May 2012.pdf - SABPP

HR
VOICE
Newsletter of the HR professional body
May 2012
In this issue:
A focus on HR
and
Workers day
Worker’s day: The Right to Choose
By Elizabeth Dhlamini-Kumalo
Chairperson SABPP
On 1 May, South Africa will enjoy Worker's Day. The day can be and is claimed by
various political parties. In South Africa it is understood to be a remembrance of
the role played by Trade Unions, the Communist Party and other labour
movements in the struggle against Apartheid.
Worldwide – it is much more. It is a basic win for Human Rights!
May Day, as we know it refers to various socialist and labour movement
celebrations conducted on the 1 st of May.
May Day was born from the industrial struggle for an eight-hour day.
Stakeholder Relations
Department
Learning and Quality
Assurance Department
Research Department
Professional Services
Department
SABPP Events
HR Activities
This particular struggle started about ten thousand years ago, as a simple battle for
the ordinary man to sustain himself under increasingly strenuous circumstances.
From the exploitation of serfs, slaves, trades people etc. the struggle has been won
to produce enough to sustain workers and their families. All that changes is the
mask of exploitation under the guise of reward. The exploitation is born off an
imbalance that cannot seem to be addressed, because it works. There is always a
class system that has more. More power, more resources just more…. The “more”
element is then used to exploit those who have less. Less power, less resource and
no voice to represent or establish their rights based on their needs. In this
particular struggle workers have never fought to redress the imbalance, the fight
was simply for the fairness of an eight hour working day that allows the working
class to sustain their input into the system regardless of the name it goes by in that
particular country, be it capitalism or communism, etc.
The right to an eight –hour work day has been won and implemented in various
countries across the world since 1836. The interpretation and adherence thereof
again varies across the world. Gross exploitation of the working class in various
countries is well documented; the main variation to this struggle is that the
exploitation is now owned by organisations as opposed to countries and or a
specific class. This creates an interesting dynamic as the consumer can now choose
to support –through purchasing of goods and services- the various organisations
that are said to be exploiting the workers. As the consumer is often the worker we
now have a system where the worker is seen to be choosing their exploiter 1 and
level of exploitation. However, with all the victories that a worker has won against
“the man” and “the system” it is no longer considered exploitation but rather
choice.

So now the worker has choices (they found their voice) in a system that (on close inspection) has not
changed much. It is still a system of haves and have-nots but has interestingly become peppered with
choice. So those who have to work on Workers’ Day have chosen to do so. It is a hard earned right to choose
to make money on that day!
For the HR Practitioner, to enable the worker to choose, please refer to the Basic Conditions of Employment
Act, 1975 (No. 75 of 1997) which stipulates the minimum terms or conditions of employment for all South
Africans.
Happy workers day! Your right to choose.
THE FRUITS OF SWEAT
It was never a donation
We fought for it,
It was not charity,
But victory of the labourers.
From Kimberly to Sharpeville,
From Soweto to KwaMashu
Down to the intestines of the Earth,
Mining for gold and praising God
The workers won, against the exploiters!
Against discrimination by colour of the skin
Against discrimination by Tribe
Against discrimination by gender
Against forced labour
Against unfair dismissals
Against all forms of evil Isms
The workers won, against the oppressors!
Today we celebrate the musicians,
Who sang the songs of Freedom
Today we celebrate the cadres,
Who cried “Amandla!”
Today we join the world in Celebration
Of Victory of the workers, knowing full well,
That it is the fruits of sweat
And the reward for blood of centuries of struggle!!!
Nelisiwe Mahlangu is a second year journalism student at Damelin Pretoria City
Campus
Today we commemorate those who died
And today we celebrate the victory they
bought,
With sweat and blood
With slogans and strikes
With resistance and protest
With umzabalazo and Toyi Toyi!
And today we remember,
Those who refused to be victims
The men and women who refused fear
The boys and girls in Soweto,
Who refused the language of the powerful
And chose the language of power,
Their mother tongue!
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STAKEHOLDER RELATIONS
Report on the KZN Summit
The HR Excellence Provincial Summit in Kwa-Zulu Natal was held on the 19th April in Umhlanga,
north of Durban. The summit was well attended with all our speakers touching on key challenges
and achievements relating to Human Resource Management. SABPP staff members engaged with
most delegates during breaks to identify their needs and expectations. Books were on sale at the
SABPP exhibition stand, if anyone would like to order books they are more than welcome to contact
Siya on siya@sabpp.co.za. These books are also available on email at a minimal cost. The day closed
with a cheese and wine to encourage networking amongst HR professionals and SABPP staff.
