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The HR environment in 2020

Vetting is a term used to describe both employee screening or background checks on employees and vendor verification. As 2020 grabs hold of every one of us with great intent, we need to know what to be aware of when employing people or appointing vendors for our business, no matter how big or small.

We believe the following issues are ones that we all should be aware of:

• Unemployment continues to be a massive challenge for South Africa and with this comes desperation and sadly, fraudulent CVs become a possible option to find a job. The less verification done on CVs the greater the chance of a lie becoming a success and news travels fast in the world of the unemployed. This will lead to more and more people taking a chance with a small ‘white lie’ to a fully fraudulent CV.

• There is great hype about South Africans who lie on their CVs being charged criminally for this, but iFacts has contacted SAQA who has confirmed that although the NQF Amendment Act 12 of 2019 was signed into law the amendments are yet to come into effect.

The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) is in the process of setting up the national register and procedures for reporting misrepresented qualifications. The national register and procedures will be published once the President declares the date of implementation.

Should companies wish to report fraudulent qualification they may inform the nearest police station, sign an affidavit and open a case to report any allegations of fraudulent activities.

• Organisations are now recruiting for soft skills, and while this may be a great buzzword and be known as the currency of the future, we are not certain people understand exactly what soft skills are and how to recruit for these? Specialised psychometric tests can be used to identify soft skills, but they need to be used in conjunction with the entire team of employees.

The most common soft skills that companies are looking for are:

o Emotional intelligence.

o Leadership.

o Analytical skills.

o Learning desire.

o Ability to see the big picture.

o Communication skills.

o A positive attitude.

Source: Business Tech, 18 October 2019

• With State Capture being a topic of regular discussion, we sincerely hope that vendor verification will become a more widely accepted practice and as employees and contractors are subjected to screening, so too should the procurement department be verifying documents presented with tenders or expressions of interest.

In the HR environment, globally the following trends have been noticed:

• Monitoring of employee communication is increasing and employees are happy with this.

• Employee activism is on the up and it is reported that globally 38% report having spoken up to either support or condemn their employer’s action that they find controversial.

• A study by PWC found that 79% of leaders think that purpose is central to business success and Gallup found that 41% of employees want to know what a company stands for.

• 25% of employees have confirmed using AI voice in the workplace and 18% have used it in meetings.

• Retirees are being hired for in demand skills. At the same time, the fastest growing demographic in the workplace are those aged 65 or older.

• Mental health continues to be a growing concern, with half of Millennials and 75% of Generation Z in the UK having left a job due to mental health concerns. Some companies are training mental first aiders to be active in the work place.

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