What are the Human Capital issues keeping business owners and management teams awake at night in May 2025. Apart from the inevitable issues related to the operating environment, geo-politics, the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the workforce, the rising cost of living, intermittent electricity and water supplies – management teams are having to pay special attention to some of their most important assets … their people.
As a specialist advisory team working to support businesses through recruitment and Human Capital / Outsourced HR services, it is critical that we stay on top of this.
What is our Google data telling us?
A key data point for us is the analysis of our Google data including search volumes on specific keywords.
Based on our analysis of our Google Trends data, the following keywords or search phrases have been popular over the last month:
- Temporary Employment Services
- Corporate Wellness Solutions
- Outsourced HR services South Africa
- Youth Employment Service
The search phrases “Temporary Employment Service / s” trend regularly on our site and the search phase “Youth Employment Service” remains popular in a country where youth unemployment remains persistently high.
The increase in the search phrase: “Outsourced HR solutions” could potentially attributed to increased focus on Employment Equity legislation as well as the South African Revenue Services (SARS) increasing collection efforts and putting pressure on SMEs to manage their payrolls, maintain tax compliance and managing COIDA and Workmen’s Compensation. Through our partnership with the SME.Tax Rosebank franchise, we assist businesses in filing their annual and monthly returns and free business owners up to focus on running their businesses.
The increase in search volumes for the phrases “Corporate Wellness Solutions” is potentially linked to organisations preparing for the second quarter of 2025 as they look to develop activations to retain staff or enhance the workplace experience.
South Africa’s shrinking pay cheque
In May 2025, Remchannel released its April 2025 Salary and Wage Movement Survey – which provides some valuable clues to how businesses are approaching annual increases. This survey tracks pay and turnover trends across South Africa’s formal job sector.
This is particularly topical at the moment as organisations prepare to discuss annual increases. In an environment where the official inflation rate is sitting at around 3%, many organisations are grappling with how to position single digit annual increases.
The below graph provides some guidance to employers around annual increases relative to CPI.
For more analysis of this topic, there was good coverage from:
Need help building a high-impact Youth Employment Service (YES) programme?
Do you need help developing a high-impact Youth Employment Service (YES) programme? Our team is one of the most experienced in the country in developing YES programmes which can integrate with your business and social impact goals.
We have a proven track record of developing YES programmes which integrate with Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) initiatives, healthcare and tourism initiatives as well as some exciting opportunities in the BPO / call-centre space.
If you would like to discuss implementing a YES programme for B-BBEE recognition or Socio-Economic Development (SED), please do not hesitate to reach out to us.
Fact-check: No change in South Africa’s retirement age
In the era of social media, news can often be taken out of context or simply shared with limited analysis.
One such topic was a message doing the rounds on WhatsApp and Facebook channels that National Treasury was “changing” the official retirement age. This was particularly upsetting to those who were looking at their pensions and old age grants.
Yeshiel from Daily Maverick debunks this topic here.
Connect with us around these trends
If you would like to discuss your recruitment or Human Capital requirements, we would love to set up an online meeting our host you at our offices in Rosebank.
You can find our full set of contact details here.