HR Innovation & Tech Fest

Reaching for the Stars – Learning and Development in a Hybrid Environment

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic fundamentally changed the landscape of learning and development at NASA – mirroring the shift within organizations around the world. NASA’s Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer is currently rethinking the talent continuum and leading the way to understand the future of work, its challenges, and opportunities. Development of employees and leaders is a critical component of this transformation. The Agency is re-imagining career development as a series of fulfilling experiences where new skills and strong leadership are vital to mission success. Historically, NASA’s learning and development programs and offerings have been decentralized and managed individually across the 10 NASA centers spread out geographically across the United States. Currently, the Agency is moving to an enterprise model as we continue to transition to a “new normal”, where reduced resources must be strategically leveraged. The framework for an enterprise learning approach is based on the 70-20-10 model, i.e., 70% focused on hands-on experience through details and experiential assignments, 20% devoted to informal learning through coaching/mentoring, and 10% via more formal traditional learning. NASA will use different instructional approaches including online, hybrid, and blended methods, strongly supporting a culture of constant development where employees are encouraged to be life-long learners.

•The benefits and value of training and development act like a domino effect; leaders feel competent and can efficiently influence employee performance; skilled and engaged employees result in higher job satisfaction, commitment, and thus retention; workforce improvement and engagement benefits an organization overall.

•Inclusion is one of NASA’s core values, thus diversity training is a core component of NASA’s learning and development. It is vitally important that we wholly embrace diverse cultures and backgrounds in order to maximize innovation – race, color, ethnicity, language, nationality, sexual orientation (LGBTQ+), religion, gender, socio-economic status, age, physical and mental ability.

•NASA’s current budget does not support a robust investment into technology for training and development – this is a challenge that creates a missing layer for creating digital dexterity as we seek to make the digital, modern workplace a reality.

Staying Current In A Rapidly Changing Learning World

We're all preparing for the unknown. I'm often asked: "How can people prepare for their next job when it might not even exist yet?" Just as business can't press the pause button as the world changes, it's not enough for their people to wait to skill up reactively. We all have to be proactive, continuous learners. Technological advancements are making it easier than ever to create your own and your teams learning experience, we'll explore some of these changes to help you and your team keep current and relevant in the future and reap the benefits.

The importance of Being Human v Human Doing
Top tips to help you and your learners get the most from your learning budgets, reap the benefits and play one step ahead.

Building Future-Fit Organizations - Pivotal Role Of The HR Function

How to conceptualize & craft an organizational Transformation journey, aligned to business strategic ambition
(Why, What, How)
Creating a robust Change Management & Engagement framework to support the journey
- How to create buy-in and alignment with key stakeholders
- How to ensure that you take everyone along on the journey
Success measures
Potential risks & mitigations

Understanding HR's role in helping to streamline/right-size organizations for agility & future growth - some lessons on capability assessment, business operating model design practices, etc.
Developing robust Capability Development strategy - lessons through case studies
How to build agile organizational culture - lessons through case studies
How to capacitate an HR function to be fully agile - case study

Building an Effective Employee Experience Strategy

Building the employee experience strategy (EX) strategy requires a careful and holistic outside in approach. Most companies traditionally focus inwards missing the fact that business needs to be designed and focused towards serving the paying customer- it’s marketplace.
The employee experience terminology and principles were preceded by customer experience (CX) theories. As companies were tracking the customer experience metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) and tracking the ease of doing business index, it emerged that to better serve the marketplace, the employee Net Promoter Score which gives the voice of the employee should be given equal importance and priority. The interaction of the customer with the company is very much dependent of the experience of the employee with the company- throughout the employee life cycle.

With the backdrop of the voice of the customer, an effective customer experience strategy should tune into the voice of the employee and address key pillars which go beyond employee engagement, i.e., company culture, the technological ecosystem, and the physical work environment.

We will explore these key elements and other touch points to improve employee experience.

Reimagining Change & Transformation

In a post-COVID world, employees around the world are suffering from change fatigue. When change is new constant, traditional approaches to transformation are having a negative impact on experience, engagement and wellness. This session will explore a new model that can cut through the noise to deliver improved productivity and profitability. Using the latest thinking from Psychology and Behavioral Science, we will look at a flexible four-part model you can use to reinvigorate all of your people change programmes.

