Deloitte SA Blog

Businesses today operate under unprecedented conditions of competition and turbulence, making it increasingly difficult to attract and retain talented employees and fill scarce-skills positions.

In a recent article by SAICA (2013: Moneyweb), the chief executive officer of SAICA, Matsobane Matlwa, says, “Companies trying to survive and thrive have turned to the advanced financial management skills of CAs(SA) to steer them through the toughest economic times of our generation.

In troubled times is not just about controls, tax or ratios – though these are important – it is about grasping and managing risks and strategic opportunity. This is why CAs(SA) also dominate the chief executive function in South Africa with three out of ten (29.7%) listed company leaders also having achieved the CA (SA) qualification.”

Critical CA leadership talent is becoming increasingly scarce in South Africa due to this appreciation of the abilities of CAs and the resultant demand exceeding supply, growing skills shortage in the profession (continuous shortage of 5 000 CAs as far back as 2008). The laws of economics dictate that a high demand and shortage of supply of top talent should lead to a highly competitive market for CA talent.

For your organisation to thrive, it is important to be ahead of the game in terms of attracting the best chartered accountants in the country.

Download the full article . . . .  An innovative approach to leadership talent strategy and sustained future success

If you require a more detailed discussion around your organisation’s leadership talent strategy, feel free to contact Anneke Andrews at anandrews@deloitte.co.za

We welcome you to join the Deloitte South Africa – Audit group on LinkedIn to post comment and interact with your peers

Deloitte South Africa are pleased to share with you a summary of the market trends and priorities that are driving human capital decisions for corporate leaders across South Africa.

This specially tailored report compares the South African results to the overall results of our comprehensive survey of more than 1,300 business leaders and HR executives in 59 countries comprising the world’s major economic regions.

Deloitte’s global human capital survey set out to determine which trends are playing the most significant role in global organisations today and which are further out on the horizon.

Accordingly, we have categorised these trends as either leading or highly relevant today, rising, relevant in the next one to three years, or emerging, three or more years from now.

This South Africa report was designed to complement the Deloitte 2013 Global Human Capital Trends report, “Resetting Horizons.” We believe both reports will inform your organisation’s leaders on the issues impacting companies throughout our country – and around the world.

We look forward to engaging with you around the findings and to help you unpack their implications for your human capital, HR and talent management decisions.

Click Here to download  Human Capital Trends 2013 – South Africa report

Click Here to download  Deloitte Global Human Capital 2013 Trends report

Yours sincerely

Trevor Page, Human Capital Practice Leader, Deloitte South Africa

A project manager leads a project by scheduling activities, monitoring the timeline and constraints, and motivating everyone involved. This article takes a closer look at more specific skills that make a good project manager.

1.    Computer skills

A project manager does not have to be an IT specialist. However, today’s project manager needs to be able to use basic office software, such as word processors, spread sheet tools and office email systems, irrespective of whether it is from Microsoft or IBM.

A project manager should also be able to create and manage project schedules in a tool of choice, for example, MS Project or Primavera. In a project/programme office environment, it is essential that a project manager are comfortable with organisational tools, such as EPM or SharePoint.

2.    Ability to apply basic and logical thinking

Working with creative, problem-solving teams can sometimes lead the team to lose sight of the basic outputs that need to be achieved. A project manager may often need to apply basic, logical thinking about what is needed for the specific project and what can be achieved – just to bring expectations back to reality.

3.    Competent at maths

This component has two elements to it:

A project manager will always be responsible for the project budget and  therefore needs to be comfortable with any calculations in this regard. Although a project manager does not have to be an accountant, he/she must be able to interrogate project financial numbers and notice when the numbers do not add up as expected.

In some organisations and environments, a project manager may be required to conduct Earned Value (EV) calculations, such as SPI and CPI. It is then essential for the project manager to be able to do calculations at this level.

4.    Managing the level of detail

A very tricky challenge for a project manager is to balance the project team’s focus on the level of detail. Sometimes a project manager has to worry about the leaves, and sometimes a project manager needs to see the forest. Successful project delivery is tied to understanding the level of detail involved and needed at the right time.

5.    Good communications

A project manager needs to be able to express and share the needs and successes of a project with the relevant stakeholders and participants, which should be done through timely and well-packaged messages.

6.    Conduct public speaking

A project manager will represent and defend projects in various forums, some of which may be alien, politically against or hostile towards the project. Understanding the audience and being able to focus the message at the appropriate level is critical in such scenarios.

7.    Managing people

Project delivery requires people to succeed. A project manager will only be as successful as the people he/she surrounds himself with. Quite often though, a project manager may not have a choice in who is assigned to the project team. In such instances, it is up to the project manager to understand each individual, what motivates them, and how to get the best from them on the project. The core principle that people are humans will often come into direct conflict with project delivery and timelines.

