trends and challenges for outbound operations, both sales and collections. In particular, how these relate to sales and collections agents in Cape Town. Including:

1. Finding them: should we be sourcing and assessing for aptitude and attitude or should we base our selection on skills and experience? Is the Cape Town talent pool sustainable for sales and collections agents?

2. Training them: what are the trends and best practice for training sales and collections agents? How do we set them up to win? What differs in the training needs if we recruit for attitude/aptitude versus skills/experience?

3. Engaging them: what does it take to engage sales and collections agents? Why does this matter for their pro-ductivity and our staff retention?

For each of these topics, we have an expert guest speaker giving a short presentation as springboard into the post-presentation Q&A and roundtable knowledge-sharing discussion.

Due to the growth experienced by Cape Town’s BPO and Captive contact-centre sector, the sustainability of the industry’s talent pool and skills development initiatives have fast risen to top of the industry’s agenda. It is a challenge faced by all stakeholders.

The demand in Cape Town for sales and collections agents (and the associated team leaders and senior managers) is growing too. Currently, according to the BPeSA Industry Key Indicator Report 2014, in Cape Town there are ap-proximately 15,500 agents and support staff working in outbound (sales and collections) roles in the contact-cen-tre sector. This is a year on year increase in the Cape Town market and one that is set to continue, especially in Captive operations.

In today’s world of the New Normal, where Gen-Y employees want meaningful work and careers, as well as a lot of continuous real-time attention and feedback, we can’t take our talent pipelines for granted. Especially not giventheinvestmentwemakeinfindingandtrainingthem–evenmoresoinasectorwherestaffattritionistraditionally higher than for the inbound functions.

But, for now, enjoy the guest-speaker presentations, after which we hope you lean forward to join in the peer-to-peer open roundtable discussion and the networking.

And, remember, when you get an opportunity tweet about it on Twitter at:

#HROpsForum

ATTENDEES

MushfiqHopkinsConsultant

Old Mutual:Adriaan Marais Head: Full Financial Advice

Virgin Active:Llewellyn VeenendaalSales and Retention Manager

Cindy BrownCollections Manager

TFG (The Foschini Group):Mogamat GeorgeHR Manager (Financial Services Resourcing)

Sanlam:Raeesa KhanHRBP (Sanlam Personal Finance: Distribution)

Elmarie RouxContact-Centre Manager

Theesan MoodleyHead: Sanlam Direct

Capita SA:Nicky ToulourasDirector: Communications and Recruitment

Telesure:Fahtima DarriesHR BP (Free State & Western Cape)

Capfin:Michelle MyburghRecruitment Manager

Megan BuhagiarL&D Manager

Awonke MdzinwaRecruitmentOfficer(Collections)

Tenacity:Miche Bridget SmithManager: Recruitment and Training

Chantel RandallRecruitment Specialist

Jabba Connect:Lynn McMasterHead of Sales and Operations

Cobus StofbergHead of Finance

ConnectAQuote:Willen van AsMD

Grant SteenveldDepartment Manager: Lead Generation

National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI):Rachel O’RourkeHRM

Sanclare:Majdah MathewsHead of HR

Melissa PienaarTrainer

Mweb:Johan MarchSenior Sales Manager

Status & IQ Business:Dermot GrazebrookBD & Brand Manager

Status:James ThomsonMD

Tim GaudBusiness Development & Client Solutions Specialist

Wayne GartnerRecruitment Team Manager

IQ Business:Mark WatersDelivery Manager

Andy SearleAssociate Manager: L&D

‘Hello, is it me you’re looking for?’What Lionel Richie can tell us about online talent acquisition.

By Dermot Grazebrook

In the 1980’s, the great Lionel Richie foresaw the future: what best practice for digital talent acquisition would look like in 2015.

When you read the chorus of his timeless pop-ballad ‘Hello’ (below) it’s hard to think of a better lyric to describe theprocessforidentifying,sourcingandengagingtherightcandidateforthathard-to-fillvacancy?

“Hello, is it me you’re looking for? ‘Cause I wonder where you are,And I wonder what you do,Are you somewhere feeling lonely or is someone loving you?Tell me how to win your heart,For I haven’t got a clue,But let me start by saying … I love you.”

(Even more prescient, given the theme of this blog, in the music video Lionel Richie is playing the part of a professor educating students: he’s a HR-Yoda.)

Not only did Lionel Richie’s genius express the emotions we allfeelasrecruitersandmanagerswhenwefindthatperfectcandidate; but it also captured some of the key dynamics of best practice for talent acquisition in today’s digital world.