1. Current approaches to change are having a negative impact on employee engagement
2. To turn this around it's time to think differently
3. By looking outside HR we can create a model that can transform the employee experience around change

Beyond HR and L&D: Mapping the Future of Skills in the Workplace

Jobs are being overtaken by automation. People want skills that increase their employability and enable better internal mobility within their organizations. Organizations need to stay agile, productive, and ahead of their competition. How do we as HR and Learning professionals overcome our own obstacles to embrace the new future of skills and capabilities and help our organizations succeed in the new skills economy?

The industry is changing. We have an opportunity to shift the way we think about how we partner with other groups in our organizations to develop our workforce for future growth.

As HR and L&D professionals, we need to explore how technology and automation are changing how we work and learn. We need to investigate and implement new ways to attract people to our company, but even more important to upskill and reskill our people.

• We will explore how technology and automation change how we work and learn.
• We will consider new roles and skills in our organizations for HR and L&D.
• We will investigate new ways of applying skill frameworks to grow the people in our workforce.

How to Design Impactful, Engaging and Relevant Online Learning Experiences

Implementing a digital programme or course doesn't mean simply delivering the same face-to-face workshop virtually; it is about redesigning the learning experience altogether. Learning Experience Design (LXD) is an interdisciplinary approach to designing learning interventions and programmes that are learner-centred, goal-orientated, and design-focused. It is a relatively new discipline, which draws on learnings from the world of user-experience design, neuroscience, and human-centered design to inform the way we design learning experiences.

LXD is the creation of learning content through delivery mechanisms that produce maximum learning and retention, whilst being experience-driven, audience-focused and outcomes-based. Because we are the same person that makes use of social media e-commerce platforms, Teams channels and Zoom calls, we need to ensure that the digital learning experiences we design for our employees are as appealing and engaging. LXD principles ensure that your course content and digital experience meets learners where they are both in terms of user experience and mindset.

Drawing on practical examples, this session will explore the benefits of adopting a learning experience design process to the design and development of your next learning interventions.

- Why Digital? Understanding the impact of digital on online learning
- What is LXD? Designing user-centered, goal-oriented, design-focused learning experiences
- How to do LXD? Implementing LXD principles such as microlearning, gamification and social learning elements

(Trying to) Paint Your People Masterpiece

The race for the digitalised HR workspace is on, there are a million tools and apps out there promising a million and one things, with immediate positive impact on your organisations employee lifecycle, experience and engagement. But it doesn't start with the tech or "digital". Like a work off art it begins with an idea and the drive to bring it to life, and to express it for others to experience. The "rough drafts" are characterised by frenzied activity as the artist struggles to get his or her medium to represent what's in his or her mind. Squiggles and rough cuts fall to the floor, are picked up, reworked or discarded. The digitalisation journey of HR is characterised by the same things.

The pre-cursors to innovation in the “people side” of the organisation is far from glorious and removed from the UI of the final product. It invariably lies in going back to the neglected nooks and crannies of the foundational pillars of your People approach, scratching at itches that you thought had gone away and picking at scabs that you'd thought had healed. Revisiting and testing your building blocks against the purpose your function looks to amplify and the employee growth you hope to support is deep work, often done in the dark. However, if you do it well the rewards (personal, employee, team and organisation) are endless and the legacy you create may extend beyond your career and lifetime in the same way the works of the great artists do.

• Basics, done well still matter
• Value and impact must lead the conversation
• Form and function interact with purpose and intent

Moving HR From a Service Station To a Power Station

Having survived hardcore lockdown, and still facing the after-effects, we have been challenged to challenge ourselves and realised the necessity to enable business to excel in every way. HR has transformed from just being service driven, to becoming a power station that fuels extraordinary people to deliver exceptional business results. Ultimately, designing the blueprint for the future of work model we all aspire to engrave in our culture and ways of work. This session will cover key learnings over the past few years and how these learnings have been used purposefully to create a new HR agenda in the Nando's community. An agenda that includes: ensuring functional excellence, being a catalyst for change, providing thought leadership and measures to protect the business and it's people. These exciting topics will cover the overall Nando's journey, the importance of remaining relevant, having courageous conversations and being business minded. It's a revolution from pure partnership to strategic ownership.

