Mental Health in the Workplace – Practical ways for organisations and employees to create an ecosystem in which mental health and wellness can flourish.
The once-taboo topic of mental health in the workplace is making headway – and with good reason. 1An estimated 12 billion working days are lost globally each year to depression and anxiety at the cost of $1 trillion per year in productivity. What’s even more concerning is that this number is on the rise.
3About one-third of human life is spent working. It is now more than ever needed for an organisation to take a proactive approach to address mental health and wellness in the workplace. Employers and employees cannot afford to bury their heads in the sand.
So, what constitutes good mental health exactly? According to the 2World Health Organization (WHO): “Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realise their abilities, learn well and work well, and to contribute to their communities. Mental health conditions occur irrespective of whether work has causally contributed to them.” Thus, the onus lies on both the organisation and the employee to take responsibility to create and have a mentally healthy workplace.
Here are 5 steps that organisations can take to create and maintain a mentally healthy workplace:
Educate and Introspect
Before mental health in the workplace can be advocated for, it must be understood and taken seriously. Employers need to understand what mental health entails and how organisational practices can contribute to mental health and well-being.
Employers can reflect on the impact of their leadership style, people management skills, and the health behaviours they are modelling and how these feed into the organisation’s culture.
Insights gained through understanding proactive mental health programmes can be an investment that yields valuable returns11.
4Prevent
Mental health conditions can be prevented by managing psychosocial risks in the workplace. These risks include stress, fatigue, bullying, aggression, and violence which can be attributed to job demands, low job control, lack of role clarity, traumatic events and inadequate reward and recognition.
Psychosocial risks can be mitigated by implementing organisational interventions aimed at reshaping conditions, cultures, and relationships. Examples of such interventions include providing flexible working conditions, implementing frameworks and policies to deal with discrimination and harassment and appointing mental health ambassadors at work and breaking stigma.
Enable a level of control. Giving employees a sense of autonomy and control at work contributes to job satisfaction and fulfilment, which are likely to aid in preventing poor mental health conditions.
5Protect and Promote
The 6WHO suggests protecting mental health by training managers on recognising and responding to employees experiencing emotional distress and building interpersonal skills (such as how to communicate and listen in better ways).
7Support
Employers can support employees by providing reasonable accommodation, implementing return-to-work programmes after being off-sick and supporting employee initiatives.
Initiatives and interventions should be monitored and adapted to ensure effectiveness.
Communicate and Build connections.
Employers should aim to openly communicate about mental health8 (which can include personal experiences)9, to aid employees to feel safe and engage in open conversations. This can help employers and managers to detect distress and direct employees to available support.
Make time to connect and have fun as a team.
And here are 3 ways that employees can maintain good mental health and well-being at work:
10Employees should take ownership of their mental health.
Employees contribute equally to creating mentally healthy organisations. It is an employee’s responsibility to report hazards and risk factors to manage psychosocial risks.
A major part of an employee’s day is spent at work, but employees can still choose how they spend their time outside work. Employees should take time to prioritize their well-being by including the following practices:
Daily self-care includes being physically active, maintaining a healthy diet, getting adequate sleep, and connecting with friends and family.
Practice mindfulness and gratitude
Educating themselves about mental health.
11Get involved Employees represent the largest group within an organisation, and therefore have a significant impact on organisational culture.
Employees should reflect on how their actions feed into the organisation’s culture, for example: ‘How do I treat others? Do I make time to listen to colleagues? Am I openly talking about mental health? Am I adding to a colleague’s workload by not pulling my weight?’
Enquire and get training on how to become a mental health ambassador.
Employees can also encourage employers to focus on and offer mental health support and wellness initiatives.
12Utilize the resources available.
Many initiatives can be put in place; however, it remains the employee’s responsibility to use or direct their colleagues to these when needed. As well, as to help employers identify support or resources that are needed or insufficient.
Arguably, mental health needs to be taken seriously by employers and employees.
11 Deloitte Insights: The ROI in workplace mental health programs: Good for people, good for business. A blueprint for workplace mental health programs (online).
SBS-ED in collaboration with Stellenbosch Business School Alumni Association presents our Leadership Foresight Webinar Series 2022 – a series of 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘀 facilitated by heavy-weight subject matter experts and consultants, with contributions from industry leaders.
Register for the upcoming event in our 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀, “𝗪𝗲’𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗧𝗢𝗚𝗘𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥” which will take place on the 27th October 2022. Natasha Winkler-Titus, together with Dr. Joy Ntetha, Sifiso Skenjana and Simon Peters will discuss why it’s more important than ever for businesses to embrace #Ubuntu philosophy, and how leaders can make this shift.
As part of the Young Minds Programme, Joshua Fillmore is hosting a series of conversations with some of South Africa’s most successful young entrepreneurs. Chad Robertson is unquestionably one of the best social entrepreneurs in South Africa. Chad is the co-founder and CEO of Regenize – an extremely innovative waste management company. Regenize has won numerous awards over the past few years and is making a difference in the lives of thousands of South Africans on a daily basis.
Can you give us a short overview of what Regenize does?
Our whole business is about making zero waste services accessible, inclusive, and rewarding. We are a recycling solution and we perform recycling services, using two business models – one in paid or upper-income areas, and a free model that focuses on lower-income areas. For both of them, it’s about making recycling accessible.
