In the rapidly changing world of Human Capital and Human Resource (HR) management, it is key to stay up-to-date with the latest trends.
Each month, our team analyses a variety of data points including Google Search data, website search queries, trending media articles and other sources to identify what is keeping HR professionals up at night.
In January 2025, we identify the following trends:
Challenges to the legal sector B-BBEE code amendments
Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has challenged the recent amendments to B-BBEE legislation in respect of the legal sector codes.
The code sets a number of compliance targets for higher B-BBEE ratings in the next five years for large law firms, specifically those seeking to do business with the state. In the case of Norton Rose these amendments could see them drop from a current Level 1 B-BBEE contributor to a Level 6. Apart from ambitious ownership targets, the amendments seek to transform management composition materially.
These amendments have led to a lot of uncertainty in the broader B-BBEE environment, particularly with challenges in the property sector currently being reviewed and the Financial Services Sector likely to be the next battleground over the next 12 months.
A global pushback against DEI – will it come to South Africa?
Globally, we are seeing an increasing number of businesses reviewing their approaches to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) with Meta (Owner of Facebook) being the latest in a number of blue-chip corporates in the US, Australia and UK – amongst others – to announce changes in policies.
Organisations are split between the purported benefits versus of DEI and whether they are a distraction from core business operations.
In South Africa with Employment Equity and B-BBEE legislation being reviewed and amended, it will be interesting to see how employers navigate these discussions with their stakeholders.
PNet identifies 2 trending sectors in South Africa
Recruitment platform Pnet released its “Job Market Trends Report for December 2024”. This report provides insights into recruitment and employment trends in the South African market. The report identified 2 interesting sector trends where recruitment activity was heading up. These were the “Medical & Health” and “Architecture and Engineering” sectors and they share these interesting insights in the graphics below:
Workforce planning and Automatic Unfair / Unfair Dismissals are topical search terms
Analysing our website search traffic, we identify an above average number of searches related to “Unfair Dismissal” / “Automatic Unfair Dismissal” as well as various search combinations around “advantages / benefits of workforce planning in South Africa”
The focus on “workforce planning” is particularly relevant in the South African context as new Employment Equity legislation is coming into force. This will particularly impact businesses with more than 50 employees.
Remote Working Laws are still a key topic for South African business owners
Our most popular thought leadership article on our website is entitled: “Remote Work: How Labour Laws Are Evolving in South Africa”
The article makes recommendations around a variety of topics including:
- Employee Privacy and remote working
- Health, Safety and Mental well-being beyond the traditional office
- Employee dismissals in a remote working environment
- Fair compensation and work from home policies
Need assistance with your Human Capital requirements in 2025?
One gets the sense that the South African economy is beginning to turn the corner and attract new investment which should drive Human Capital and HR activities.
We look forward to working with you in 2025 – if you would like to discuss opportunities with us, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.