Top 10 Workplace Report good news stories of 2015

THIS IS THE last Workplace Report for the year and I am certainly looking forward to a relaxed holiday. But before I go, allow me to take a quick look back at 2015.

There’s a message doing the rounds on WhatsApp that says: “Life is like the ocean. It can be calm, rough or unpredictable. But, in the end, it is always beautiful.”

It certainly was a rough year, all things considered. Yet, here at Workplace Report there were some stories that made the year “beautiful”: 1. Employment Tax Incentive to benefit employers and matriculants: The Minister of Finance announced that section 10 of the Employment Tax Incentive Act, 2013 (Act No 26 of 2013) came into operation. Sandra Dunn, chief executive of the Insurance Seta (Inseta), said this could boost the employment tax incentive (ETI) and result in companies employing more young people.

“Tertiary institutions are hopelessly oversubscribed – on average each institution receives four to six times more applications than the number of students that they can accommodate,” Dunn said. “The best option for the matriculants who aren’t admitted to a tertiary institution is to pursue employment – employers who employ ‘qualifying employees’ will benefit from the ETI and might therefore consider employing more young people than what they otherwise would have done in the past.”

I don’t have any data but I am hoping that this is happening. 2. Tools and apps to up your productivity: The techies went to a whole lot of trouble to help us boost our productivity. The team at online education company Getsmarter tested 10 apps and Workplace Report printed their recommendations. 3. Tips on being productive despite load shedding: There were some great tips that we shared with readers. 4. Government placed young people top of the agenda: In an interview with Merseta’s Sibongiseni Ziinjiva Ka-Mnguni, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Mzwandile Masina said his department was working hard to ensure that the gov- ernment helped to transform the economy from being consumptiondriven to being production-based.

He pointed out that the government had placed young people at the centre of its economic transformation agenda. 5. Free training in software development: It was announced that WeThinkCode, a peer-to-peer institution dedicated to eliminating the IT skills gap, would officially open its first campus in January 2016 in Joburg. 6. Private company announced it would provide free education software: “These past 20 years have taught me that the biggest decisions we make in life are not based on business assessment or even logic. Generally it’s the heart and not the head that makes them and often they become the best decisions we ever make,” said Bez Sangari, founder and chief executive of Sangari South Africa. “This forms the basis of our decision to provide access to free STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) content through our e-learning platform. Education and skills are two challenges facing South Africa and we want to contribute to addressing these needs.” 7. A triumph for Merseta’s People with Disability Project: There’s no sign language for technical terms yet, but four deaf apprentices braved the boilermaking and welding trade test. One passed and the other three plan to re-take the test. 8. Moving to mutual caring and respect: “We follow international research on workplace trends and have found that there has been a real shift in the employer-employee rela- tionship from loyalty to partnership.

“Employees are looking for companies with shared goals and values and want to work where there is mutual caring and respect,” said Gavin White, a partner at Paragon Interiors, a Joburg design company. 9. Skills development initiatives and bursaries: We carried a number of reports about initiatives that are making a difference; commendable work being done by the Merseta, Fasset, Inseta as well as private companies and financial institutions. 10. Happiness sensor: Sharon Snell told us how Hitachi High Tech developed a wearable sensor that calculates workplace happiness. The device doesn’t measure an individual’s state of happiness and is only designed to measure a working group’s state of happiness.

Why bother with such an invention? Because happy people are generally more successful and productive at work and at home.

And on that happy note, I wish you a wonderful Christmas and happy holidays. We’re back on January 14.

E-mail me at eulalia@worldonline.co.za or find me on Twitter.