We’ve worked on a new type of model within the lower-income side – integrating formal waste collectors and setting up decentralized recycling hubs in these communities. Our service is free to residents of these communities, as the majority of people who live in lower-income areas didn’t recycle before. We do this through our virtual currency called “Remali,” or “Recycling Imali” (i.e. money in isiXhosa), which encourages and rewards environmentally sustainable behaviour, which residents earn each time they perform recycling activities.
Regenize is a for-profit company, which is focused on creating both environmental and social change. You’re playing in the people, planet, profit model. Which of these three elements were you most focused on in the beginning? Has this changed over time?
In the beginning, personally, my drive was very much planet-focused and environmentally driven: fighting climate change, seeing the impacts of climate change on the planet, as well as the impact of waste on the planet. As I got into solving the problem, it shifted entirely to people, as it’s a human-created problem. I saw that, if you can get the people on board, you can make the changes necessary.
That shift came after about a year of operating when we realised the role of informal waste collectors in the South African economy. Research says we have about 90,000 informal waste collectors in our country. They are responsible for collecting up to 80% of all paper packaging waste that we recycle. And they save the government up to R715 million land a year from landfill efforts. For us, it begged the question, why are we not working with this big market? They are already doing the work. We try to do the same work, so let’s work together. And that’s how the whole integration process started. But what came from that was so much more. We started working with these guys and in doing so, realised that we needed to start thinking about so much more than just our business and operations.
It involved another dimension of thought for our business. All of a sudden you’re working with people who might have a substance abuse problem, who might not have a bank card, who might not know how to work a smartphone. Automatically, we had to start training the guys about how to use a smartphone, how to deal with customers, and assist them to open bank accounts – and if they needed any other assistance, providing that. That’s the best way to look at it because if you can’t get people on board, you’re not going to get the impact or the behavioural change that you want to see with it.
Profit is obviously important for business, but it is probably the least important out of the three for us. If you don’t have a planet, you’re not gonna have people and you’re not going to have people who can give you the profit. So, our theory is that by focusing on impact, the planet, and our people, then the result is profit. And if you can solve an issue that’s going to impact millions of people, then it is easier to make a profit than focusing on making a profit from the start. That’s at least my theory. For us, our focus now is primarily on people, especially with what we do in the informal space.
On your website, it specifically states “recycling for South Africa.” Can you elaborate on the importance of local entrepreneurs, stepping up to build solutions that solve local problems?
Local entrepreneurs are so important because we have very special problems. Our context, as South Africans, is unique. You can easily just take a concept and try to adopt it or adapt it, but at the end of the day, it needs to work for your users, your context, and your location.
In South Africa, we are a nation of complainers. There is a lot to complain about. So, when I hear people are leaving South Africa, looking for opportunities, I am very confused. I see all our problems as potential solutions. In every community, there’s a problem that needs to be solved. Finding problems in our country is quite easy. It’s up to you as an entrepreneur to decide what size problem you wanna pick. If you pick a big problem that is impacting a lot of people, your market is really big and you can obviously scale your solution.
For us, it was about trying to rectify what has generally been done in the recycling space – which is something that is usually just adopted from first-world countries. But we have different stakeholders in our value chain, we have different users. So, it was important for us to develop and design according to that. In the beginning, we didn’t know about it. We had to learn it. As we developed our solution through various trials and errors, we had to do a few pivots in our business model as we learned what is important to our users, what is important in our country, and what is gonna work here. We have to build for our context, and this is a phrase that we use often in our company.
What is one of the biggest leaps of faith that you’ve taken on your journey?
As an entrepreneur, you are committing so much. Every act you do is a leap of faith in some way. It’s difficult, but if I had to pick just one, I’d say it was when I was starting out and I made the decision to leave my job. Coming from the Cape Flats, I didn’t have a rich background. I had studied for four years, I had put in quite a big effort to get the job that I had and, all of a sudden, I was saying goodbye to that safety. I didn’t have a salary, so I had to sell my car. Starting out was a big risk, but at the same time, it didn’t feel like it at the time because I was young and didn’t have many responsibilities. Leaving my job for what I wanted to do was the biggest leap of faith.
What would you recommend to aspiring entrepreneurs to be able to identify and understand both the problems and potential opportunities that are out there?
Align the problems that are out there with your interest and your passion – make sure that the problem you are solving aligns with something that you truly care about. We are currently in the recycling space, looking at zero waste solutions, but where we started was a totally different area. I’ve always been an environmentalist, so that was where my personal interests live. My skills are in software and I managed to find a sweet spot between my passions and my skill sets.
That said, my business partner and I had backgrounds in software as we studied information systems. Our journey into the entrepreneurship field was through an excitement around the concept of 3D printing. We went through a journey from wanting to use 3D printing, to designing 3D, to printing people’s 3D designs. From there, we went on to pivot into using plastic waste to make 3D printing material.
It was through those pivots and research that we learned what the really big problem is. We discovered that, at that time, only 3% of South Africans were recycling plastic waste. (That number is now sitting at 7.5%). So we started moving in a totally different direction, and we came to learn about the more pressing issue at the same time.
