Momentum

by AKANI CHAUKE
JOHANNESBURG – SOUTH African employers have been encouraged to adapt to the ever-shifting landscape as millennials increasingly make up the majority of companies’ employment base.

The face of South Africa’s workforce is changing and five years ago, 39 percent of employees who had employer-provided benefits with Momentum Corporate were millennials. Currently, the figure is put at 51 percent.

Yet, said Nomha Kumalo, Head Public Sector at Momentum Corporate, many companies were offering employees the same benefits they did five years ago.

She was speaking in Sandton at the Momentum Corporate Partnership Connect Roadshow – a recent event which focused on current and future workforce trends in South Africa.

Kumalo said Momentum Corporate’s research revealed that 53 percent of employees received no salary increase from year to year, and those who do receive one, had only seen an average increase of 4,7 percent annually over the past five-year period.

“It is therefore key to understand how to offer enticing non-traditional benefits to employees in order to retain and attract top talent. Insights such as these should play an integral role in the adaptation of employee benefits for the modern workforce,” she said.

Kumalo urged employers to get to grips with the real capital in any company- the workforce.

“Just like technology, people change and evolve over time. Our views change, our needs change, our preferences and behaviours change – constantly,” she said.

Researchers typically use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ending birth years for millennials.

Bronwyn Williams, Trend Translator and Future Finance Specialist for Flux Trends, echoed Kumalo’s sentiments of staying ahead of future trends.

Williams said digital transformation was already upon the workplace.

“So if you’re aiming for digitisation in the 21st century, you’ve already missed the bus and there’s a second wave that’s about to hit you,” said Williams.

– CAJ News