What are the key Human Capital and Recruitment trends that South African business owners should be thinking about as we move into the end of the first quarter of 2025?
As a team assisting clients in the fields of Recruitment and Outsourced HR, it is key that we keep our finger on the pulse.
Remote working – JP Morgan, Elon Musk – and your own Remote Working policies
Jamie Dimon – CEO of US banking giant JP Morgan – rocked the boat when leaked audio of his rant against Work From Home (WFH) and Remote Working practices in the bank.
Alongside Elon Musk who is driving the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which is pushing back against WFH mandates, Dimon is the latest voice pushing back against practices which took root during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nelly Mohale, our Head of Human Capital wrote a popular article looking at trends in Remote Working in South Africa. If you would like assistance in developing a Remote Working policy for your business, please reach out to us.
Trends: Retirement Age, Workforce Planning, Automatic Unfair Dismissal and Wellness solutions
We utilise tools such as Google Trends to understand what is particularly topical at the moment and the month of February is dominated by discussions around the Retirement Age in South Africa.
This is driven by two factors.
- In an attempt to reduce its outsized public service – and the associated financial obligations – the Finance Minister tabled a proposal that would see 30 000 public servants over the age of 55 be offered early retirement.
- Secondly, Sanlam Corporate recently released research based on over 300 000 members which suggests that a distinction needs to be made between the “retire at 65” expectation and having to “work to 80” to meet their retirement goals.
Closer to home, if we look at our own website traffic, similar trends emerge from the previous months including:
- “workforce + planning + benefits” and “workforce + planning + advantages”
- “Automatic unfair dismissal” / “Automatic Unfair dismissal South Africa” being popular keyword trends
A look at the most popular content on the website included interest in:
- Corporate Wellness Programmes
- Understanding Temporary Employment Services (TES) in South Africa and the Registration Process
Two-Pot and retrenchment
The so-called “two-pot” system has been one of the biggest changes in the pension fund and retirement landscape in recent years. As part of these reforms, savers are now permitted to access a portion of their retirement savings under certain circumstances.
Industry reports suggest nearly R50bn was withdrawn in the first 6 months of the legislation changes coming into effect.
A proposal was made in National Treasury’s draft Budget Review 2025 that members of retirement funds who lose their jobs may in future be able to access funds from the retirement “pot”.
In the context of South Africans living longer, savers are going to need to balance access to savings with their retirement requirements.
You can read more here on Moneyweb.
PNet Job Markets and Salary Trends Reports
One of our favourite resources to review is the monthly PNet Job Markets Trends report which analyses hiring trends. The latest report for January is now out and here are some of the highlights:
- Architecture and Engineering Jobs as a sector has seen a 47% increase in activity year-on-year
- Warehousing and Logistics as a sector saw an 81% increase in hiring activity year-on-year
- The Building and Construction sector saw a strong finish to 2024 in terms of hiring activity
The report also includes the 2025 Salary Guide which provides an interesting insight into salary bands across various insights.
Procurement is not just a finance function
We recently hosted a workshop at our offices in Rosebank which looked at the Procurement function inside of organisations. Hosted in conjunction with our partners from Moodley Attorneys Inc. and SME.Tax, we unpacked the fact that the procurement function – particularly in small to medium-sized businesses – is often purely left under the ambit of the finance function.
During the workshop, we identified 27 different ways that the procurement function could be negatively impacted or manipulated and how different staff functions can play a role.
If you would like to discuss procurement policies and ways to strengthen your procurement, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Our Head of Human Capital is featured in the media
Our team is regularly asked to contribute toward media articles around Human Capital trends.
Most recently Nelly Mohale, our Head of Human Capital contributed toward this article entitled: “Mistakes people make when asking for a salary increase”
If you are a South African business looking for assistance with the recruitment of talent or are looking to strengthen your Human Capital function, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.