We entered the recycling space as a potential software solution. All we wanted to do was make recycling more accessible to residents – we wanted to incentivise them to recycle. So we came in as a solution for existing recycling companies to try and get them to use our solution. But that didn’t happen right away– and that kind of forced us to get into the recycling space ourselves. We had to get our hands dirty and we had to get into the operations of the industry to bring in our own vision, which was really interesting – especially as our skills were in software and building in tech. But in some instances, to find out where the ecosystem or existing infrastructure isn’t working, you have to go and get your hands dirty and sometimes build that value chain that you want to solve.
The Young Minds Programme, certified by Stellenbosch University, is a 9-month career-focused gap year programme that helps school-leavers and young adults prepare for the next steps in their life and career. The programme focuses on, among other core themes, business management, entrepreneurial thinking and personal mastery – the key ingredients necessary to explore the real world of work and help participants discover who they are, as well as what they want to achieve in life.
To find out more about the Young Minds Programme, click here.
As part of the Young Minds Programme, Joshua Fillmore is hosting a series of conversations with some of South Africa’s most successful young entrepreneurs.
Higgo van Biljon is a man of many talents. Higgo is the founder and CEO of FinMeUp, and is both a tech entrepreneur and a musician. He founded the app while studying at the University of Stellenbosch. After having to put a pause to their sign-ups, due to the massive demand for their services, they have just relaunched a new app – which is currently being used in seven countries.
Can you give us a short overview of what the FinMeUp app does?
FinMeUp stands for “Finance Me Up.” We aim to clear the way to financial freedom for Africa by bridging the gap between financial education and execution. On the FinMeUp app, you’ll find information about all things finances, insurance, investing, credit, and tax – all on one platform. It’s the curated Instagram for finances. We connect various, vetted industry experts that are creating educational content with you, and we are continuously developing new features to build us towards our mission.
Anyone that meets you will immediately see you are extremely passionate about FinTech and the way that it can increase financial education and inclusion. Where do you believe this passion came from? How important do you feel it is to be passionate about the problem that you’re solving?
Starting a business is very challenging. In the tough times, in the big decisions, it all boils down to the why. And the why comes from your passion. I’ve always hated poverty and seeing people in poverty, and I’ve also had a passion for growing wealth.
When I was in grade seven, I asked my dad, “How can I buy a gold token? Because I want to put my savings where they will be worth more in 10 years’ time.” He told me to rather look at investing in the stock market. And since then I became a stock market fanatic. In school, I used to put my phone in my pencil case and hide it from the teachers, so I could read about investing. In grade nine, my parents trusted me enough to take over their pension fund. I also tried various hustles – selling droëwors and biltong in the halls. I tried a few tech hustles as well, and most of them failed. But it was the learning and development for me that became continuous, both with regards to accumulating money and then growing that money.
Building wealth has always just been this interesting thing for me, and it’s developed into a passion to educate others and see them grow their finances. In that process, I learned so much from other people. When I took over my parents’ pension fund in grade nine, I joined an investment group that met once a month with investing experts, buying stocks collectively, and continuously learning. In that entire process, I wished that I didn’t have to learn things the hard way. That became the basis on which FinMeUp was built.
How would you recommend building a community/network of like-minded individuals for someone who doesn’t necessarily have access to large or wealthy networks?
Building that network comes by doing things well. You need to be executing. When I started out, I was just this ambitious kid that wanted to network and get mentored. I wanted a mentor to teach me the business side of things, but those people that you want to be mentored by are often the busiest. It wasn’t until FinMeUp actually launched and had some traction that they were willing to meet and mentor me. Their time is precious, and for them to notice you, you have to be doing something well.
Don’t be afraid to ask, and don’t be afraid to get rejected. Even now, I reach for the stars with some individuals. One reply will come from every twenty messages I send. I will get nineteen rejections, but one door will open. So it’s about constantly reaching out, speaking to people, and building relationships – not just doing things for yourself, but also adding something of value to them. Healthy relationships go two ways.
What are your thoughts on the concept of entrepreneurs keeping their ideas to themselves versus going out and actually talking to people about them? How have you approached this?
Ideas are the easy part. Execution is everything. And that’s where 90% of people fail. I’m not afraid to share my ideas because everyone has ideas, but without actually talking to people, you’re not going to get partnerships, investors, or feedback from potential users.
Obviously getting contracts in place is important, and sometimes you need a non-disclosure document when you are really sensitive about your information. But if I have a big idea, I’m willing to share it with our community. I’m willing to share it with potential partners, because if they can execute it before us, then great – we can see how we can partner up.
What are some of the most common mistakes aspiring entrepreneurs generally make when starting out?
I see people starting out alone, but I would start a business with someone else. While I could, I wouldn’t do it alone – but with no more than three people or it starts to become complicated. If one of you is struggling or has no motivation, you can help the other. You can also diversify your skills together. As an entrepreneur, you have to be good at so many things, products, marketing, legal, and technical stuff. There are too many things that you can face that lead to burnout. So having someone else on your side with different skills can help you. Obviously choosing a co-founder is not easy. You’re basically getting into a business marriage with them – it’s not something you can just shake off, so you have to be extremely careful with this decision.
The Young Minds Programme, certified by Stellenbosch University, is a 9-month career-focused gap year programme that helps school-leavers and young adults prepare for the next steps in their life and career. The programme focuses on, among other core themes, business management, entrepreneurial thinking and personal mastery – the key ingredients necessary to explore the real world of work and help participants discover who they are, as well as what they want to achieve in life. To find out more about the Young Minds Programme, click here.