Importance of starting somewhere, having a base!
Once the foundation is set, how do you build? Tools for success.
What do you build? This is all about impact and relevance.

Future of Work Trends, Upskilling - Reskilling, Employment Models of The Future and Case Study of Innovation As An Example

The changing work environment requires us all to become Fearless in the Face of the Future of work. We are confronted with a unique paradox. Organisations are becoming boundary-less, workforce demographics are changing, digital disruption is the norm -how do we prepare ourselves and others for the future of work amidst the economic climate and realities in Africa?

1. How is the world of work changing.
2. How do we as employers embrace this change and lean into it - ideas on how out approach to people practices can shift
3. staying ahead of the curve

HR: Shift the Perception

“I am inviting you to a session where we will operate a shift in perception; of how people view Human Resources. Together we will look into how HR is being perceived currently and the opportunities ahead of us as a function. We will also look into the transition from being seen as a service provider to a strategic business enabler and driver. I am a firm believer that through an effective HR, the business can only grow; it grows through a diverse and talented workforce that shapes a culture of a winning organization. That’s the secret formula. So, are you ready to operate the shift?“

• HR's role in achieving our business objectives
• How to build a diverse organization
• Forward-looking and partner with the right stakeholders to elevate the employee experience

Life to Data: Learner Personas For More Effective Learning Solutions

Wonder why marketing initiatives can compel you to act, create solutions for future needs, and change people's behavior? It starts with their strategic understanding of their audience through data. Likewise, learning professionals can leverage this approach.

Through activities, you'll actually practice the three steps of creating learner personas in this session. You'll leverage data to draw insights and shift your approach to information synthesis. You'll uncover the benefit of learner personas by revealing unstated learner needs and by their influence on decision making. Through activities, relevant training examples and application, you'll discover how the insights from learner personas help you change behavior and engage employees. You'll leave this session with practical tips to apply to your next training project.

How to create a learner persona
How to use qualitative data to draw insights from learner populations
How to uncover unstated learner needs to shape your training solutions

Leveraging Your Organisational Culture to Drive a Compelling Employee Experience

True Employee Sentiments

Understanding why the question “how are you doing?” is more than just a formality in the workplace. It could mean the different between unplanned organisational changes and recruiting costs for regrettable losses and proactive recruitment of key stakeholders. Bandile Jwili, Solution Consultant, Workday is joined by Zameer Ahmed, HR Executive : People Enablement, Adcorp to explore how organisations can enable themselves to truly understand employee sentiments.

Ogilvy’s Experience-Driven Onboarding Journey – Live Showcase

The Head of L&D at Ogilvy South Africa, Marissa Wild, will be joined by the Client Success Lead at TalentSmith Technology, Verna Agenbag, to bring you a showcase of the Ogilvy digital onboarding journey. Ogilvy set out to solve for hybrid onboarding in 2021 and has since seen tremendous success in their new digital programme. Let’s find out the why, the how and the what’s next with a live showcase of their onboarding programme.

In this session, the audience will learn about…

1. The Ogilvy business case: What challenges and goals did Marissa and the team want to solve?
2. The Ogilvy journey: What has gone into creating and launching their digital onboarding programme?
3. The real deal: What does the Ogilvy journey look like – let’s see the journey live!
4. The outcome: What has the feedback and engagement from new team members and hiring managers been like since launching?
5. Tips: What to consider when creating an experience-driven onboarding programme.

Reinventing Leadership: A Discovery Journey For Leaders Of The Future

Leading dynamic, complex, and adaptive workplaces, demand human capabilities related to sense-making, cognitive control, synthesizing insights, digital dexterity, creative divergence, and empathic attunement, within a human centered organizational architecture. Leadership Development becomes a critical discipline for the HR of the future and the programs, frameworks, competencies of the past will not apply to the needs of emerging new systems of engagement of a new workforce.

