Whether we like to admit it or not, our job is one of THE most important things in our lives.
It puts food on the table, pays for our homes, clothes and educates our children, provides medical care – the list is endless.
Earning a living is a lifelong necessity.
So if this is the one thing in our lives that facilitates virtually everything else, why don’t we do more to protect it?
There are two aspects we need to consider - personal responsibility and corporate social responsibility.
From a personal perspective we need to remind ourselves that jobs are not guaranteed, that they are a reciprocal exchange of cash-for-services. And when we want to participate in that exchange, we don’t do it in isolation - we enter a competitive space.
So how do we remain competitive in a challenging job market?
By Gizelle McIntyre, Director of The Institute of People Development
Issued by Perfect Word Consulting (Pty) Ltd
South Africa has come a long way since the first democratic elections in 1994, but in the field of education, many inequalities still remain. As the late Nelson Mandela once said, “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. In order to achieve this, however, access to good, affordable education is essential – and perhaps this is where South Africa is missing the mark.
In the workplace, South African history features many disadvantages. These include the exclusion of many people from education and training (due to regulations governing institutions), the exclusion of certain population groups from employment opportunities, and so forth. To assist in the redress of these hindrances, Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) was instituted. Through RPL: skills and knowledge are validated; individuals are afforded a greater opportunity for broader development; access to jobs, career progression and salary grading increases are fostered; and employment equity is promoted. The problem with this approach, however, is that RPL is not a magic plaster or the quick fix everyone was hoping for.
What is RPL really? According to the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA);“RPL is a
There is a common refrain in board rooms across the world: the cost and effort invested in performance review systems is not paying off. Time-consuming and onerous, current performance review processes are failing to improve efficiencies, grow the top line or empower employees to perform better and take more responsibility for their own development.
The bottom line is that review systems are not cutting it. The annual, or bi-annual ritual, is hated by both managers and employees. The form-filling and meetings breed resentment and are only adhered to because it is company policy and everyone, from the CEO down, does not question the efficacy of the process.
Performance reviews have become the sacred cows of corporate life. After all, they are seen as key to improving efficiencies, increasing productivity and growing top line, all no brainers for any corporate. They are also meant to enable companies to retain and develop their best people.
The crisp question is:
Read more: Performance Management: High time for a make-over
“Not everyone with a disability experiences their condition in the same way.It therefore follows that reasonable accommodation cannot be the same for every individual with a disability.” So how does an employer reasonably accommodate a person with a disability in their workplace? This was just one of the key questions and messages surrounding this year’s 5th Annual Disability Conference, hosted by the Progression team (for the first time in Cape Town) on 9th June 2016, which explored the tools, technologies and systems for reasonably accommodating people with disabilities in the workplace.
The conference was well attended by HR and EE Managers, Transformation Specialists, Health & Wellness Practitioners and CEO’s from around South Africa. Tarryn Mason, General Manager at Progression and host for the 2016 event, guided speakers through a variety of topics linked to reasonable accommodation in the workplace in an informal ‘Q&A’ style format, providing a unique opportunity for the audience to build on ideas and actively contribute to the value of the discussions.
KEY SPEAKER INSIGHTS & OBSERVATIONS
Imogen Rossam, Consultant at Progression, whose presentation explained the background of what reasonable accommodation is and unpacked the best practice approach to its implementation, highlighted the inequality yielded by the medical model of disability and how it can be substantially limiting in an individual’s endeavour to gain access to the workplace in a fair manner. “Emphasis needs to be placed on the social model of disability, which observes the structures and systems of society as barriers for people with disabilities rather than the condition itself. It is within the framework of the social model that the conversations necessary for exploring reasonable accommodation take place.” says Imogen.
In her discussion, Imogen strongly emphasised
Read more: Reasonable Accommodation for people with disabilities starts with a conversation
By Nicci Whitear-Nel (BA LLB) – Senior Lecturer – School of Law, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Workplace mediation offers significant benefits to employers and employees. It has the potential to facilitate fast, innovative, mutually beneficial, solutions to employment disputes. When a dispute is mediated soon after it arises the chances of a satisfactory resolution are optimised because the parties’ positions are usually still fluid and their differences have not had a chance to fester and deepen.
Of course, the Labour Relations Act provides for a speedy process of dispute resolution, which includes a conciliation phase, through the CCMA and the Bargaining Councils in the various sectors. However, these processes only kick in after
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