As part of the Young Minds Programme, Joshua Fillmore is hosting a series of conversations with some of South Africa’s most successful young entrepreneurs.
Undoubtedly one of the best entrepreneurs in South Africa, Thando Hlongwane is the founder and CEO of Lipa Payments as well as the founding member of Zaio and Nisa Finance. He has been tackling education and financial inclusion for many years already, despite the fact he’s only in his early twenties. He is a wealth of knowledge on all things, startup tech, and funding.
Can you give us a short overview of what Lipa Payments does and why it’s important?
At Lipa, we build contactless payment technology. This is something that is all around these days, and enables people to make payments without the need to input a password or pin. These enable a super frictionless payment experience, and a good example that you may be more familiar with is Apple Pay. But even something as simple as tapping your card against a point-of-sale machine is a contactless payment method.
But what makes us quite unique and special is that we enable contactless payments directly on smartphones, removing the need for additional hardware. Traditionally, merchants would have to buy a point-of-sale machine – you know those clunky terminals that you see everywhere. But we enable contactless payments directly from your phone, so a consumer can tap their bank card against a merchant’s smartphone and we can do a contactless payment. We’ve also enabled low-end contactless payments using Bluetooth for the lowest-end smartphones. We enable simple payments for the mass market.
Has entrepreneurship become easier over time, or is your third company just as much of a hustle as the first?
I definitely feel as though it’s gotten easier, interestingly enough. The first version of my startup world was super manual – I ran a tuck shop at res. And there, the market is pretty well-defined, but you need to figure out what’s what. You need to figure out what the right products are for your target market, you need to figure out how to get the word out to them and you need to set your pricing. Given the fact that you’re dealing with students, they will only have a certain budget available to them.
From that time, all the way through to the startups that I’ve built now, there are a lot of core pieces that have remained consistent. In that regard, it has become easier, but each of those businesses have had some form of a ceiling to their ability to grow. As you break through some of those ceilings, you discover new challenges and complexities, so the problems just get more interesting. So, while the starting points have become easier each time, I’ve started learning new things that weren’t necessarily applicable to my previous startups.
There are many different components at play that need to come together for a startup to succeed. Which of these would you say are the most important, and why?
There are many things that can make or break a business. At the end of the day, the market is the most important thing. If you don’t have a market you’re selling to, if you don’t have a customer that’s actually going to buy your product or service, you don’t exist as a business. The most important thing you need to solve first is to truly understand who your early adopter is. You need to know where your market is, who the people that will pay for your product or service are – or at the very least know who will use your solution first.
There is a progression to this. You can start by finding someone who’s just willing to use your product or service, but it’s a whole other thing to figure out who will pay for it within that pool of people – because ultimately, you need it to be sustainable. From there, you can build a good team around you, you can focus on improving your product to serve that market better. And I mention Michael Sibos here, as he says,
You can have a really great team with a really great product and the market will still kill it, because they won’t accept it and won’t pay for it.
The other side to this is that you can have a horrible team with a really bad product, and a super scrappy Minimal Viable Product (MVP). But if the market really wants it, they’ll pay for it, and you can fix the other stuff later. That’s not to say you shouldn’t prioritise your team and everything else, but the single most important thing is the market.
What role do you believe entrepreneurship plays in shaping the future of our country and our continent?
Government has pushed a narrative of entrepreneurship being the key to unlocking employment and solving our major unemployment issues. That’s definitely one component, but the other is just human progress.
When I was younger, I told my mom that I wanted to be a scientist. And I remember her telling me, “I’m not sure if scientists make money, you should consider becoming an accountant.” That was her way of saying that there are a whole lot of people who’ve invented things, but they’re not necessarily wealthy because of them. But I think we live in a world now where the people who create things have actually been able to monetise them. They’re the ones who have been able to build a legacy of their inventions. There was a time when this wasn’t the case, the inventor wasn’t necessarily the person who could commercialise or monetise it. Nowadays, you can benefit from the legacy that you create, which means that more people are incentivised to actually push us forward as a society. Human progress requires people to sit down and solve problems, and the entrepreneur ecosystem has developed to make it more incentivising for people to solve problems – because you can benefit and build your own wealth and benefit the world at large. A few years ago, you wouldn’t have thought of entrepreneurship being the vehicle for us to pursue things like interspace travel, for instance.
What are the first few steps you’d advise someone who has a game-changing idea to take if they’re not quite sure how to go about starting and building a company around it?
The first thing is to just Google it. You’ll be super surprised about how many people may have already thought about an idea you’ve come up with and who’ve tried them out. That’s not to discourage anyone, but it is to say that you can immediately learn a whole lot from those who have already made some headway. You can look at their business models and then apply them to the context that you were thinking about or the market you had in mind. Even if they’ve failed, there’s something to learn from them. So you figure out how you would do it differently and what makes you special.
The next thing is to go and speak to your ideal customers, ask them a few questions, understand their motivations, their driving factors, how they are solving the problem you want to solve currently, and what their substitutes are. And then, you can ask them if you brought them your solution, would they be willing to pay you for it, maybe even pre-order it, because then you’re really in the money.
Through such conversations, you’ll find a common thread. You’ll discover what you need to address first and that becomes your MVP. Sometimes our idea of what our MVP is, is completely off. The thing we actually think creates value, is sometimes not that thing. And from there, you have a good basis off which to work further or change your route.