Key speakers at the KZN Summit held on 19 th April in
Durban
Standing: Idah N.N. Zwane-Dlomo (General
Manager: Corporate Services. KZN
Provincial Treasury); Marius Meyer (CEO of
the SA Board for People Practices); Sipho
Cele (Deputy City Manager Governance and
HR, Ethekwini Municipality; Steven Msomi
(Lecturer and Acting MBA Course Coordinator,
UKZN Graduate School of
Business; Prof Hoosen Rasoul (Managing
Director, MANCOSA); Penny Milner-Smyth
(HR Executive, SA Sugar Association)
Seated: Thapelo Molapo (Vice President
HR and Training, Toyota SA Motors);
Elizabeth Dhlamini-Kumalo (HR Director,
Sandvik Southern Africa and Chairperson of
the SABPP Board)
SABPP signs an MOU with the Professional Assignments Group (PAG)
On the 2 April 2012, SABPP met with Ferdinando Pulella, MD of PAG together
with Laura Pillay and Jacqueline Singh also from PAG. An MOU was signed in
Sandton Johannesburg to form a new alliance between the two organisations.
We would like to thank PAG for engaging with the SABPP and we look forward
to our new partnership in raising HR and recruitment standards.
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LEARNING AND QUALITY ASSURANCE
DEPARTMENT
anyone would like to still order soks they are more tn welcome to contact Siya. These books are also
available on email at a minimal cost. The day ended with a cheese and wine to encourage s
Workers’ rights are still
important today
South Africa is built upon many principles, but one of
the most important things to remember is that it was,
in fact, built. Worker’s day has been celebrated in our
country since 01 May 1994. We owe a lot to the hard
work of those who came before us, and—from making
the most of our benefits to making sure we’re getting
the remuneration that we should—it’s time for us to
think toward the future.
SABPP, FETC Training Provider- HRM students in the
process of simulating a wage negotiation
We all remember all the stories from our history class
in high school: Industrial Revolution, sweat shops,
child labour, unsafe work environments, no benefits,
no rights for workers… We owe these incredible
advances to the efforts of the labour movement; we
owe it to ourselves never to become complacent in
terms of demanding our rights and knowing our
worth. But mostly importantly, in order to sustain and
grow from all that has been acquired, we need to
work hard; work in excellence and be ethical in all that
we do.
It is also a reminder of the many challenges that still confront us, workers, and the poor in South Africa - and
which remain obstacles to sustainable human development among all developing nations.
The South African working class has been at the forefront of the struggle for a democratic, non-racial, nonsexist,
prosperous and united nation. It has understood and consistently maintained that workplace struggles
cannot be separated from broader social struggles; that economic justice and equality cannot be achieved
without national liberation. It has argued that these struggles cannot be separated from the struggle for gender
equality and, specifically, women's emancipation.
Worker’s day is an important holiday all over the world, for people from Communists to Pagans and everyone in
between. Depending on the context, Worker’s day has a different significance for different individuals, but it is
generally a day of celebration. The significance of the holiday has also changed over the centuries, but HR – as a
catalyst for management and development of people – has a mandate of assisting workers in fully
understanding and fully celebrating this day.
Happy Worker’s Day!
Sindiswa Maseko-Khumalo from TATA Africa and an SABPP Ethics Committee Member
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RESEARCH DEPARTMENT
News from HRRI: Research
New Research Projects
Some exciting research projects are kicking
off this month, including research into HR
careers as well as environmental
governance and the role of HR. If you have,
or know of, an HR related research project
at Masters or Doctoral level at any
university, please let us know so that we
can include it in the research database that
we are building up.
COMENSA
Coaches and Mentors of South Africa
(COMENSA) have recently published the first of
their survey reports into Coaching in
Organisations. This survey has highlighted some
very interesting trends in the use of coaching in
South African workplaces. You can access this
report through www.comensa.org.za. COMENSA
will also be conducting similar research into
mentoring next year, and is currently building up
a database of HR professionals who are running
mentoring programmes. Please let Penny
Abbott know your details if you would like to be
included in this database (penny@sabpp.co.za).
People with Disabilities
We are interested to put together some
work on employment practices around
persons with disabilities, in an effort to help
improve the dismal statistics on employment
trends for these people as reported annually
by the Employment Equity Commission. If
you have any special programmes, or any
interesting case studies, that we can include
into this project, please let Penny know.
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Thank you to the HR
professionals who have
responded to our
invitation to be reviewers
of books. More reviewers
are still needed, so send us
your name if you are
interested.