Here’s how Lionel Richie did this:

1. ‘Hello, is it me you’re looking for?’

A fault many companies make on social media is using it as a means of broadcasting, rather than creating a dia-logue with candidates. No one likes to be talked at and not listened to – it’s called ‘social media’ for a reason.

Remember, Lionel Richie’s lyric is NOT: ‘Hey there, you! It’s ME you’re looking for!’

On social media, ‘social’ means being social. Spend more time asking questions and listening, less broadcasting and selling. So ‘Hello’ is a good start.

Authenticity works well on social media: be straightforward and ask what the candidate’s interests are and if they are in the market for a job, and (if so) a job at company like ours?

2. ‘Cause I wonder where you are:

In today’s online world, identifying suitable platforms and channels where our potential candidates hang out is anecessaryfirststep.Itisn’talwaystheobviousplatforms,likeFacebookorLinkedIn.Learningwhichchannelsand platforms we can reach the right mix of potential candidates enables us to develop a multi-media ‘Platform Strategy’. Such a strategy ensures that we are getting the right mix and making the right trade offs for maximum results.

We can’t be on all platforms equally; there are just too many, while the workload and the cost are prohibitive for such an indiscriminate approach.

3. ‘And I wonder what you do’:

Find out what the people we are engaging with online currently do, both in their work and their leisure time. You candothisbyviewingtheirsocialmediaprofiles.

There is so much data online about potential employees that we all have an immense candidate-databases avail-able to us every time we log onto the Web, if only we properly knew how to use ‘Google Search’ and other online tools.

[We’llrunawebinaronhowtouse‘Googlesearch’forsourcingcandidates.Watchthisspacetofindoutwhen…]

Also,whereinformationislackinginsomeone’sprofile,wesimplycanaskthemformoreinformation[remember,itis‘socialmedia’].Peopleareusuallyflatteredtobeapproachedbyacompanyandhappytodiscussthem-selves, especially if they are interested in our brand. If they aren’t interested in our brand, well, then this is our chance to change their mind.

Even if we decide the candidate isn’t quite what we are looking for, they may know someone who is. At worst, if they have had a good interaction with us and know more about us, then they’ll speak well to their networks of our brand and the opportunity we contacted them for.

Andwhoknowswhethertoday’s‘wrong’candidatemightbetherightone?Ifso,wehavethemidentified,readyand primed.

4. ‘Are you somewhere feeling lonely or is someone loving you?’

Asweallknow,thebestcandidatesarethepassiveonestuckedawayinjobsthattheyperformefficientlyandwithout fuss, day in and day out. When we have a vacancy, we often want such ‘quiet stars’ for it, but we don’t have the time to source them and lure them away from their current job.

We assume that if someone isn’t an active job-seeker then they are not interested in other opportunities. Often, this isn’t true. Passive candidates will consider opportunities when presented to them, but lacking any offers they prefer to use their time for getting on with their work and not searching for new work. (If that doesn’t sell these oaks to you, then nothing will.)

It’salltooeasyfororganizationsnottogivesufficientattentiontothesequietstars,becausetheextrovertsaredemanding all the attention. As a result, Lionel Richie’s question – ‘Are you somewhere feeling lonely or is some-one loving you?’ – is very apt.

Ifwecanfindawaytoaccessthese‘quietstars’andproperlyleveragethepentupdemandofthepassivecan-didate market, we can mine a rich seam of talent when sourcing for vacancies. Social media and ‘Google Search’ were built to help us connect these dots and tap this hidden passive candidate market – if we learn how to use it effectively.

The trick with passive candidates is to always be looking for them and engaging with them whenever the opportu-nity arises, so that you have an established passive candidate pipeline prior to a vacancy arising.

This is ‘proactive recruitment’, rather than relying on ‘reactive recruitment’. It requires being open to serendip-itous opportunity at all times and pouncing on it when we see it. It also means learning how to manage BIG data to build an extensive network that becomes our ‘talent community’ pipeline.

5. ‘Tell me how to win your heart’

Oncewe’veidentifiedandengagedasuitablecandidateviasocialmedia,wethenhavetowoothemtojoinourorganization. How do we do that?

Well, like in 3 (‘And I wonder what you do’), try asking the candidate what they are looking for and what will entice them to move. Often, they’ll happily tell you. It’s certainly easier than guessing and more effective than offering them something that is not in line with their expectations.

Ifwe’vegonethroughthetroubleoffindingthemandconversingwiththem,whywouldn’twewanttoknow‘how to win their heart’?

In order to have the right to ask such direct questions, you need to be involved in the community enough to not seem like a ‘gate-crasher’. Refer back to 1 (‘Hello, is it me you’re looking for?’) for learning to be ‘social’ on social media.

