The annual Ryan Strategic Advisory, Front Office BPO Omnibus Survey which announces the Most Favoured Offshore CX Location has become a highlight in the Global Business Services and BPO calendars. The survey focuses on responses from a broad reach of source market clients selecting their top CX destinations based on several data points. In 2021, South Africa was exceptionally proud to be named the Top CX Offshore destination. BPESA as the national trade body and industry association for the GBS Sector believes that the growth of the additional 17,446 new jobs across a range of global clients in 2021 has re-enforced this global leadership position. The burgeoning expansion of the sector has been further reinforced by the buyer community’s confidence in South Africa’s ability to deliver superior service to global customers. South Africa has for a number of years marketed the country and sector’s ability to support a global client and customer community. With a growing number of both domestic and international BPO’s (third party operators) setting up and engaging clients on the back of an established and robust value proposition. The South African GBS sector is known for its affordable, high quality, deep capability, empathetic and innovation service offering. The destination has passed its nascent phase and is now a key player in the global delivery community.
It is for this reason that BPESA applauds the South African BPO Community for again achieving Top Spot in this year’s 2022 Ryan Strategic Advisory, Most Favoured Offshore CX Location. The award is shared with a long-standing leader in the offshore sector – India. We are humbled to wear this accolade again and do so with pride knowing that our global client community continues to see value via the South African GBS and BPO sector.
Congratulations to all locations who made it into the top 5 destinations. • Tied 1st Place – South Africa / India • Tied 2nd Place - Poland / Philippines • 3rd Place- Malaysia • 4th Place - Egypt • 5th Place – Mexico
BPESA was recognised by the IAOP and Rockefeller Foundation with the award for the Top "Impact Sourcing Influencer" during the OWS22 on February 16, 2022. The awards were presented by Jon Browning, CEO, Global Mentorship Initiative and Chair of IAOP's CSR & SRO Committee.
BPESA congratulates Webhelp, who were recognised as the top "Impact Sourcing Provider", for the huge role they have played over the years in shaping up and refining the Impact Sourcing model to the extent that it has become main-stream in South Africa and for many of their clients globally.
This award, will hopefully strengthen the call to action for socially conscious leaders across the globe to create greater access for marginalised communities to the economic and social benefits of this high growth sector.
For more about the awards and to listen to the wonderful acceptance messages, go to:
The Department of Home Affairs has just published the Critical Skills List for 2022. This is a milestone moment and the list is most welcome in the GBS Sector as we have been lobbying for significant updates to the 2014 list for some time and now have our requirements almost fully addressed in this edition. As BPESA, we are committed to a process of developing skills locally to build our skills base and unlock the human potential that we have, reducing our dependence on foreign skills that we could develop here. At the same time, we are committed to economic growth which fuels the much needed investment and job creation in our country, and the roles that have been included in this list will unblock barriers to that growth that we faced previously making it possible for us to benefit more from our clients and partner expertise and networks as we work with them to support their investments here and jointly build a skills base that is future proof and will sustain the growth we are experiencing and that we are planning to scale up.
The new roles included in the list include executive and managerial roles, business development roles, digital and ICT roles, data specialist roles, cyber and ICT security roles, foreign language roles and others that are key to the GBS services delivered from South Africa.
Id like to use this opportunity to thank our partners in Government in the Dtic, DCDT, DHET and the DHA for including these roles and Id like to thank our team, our members, our business partners, the PPGI and BUSA for their lobbying and support to achieve this outcome. This is another great example of the fruits of close collaboration between business, government and social partners when working for a common purpose with mutual goals and objectives.
Please do review the list and reach out to any of the BPESA team should you have any queries and for all requests for support in applying for critical skill VISAs.