Case Studies on the use of temporary labour
We are looking for case studies of the ethical use of various types of
temporary labour so that we can give our registered practitioners some
practical guidelines in this controversial area. If you can help, or refer us to
someone you know has good practices, please contact penny@sabpp.co.za
Human Capital Review Subscription
We are very pleased to inform our members that Knowledge Resources has generously extended a
free subscription to their on-line magazine, Human Capital Review. All SABPP members can access
this prestigious, highly acclaimed and globally read magazine which is published once a month. See
the website www.humancapitalreview.org for more details of the magazine. The free subscription
will run until February 2013. To take advantage of this offer, please contact us by email on
hrri@sabpp.co.za, quoting your registration number, for the username and password to use to
access the magazine. Once a month, we will send out an email with highlights of the new edition.
Article in this month’s edition:
What’s wrong with Executive Succession?
Headhunting and appointing new Executives is a risky and expensive business! The South African
Business Times of 22 January 2012 displayed the headline: “Execs do the Shuffle”, showing how a
number of South African Executives had moved jobs in the previous week. In almost all cases there
appeared to be no obvious internal successor, and the movements were the result of a “crisis”
rather than planning, writes Terry Meyer.
practices, please contact
knowas good
SABPP Position Papers now available:
Driving Ethics in the HR Profession
&
Expectations and Needs of HR Professionals
Receive your copy now by contacting us on
executiveoffice@sabpp.co.za or visit our website to download
www.sabpp.co.za
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SABPP NEWSFLASH
SABPP partners with BusinessBrief Magazine
SABPP is proud to announce that, as a membership benefit, we have negotiated online copies
of BusinessBrief magazine at no charge, on an ongoing basis.
This falls in line with the fact that BusinessBrief has been accredited by SABPP for CPD/E (Continuing
Professional Development/Education) purposes.
For your information, BusinessBrief is a Business Management Magazine that provides decisionmakers
in business with the information they need to make better business decisions. There are nine
regular sections that contain articles dealing with the management issues that affect and influence
business decision-making.
In order to take advantage of this offer, please click on the following link:-
http://www.bbrief.co.za/voucher/ and then insert the following voucher number: Sabpp1fe0412
There has been much noise and fury in the media over the last few months over the labour broking
issue and, as we know, COSATU held a national strike during March. We thought this was such an
important issue for HR practitioners that we should put out a position paper to guide the profession.
This will be released to the media in time for Workers Day, May 1 st . Visit our website to download
your copy. We hope it will prove valuable to you, www.sabpp.co.za
Margaret Harris interviews Dr Michael Glensor Vice Chairperson of SABPP
Ms Margaret Harris from the Sunday Times interviewed Dr Glensor on the following HR issues:
How the role of the HR Department has changed over the last 15 years as the HR industry
acknowledges its role as the custodian of People: Governance and Performance, and the rise of
Employer Branding. Dr Glensor mentioned how the HR Practitioners should acknowledge their role
in the changing global economy and how fellow HR Practitioners need to become more involved in
the management of employee risk and performance by assisting their employees to become their
best brand ambassadors.
The interview also focused on how HR can add more value to a business and with a more sensitive
approach to employment equity and affirmative action, transformation in an organisation could then
be adequately addressed. To read the full article please refer to www.sabpp.co.za
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PROFESSIONAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT
HR managers should champion ethics in the workplace
South African newspapers are full of articles about corruption, fraud, greed, mismanagement, and other forms of
unethical practices in organisations, both in the private and public sectors. This reality raises the question whether it is
really possible to change the current state of affairs. Is it possible for business people and government to change their
behaviour and become more ethical?
Over the last two years, the SA Board for People Practices (SABPP), the professional body for HR practitioners,
published three papers that covered the importance of ethics in the field of HR management. First, the King III paper on
the HR implications of governance clearly articulated the important role of HR in promoting ethics in the workplace.
Second, the HR professionalism paper highlighted ethics as one of the most important pillars of HR professionalism.
Third, the SABPP position paper on HR Risk Management also emphasises business risk if ethics is not managed
proactively in an organisation. Moreover, in the new book Wisdom from HR Mentors published by SABPP and
Knowledge Resources, all the SABPP mentors describe the importance of ethics in the field of HR and business in
general. Now, SABPP is making the transition from the contextual debate to the practical application of ethics in the HR
function, with a specific focus on the relevance of ethics to the different fields of HR specialisation. Both HR and line
managers should deal with ethical issues when managing people in the workplace.