6. ‘For I haven’t got a clue’

It’s okay to admit we don’t know what we don’t know. Both what we don’t know about: 1. How to use multi-me-dia for sourcing and assessing; and 2. What candidates really want?

We’re all learning in this digital space, even the supposed social media ‘experts’.

Candidates, too, are learning about social media and how to develop their ‘Brand-Me’ credentials. Therefore, they are sympathetic to your plight and will meet you half-way…for now.

Maybe it helps to think of new digital media as the Wild West: there are no guarantees or rules or laws per se, much of the terrain is unmapped, and there’s constant risk of bandits and snake oil salesmen. Some hardy folks seemtohavefiguredouthowtotravelsomeoftheroutessafelyandtheirresultsspeakforthemselves.Gettoknow these folks and learn from them. Remember no one wagon can take you everywhere you need to travel, so get to know a few of the right folk, each with their own area of terrain that they thrive in. Learn how the varying terrain maps together. Start drawing and adding to your own map of the digital media landscape – literally.

7. ‘But let me start by saying…I love you’

Isn’t that we all want to hear? Do we ever hear it enough (especially from our employers or potential employers)? Probably not.

So let’s assume we’ve found our ideal candidate via social media and we’ve learnt what they want in order to make the move to our organization. We have achieved this by approaching them and creating a dialogue: we asked them what they want and we listened to their answer.

This means that when we make an offer and present a proposed package, we need to actually speak to what the candidate has said they’d be interested in. If we don’t, we are not communicating our job offer and negotiations ‘by saying…I love you’ to the candidate.

Also, the company’s culture and work environment actually needs to be somewhat like you sold it to them. If it isn’t,theresultwillbethesameasmeetingsomeonefromaninternetdatingsiteatabarandfindingouttheirprofilepicturedoesn’tlookanythinglikethemintheflesh.‘Iloveyou’andalong-termrelationshipareneverthe result of that, except (in HR) we call it ‘staff attrition’ instead of a ‘bad blind-date’. This comes back to being authentic, as discussed in 1 (‘Hello, is it me you’re looking for?’).

So, in this blog, we’ve learnt:

1. Social media needs a social approach (in other words, a conversation as opposed to a broadcast).

2. Be direct, be authentic, be yourself.

3. There is pent up demand in the passive candidate market which digital media can help us access and unlock.

4. None of us have a clue.

5. We all want to love and be loved.

6. What the limits are for pushing a metaphor in a blog, I suspect.

7. Something about my musical tastes, again. (See last week’s blog: ‘Take a chance on me’.)

8. But, perhaps, most of all we’ve recognised that Lionel Richie was the 1980’s HR Nostradamus-of-Vinyl.

As someone wiser than me once said: sometimes we have to look back to appreciate what’s in front of us.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)Learning and Development Research Report 2014

The report will achieve a view of:

the extent to which the BPO industry engages in L&D activities;when/with whom BPOs engage with externally for support in driving L&D within their organisations;thespecificactivitieseachBPOprioritisesandbudgetsfortoenableL&D activities; andthe impact on the BPOs that L&D legislation brings to bear upon the industry

When asked to rate their status of maturity as a Learning organisation, 3% of respondents indicated they are at a basic stage, 59% at a good stage, 22% excellent, and 16% rate themselves as world-class.

All companies surveyed have an L&D strategy in place and most have a formal strategy (78%) for measuring ROI. However,only49%canconfirmthattheirstrategyisalignedtotheNationalSkillsDevelopmentStrategy.

When choosing an L&D supplier, four factors seem to be key: Experience, SETA accreditation, Cost and Reputation.

The majority of respondents have high ratios of employees to trainers. 61% have ratios of between 21 and 250 employees per trainer. 74% have ratios of between 11 and 20 learners per trainer in a group.

The majority of companies surveyed spend 10% or less of their payroll on annual training. 15% spend more than 21% of payroll on training. For the majority, training is predominately funded through internal sources.

Coaching (94%), traditional classroom training (91%) and buddying in the live operational environments (88%) are the most popular methods of training, with much less focus placed on on-the-job training.

Companiesmakeuseofbothskillsprogrammesandfullqualificationsintheircurricula.TheyaredividedontheimportanceofSETAaccreditation,withonlyaroundhalffindingatleastanintermitted/adhocbenefittoaccreditation.

Organisations align KPIs to competencies, but are less prone to aligning staff members’ development plans to training plans.

Performance Management tools, LMSs and eLearning tools are fairly common, but other employee management tools such as knowledge management, performance support, simulation tools and talent management tools are not used as often.