8.    Technical expertise

Does the project manager have to be a subject matter expert?

Yes, and no. In some cases the answer is a definitive yes, for example, if the client is building a bridge, the project manager is required to be registered with the Engineering Council. In many cases, however, it is advantageous to have a expert project delivery track record rather than just being a technical expert. A talented project manager knows when to bring in the right expertise, as and when required.

A project manager’s role varies considerably according to the project, but a strong set of the above skills will support a project manager in the role of leading a project effectively.

Download the article . . . . Which 8 skills form the basis for a good project manager

For any further information, please contact Adie Gerber on email at adgerber@deloitte.co.za or LinkedIn at http://za.linkedin.com/pub/adie-gerber/12/703/996 or Twitter at @AdieGerber

Organization design is a complex undertaking with no guarantees. Most organization design programs do not live up to expectations and often create more disruption than business value. Our global experience has shown why the success rate of such well-intended projects is still so low:

• Most organization design projects proceed to the design phase with very limited analytical work. The analytics that do take place are often based on incomplete or very high-level data sets
• Most design projects don’t go far enough in addressing real organizational or structural issues
• In more than 60 percent of cases, these important projects are left up to middle management to design and implement. There’s too little sponsorship, oversight, or involvement from senior executives
• Often, businesses embark on organization design projects in search of benefits they can’t achieve through organization design alone—or even at all

Realizing the impact of organization design: Ten questions for business leaders presents the latest Deloitte thinking on creating the conditions for highly successful organizational design based business transformation through three distinct phases:

• Decide: Is organization design the right solution for the business?
• Design: The right future organization is not based on structures alone
• Deliver: Realize the planned benefits and value through thorough implementation

Creating and implementing a new design can be a significant organizational accelerator in complex business environments. Asking the right questions at each phase—and acting on the response—can save time and effort. And it’s the only way to link the effort you’re expending with the results you want.

Download the point of view to learn more about how to drive really successful organizational design based business value.

If you have any questions relating to organisation design, please contact Trevor Page (Human Capital Practice Director at Deloitte Consulting South Africa) at trepage@deloitte.co.za

The International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) published a Consultation Draft of the Integrated Reporting Framework (Framework) for public comment on 16 April 2013. This Framework was developed based on the comments received by the IIRC on the 2011 Discussion Paper “Towards Integrated Reporting – Communicating Value in the 21st Century” and constitutes the next step in the process to issue the International Integrated Reporting Framework later in 2013.

For a more detailed discussion on Integrated Reporting and how Deloitte can assist your organisation in the creation of the Integrated Report, feel free to contact Nina le Riche at nleriche@deloitte.co.za or Dr Johan Erasmus at jerasmus@deloitte.co.za

The Framework is to be welcomed as it presents a much clearer picture of the required approach, considerations, inputs and disclosures to generate an effective and meaningful Integrated Report. Although the Framework is based on the Discussion Paper, it encompasses both a refinement and elaboration of the applicable concepts and principles which inform and underlie Integrated Reporting (IR) and the Integrated Report, as well as the various content elements which should be addressed in the Integrated Report.

The Framework makes it clear that a principle based approach should be followed in the preparation of the Integrated Report. Rather than to provide a list of detailed disclosures, the Framework sets the scene and provides the underlying principles and considerations that should guide the approach to IR and the publication of the Integrated Report.

In essence, the Framework proposes that the company should explain to its stakeholders how it creates and sustains value in the short, medium and long term. The explanation should adhere to the fundamental concepts and guiding principles in describing the business model used to create value. In doing so, the company should discuss and link all content elements. This should all be underpinned by the strategic objectives of the business.

Download the full article . . . .  Telling the story of long term value creation

For a more detailed discussion on Integrated Reporting and how Deloitte can assist your organisation in the creation of the Integrated Report, feel free to contact Nina le Riche at nleriche@deloitte.co.za or Dr Johan Erasmus at jerasmus@deloitte.co.za

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Deloitte Global Human Capital 2013 Trends report

Five years after the onset of the Great Recession, companies are beginning to reset their horizons. For the last several years, human capital decisions have been largely shaped by that recession and its aftermath of weak economic growth. While the global economy continues to lurch forward, the Deloitte Global Human Capital 2013 Trends report finds companies pivoting from the recession to the new horizons of 2020.

Contact Trevor Page at trepage@deloitte.co.za to unpack the results of the Deloitte Global Human Capital 2013 Trends report and to discuss appropriate strategies for your organisation.

Today, the world’s leading organisations are raising their sights, broadening their focus and leaning forward. These companies understand that uncertainty is still part of the business landscape; but instead of merely reacting to change, they are harnessing it and turning it into a business advantage. They recognise that, in a world that is changing rapidly, the speed with which organisations adapt has become a critical business capability.

