Tag: job security

The truth is we are not returning to normal as we knew it before COVID-19, and many South African consumers are grappling with a range of emotions as they consider what the future will look like. Early on in the pandemic, there was a belief that not much will happen to drastically affect consumer behaviour.

Economic analysts recently reported that by August 2020 as many as half of South African small businesses had closed down due to the national lockdown. A more frightening statistic awaits our economy as, 6 months later, many more find themselves on the threshold of survival as the impact of the lockdown continues to distress small, medium and micro-businesses (SMMEs).

It’s universally agreed that one of the most significant changes that have been brought about by the COVID-19 is the shift in the way people will live and work in the years to come. Given that technology and digitisation will be central to this shifting dynamic, the role of data scientists in enabling and informing business strategy has never been bigger or more important.

Transformation and innovation make 2020 a year to remember as pandemic catapults new digital service offerings to elevated heights. We have embraced 2020 with a strong focus on people and health and safety; innovative technology and finding solutions to keep customer service at an all-time high.

As the economy opens up, following the slow phasing out of the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, many businesses are returning to work. For small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), who have lost out on eight weeks of trade, the process of reopening their doors and scaling up production is going to be difficult.

President Cyril Ramaphosa presented the five-level, risk-adjusted strategy that will guide South Africa’s emergence from lockdown. As the finer points of the strategy were shared, it became clearer how - and when - certain sectors will once again gear up into activity.

As the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown nears the end of its initial deadline, businesses across the country have had to review the way that they communicate with their employees. With the diminished in-person contact that employers now have with their workforce, it is vital to have a system in place that ensures staff are equipped with the right information in order to stay safe, remain engaged with their companies, and be prepared for work to resume.

The 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) is gaining traction in all sectors. Artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and automation are being applied to create ingenious innovations – advancements aimed at making life easier, improving productivity and speeding up the evolution of industries.

When the concept of volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) was coined by the U.S. Army in the 1990’s to describe how crazy the post-Cold War years were, those early proponents had no idea that this would continue to be true for years to come.

South Africa was once speculated to have a government workforce larger than that of the United States. Think about that for a second or two. A country whose population numbers close to 57 million with more civil servants than a nation of over 300 million individuals.