Do you find that your age plays for or against you in the business world and why?
I do think age plays a role, specifically on the B2B side, especially when you’re dealing with corporations. There’s initially that question of, “Hmm, does this guy really know what he’s talking about?” But what ultimately becomes a defining point on whether or not you’re gonna close the deal is whether you know what you’re talking about, if you’re actually solving a real problem, and whether you have the solution to the problem. What I’ve typically found is that, in my first engagement with someone, they’re a bit hesitant. In the second engagement, they realised that I know what I’m talking about and actually understand their problem. By the third, they realise that my solution seems like it could solve it. And then there is really no need for age to be a question.
But with that said, I recognise my weaknesses. My team is significantly older than me. And that’s part of understanding that, as an entrepreneur, you have your limitations, your weaknesses. Then, you build a team around that. You build a team that supplements your weaknesses and compliments your strengths.
To watch the full interview, click here.
The Young Minds Programme, certified by Stellenbosch University, is a 9-month career-focused gap year programme that helps school-leavers and young adults prepare for the next steps in their life and career. The programme focuses on, among other core themes, business management, entrepreneurial thinking and personal mastery – the key ingredients necessary to explore the real world of work and help participants discover who they are, as well as what they want to achieve in life.
To find out more about the Young Minds Programme, click here.
Data forms an integral part of any business strategy in the modern-day world. Effectively embracing the opportunities that are present within current information technology trends can help leaders and organisations exponentially advance. But how do we do this?
Conversationalists included Dr. Emmanuel K. Kalunga (Head of Data Science and Business Intelligence at OrderIn), Maritza Curry (Head of Data at RCS), Yolanda Smit (DnA Capability Leader at BSG) and Stuart Jones (Programme Director at the Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change). They discussed how data plays an integral role within business strategy for leaders, and how we can embrace the opportunities that current information technology trends present.
“There are things that any company or organisation wants to achieve using data,” Emmanuel outlined. “It’s very important, from the beginning, to know what these things are. It’s very important to get your people involved in the process of defining what it is that you wish to achieve using data. Once your people are involved and you have defined your objectives, you need to get the processes in place to ensure that whatever you are trying to achieve is feasible – and you have the right technology in place to support you.”
In light of this, Stuart mentioned that understanding the socio-political context surrounding data is critical. From a business perspective, he outlined that there is still no better way of knowing your customer than talking to them, engaging in quantitative research, and being in a conversation with them as much as you can. “The technologies we have available to do that now are manifold – social media platforms, on the phone, by email, surveys, focus groups, and so on. Constantly updating your understanding of what’s going on inside the data itself is critical. Oftentimes, one single insight can be far more valuable than multiple data sets. Getting to that core understanding of the data is what is important – and that’s something that gives you competitive leverage.”
Indeed, it is the value that the data brings that is what makes it so useful. “This points toward something that we are currently not developing within our skills,” said Maritza, “Which is information design or storytelling. Data scientists and analysts are very good at pulling a story out of the data. But they’re not very good at telling that story to a business audience, making the connection between the context of the data, and how your business works within the world.”
Yolanda agreed, adding that “It is difficult to embrace what the data is showing us if we don’t necessarily understand the story behind it. All of the technical jargon is complex. But, if we start thinking about product data not as an intangible asset, but as a product in and of itself, then everything around how we manage data and how we think about the value of data starts to become clear.”
“One of the most important skills that a data leader absolutely has to have is the ability to build communities – not only in their own organisation but also within their organisation’s network. If data is really going to become an asset that is used responsibly, then you have to get people excited about it. You’ve gotta show them that it has immense value. If you cannot establish a positive data culture, it doesn’t matter if you have beautiful data or not,” said Yolanda.
Prof. Butler agreed, having observed that there is a major shift in the mindset of organisations that value data.
Maritza continued, “You have to understand the problem or the opportunity. Then you can quantify it and measure it – and get value out of it. Essentially, there is only one strategy and that’s a business strategy. The data strategy, digital strategy, and people strategy – all of those are the building blocks of a business strategy. So, data forms part of the overall strategic map. I never start a data strategy unless I understand the business strategy because the only strategy your data has is how it will help make your business strategy successful.”
With data playing such a crucial role in business, collaborating towards a common goal is where the treasure lies. Emmanuel shared his first-hand experience of having learned this the hard way when he transitioned from academia into business: “I realised, after a few attempts, that the numbers and stats I was very excited about presenting were not impressing anyone. So, I had to start learning and interacting. I learned by interacting with businesses and getting more involved in their conversations. I learned about the kind of things they talk about and I found out what was of interest to them. It’s only when you start sharing an interest with the business and stakeholders that you learn to speak their language. Bringing this into my work with data, I could translate my stats into something that made sense to them, and actually made a difference for their business.”
“Our world is chaotic and it’s deeply interconnected and really contextual,” remarked Stuart. “We have these unprecedented events happening regularly at the moment. As an example, COVID impacted any data modelling that you might have done around your business. But the more we understand the context, the more likely we are to work with data to be able to predict such events; and keep our ears to the ground to enable as deep an understanding as possible of the way we fit into the world.”
If you missed this webinar, “All Roads Lead to DATA”, facilitated by Prof. Martin Butler, it’s available here. In it, we embrace the opportunities that current information technology trends present.