94% of companies who use an LMS host it internally, while 6% use cloud-based solutions.

While one-third (31%) of companies purchase off-the-shelf software for training, the majority (69%) prefer a customised solution (developed internally, outsourced, or customised from open source systems).

Most companies use a combination of custom developed and off-the-shelf eLearning content. Very few companies overall, only half of those who actually use eLearning tools, make use of simulation development tools.

Only 28% of organisations surveyed provide career awareness functions and activities more than twice per year, while a full 47% have no such interventions whatsoever; and up to 50% of respondents believe that their organisational training plans and employee personal development plans are not strongly aligned.

Formoreontheseindustrybenchmarkfindings,seethefullreport…Ifyou’dlikeacopyorforafullpresentationofthesurvey’sfindingsatyouroffices,pleasecontacttheIQBusinessteam

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

AtIQBusiness,webelieveweareredefiningmanagementconsultingtobemoreresponsivetothechallengesourclients face. Whether these challenges can be tackled by leveraging research from IQ Business and our partners,assigningIQconsultingteamstodesignandimplementsolutions,orcontractingpointexpertisetofillaskillsgap,wewill ensure our clients overcome their business challenges.

Our clients demand a new value proposition from management consulting:

• More cost effective, faster and more innovative• People with real expertise and experience• Pragmatism – intelligence. applied.• Finding a way in a volatile and challenging world

Through our client assignments, IQ’s mission is quite simply, to add value, in everything we do.

our service offering

Whetheryouneeddiscreetelementsoracombination,wewillensureaflexiblewayofprovidinganoutcome

our empowerment

IQ has an ‘A’ rating from Empowerdex – Level 3 contributor – and as a provider of value-added services, our clientsreceive 137.5% credit against their procurement spend with IQ. We are committed to investing in people - ourEmployment Equity is 30%.

Established in 1998, we are a proudly South African company, with management ownership backedby private equity. With approximately 500 consultants, we are headquartered in South Africa, withofficesinAustraliaandNorthAmerica.

IQ BUSINESS COMPANY PROFILE

STATUS COMPANY PROFILEFor almost 40 years, Status has delivered great talent to our clients by connecting them with the right people, while ensuring our candidates have access to the right careers at employers-of-choice. In this way, Status supports the growth of local communities and the nation’s broader economy, by supporting SA’s talent.

At Status, we know that talent matters!Talentmatterstoourclients,itmattersinthefindingofthe right person for their culture and skills need. Talent matters to our candidates, it matters in the discovery of the right career to express their innate talents and passion.

Talent matters, as does specialist expertise. In order to deliver the right person and the right career to you, we ensure that we focus on being specialists in our chosen four interrelated industries: BPO &Contact-Centres,FinancialServices,Sales&Marketing,andOfficeSupport.Ineachofthesefoursectors, we have specialist teams of recruiters and managers focussed on talent acquisition solutions only for their dedicated client account within their particular sector.

Our reputation for delivering quality results through uncompromising ethical practice has been made sustainable by 39 years of constant innovation and adaptation to the ever changing trends of best practice in talent acquisition and human capital. Our dedication to developing world class recruitment andstaffing-managementsolutionsforourclients,aswellasagreatcareerdevelopmentservicesforour candidates, is as true today as it has been since 1975.

We believe that talent matters! Status’ team of specialist experts provides our candidates access to the right careers at employers-of-choice, while matching the right people for your company: so we know how to make talent work for you. In supporting SA’s talent, it’s our mission to help local communities access growth and prosperity through participation in the formal national economy.

Temporary & Contract staff provision, including TES labour legislation indemnity product and services; Workforce management & IR; Permanent recruitment, including executive search; Skills development & learnerships; Disability recruitment, learnerships and workforce management solutions; Advert & CV response handling; Career awareness event management; Business intelligence research for talent acquisition, labour market and labour law trends and practices; Talent acquisition process and best practice consulting.

Our Vision & Mission

What We Do

Ethical Accountable Courageous Proud Empathetic Decisive Candour

Our Values

Our clients include a range of top corporate brands, large and small, across our industries of specialisation,includingamongstothers:Sanlam,Santam,MMI,PSG,RCS,TFG,Capfin,Wonga.com,Capita SA, Teleperformance, Serco SA, Two Oceans Marathon, & Media24.

Our expert recruiters and executive search team have an extensive track record of sourcing and assessingthebestofhard-to-findcandidatesinthelabourmarket,includingspecialistsupportstaff,supervisers, management, and executives. Our specialist Projects Recruitment Team has a successful track record for high quality delivery at volume, for both domestic and international clients. For example, at one international BPO client, in one month we placed over 100 customer-service agents servicing UK customers.