Seeking signals of change in the markets and within their own businesses, leaders at all levels of an organizational structure are becoming ambidextrous in their ability to manage current priorities while preparing for transitions and activating new ways of building value for their customers and stakeholders. To navigate this complexity, leaders are being challenged to apply systems thinking to potential risks and at the same time access a diverse network of creative designers to build new products and offerings to differentiate themselves in their industries.

During this workshop, leaders will deconstruct what they believe is their Learned Leadership Skills to embrace a more flexible, yet authentic, way of leading themselves, their people, and functions. Participants will be able to explore their self-limiting beliefs and build plans for remaining resilient and confident in face of internal and external negative forces impacting their efficacy. Leaders will be able to identify strengths and internal resources that will support their performance with practices so they can focus on the positive energy and optimism that leaders of the future will manifest in their careers.

During this session participants will learn to:

• Identify leadership behaviors that may not be serving them today
• Explore ways in which mindful leaders can harness the power of the present moment
• Discover curiosity, courage, and compassion as cornerstones of their purpose
• Learn the practices that will be most effective in leading the new global workforce

The Age of The Algorithm, AI (And Learning)

AI and algorithms pervade our lives. They are everywhere, embedded in the mundane and complex world around us. An immensely powerful toolset that makes sense and perpetually learns from our environment. Continually and automatically learning from unstructured data, as well as interpreting our experience, till recently only ascribed to humans. AI and algorithmic tools already play an important part in recruitment and are fast finding their way into organisational learning. How will these tools help us predict the skills people will need to forge into the future? How can they help measure ability? How can they curate content within context? How can they pave the way to embed learning into the daily flow of work? How will we track people and their skills? AI and algorithms are set to profoundly change our learning lives, discover this world with us.

How to use AI and algorithms for - skills matrix, future-fit learning journeys, next-gen skills assessment, content curation, learning experience, business results.

Retain, Retrain and Fast-Track to the Workforce of the Future

John Rogers will walk through data-driven predictions on what the future of work may look like in South Africa. How we can adequately gain insight, plan, devise, upskill & reskill and track our journeys to make the most of the opportunities this will bring.

• Embrace the power of people analytics to see where risks and opportunities lie for our existing talent.
• Predictions on what the economic and technology impacts will be on our workforce
• Tomorrow’s talent organisation relies on reskilling initiatives today. Identify viable transition paths and boost agility now
• How do we translate insight into action and learning

5 Excel Efficiency Hacks for HR and L&D Professionals

This fun and interactive crash course will reveal some of the best-kept Excel secrets you can apply immediately, to significantly ramp up your confidence and productivity in Excel and beyond. We want you to become an "Excel Ninja"!

We'll be focusing on techniques and shortcuts which are especially relevant in your day-to-day Excel work as an HR or L&D professional.

Best of all? You are guaranteed to learn something new, regardless of whether you consider yourself a complete beginner or a seasoned Excel jockey.

Who is Excel Academy? Founded by Dan Stillerman in 2014, Excel Academy has become well known for a uniquely fun, interactive and practical style of presenting. The team has helped tens of thousands of people through their training.

- How to use keyboard shortcuts to fast-track your work
- How to format your work professionally so that you wow your colleagues and clients
- How to summarise those huge data sets with elegant PivotTables and PivotCharts

Ogilvy’s Experience-Driven Onboarding Journey – Live Showcase

The Head of L&D at Ogilvy South Africa, Marissa Wild, will be joined by the Client Success Lead at TalentSmith Technology, Verna Agenbag, to bring you a showcase of the Ogilvy digital onboarding journey. Ogilvy set out to solve for hybrid onboarding in 2021 and has since seen tremendous success in their new digital programme. Let’s find out the why, the how and the what’s next with a live showcase of their onboarding programme.

In this session, the audience will learn about…

1. The Ogilvy business case: What challenges and goals did Marissa and the team want to solve?
2. The Ogilvy journey: What has gone into creating and launching their digital onboarding programme?
3. The real deal: What does the Ogilvy journey look like – let’s see the journey live!
4. The outcome: What has the feedback and engagement from new team members and hiring managers been like since launching?
5. Tips: What to consider when creating an experience-driven onboarding programme.