The Leadership Foresight Webinar Series is presented by Stellenbosch Business School Executive Development (SBS-ED) in collaboration with the Stellenbosch Business School Alumni Association. This free, live series takes place over the course of three events, facilitated by heavy-weight subject matter experts and consultants, with contributions from panels of subject matter experts and industry leaders. Guests from across the African continent and abroad speak about the past, present, and future focus of leadership in Africa.
Don’t miss the next event in the series, “We’re all in this TOGETHER”, facilitated by Dr Natasha Winkler-Titus, in which she and industry experts will unpack the importance of embracing the UBUNTU philosophy in businesses, and how leaders can make this shift. Register herefor this event taking place on 27 October 2022.
As part of the Young Minds Programme, Joshua Fillmore is hosting a series of conversations with some of South Africa’s most successful young entrepreneurs.
The first of these features Simon Ellis, who is shaking up the entrepreneurship scene in South Africa. He is the CEO and Co-founder of SmartWage, as well as the founding member of Nutbrook Property (a residential property development company based in South West London) and 20:40 (a not-for-profit organisation focused on the development of the next generation of leaders). He was recently invited to join the Harambe Entrepreneurial Alliance, which is a network of some of the most skilled entrepreneurs in Africa.
Can you give us a short overview of what SmartWage does and how it came to be?
“We started out two years ago as an in-wage access business, giving employees access to a portion of their salary before the end of the month – inspired by what was happening in the US. We thought that we could arrive in South Africa and offer the same product. It worked in the hands of employees, as people really need access to their money before the end of the month.
As it turned out, we are a B2B2C business because we sell to businesses and we get to their employees. The value proposition to employers wasn’t enough, so we pivoted into an HR communications business. We deliver pay slips, leave, and communications via WhatsApp to enterprises at scale. We are currently delivering it in South Africa at the moment and we’re busy expanding internationally.”
How would you recommend aspiring on entrepreneurs go about either finding co-founders or building a team? Especially those who don’t necessarily have access to large or wealthy networks?
“In South Africa, there are a really amazing bunch of networks everywhere. If you look hard enough, you will find Facebook groups, Slack groups, and WhatsApp groups. You may feel that you don’t have anything to give, but you always do. I have a couple of things that I do when I network.
If you meet someone, make sure you follow up within 24 hours. And when you do follow up, give first – give something before asking for something to create some sort of reciprocity. You’ve also got to invest the time in doing it. It doesn’t happen overnight. I’ve been actively working on networking literally for about seven years.”
Are there any major principles or values which you consciously practice in order to lead your team effectively?
“We have principles as a business. The biggest one is no ego. We’re all learning. We’re all trying to figure it out. Anyone that tells you that they’ve figured it out is lying. Uh, no one has figured it out. Making sure that you approach leadership, entrepreneurship, and whatever you’re doing with an open mind – the ability to learn is critical to your success. You need to openly learn to change your mind.
You need to learn to be able to say, ‘I was wrong, there’s new information. I can change my mind.’ Your team often knows better than you do, so to be an effective leader, you just need to combine the thoughts of everyone to help everyone drive in the right direction.”
What role do you believe entrepreneurship plays in shaping the future of our country?
“It is absolutely critical. Entrepreneurship drives innovation, innovation drives job creation, and job creation drives a better economy. And that is something that all of us win from. Obviously, that’s a simplified context, but it is absolutely critical. If we compare South Africa to a place like London, there is so much support in terms of tax benefits, funding, and networks there – which shows how much entrepreneurship is valued.
Entrepreneurship drives the start of the job creation cycle. In South Africa, that is our biggest, biggest problem. We can’t rely on private or state owned enterprises solely to drive jobs. We have to create an environment for people to thrive – and to do so, we need to give entrepreneurs the tools and the resources to thrive.”
What would you recommend for the aspiring entrepreneurs out there? What are the first few steps that they can take when starting a new company?
“Just start. Genuinely, just make a start. Everyone out there has a good idea, and that good idea may change, but you have to go and test it and listen to your customer – so start. Starting doesn’t mean doing something crazy. It just means solving the problem you want to solve in the simplest way possible.
As an example, I was looking to start a salt and pepper grinder business because I couldn’t find any salt and pepper grinders that were working. They all didn’t work. I was adamant that, before we started, we just needed to interview 200 people to understand if this is a real problem. I remember having this argument with tons of my friends who were like, ‘No, let’s just go and buy them from China.’
And this is a mistake that we can all so easily make – thinking that we know what the answer is. But the reality is that we don’t know. Our customer knows what the answer is. If you look at Amazon, they’re customer obsessed. That’s all they focused on for the entire building of that company and look what it’s created.”
How do you stay motivated in the bad times?
“I genuinely love what I do. One of my pet peeves is listening to someone who’s in a 9-to-5 corporate wheel dread going back to the office on a Sunday. I don’t see work as this separate thing to living. For me, it’s kind of the same thing. So when bad times happen, I see them as part of the process – I see them as something I’ll learn from.
Being an entrepreneur and being in a startup is a rollercoaster the best of times. One of the most important things is to not shun away the bad times. When you are going through challenges, actually acknowledge them and be conscious of them. Be aware of them and feel those uncomfortable feelings for the time that they last. You don’t necessarily need to get too caught up in them. Instead, acknowledge it, learn from it, and then move on because there is going to be a great day just around the corner.