39 years of operational experience and expertise in talent acquisition for the industries that we specialisein:BPO&contact-centres,financialservices,sales&marketing,andofficesupport.Anestablished and proven team of professionals, with supporting processes and infrastructure. All ensuring a quality service, consistent delivery and innovative solutions that mean we partner with your organisation to build the skills pipelines you want.

“Dynamic 55” technique: Our unique candidate sourcing methodology. It uses 55 channels, that do notrelyonlyonmainstreammediaoronline-advertising,forfindingandengagingcandidatesinthebroaderlabourmarket.Wefindcandidateswheremostotherrecruitersarenotevenlooking.

Status is a currently rated a Level 2 BBBEE supplier, with a proud history of social investment.

Becausetalentmatters!Wecanhelpyoufindtherighttalentforyourorganisation.

Our Clients & Track Record

Why Status Can Help You

SOME OF THE TEAM PROFILES

James Thomson BA (Stell)Managing DirectorAIPSC, MinstD

James has been at the helm of Statusfor the last 9 years in his capacity asManaging Director. He has 13 years ofexperience in the recruitment industry and has held numerous leadership roles for industrybodiesintheSAstaffingsector,most recently Western Cape chairperson of the Association of Personnel Service Organisations (APSO). James is responsible for the strategic direction and growth of Status, and under his watch the company has grown to become a specialist provider of world class talent resourcing, manage-ment and related services.

Dermot GrazebrookBusiness Development & BrandManagerBSEcon (Swansea), MA (Reading)

Dermot has been working in the humancapital profession and contact-centre sec-tor for the last 11 years, including 4 yearsas the HRM for a South African BPO con-tact-centre (O’Keeffe & Swartz), both attheir UK and JHB branches. Before joiningStatusStaffing,heworkedforTeleresourc-esStaffingServicesfor5years,whichincluded roles as Branch Manager and the Brand & Marketing Manager. For the last two and a half years, Dermot has been a serving as Director on the Board of BPeSA Western Cape, as well as being their industry Human Capital Portfolio Head, in which capacity he conceived and drafted the Industry Skills Strategy (http://www.bpesawesterncape.co.za/skills-strategy/).Currently, he’s assisting the Premier’sSkills Forum with the development of aProvincial Career Awareness Strategy.

AdeleKey Account Manager

Adele is one of Status’ Key Account Managers, who specialises in BPO & Contact-Centrestaffingsolutions.Aspartof Status’ Key Account Managament team, she ensures that our clients’ needs are consistently and seamlessly met, while all our candidates are properly vetted for send-out to clients.

While Adele began with Status as a specialist recruitment consultant for the BPO & Contact-Centre industry, she earned her place in a role ideally suited to her outgoing nature and her client-centric focus. While working as a recruitment consultant, Adele honed her knowledge of the selection & assessment process, as well as the dynamics of the sector in which she works.

As one of our Brand Ambassadors, Adele embodies the Status’ values of being ethical and always taking pride in herself and her candidates, while demostrating accountability with all parties.

TimBusiness Development & Client Solutions Specialist

Tim is our Business Development & Client Solutions Specialist. Tim’s work largely centres on developing new client relation-ships, then providing the right staffing solution for their business. He does this by researching and ascertaining prospec-tive clients’ needs and then developing the ideal holistic turn-key solution to ad-dress their talent acquisition and human capital challenges. He works in partner-ship with our clients’ key decision-makers to develop and agree on the staffing solution that works best for them.

Once Tim has found the right solution for each of our clients, he works with our Key Account Managers and our specialist Recruitment Teams to ensure they deliver only the best local talent to you. Because we know that Talent Matters!

Tim also spends a lot of time networking with and chatting to Human Resource decision-makers, attending numerous in-dustry knowledge-sharing events to keep up-to-date with the latest trends, news and best practice.

WayneRecruitment Team Manager

Wayne heads up our Recruitment Team, managing our specialist recruitment consultants who provide talent acquisi-tion services to our client in the BPO & Contact Centre, Financial Services and ICT sectors.

Wayne ensures his team not only finds the Right Person for the Right Career, but also that the team is consistently on top of our clients’ changing and unique staffing needs in order to deliver the best local talent to them. Because we know how to make talent work for you.

Wayne and his team have helped many leading SA brands and employers-of-choice find the right talent for their needs, including: Team Leaders, Operations Managers, Marketing Managers, IT profes-sionals, CFOs, accountants, analysts, HRCs and HRMs.

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