This reset occurs at a time when the talent agenda itself is undergoing a dramatic revision – with significant implications for CHROs and all senior business leaders worldwide. At today’s leading organisations, talent is becoming entirely integrated into business strategies, capital investments and operations.

Human capital issues command increasing attention and, in some cases, has become a permanent fixture on board agendas. Senior business leaders consider talent to be perhaps the critical factor in the push for sustainable growth and the need to manage new opportunities and risks in a more complex—and interdependent—world. Whether the growth strategies today are based on new innovative products and services, new market entry or through mergers and acquisitions – all are dependent on talent as the core foundation for success.

As a result, talent is now driving decisions that touch deeply on an organisation’s core strategy: How should we expand into new markets and which markets offer the best opportunities? Do we have the people we need to drive new product innovation? Is this the best company to acquire and can we integrate successfully? How should we organise our business in a post-digital world driven by social media, mobile technology, and universal access to “big data?”

Listening to clients, conversing with experts and conducting research, senior members of Deloitte’s Human Capital team have identified 13 global trends that we believe are driving human capital decisions. Our goal was not to look decades ahead and make predictions about a future that may or may not come to pass. Instead, we sought to identify changes currently afoot that are already shaping the future of organisations, whether they realize it or not.

In our research, two categories of trends emerged: those that are pushing business leaders to explore new paths and new solutions and those that require executives to change the way they execute their talent and business strategies. The report is divided into these two sections: Exploration and Execution.

To better understand the global relevance of these trends, Deloitte conducted a survey of more than 1300 HR and business leaders in 59 countries.

The survey results suggest that the 13 global trends presented in this report vary by level of intensity and maturity – from leading trends (those considered highly relevant over the next year) to rising trends (those considered relevant in the next 1-3 years) to emerging trends (those relevant in the next 3-5 years).

Download the results of the Deloitte Global Human Capital survey . . . . Human Capital Trends 2013

Contact Trevor Page at trepage@deloitte.co.za to unpack the results of the Deloitte Global Human Capital 2013 Trends report and to discuss appropriate strategies for your organisation.

Today’s organisations are faced with tougher challenges and are continually pushed to make change happen faster. As human nature makes it difficult to speed up the way individuals change, the way organisations face and manage change must transform.

Organisation Acceleration: The new science of moving organisations forward presents a new framework for strategic change management.

• Insight: Analytics are increasingly used for change management, however the value arises from interpretation. It takes a combination of analytics and experience to turn information into insight which helps target exactly what needs to happen.
• Precision tailoring: There is no single process by which people or organisations change. Organisations respond more effectively to solutions that are tailored to the way they operate, amplifying the need for a fine-tuned customisation of the change management process.
• Impact: An organisation that has created change can sustain it by making it measurable. The impact also lasts longer when it is ingrained in the way people approach their work and through the organisation’s cultural change.

Leadership is the foundation for Organisational Acceleration – the condition that precedes all others. Leaders’ failure to execute strategic plans often contributes to the failure of organisational transformations.

Download the paper to learn more about how the Organisation Acceleration framework is pivotal to guiding businesses through the new dynamics of change.

If you have any questions or require a more detailed dicussion, feel free to contact Trevor Page (Deloitte SA Human Capital Leader) at trepage@deloitte.co.za or Jack Sellschop (Director - Human Capital at Deloitte Consulting) at jsellschop@deloitte.co.za

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Every successful organisation knows that the only way to achieve, maintain and grow market share relies on one thing – a coordinated pool of talent doing what they do best, and contributing to a high level of performance that outstrips any competition. Populating your organisation with more talented people than your opposition is one of the most effective and enduring exercises in competitive advantage that go far beyond anything else you can do to improve your ability to compete.

For a discussion around a holistic approach to talent management and assessments, contact Manie Roodt at maroodt@deloitte.co.za or Nicole Kempster at nkempster@deloitte.co.za

The challenge facing organisations is how to identify the competencies and potential that underlies talent and how to define and measure that talent

Most corporate assessment approaches today do not fully utilise available technology. Many psychometric assessments are manual and some are PC-based, a process that is time consuming and no longer effective. Booking and doing an assessment is outdated, report writing takes too long, and traveling and time costs are incurred because the psychologist and client need to meet face to face. Finally there is no one system to drive this process. There are a number of assessments that are internet based but even then the process largely exists of a number of loose-standing fragmented tools from multiple suppliers that are flung together in an assessment session.

The ability to attract, develop, and retain talent, particularly at the management level, has become a major factor in all capital investments, business strategies, and organisational growth initiatives. Organisational risks include talent-related risks and are frequently identified by organisations as some of the most critical issues they face. Instances where talent is at the core of major organisational risk are increasingly prevalent. Hiring someone that doesn’t match the job at hand can be expensive to all involved. With the aid of the right online assessment tools subjective decision making can be avoided.