Designing Stories Into eLearning

eLearning doesn’t have to be a content-focused experience that leaves learners overwhelmed and wondering how it all applies to them. Incorporating storytelling into your design is a great way of making content easier to understand and feel relevant to the learner. But how well you design stories into your courses is what determines its success.

In this session, you’ll learn the three primary steps for using storytelling to enhance your eLearning courses. First, you’ll learn strategies for interviewing subject matter experts to get the stories you’ll need to tell. Next, you’ll learn tips for using instructional design strategies to build stories into your courses. Finally, we’ll discuss bringing stories to life using scriptwriting techniques, imagery, and audio.

Ways to interview subject matter experts to unearth the story the course needs to tell
Methodologies for designing stories into your courses
Strategies for telling your stories with scriptwriting and multimedia techniques

5 Excel Efficiency Hacks for HR and L&D Professionals

This fun and interactive crash course will reveal some of the best-kept Excel secrets you can apply immediately, to significantly ramp up your confidence and productivity in Excel and beyond. We want you to become an "Excel Ninja"!

We'll be focusing on techniques and shortcuts which are especially relevant in your day-to-day Excel work as an HR or L&D professional.

Best of all? You are guaranteed to learn something new, regardless of whether you consider yourself a complete beginner or a seasoned Excel jockey.

Who is Excel Academy? Founded by Dan Stillerman in 2014, Excel Academy has become well known for a uniquely fun, interactive and practical style of presenting. The team has helped tens of thousands of people through their training.

- How to use keyboard shortcuts to fast-track your work
- How to format your work professionally so that you wow your colleagues and clients
- How to summarise those huge data sets with elegant PivotTables and PivotCharts

An Artificial Intelligence Solution to Leadership Development

Evalex research into the phenomenon of high impact corporate leadership over the past 40 years has resulted in many interesting findings and conclusions.

One such finding was that most of the leaders that we read and hear about and admire in terms of how they build businesses and create employment, had multiple mentors and role models that helped shape their leadership styles, approaches and behaviours.

These leaders were fortunate enough to have had the privilege of reporting to, working with or having been in a position to relate to healthy and positive role models and mentors.

But not all current and potential leaders in our society have had the privilege of role models, mentors or opportunities for leadership development.

There is an urgent need to identify and develop leaders to help grow businesses which in turn stimulates the economy, creating meaningful employment towards the attainment of a healthy society.

In addressing this need to place a solution in the market that can scale the opportunities for leadership development, Evalex Talent Solutions developed the AI driven Evalex Leadership Evolution and Acceleration program (Elea)

Our presentation at this conference will share with the audience the following insights:

• How Artificial Intelligence was used to analyse the behaviour of more than 15,000 leaders in dealing with more than 20 business and organisational problems to derive a new, fresh and modern leadership competence framework.
• How Eva (Evalex Virtual Assessor) our digital and virtual I/O Psychologist and Coach was developed.
• How Eva facilitates the Evalex Leadership and Acceleration program (Elea) providing a powerful experiential leadership development opportunity.
• How Elea provides easy access to a cost effective and efficient leadership development program.
• How Elea presents a unique recipe for leadership success based on the high-performance leadership DNA inherent to most successful business leaders.
• A case study of how effective Elea was in growing the leadership competencies of a group of leaders in a well-known South African company.

An Artificial Intelligence Solution to Leadership Development

Evalex research into the phenomenon of high impact corporate leadership over the past 40 years has resulted in many interesting findings and conclusions.

One such finding was that most of the leaders that we read and hear about and admire in terms of how they build businesses and create employment, had multiple mentors and role models that helped shape their leadership styles, approaches and behaviours.

These leaders were fortunate enough to have had the privilege of reporting to, working with or having been in a position to relate to healthy and positive role models and mentors.

But not all current and potential leaders in our society have had the privilege of role models, mentors or opportunities for leadership development.

There is an urgent need to identify and develop leaders to help grow businesses which in turn stimulates the economy, creating meaningful employment towards the attainment of a healthy society.