The GBS Sector Job Creation Report has just been published for the period 1 July 2021 to 30 September 2021. The 3,731 new jobs created bring the YTD total to 10, 637 with a the last quarter of the calendar year looking to be a big one. This bodes well for the growth path that the GBS Sector is targeting in the Sector Master Plan. While market conditions continue to improve on the demand side, buoyed by the opening up of travel and the relaxation of many COVID related restrictions globally, our focus is equally placed on the supply side and I’m delighted to say that all our initiatives are progressing well. The JF7 demand led skilling programme and the private sector funded cross skilling programme is about to be complemented with the DHET / NSF pay for performance programme, for which we are on track to submit the Sector proposal early next week. On that note, the signed letters of intent we received from business executives across the country committed to more than 15,000 new jobs to be created by them, corroborating the data we have on the growth path of this sector. The future skills platform programme, which goes live in May 2022, will augment these more face to face skills initiatives with a platform solution that will enable us to scale our access, usability, and impact tremendously.
As always, we appreciate our investors and client community who locate their business here and create the fantastic working opportunities for our talented young people. Business continues to grow quickly and at scale in the North America market while the UK market remains strong with expected strong growth in the medium term. Both markets face sourcing challenges and operators are looking more actively now than ever before at other delivery destinations including South Africa to sustain their growth. More than 87% of the new jobs created during the reporting period are for young people, and 65% are for women.
The report will give you a more detailed breakdown of the types of work being delivered from SA, and the types of jobs being created, and a lot more insight into where the growth is taking place.
BPESA, has a carefully planned leadership succession plan that it has been implementing to ensure that the important work that we do, on your behalf, will always continue seamlessly and with the right leadership in key positions in our Board, EXCO and OpsCo.
Based on that plan we have made several changes in all our structures since our inception in 2017, the most recent being my transition into the Board Chairperson role, taking over from Evan Jones last year in October. We are in the process of introducing some further changes in our EXCO and OpsCo, which I will keep you appraised of, as they take place.
However, there is one important leadership change that I wish to address in this communication.
Andy Searle’s tenure as CEO of BPESA comes to an end on 28th February 2022 and it gives me great pleasure to inform you that Reshni Singh, who we all know so well, has been appointed as our incoming CEO to take over from Andy Searle on 1 March this year.
The BPESA Board followed an extensive and very rigorous process to identify our new CEO. We set up a sub-committee to focus on this task and following an assessment of bids from three top agencies we contracted the services of Mindcor, who we felt best understood our business and requirements for the CEO role, and whose processes and track record was far superior to the others.
Mindcor went through a very rigorous, and wide approach of finding potential candidates with the right level of experience based on the job profile, and certain key requirements and elements that the subcommittee had determined. 54 prospective candidates were identified. They then went through a process of qualification within the subcommittee and a short list of 6 prospective individuals were identified. The subcommittee interviewed all 6 of those short-listed candidates and put forward nominations for the top two candidates for the Board’s consideration and vote. The vote, which took place in December, was informed by a detailed comparative assessment across four key dimensions of the role and a thorough psychometric evaluation.
Reshni has 20 years’ experience across the Department of Trade, Industry & Competition (DTIC)*, with extensive experience in the export and services sector, including general management, incentive fund administration, policy formulation, resource management, investment promotion, budgeting, strategic planning, stakeholder management, corporate governance and risk management in her existing role. She is a seasoned people leader with experience leading a large client facing team and she is hugely passionate about the development and employability of young people and women in the economy.
Reshni acquired a wealth of experience in the Global Business Services (GBS) sector in South Africa and has been providing guidance and support to global investors predominantly from the UK, USA and Australia and across various service verticals, over the past 15 years. She represents the DTIC on the Executive Committee and has been on our Board since its mobilisation in 2018. She has also played a role on the inter-Departmental Committee on Digital Skills. Reshni graduated from the University of South Africa with a degree in commerce, majoring in Accounting and Business Management and subsequently obtained a Masters’ degree in International Business through the University of London.
Reshni is a great friend of BPESA, our partners, our members, and our network locally and in all our source markets. She has worked very closely with Andy and the operational team since 2017, building BPESA to the point it is today; and comes into the role as the key architect of our GBS Sector Master Plan, which she will now lead the team and sector to implement.
