April 2018 – Have you future-proofed your talent pipeline?

The Global Headhunting Firm for Africa

With technology dramatically changing the skills your future hires will need, future-proofing your organisation to ensure you have the right mix of skills is more pertinent than ever. Find out more about our Candidate Catalogues.

We had a very busy April. Don’t miss out on our Executives on the Move and Out & About features below.

For employers, be sure to take a look at our featured diaspora and local talent, or get in touch directly. If you’re an employee in the market, check out the great career opportunities. Make sure we’ve got your CV.Have a great month ahead.

Onwards & Upwards

The Homecoming Revolution Team

By 2020, more than a third of the desired core skill sets of most occupations will be comprised of skills that are not yet considered crucial to jobs today, according to the Future of Jobs report by the World Economic Forum.

At the same time, 77% of CEOs see the availability of key skills as the biggest threat to their businesses, according to a recent survey by PWC.

“It is more critical than ever for employers to have a strong pipeline. Organisations need to rethink their talent attraction and retention strategies to reflect the skills and structures they will require in future to align with the rapidly evolving world of work,” comments Angel Jones CEO of Homecoming Revolution.

“We anticipate demand for highly skilled professionals to only intensify as the gap for critical skills widens. The world of work as we know it will not be recognizable within the next five years, and companies who do not prepare themselves are putting themselves at serious risk,” she continues.

Homecoming Revolution’s bespoke Candidate Catalogues offer employers in-depth market intelligence of the talent landscape both locally and internationally, helps them understand future talent needs, and equips them with strong insights into the calibre of high potential candidates in their particular industry.

“Having access to the right talent at the right time, allows employers to to take future business into consideration and react swiftly to market changes and challenges.”

Click here to find out more about Homecoming Revolution’s Candidate Catalogues.

Lazaros (Lazo) Karapanagiotidis has been appointed as Head of Digital Innovation at Makro.  Lazo is responsible for promoting the use of new digital technologies to optimise the end-to-end Makro value chain for competitive differentiation and overseeing operations in rapidly changing sectors including mobile apps, social media, virtual goods and marketing.

Another core part of his role is driving the adoption of technology across internal and external customers, and developing plans to manage resources, risk, time and quality, while creating an innovative, fun, focused, relevant and delivery-centric culture.

When asked what appealed to him about the role with Makro, Lazo comments, “Makro is an entrepreneurial business that is unafraid of pioneering new things. The digital promise and relevance to the South African market Makro holds just made so much sense and the role was next to impossible to resist.”

He says the best thing about joining Makro is the organisation’s diversity and authenticity.

“Makro has a culture of harnessing the deep knowledge of its people. It’s an extremely diverse place which focuses on empowering its staff. This is what makes this place special and unique. It’s got a ‘real’ feeling to it.” Read more.

Mats Granryd, Director General at the GSMA said Sub-Saharan Africa is a dominant region as mobile money evolves into the leading payment platform for the digital economy with 690 million registered accounts in 90 countries around the world.

“The pioneer of mobile money, Sub-Saharan Africa is still the global leader in the sector, accounting for almost half of all registered customers globally. Last year, mobile money transactions in Sub-Saharan Africa reached US$19.9 billion – 63 percent of the global figure – and represented two-thirds of the volume of total transactions.” Read more.

Kenyan Male – Global Engagement Head in Fintech
Nigerian Male- Head of Customer Experience in Banking
Kenyan Female – Marketing Director in FMCG
Rwandan Female – Chief Operating Officer in Technology
South African EE Female – Head of Internal Communications in Financial Services
Nigerian Female – Global Audit Manager in Banking, wants to return from the UK
Kenyan Male – Sales Director in Telecommunications
South African EE Female – HR Director in FMCG
Rwandan Male – Business Banking Head in Financial Services
South African EE Male – Head of Quantitative Research in Investment Management
Kenyan Female – Head of Operations & Business Growth in Banking
South African EE Female – HR Lead in IT
Ugandan Female – Senior Systems Analyst in Technology
South African EE Male – Senior IT Project Manager in Banking
Rwandan Female – Country Lead Digital Banking in Fintech
South African Female – Communications Director in Technology
Kenyan Male – Executive Director in Management Consulting
South African Male – Head of Business Integration in Financial Services
South African Female – Marketing Operations Director in Energy, wants to return from the US
Nigerian Male – Senior Product Manager in Information Technology
South African EE Male – Senior Solution Architect specializing in HRIS, wants to return from the UK
Kenyan Male – Operations Lead in Logistics & Supply Chain
South African EE Female – Marketing Manager in Food & Beverage
Nigerian Male – Chief Operating Offer in FMCG
South African EE Female – Executive Director of Operations in HR