The King III Code of Governance for South Africa adequately highlights the importance of ethics at board, management
and staff levels and, in particular, the need for an ethical culture. However, Marius Meyer, CEO of SABPP warns: “To
think that an ethical code in itself will instil a culture of ethics is short-sighted. Thus, the point of departure in this
guide is that despite increased corporate and government efforts to address ethics, people are at the heart of all
unethical behaviour and practices. No matter how sound your systems, all corporate scandals start with either
employees or managers, in other words, the human resources of an organisation. Therefore, the HR function plays a
critical role in addressing ethical challenges in organisations.” The guide challenges HR professionals and the
organisations they work for to answer these questions:
If we focus more on ethics in recruiting and selecting staff, will it make a contribution to ensuring that we create a
larger pool of ethical employees in organisations?
Do we concentrate sufficiently on ethics and values when inducting new employees?
Are we behaving ethically in balancing the need for compliance and performance as part of our performance
management systems?
Do we manage learning and development in an ethical manner, for example when selecting and managing training
providers, or when making decisions about learners entering learning programmes?
When dealing with employees and unions as part of our employment relations system, do we behave in a fair,
equitable and ethical manner?
Utilising salary benchmarking in remuneration, do we encourage greed and reinforce excessive pay packages and
thereby widen the gaps between the rich and the poor in one of the most unequal societies in the world?
What contribution does HR play to create an ethical culture and to reduce unethical behaviour?
How effective is HR in influencing and guiding management on ethical issues and the promotion of an ethical
culture in the organisation?
Pauls Gibbons is Vice-chair of the SABPP Ethics Committee. Earlier versions of this article appeared in HR
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Future and The Star.

SABPP EVENTS
HR Future SolutionsFest
HR Future, the top HR magazine, as part of the osgard media group is
organising a high level HR Directors session on 8 August in Sandton.
The HR Future SolutionsFest provides the perfect opportunity for HR Directors and HR Managers to
address the top six HR challenges in the country: skills, talent, business partnership, productivity,
next generation leadership development and the impact of legislation. These expertly facilitated
sessions will directly clarify the extent of the problems, and generate solutions by those who
participate. HR Directors and HR Managers will return to their boards and companies with answers
in the form of a toolkit brainstormed by HR professionals facing common challenges.
SABPP as the country’s professional HR body fully supports this event and we thank our alliance
partner HR Future for being the catalyst in creating this unique platform for high level sharing,
debate and creating solutions for real HR challenges. For more information or to book, go to
www.solutionsfest.com or contact Kelsey at 011 888 7064.
SABPP Gauteng Summit
The Forum Bryanston Johannesburg
10 May 2012
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SABPP will be hosting their first Gauteng Provincial Summit at The Forum in
Bryanston Johannesburg on the 10 th May 2012. The purpose of the summit is
to drive HR excellence at a provincial level and to unite various stakeholders in
their pursuit of HR excellence.
The programme consists of:
An address from Elizabeth Dhlamini-Kumalo
Chairperson of SABPP
Other guest speakers include:
Pearl Maphoshe
WORKSHOP:
Thelma Ngcobo
Dean Retief
SABPP VACANCIES
Professional Services Vacancy
Group Human Capital Executive and Chairperson of the HR Forum,
Massmart
CHANGES IN THE LEARNING LANDSCAPE
Chief Director: HR Office of the Premier
HR Executive: People Development (Chief Learning Officer) Nedbank
For more information please contact Maxine Pretorius on 011 880 8540 or
There is a vacancy in the Professional Services department of SABPP Maxine@knowres.co.za
for the appointment of a
Professional Services Officer. This individual will
SAQA visits SABPP
The SABPP hosted a meeting with SAQA
(South African Qualifications Authority)
on Tuesday the 17 th April. As SABPP is in
the SAQA professional body pilot project,
the meeting met its objective of a site
visit and a confirmation that all is going
well in terms of SABPP meeting their
deliverables as a professional body.
Back row:
Naren Vassan SABPP, Niko Hlekane SAQA,
Peta Broomberg SABPP, Graeme Stickells
SAQA
Front row:
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Jodi Cedras SAQA, Marius Meyer SABPP

HR ACTIVITIES
LEADERSHIP SA
HR CONSULTING SKILLS
Guidelines and best practice for South African HR
Managers
Presented by Terry Meyer one of South Africa’s top HR
thought leaders
REGISTRATION FEE:
SABPP Registered Professionals - R3500.00
Non-SABPP Professionals – R4800.00
For further information please contact Siya Mlonzi on siya@sabpp.co.za
HAPPY WORKERS DAY!
FROM SABPP
1st Floor, Rossouws Attorneys
Building
8 Sherborne Rd
Parktown
PO Box 2450
Houghton
2041
South Africa
T: +27 11 482 8595
F: +27 11 482 4830
Twitter: @SABPP1 www.sabpp.co.za
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