In addressing this need to place a solution in the market that can scale the opportunities for leadership development, Evalex Talent Solutions developed the AI driven Evalex Leadership Evolution and Acceleration program (Elea)

Our presentation at this conference will share with the audience the following insights:

• How Artificial Intelligence was used to analyse the behaviour of more than 15,000 leaders in dealing with more than 20 business and organisational problems to derive a new, fresh and modern leadership competence framework.
• How Eva (Evalex Virtual Assessor) our digital and virtual I/O Psychologist and Coach was developed.
• How Eva facilitates the Evalex Leadership and Acceleration program (Elea) providing a powerful experiential leadership development opportunity.
• How Elea provides easy access to a cost effective and efficient leadership development program.
• How Elea presents a unique recipe for leadership success based on the high-performance leadership DNA inherent to most successful business leaders.
• A case study of how effective Elea was in growing the leadership competencies of a group of leaders in a well-known South African company.

Our Journey at SPAR Central Office Into The World of Digital Learning

Describing the journey SPAR Central Office have been on since Covid and the opportunities and learning that has arised from it. The discussion will be told in the form of a story, with a snakes and ladders analogy when talking about  the pitfalls and opportunities. It is a fun story about where we started, what we did well, what we are planning and what key competencies we had to develop. Also, there is a bit of a play on how Culture not only eats Strategy for Breakfast, but will devour your digital transformation dreams.

1. How important partnerships with the right people are?
2. Some thoughts around Instructional Design skills when looking at digital learning.
3. Some fun we had along the way and how we learned to speak "Techonese"

Mindfulness at Work: A Critical Skill For the 21st Century

The workplace is increasingly fast-paced and complex, making the ability to be mindful at work a competitive advantage. For many people, the workday is spent dealing with multiple meetings, constant deadlines, distractions, and other stressors all competing for our attention at the exact same time. We end up answering emails while on an MS Team/Zoom call…going to the bathroom with our phones to check our messages…completing online training while eating lunch… we’ve developed coping habits of “always being on”.

The workplace asks us to perform at our best, be productive and focused, get along with colleagues, impress management, and delight clients. We can easily get tangled in a web of pressure, stress and multi-tasking which can lead to constantly feeling tired, anxious and stressed impacting our well-being, productivity and enjoyment of work.

And that’s where being mindful at work comes in - mindfulness helps you to get off this hamster wheel of busy, busy, busy and allows you to get present and reconnect with what’s happening in the moment - to calm your nervous system down, gain back your perspective, tap into your inner resourcefulness and ultimately make you more productive and enjoy your work more!

This sounds like a great idea, but how do you actually become more mindful in the context of a busy, stressful workday? In this talk we explore what mindfulness is, why mindfulness is a competitive advantage and cover simple, practical tips on how to incorporate mindfulness into your daily routine.

1. Understand what mindfulness is
2. Recognise why mindfulness is a competitive advantage in the workplace
3. Be able to practically apply simple mindfulness techniques to boost productivity and work enjoyment

Meeting the Talent Challenge by Leveraging Skills As Currency

The world of Talent is changing. In 2021 around 48 million workers quit their jobs. Contending with a working world where disruption has become the norm has meant that organisations are scrambling to retain skills, reskill, grow capability internally and attract those rare skills that will allow them to keep their business running. Unfortunately current strategies often only focus on skills for specific areas, differing skills ontologies create convoluted, competing libraries; and consolidated, trustworthy workforce skills data remains elusive.  Jannie Malan, Principal, Solution Consultant, Workday is joined by  Zameer Ahmed, HR Executive : People Enablement, Adcorp to explore some of the real-world talent challenges that Adcorp encounter and positions how cloud technology and Machine Learning is assisting global organisations to surface new insights on the skills of their workforce, while being able to make strategic decisions about upskilling and reskilling existing talent and creating a marketplace for experiential learning. Empowering workers to discover their true passion and enabling organisations to be agile in their talent strategy.