And, if you look at all the most successful entrepreneurs around the globe, they’ve all failed. We have to create a culture that recognises that it’s completely okay to fail. It’s okay. It’s okay to have gone through the process to learn from it.”
The Young Minds Programme, certified by Stellenbosch University, is a 9-month career-focused gap year programme that helps school-leavers and young adults prepare for the next steps in their life and career. The programme focuses on, among other core themes, business management, entrepreneurial thinking and personal mastery – the key ingredients necessary to explore the real world of work and help participants discover who they are, as well as what they want to achieve in life.
To find out more about the Young Minds Programme, click here.
Developing organisational culture has never been an easy task for any leader – least of all in today’s world. The uncertainty, chaos, and complexity of the intense period of the global pandemic meant that organisations had to quickly assess, adapt, and innovate.
Why is it important to innovate around organisational culture?
“Culture doesn’t live in the abstract,” outlined Dr. Mwagiru. “It is something that is lived out in practice and experience – whether in an online or physical space. It’s about interaction among communities.” Organisational culture is a dynamic concept. It is the organic composition of multiple intersecting factors and influences that are ever-changing.
As a leader, it is crucial to have a sense of flexibility and be willing to learn and unlearn – while fostering a sense of belonging, connection, and trust within your organisation. “You can’t design organisational culture. Culture is very complex and emerges over a long period of time through engagement and socio-historical processes. Organisational culture is a mix of design and emergence. The design side is less in our control as leaders than we think. The emergent processes are actually what drive organisational culture,” shared Shamim.
“The interpenetration of diverse views, backgrounds, experiences, and opinions ultimately leads to the development of an organisation’s culture,” he continued. “In essence, it is this diversity that drives culture. If we were all the same, there’s not much significance for culture. Culture is a dynamic, organic process through all of these interactions that we have on a day-to-day basis with each other.” What is essential is to foster a sense of belonging and inclusion, creating space to prompt everyone to contribute, while highlighting what is important to them in the way that they work.
How can organisational culture develop?
“Organisational culture requires a conscious and deliberate journey,” said Gia. “Purpose, values, and aligned leadership are key, and the employee experience is enforced by these. With the pandemic, there was a catapult of employees into the hybrid way of working. Since then, flexible working spaces have become key – both as an attractor and a detractor. To build that into a culture is more complex. What has evolved with the onset of the pandemic is culture-building in a hybrid way.”
“People returned from the pandemic fatigued, tired, with spikes in depression, anxiety, and loneliness. The focus, therefore, needs to be human-centered, transparent, and open. There needs to be an element of trust, as many people have proven that they can work elsewhere. We can anchor into our purpose, create well-being, and help people to feel included,” Gia emphasised.
This means that leaders need to commit to the co-creational development of organisational culture with their staff. Colin emphasised the importance of the role of leadership in opening up channels that establish trust and good communication towards this. “More than talking, as leaders, we need to listen. We’re going to have conversations that we never really had before. Those are really important now. Evoking a space in which we make it feel great to be around our colleagues again – that’s something that we can build on.”
Spaces for deliberate communication in a safe and inclusive manner enhance organisational culture. As Shamim outlined, for those organisations that have transitioned to a completely remote way of working, these are almost as vital as physical office spaces once were. “We need to shift our investment from physical infrastructure to social infrastructure so that our people can still be part of vibrant organisational cultures they feel they really have a place in.”
The challenges that are faced:
“We tend to know each other in our roles, but we don’t know each other as full human beings,” Shamim continued. “Developing our organisational culture within the community of our team is about the human-to-human connection. It’s about the sense of care that we bring to each other, which surpasses our work.” We lost touch with each other physically, and, inevitably, this has changed how we relate to one another and to our organisations.
Indeed, Colin reminded us that we need to observe how poorly the shift to remote work took place. “Companies constantly say that they had their best year ever in 2020. But that ‘best year ever’ came at the hands and heads of people who put in 17-hour days. It’s not sustainable. By and large, this is because leaders and managers are not equipped to manage this way, they haven’t been trained in this methodology — it’s a whole different game. It hasn’t happened before. We need to get used to listening to what our people have to say, and allowing our people to experiment, innovate, and try new and creative solutions.”
And how do we face these challenges?
“The bravery with which leaders are willing to approach life alters everything,” affirmed Colin. As leaders, we need to acknowledge that there are no easy answers. We need to ensure that our thinking is appropriately positioned for us to build not only our organisational culture, but also our teams and ourselves.
The Leadership Foresight Webinar Series is presented by Stellenbosch Business School Executive Development in collaboration with the Stellenbosch Business School Alumni Association. This free, live series takes place over the course of three events, facilitated by heavy-weight subject matter experts and consultants, with contributions from panels of subject matter experts and industry leaders. Guests from across the African continent and abroad speak about the past, present, and future focus of leadership in Africa.
The recording for the second event, “All Roads Lead to DATA”, facilitated by Prof. Martin Butler, is available here. In it, we embrace the opportunities that current information technology trends present.
Don’t miss the next event in the series, “We’re all in this TOGETHER”, facilitated by Dr Natasha Winkler-Titus, in which she and industry experts will unpack the importance of embracing the UBUNTU philosophy in businesses, and how leaders can make this shift. Register herefor this event taking place on 27 October 2022.
