SOUTH AFRICA’S UNEMPLOYMENT WOES AN OPPORTUNITY TO PROVIDE PERMANENT JOBS AND EMPLOYEE STABILITY

The quarterly employment survey recently released by Statistics South Africa announced a net quarterly decrease of 48,000 (-0.5%) jobs between December 2016 and March 2017 - this while South Africa’s unemployment rate already sits at an all-time high of 26.5%. For those entering the job market hoping for some good news, these latest figures hold no reprieve, particularly with significant decreases observed in the trade, business services and community services industries with 32,000, 23,000 and 8,000 job cuts respectively. Successful entrepreneur and CEO of Innovative Solutions Group, Arnoux Maré, says this scenario presents the country with fertile ground to breed successful local entrepreneurs to increase the job pool and grow the economy from within. And he should know. Maré left a comfortable and thriving corporate career in sales and marketing to start his own business, Innovative Staffing Solutions, in his lounge in 2011. All he had was a revolutionary staffing idea and R600 in his pocket. Six years later his business is R600 million strong and employs over 7,000 employees. Maré is quick to add that business was not always plain sailing. With his never-say-die attitude, a setback in 2012 which necessitated the closure of some branches and redeployment of employees, was seen as a steep and hard learning curve. “I took a step back during that time to probe what went wrong but moved three steps forward when I mapped out my company and our competitors’ product and service offering. Having learnt a few hard lessons, I remapped my terrain and came up with a product that has made Innovative Staffing Solutions totally unique in its field of outsourcing employees,” he continues. With a clear understanding of the rules of the game, staying true to his values and philosophy of innovation, and aligning to clients’ needs so that they can focus on their core business, the startup quickly recovered. With the business growing rapidly under his command as a result of Maré’s consistent hard work, keeping things practical and focusing on his core business offering, Innovative Staffing Solutions started buying up the companies that was providing it with ancillary services. As a result, Innovative Solutions Group was borne which now incorporates 17 subsidiaries across a variety of sectors. Although Innovative Staffing Solutions remain its largest operation, Innovative Accounting Solutions, Innovative BEE Solutions, Innovative PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) Solutions, and Innovative Guarding Solutions are growing rapidly as they too add direct value to Staffing clients’ business needs. Maré says that this current economic downturn is the perfect opportunity for organisations in the transport, mining, engineering and hospitality sectors to sign their employees over to Innovative Staffing Solutions. “It makes economic sense for companies to contract their staffing needs to us as it is a win-win situation for the employee and the organisation. We are not labour brokers. Innovative Staffing Solutions contractually agree to employ our clients’ staff on a permanent basis so whether we maintain a client’s staffing contract or not is regardless. Employees do not risk losing their jobs because our client’s staffing requirements might have changed. We simply outsource our staff to another client who is in need of our qualified or specialised employees’ services. Companies don’t risk having to lay off or retrench people because of an economic downturn and don’t have to face the subsequent organised labour consequences as a result thereof. By utilising our services, we manage the client’s complete human resources function, which allows them to focus on their core business and growing their organisation,” he continues. He adds that in the company’s six years of existence, it has never faced industrial action because “working for Innovative Staffing Solutions often means employees receive better benefits, improved and managed working hours and have a dedicated manager who can address their individual concerns.” Innovative Solutions Group remains on a robust growth trajectory with a projected 48% increase in revenue for this year of which 115% has already been exceeded. “Going forward, Innovative Solutions Group will keep doing what it does and continue to build our operations with new business acquisitions and carefully considered investments, as well as creating and stimulating job opportunities which contribute to government’s poverty alleviation goals,” concludes Maré.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mines to gain control of yellow metal assets – aims to reduce fraud

SAMAR announces plans to cover entire life-cycle of all assets MIDRAND, SOUTH AFRICA – 25 May 2017 – The Southern African Movable Asset Register (SAMAR) today announces its plans that will allow mines, contractors, manufacturers, importers, builders, banks, insurers as well as the general public to control title and ownership of all movable assets, including yellow metal and other movable assets used during operations. In Africa, many yellow metal assets are crudely marked and registered to businesses. However, SAMAR creates the most recent reliable record of an asset and yellow metal by updating records in real-time as changes are made by various system participants. This allows businesses to effectively manage and control the financing of assets and yellow metal not on eNaTIS throughout their lifecycle. This greatly reduces fraud, theft, double discounting, or incorrect depiction for value and insurance purposes. Benefits for contractors • The value of movable assets and yello...
Read more

Reconditioning of components with Thermal Spray Coatings

Image
The application of Thermal Spray coatings by South Africa’s leading surface coating specialists, Thermaspray, can lead to an enhancement in performance and an extension of service life of expensive engineering parts and industrial components, leading to substantial reductions in downtime and production costs. Engineering components and parts in production processes are subject to degradation through wear, corrosion, oxidation and cavitation. Thermaspray, Managing Director, Dr. Jan Lourens, points out that as all these degradation processes are active on the surface of components, a suitably selected and correctly applied surface coating like Thermal Spray can effectively re-condition production equipment to ‘as new’. “In fact”, adds Dr. Lourens, “very often, through degradation analyses and the selection of a superior coating, a thermal spray coating makes it possible to provide virtually as good as new a component. Most importantly for the end user, this means substantial cost sav...
Read more

Creativity Saves Lives. Protect your people today, tomorrow and for the future

Image
MEDIA STATEMENT A strong Health and Safety culture improves productivity and assists in creating a safe and great place to work. The health and safety dialogue company ensures labour force, management, community and all stakeholders are aligned in creating and respecting a safe and healthy working environment. Through workshops and visual campaigns, we bring your Health and Safety Policy to life. Legislation is designed to protect human life and to enforce safety standards. However, OHS Acts are often complex and difficult to understand especially in areas with low literacy. It is essential as a business to ensure your labour force truly understand the associated risks within their working environment; culture goes beyond ticking training boxes. Has your organisation considered the importance of promoting a Health and Safety culture? Are you confident your employees are living and working in a safety conscious culture beyond paperwork and legislation? The vision of the health and...
Read more