Earned Salary Access – Ending South Africa’s Crippling Short-Term Credit Cycle, With The Most Innovative HR Tech Solution

In this session we will explore Earned Salary Access, the fastest growing employee benefit in South Africa. With so many South Africans relying upon expensive and often predatory short-term credit just to make it through the month, the introduction of Earned Salary Access is a highly anticipated and a very welcomed solution.

We will be covering the following:

1. What is Earned Salary Access?
2. How this simple solution works?
3. The benefits to both organisations and their people.

And so much more...

Come join me, Tamir Sacks, co-founder and CEO of PayCurve and lets unpack how employees across the country are taking control over their financial affairs and breaking the credit reliance cycle.

Digital Art of Possible: Era of the Employee

Employees today are re-defining the role work in their lives, companies are facing challenges with growing inflation plus other industry related challenges. Leaders must balance their labor challenges with business challenges – all of which put pressure on the bottom line. One way leaders can address their workforce challenge is to find modern ways to include, engage and develop their employees - especially important in our hybrid world of work.

Employment verification – A single platform that connects employers and verifiers

In this session, we will explore why accurate and compliant employment verifications are so vital and how through the use of technology we can achieve superior results for both employees and third parties.

We will be covering the following:

1. The current employee verification process
2. A new age of verification – what is VerifyNow
3. The benefits for all parties in the Ecosystem.

Come join our CTO Bevan De Nobrega and understand how technology is leading the way to a better service for all.

Microsoft's Approach To The Hybrid Paradox

Microsoft's Work Trend Index, which surveys more than 30,000 people across 31 countries, reveals that 73 percent of respondents would like for the flexibility they’ve experienced to continue. At the same time, 67 percent say they want more in-person time with colleagues too - this is the hybrid paradox
As companies adapt to hybrid work environments and re-open their physical offices, there is a renewed focus on the employee experience and the “worth it” equation while making sure that people are at the center. It is going to take a whole organisational shift spanning physical environment and office spaces, culture and talent as well as technology.

Join this conversation to hear from Microsoft South Africa HR Director Sameera Mahomed about their approach to the hybrid paradox.

Earned Salary Access – Ending South Africa’s Crippling Short-Term Credit Cycle, With The Most Innovative HR Tech Solution

In this session we will explore Earned Salary Access, the fastest growing employee benefit in South Africa. With so many South Africans relying upon expensive and often predatory short-term credit just to make it through the month, the introduction of Earned Salary Access is a highly anticipated and a very welcomed solution.

We will be covering the following:

1. What is Earned Salary Access?
2. How this simple solution works?
3. The benefits to both organisations and their people.

And so much more...

Come join me, Tamir Sacks, co-founder and CEO of PayCurve and lets unpack how employees across the country are taking control over their financial affairs and breaking the credit reliance cycle.

Preparing the Workforce of (Tomorrow) Today: Learning & Development for a Changing World

Our session will highlight some features of the Area9 Rhapsode™ platform and the role it plays in ‘Preparing the Workforce of Today’.
Change is occurring today on a seismic scale: greater globalization and heightened competitiveness, new and evolving occupations and job functions, and rapid expansion of technology. The challenge for L&D professionals is delivering training and education capable of keeping pace with this rapidly evolving reality.
Corporate learning and development (L&D) programs today must address an urgent problem: reskilling and upskilling staff, with greater efficiency and effectiveness to keep pace with a dynamically changing world. Across the business landscape, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things, and other advanced technologies continue to drive change in the digital era.

To make the most of the human- plus-machine partnership, higher-level skills are being demanded of workers. For example, 21st century skills known as the 4Cs—communication, critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity—increasingly will distinguish what humans uniquely bring to the workplace. Yet how can learners build such competencies when so much time is spent acquiring and mastering knowledge, which traditionally has been the focus of training?

Clearly, new learning approaches are needed. Educators, policymakers, and L&D professionals, alike, must recognize that 21st century skill development requires a 21st century training approach. Static models of the past no longer suffice. Every learner is different; therefore, formulaic and one-size-fits-all models suit no one.

Technology is part of the solution. Specifically, adaptive learning must be deployed to meet the personalized needs of learners. Adaptive learning brings together the best of computer science with cognitive research and has been shown to improve efficiency and effectiveness in learning.

