These four companies are supporting HR excellence 

With just days to go before the inaugural CHRO Awards, there are four companies that deserve an honourable mention. Oracle, Workday, Clarkhouse Human Capital, and Momentum Consultants and Actuaries have thrown their weight behind what is bound to be a groundbreaking ceremony. It is because of organisations like these that, founded only in 2017, CHRO South Africa has grown in leaps and bounds to deliver on its envisioned promise of connecting and elevating HR executives.

Further reinforcing their commitment to enabling organisations to offer an enhanced people experience, Workday has sponsored the most prestigious accolade of the evening - the CHRO Of The Year Award. Workday only officially launched in South Africa in February last year even though, by then, they already had secured their first major local client, Dimension Data, two years previously. They continue to be a major supporter of CHRO South Africa and, despite being a relative newcomer (and with a global track record dating back only 14 years), they have already secured the likes of Aon, Unilever, a top South African legal group and another tier-one financial service company. 

Meanwhile, Momentum Consultants and Actuaries will be sponsoring the employee value proposition award. The company’s executive director Blessing Utete says that achieving business success requires adaptive, competitive, skilled staff, and a culture that fosters attracts and retains top talent.

“Without insightful HR leaders and strong teams to support them, effective talent management is impossible. HR has an essential role in managing talent and providing an enhanced experience for employees. Not only does this ensure that employees are happier, but it also makes them more invested in the company’s success,” he says.

“The success of a business depends heavily on the engagement of its employees, as happy, engaged employees are more effective and productive. Employee engagement is one of the biggest challenges in today’s workforce, and HR teams must constantly find the best engagement strategies for their employees in order to build a positive and engaging culture. We must celebrate those who help achieve this."

ClarkHouse Human Capital will be sponsoring the award for transformation and empowerment. 

“Diversity and transformation is a business imperative that needs to be carried through the thinking of the entire organisation and be part of every single person’s KPI’s. Diversity is actually a science and needs to be looked at as a complex set of human capital expressions from multiple angles,” says ClarkHouse co-founder and director Deborah Booth.

“Innovation, leadership and, most importantly, culture, are as important as transformation. The transformational part of the equation in turn also needs to be completely unpacked into gender, generational, LGBTQI and race to truly get the full benefit of diversity.”

Lastly, Oracle is the Strategy and Leadership Award sponsor. When it comes to human resources, Oracle HCM development and strategy leader for Africa Ronnie Toerien says HR leaders are crucial, not only the success of the organisations they represent, but to the economic prosperity of the country as a whole.

Says Ronnie: “South African organisations face a challenge: despite unemployment being at 29 percent in the second quarter of 2019, the ability to attract and retain skilled staff remains exceptionally difficult. To exacerbate this challenge, as organisations embark on large-scale projects to deliver digital innovation, skill requirements are constantly evolving. This creates pressure on organisations' training and development capabilities, as well as increasing the complexity of workforce planning.

“However, mastering these challenges is critical to the success of the overall business; improving customer experience is a key priority for many organisations, and the employees are the ultimate custodians of that experience. Therefore, those who can navigate these waters are ultimately the beneficiaries of significant competitive advantage. Based on this, many leaders ensure that they leverage all the capability of the modern Human Capital Management (HCM) platform as a key contributor to their success.”