Talent Management is not a short-term solution to short term problems. It needs time to become part of the ethos, culture and value system of the organisation. To allow this to happen a few things need to be in place. The approach needs to be simple to use, the “language” and terms used as well as assessments need to be standardised. Furthermore the models, processes and methodologies need to be robust and based on sound theory but still be very practical.

A “best practice” approach to assessments enables an organisation to profile the leadership, strategic, behavioural and technical competencies requirements per position, to assess candidates/staff against the profile, to search staff/positions for best fit, and to generate competence intelligence reports in one environment.

Human beings are complex and to understand a person in totality requires an approach that not only assesses a person’s personality and cognitive thinking, but also other elements that have been proven to drive performance such as knowledge, technical ability, interest, and values.

An organisation should adopt a holistic approach which assesses all the drivers of High Performance. The assessment system should be accessible from anywhere and integrate the three major assessment technologies into one solution.

Whether you are using assessments to recruit and select applicants, to identify training needs within your organisation, to identify  leadership style or to perform succession planning; you need an online, integrated solution that can assist you in this critical decision making process.

For a more detailed discussion around a holistic approach to talent management and assessments, contact Manie Roodt at maroodt@deloitte.co.za or Nicole Kempster at nkempster@deloitte.co.za

We welcome you to subscribe to the Deloitte newsletter where we introduce Deloitte thought ware prepared by our industry and subject matter specialists on a weekly basis.

EEE

With an emphasis on cutting operating costs, HR departments are increasingly being asked to demonstrate their own value and how investing in the workforce drives revenue and influences the top and bottom line. Driving the trend for human capital measurement are several factors:

• The need for foresight – moving from reactive to proactive
• Falling technology and data costs; new models and tools
• Data-savvy leaders

By taking a more strategic approach to decision making and using advanced analytics to turn HR data into actionable business intelligence, companies can leverage their existing ERP systems, data warehouses, and smaller-scale HR point solutions for critical insights into the workforce.

These insights, in turn can help guide decisions that are critical as the business confronts a range of issues. We believe this capability is not a “nice to have” – it’s a “must have” going forward.

Download the full article . . . .  Using advanced analytics to turn HR data into actionable business intelligence

This article was prepared by Hein Nienaber (Associate Director – Human Capital) and Candice Silverstone (Workforce Analytics Lead) at Deloitte Consulting Southern Africa. For a more detailed discussion, contact Hein at hnienaber@deloitte.co.za and Candice at csilverstone@deloitte.co.za

We welcome you to visit the Deloitte Southern Africa Human Capital website to learn more about how we add value to our clients

Talent 2020 – Surveying the talent paradox from the employee perspective

The economic turbulence of the past few years has created a talent paradox: amid stubbornly high unemployment, employers still face challenges filling technical and skilled jobs. Deloitte first uncovered this modern contradiction from the employer side in The talent paradox: Critical skills, recession, and the illusion of plenitude.1 In this Talent 2020 report, we turn our focus to the employee perspective on the talent paradox.

Through the lens of the employee, this paradox produces some interesting findings. In Deloitte’s most recent global survey of employees, 80% indicated they plan to stay with their current employers in the next year—a significant 45-point swing compared to our 2011 survey. Yet, at the same time, nearly one-third (31%) of surveyed employees reported they are not satisfied with their jobs.

These findings highlight the fundamental question in the employee talent paradox: Are employees truly satisfied? Or are they simply accepting their fate by “making do” with their current employers because of a difficult job market?

Companies seeking to thrive given today’s challenging competition for talent cannot give way to complacency in the face of seemingly high retention numbers. Nor can they neglect their talent and retention strategies out of a false sense of security that employees have few options in a tight job market.

Instead of addressing broad concerns over turnover—as seen in previous surveys—employers now face a more targeted challenge. They need to adjust their talent management initiatives to focus on retaining employees with critical skills who are at a high risk of departure and the capable leaders who can advance their companies despite continuing global economic turbulence.

To help employers gain a better understanding of the latest employee attitudes and emerging talent trends, Deloitte Consulting LLP teamed with Forbes Insights to conduct a survey of employees working at large companies worldwide. The September 2012 report, the fourth in Deloitte’s Talent 2020 series, surveyed 560 employees across virtually every major industry and global region.

Download the survey . . . .  Talent 2020 – Surveying the talent paradox from the employee perspective

Would you like to have a more detailed discussion? We would love to hear from you! Visit the Deloitte Southern Africa Human Capital website or contact Trevor Page at trepage@deloitte.co.za to set up an appointment.