As L&D professionals seek to demonstrate return on investment (ROI) for the training delivered, data generated and collected by advanced adaptive learning models, such as the world-first Area9 Rhapsode™ platform, provide deeper insights into how people are being equipped with the skills they need to execute the company’s strategies.

1. Definition of Adaptive Learning - key use cases in the 21st century
2. Unique learner paths to proficiency - course completion vs course mastery
3. Reports & Analytics - data-rich learning platform that gives insight into learner and content performance

Meeting the Talent Challenge by Leveraging Skills As Currency

The world of Talent is changing. In 2021 around 48 million workers quit their jobs. Contending with a working world where disruption has become the norm has meant that organisations are scrambling to retain skills, reskill, grow capability internally and attract those rare skills that will allow them to keep their business running. Unfortunately current strategies often only focus on skills for specific areas, differing skills ontologies create convoluted, competing libraries; and consolidated, trustworthy workforce skills data remains elusive.  Jannie Malan, Principal, Solution Consultant, Workday is joined by  Zameer Ahmed, HR Executive : People Enablement, Adcorp to explore some of the real-world talent challenges that Adcorp encounter and positions how cloud technology and Machine Learning is assisting global organisations to surface new insights on the skills of their workforce, while being able to make strategic decisions about upskilling and reskilling existing talent and creating a marketplace for experiential learning. Empowering workers to discover their true passion and enabling organisations to be agile in their talent strategy.

The Future of Employee Wellness

The mental health crisis has shaken the working world and now more than ever, employers need to focus their concerns around the mental health and wellbeing of their employees. Panda is a mental health care app that was built to tackle this crisis and overcome three main factors preventing individuals from accessing the care they need. These factors are: stigma that is still associated with seeking psychological help; difficult to navigate mental healthcare systems; and, industry structure as the first point of call for mental health care is often a specialists (psychologists, psychiatrists etc.,) which is the least cost effective form of care.
Within Panda, employees can anonymously engage in the Panda Forest: live, audio only sessions offered 12 hours a day, 365 days a year on topics our users tell us they need to talk about, like depression, anxiety, work and financial stress and overcoming trauma. Users can engage with toolkits that include videos and articles to find out more about mental health, and solutions that have proven to work; and in another key feature, they can do assessments that will guide them to the right level of care.

Social workers and wellness counsellors (wo)man our unique text-based chat support service where employees can discuss everyday worries with an experienced real-life human on the other side of the conversation at a fraction of the price of a psychologist. If they need to meet with a psychologist, coach or dietician, they can be matched with the right one within the app.

Panda is the technology that businesses have been crying out for. With Panda, the more employees engage the better their experience, at no additional cost for the Forest, content or assessment. Employees need never concern themselves with the loss of anonymity as all reporting is anonymised and aggregated. Quality of care can be retained while driving down costs by using evidence-based screening tools to ensure that everyone gets the right level of care, at the right time.

1. Panda has been built to overcome barriers to employees accessing mental health care through giving the option of an anonymous profile, providing mental health care across the severity spectrum, and ensuring high quality and cost-effective care.
2. Panda operates on an engagement and utilisation model where the more users engage, the better. This is in contrast to traditional employee wellness solutions where incentives are often misaligned in that the fewer employees engage the better.
3. The more people engage with the app, the better the recommendations for the right care at the right time for our users and therefore, the better the user outcomes.

The World is Your Playground: How Employer of Record Solutions are Disrupting the Future (and Present) of Work

In the past, businesses have been confronted with the debilitating challenges of hiring talent in foreign countries. Today, Playroll’s Employer of Record (EoR) solution helps businesses with a global mindset to fly right past the cost, delay, HR and payroll complexity and legal liability of hiring talent anywhere.

Playroll is part of a wave of highly effective and efficient third party EoR SaaS solutions that are catalysing a new age of truly global business.

In this session, Simonetta Giuricich, COO of Playroll, will unpack the global trends that are driving this new era and how EoR solutions positively impact the employer and employee experience. She will also demonstrate how easy it is to scale your business globally using Playroll.