This week: Nandos’s “Nandocas” were encouraged to speak out about their experiences to win prizes.
Wage negotiations dominate the local employee landscape, in both the public and private sectors. Meanwhile, employees get a chance to have their voices heard and live a rockstar life, and April data shows a decline in jobs and job seekers.
Flaming Nandocas
Nando’s South Africa has become pretty well known for its original and timely marketing campaigns. It recently launched a This is Us campaign for employees in the same vein – to allow them to have their voices heard at a time when pandemic-related isolation, stress and uncertainty are taking their toll.
Nandocas, the in-house term for employees, submitted entries for the campaign with the prize being a music video and song recording with Flame Studios, including five-star hotel living, dining and professional styling services.
Palesa Tshabalala, the general manager for brand experience at Nando’s SA, said, “The pandemic has been a very humbling moment for all of us, and these Nandocas remind us of that in their lyrics.”
Seasonal decrease in job search
Job search activity has declined by 13 percent while demand for labour decreased by five percent, according to the CareerJunction Index (CJI). The data is gathered from the career search company’s website, which houses information from 3,000 recruiters and millions of job seekers.
At 108 index points, the CJI shows less competition in the job market in April. Due to the increased number of public holidays during April, a seasonal decrease in job search and recruitment activity is normal for the South African job market, according to the index.
The report shows that the current most in-demand skills are software development, middle management and sales consultants.
Not surprisingly, IT project administration and management has seen a recent spike in demand, with salary ranges from R33,000 to R66,000 a month. Salaries are categorised across the top three main economic hubs of Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
“The IT, business and management and finance sectors are undoubtedly the most sought-after sectors, followed by the sales, admin, office and support and architecture and engineering sectors, among others listed,” CareerJunction said.
Gold sector wage negotiations under way
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has submitted its wage demands to gold sector employers for the period 2021 to 2023.
This marks a first in the sector, where negotiations will be taking place outside of the traditional centralised collective bargaining council, according to a statement by NUM.
Areas submitted for consideration cover a range of areas from remuneration and leave allocations, to employee share ownership schemes and funeral benefits.
NUM and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) are also currently involved in prolonged wage negotiations with Eskom.