On behalf of the Board and all our BPESA stakeholders I’d like to congratulate Reshni and look forward to working with her to achieve our goals and ensure the continued success of BPESA and this wonderful sector.
Please join me in congratulating Reshni on her appointment!!
Last, but definitely not least, on behalf of the BPESA Board, I would like to express our deep appreciation for the remarkable job Andy has done in transitioning BPESA into a dynamic industry association, with a solid foundation. During Andy’s tenure of almost 5 years, he has made an immense contribution to the organisation, has significantly increased membership and has played a pivotal role in all that BPESA has achieved since 2018. As a leader he has helped take us through a period of incredible growth and change, while navigating the challenges faced, with the most significant being the Covid 19 pandemic – Andy fought tirelessly to obtain essential services status for the industry and continues to report to the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition on the operational status of the sector. The board takes note of his efforts, perseverance and sacrifices made in accomplishing the industry’s objectives. Andy has also played a significant role in representing the industry’s contributions to the GBS Masterplan and has lobbied extensively to secure skills support for the sector.
We would like to wish Andy every success in his future endeavours.
- a “loss of an industrial giant, a thoughtful voice and a great South African” - Minister Ebrahim Patel.
The Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Mr Ebrahim Patel, today sent his sincere condolences and that of the South African Government to the family, friends and colleagues of the late Dr Johan van Zyl, the Chairman of Toyota SA. The statement follows.
While some contact centres were able to go about their business through work-from-home (WFH) efforts amid the violent unrest and looting that swept through parts of the country, service delivery for some was severely impacted, running as low as 5%.
Dear GBS Stakeholders South Africa is amid a 3rd wave of the COVID-19 pandemic with the infection rising at different rates across regions of the country. As expected, this has created alarm and concern amongst residents, their families and friends, and South Africa’s stakeholders who live outside of the country.
Based on the Risk Adjusted Strategy, adopted by the Government, President Ramaphosa announced today that the Alert Level would be raised to an Adjusted Level 4 for a period of 14 days from 28 June 2021 to 11 July 2021. Tighter restrictions have been implemented focussing on limiting social contact while preserving the economy and livelihoods. These restrictions target public gatherings, schooling, and the sale of alcohol, and include a curfew from 9pm to 4am; to limit social contact and reduce the demand on hospitals until we have passed the peak of this wave and have capacity in all health facilities to provide the right level of hospital care to those who need it.
We are understandably responding to many questions about the restrictions and their impact on the sector by stakeholders within and outside of South Africa. Our partners in government have drafted a joint letter (attached below) which we wish you to read and to share with your stakeholders who have concerns about these or future restrictions being implemented that will impact the sector, specifically the export segment of the sector. Hopefully it will address these concerns and provide them with the assurance that the regulations that are already in place and the sector specific protocols cater for all export work to continue without disruption, regardless of which Alert Levels, and adjustments are implemented; and only those services expressly prohibited in the Gazette (to be published) will be affected domestically, these don’t include the BPO Sector.
Should you have any queries please direct these to your regional representative or EXCO portfolio representative who will address them or get them to the person in the best position to do so.
In addition to our continued efforts to implement the workplace health and safety protocols, Government in partnership with the private sector has accelerated the roll out of vaccines and people are encouraged to get vaccinated as soon as they are eligible to do so. The combination of these efforts will expedite the opening up of our economic activity and international travel
By: Maryana Iskander, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator CEO
Last week’s Statistics South Africa Quarterly Labour Force Survey was a stark reminder that the “future of work” is no longer in the future. It has arrived, and it is here to stay. We must, once and for all, move past the traditional idea of a school leaver finding a straight path from education straight into long-term employment. Instead, we must solution around what the data has said for many, many years: the new reality for young people is that they will ‘zig zag’ in and out of a rapidly transforming labour market where most entry-level work is short-term, transient, and non-linear.
We are delighted to share the GBS Sector jobs report for the quarter ending 31 December 2020. It has taken a while to publish as we needed to complete a lengthy process of reconciliation numbers across multiple sources, with lock down in 2020 also having impacted the timing of this process.