The Norval Foundation, the highly anticipated latest addition to Cape Town’s culture and arts scene, opened in Steenberg on 28 April. The new centre for art is a research and exhibition space for 20th and 21st century artworks, as well as a platform for music and cultural expression.

Margaret Gradwell (Contemporary Landscape Artist), Lindsay Terry (Head of Marketing at Ellerman House), Martine Schaffer (Consultant at Giggal) and Talita Swarts (Artist & Art Guide)

Lindsay Terry (Head of Marketing at Ellerman House), Martine Schaffer (Consultant at Giggal) and Faye Tessendorf

Faye Tessendorf, David Ryan (Rhino Africa Safaris Founder & CEO), Nicola Harris (Chairwoman of the Click Foundation), Lindsay Terry (Head of Marketing at Ellerman House), Martine Schaffer (Consultant at Giggal)

Faye Tessendorf & Nicola Harris (Chairwoman of the Click Foundation)

Martine Schaffer (Consultant at Giggal), Oliver Nurock (Project Coordinator at Lalela Project) & Cat Rieper (COO of the Lalela Project)

Gidon Novick (Founder of Lucid Ventures) & Faye Tessendorf

The Making HR More Relevant in Organisations of the Future event, hosted by GIBS, brought together key HR Executives to tackle how businesses of the future need to adapt, change and build new business platforms of engagement in order to remain relevant. Some major trends and issues covered included Employee Engagement, Work Spaces of the Future and Managing Millenials.

Dr LIziwe Masoga (Executive People and Brand Old Mutual Insure)

Vinolia Singh (Group HR Technology: Senior Manager at Imperial Holdings Limited) & Faye Tessendorf

Faye Tessendorf and Colin J Browne (Founder of Happy Sandpit)

IDC hosted 100 of South Africa’s most influential CIO’s in a single gathering in Johannesburg. The event focused on making sense of Southern Africa’s rapidly evolving digital transformation landscape. Key topics covered included Transitioning from Business to Digital Business, Driving Digital Business at Scale and Enabling Disruptive Automation.

Oracle Africa keynote, Itayi Mandonga, outlining the New Era of Cloud

TV Journalist, Devi Govender, opens the 10th Edition of the IDC CIO Summit

Panel discussion: The digital skills race, are you attracting the right talent – hosted by Research Director IDC George Kelbaila

O bring my terug…. More and more SA expats just want to come home

Take a look at our comments in this article in the Sunday Times about how scores of South Africans, including those skilled in health care, engineering, financial services and information technology, have either returned home or are homeward bound. Read more.

Homecomer’s mission to make SA’s story more accessible

South African homecomer Michael Charlton’s highly acclaimed My Father’s Coat is a one-man show written with the intention of bringing South Africa’s history to life. The show condenses South Africa’s epic narrative into a bite-sized story which is both compelling and accurate. My Father’s Coat has drawn amazing emotion from South Africans and non-South Africans across the globe. We ask him some questions about the fascinating story behind My Father’s Coat as well as his reasons for coming home… Read more.

Kampala welcomed me with open arms

Stacey Mwesezi is a Ugandan repatriate who relocated to Kampala in 2015. She speaks about the ups and downs of her move and how it feels to be a repat in Uganda… Read more.

Determination & persistence pays off

For Stephanie Busari, moving back to Nigeria from London was a big bold bet predicated upon her passion for telling authentic African stories, and her role as CNN’s Supervising Producer for Africa… Read more.