The world today is a complex place. One day you’re minding your own business and the next? You’re figuring out how to revise your strategy to address a worldwide pandemic. Enter the “IT” series, designed to help you navigate complex, volatile and uncertain business environments with the innovation and insights required to foster transformation. Join us, as with each episode of this series, we provide you with practical takeaways that are easy to absorb and relevant. We hope that you are as excited to unpack the “IT” series as we are.
When I entered the world of business, I thought “culture” was merely one of many important components that defined a company. However, through the years, I’ve learned that it isn’t simply another component – company culture is the company.
Company culture is the only sustainable competitive advantage that is completely within the control of the company. With a good company culture established, engagement, productivity, innovation, well-being and the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) all improve. Good company culture promotes a positive, collaborative, and effective working environment.
What is company culture?
Company culture refers to the underlying beliefs, assumptions, values, and ways of interacting that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment within a company. Stemming from the leadership team, it is created and passed on to employees through consistent, authentic communication and behaviour. Employees are also responsible for contributing to the company’s culture in their own way too. Their attitudes, perceptions, and thought processes all have an impact on it.
Company culture is based on shared attitudes and customs, along with both the written and unwritten rules that have developed over time. It affects all aspects of business, from conversations and employee benefits to levels of well-being and even contract terms.
What is a GOOD company culture?
A good company culture exemplifies positive traits within the workforce and leads to happier employees who feel more comfortable, supported, and valued. On the contrary, a dysfunctional company culture brings out qualities that hinder performance and – ultimately – affect the company’s bottom line negatively.
Companies can elevate their internal culture to become part of their external identity. They can then leverage this to gain a competitive advantage when attracting and retaining both talented employees and valuable customers. This presents an opportunity to increase revenues.
Ultimately, company culture directly impacts performance.
Improving employee wellbeing: A positive culture and working environment leads to increased mental and physical well-being amongst employees and decreased levels of stress, anxiety, fatigue and burnout. This leads to healthier and happier employees which are more inclined to succeed at work.
Increasing employee engagement: Engagement levels are based on the strength of the mental and emotional connection between employees and their colleagues or workplace. High levels of engagement leads to better communication, more positive interactions, and higher rates of teamwork.
Decreasing employee turnover: Employees are far less likely to leave a company in which they feel valued and respected. This saves the company both time and money in the recruitment process and enables them to foster growth. It serves as an important way for companies to groom talented individuals into key roles and leadership positions.
Elevating employee productivity: In simple terms, this means that companies can get more done (increased output) with the same amount of resources (input). The increased efficiency enables the company to cut costs and/or generate greater revenues.
Building strong brand identity: This has positive impacts for both internal (employees, directors, etc.) and external (clients, partners, etc.) stakeholders. Companies with strong brand identities are able to attract more clients and job candidates that share similar values and support their long-term vision.
Motivating top performers: Individuals that are top performers understand the value of their skill-set and are quick to leave companies in which they feel unappreciated or undermined. Companies that recognise and support their top performers’ efforts are able to retain them for longer periods of time and encourage them to continue succeeding.
Improving the Employee Value Proposition (EVP): This leads to a workforce that feels valued, supported and motivated. It also increases a company’s ability to attract, engage, and retain top talent.
A lack of transparency and a large amount of office gossip.
Managers that do not lead by example.
Inconsistencies between what people say and do.
Unfriendly competition between employees.
Lack of adequate acknowledgement and rewards.
How do I establish a good company culture?
Every company’s culture is unique. There is no one-size-fits-all culture that is best for every company and factors such as size, structure, and industry need to be considered.
Here are four simple steps to help you to establish a good company culture:
Be open-minded: Consider how your company’s people, vision, values, processes, environment, incentives, and heritage are positively or negatively impacting your company culture. Observe the ways in which employees engage with one another on a daily basis and assess how authentic their communication is. Adopt a curiosity mindset and attempt to understand the cultures of organisations which are similar to yours.
Communicate, openly: Connect with your company’s leaders to discuss how you could adopt a proactive approach to improving these components. Create an open space in which employees can share their thoughts and feedback on your current company culture. You’ll need to empathise with employees of various levels in order to understand the culture from their perspectives and identify components of your company culture which require the most attention.
Focus on employee wellbeing: Create a culture of health within your company by prioritising your employees’ mental and physical well-being. This can be done by educating them on its importance and facilitating engaging wellness initiatives such as wellness days or webinars as well as campaigns and challenges. Ensure your employees have access to well-being content and medical professionals or counsellors.
Be consistent and encouraging: Ensure that your communication and actions are consistent and authentic. Encourage your team to prioritise alignment, appreciation, trust, resilience, teamwork, and innovation. This can be achieved through motivating them to connect frequently on both a formal and informal basis. Ensure that the team celebrates successes (both big and small), remains supportive, and approaches all situations with curiosity.
By establishing a good company culture, you’ll increase your chance of attracting and retaining talented individuals which will drive your company forward and ensure its long-term success.
Stellenbosch Business School Executive Development’s brand-new FutureManagersDevelopmentProgramme(FMDP) helps graduates and graduate interns/trainees master the first step in their overall development, management of self, and become well-rounded young leaders within an organisation. It is the responsibility of the organisation and its leaders to help them understand who they are within the broader business environment, enhance their communication and leadership abilities to ensure employee engagement, unlock their potential, and help them proactively plan and manage a long, fulfilling, and sustainable career path.