Nevertheless, the numbers are extremely positive and I’d like to use this opportunity to thank our global clients for their continued support and business, and to congratulate the operators who created 17,354 new jobs during the year of which 5,430 were created in Q4 alone.
After a second day at Africa Tech Week, bursting with tech trends and practical insights from speakers and acclaimed sponsors Vaxowave, Liquid Intelligent Solutions, Visa, PPC and Gijima, the overarching emotion is one of gratitude and the outlook optimistic. The main focus was strategies for living in a digital world - a reality that has abruptly arrived on the globe’s doorstep.
54 Million Jobs to be Created
As Zahra Baitie from the Jack Ma Foundation reiterated, Africa is a recently connected continent, new market and magnet for those seeking to make their mark on the world stage. Over the course of the two-day summit, Africa Tech Week certainly made a mark on the world stage! It is predicted that Africa will create 54 million jobs by 2022, largely generated by small and medium enterprises. According to Zahra, African women are twice as likely to start a business as women elsewhere in the world. Zahra maintained that African entrepreneurs have a massive opportunity to uplift the African community.
Africa boasts the Most Youthful Population in the World
According to Thomas Davin, global innovation director for UNICEF, approximately 60% of the African population is younger than 25, making Africa the most youthful population in the world. We need to upskill and equip Africa’s youth and ensure that they have access to technology and the internet. The education system is moving towards machine learning - enabling individual learning journeys. Thomas shed light on the notion that as humans change the way they interact with machines, they are more likely to change jobs (more so than previous generations).
The importance of Inclusivity
Honourable Emma Imamutila Theofelus, Namibian Deputy Minister of ICT passionately encouraged inclusivity regarding women in the workplace and in leadership. Afterall, women are the forerunners of the 4th digital revolution. Lawrence Reddy, Cloud CTO of Vaxowave SA, in a session sponsored by Vaxowave spoke on when cloud patterns become antipatterns. Vaxowave’s expertise includes cloud technology, and security. Their main objective is to provide clients, from across sectors, value from cloud technologies.
In a panel discussion, on building the future banking experience and how digital infrastructure facilitates economic growth, hosted by Visa, Aldo Laubscher, general manager of Visa,South Africa was quoted saying that, “regulation is going to be the maker or the breaker of African Free Trade." Terry Behan, executive head of design for Nedbank, in a session hosted by Nedbank on building a distinctive platform experience with AVO - Africa’s first super app, highlighted that their job is to connect consumers, entrepreneurs and businesses together, for societal gain.
An Optimistic Forecast
Tim Mitchell, head of digital transformation at Flux Labs highlighted that in 5 years time, the platform economy is forecast to be worth 60 trillion dollars. Enver Groenewald, group chief executive officer at Ogilvy SA described how both effectiveness and efficiency should be driven from the top. He reiterated that you either disrupt or be disrupted. In a panel discussion hosted by Liquid Intelligent Technologies on how Liquid Intelligent Technologies is building Africa’s digital future, the importance of vehement investment in local distribution, partnerships, people, teams and infrastructure was addressed. “We need to think globally and act locally,” according to Sandile Ntsele, chief financial officer at Liquid Intelligent Technologies, SA.
“African Time,” previously loaded with negative connotations, has been reclaimed. “African Time,” in fact, makes reference to the fast-paced and innovative way Africa is hurtling ahead towards digitisation.
SOUTH AFRICA RANKED THE TOP GLOBAL BUSINESS SERVICES SECTOR LOCATION FOR 2021 AND SECTOR ADDS NEW JOBS TO THE ECONOMY.
In a boost to business confidence, South Africa has won an award as the top global location for business process services, in a sector that is rapidly expanding locally and exporting call-centre and related services to other parts of the world.
Last night the country was named as the Most Favoured Offshore CX Delivery Location for 2021, in the Annual Front Office BPO Omnibus Survey.
This is a welcome achievement for the South African business service industry, which has positioned itself as one of the premier locations internationally for business services. It comes on top of a growth in jobs due to enhanced-partnerships with government.
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