Paul Janisch

WE CAN’T SAVE YOU MONEY ON DISABLED AND BURSARY SKILLS SPEND

No one can.  But we can save you an absolute fortune in general skills development spend (6-8 points depending on the code) and achieve better training results

We’re sure that this is not the first email you have received from training service providers telling you to you need to urgently get your BEE skills development spend done before the end of this month.

However we are confident that we can get you those skills points for substantially (up to 95% less) less than the target spend amounts.

CASE STUDY ONE – MULTINATIONAL FINANCIAL SERVICES COMPANY

The client needed to spend R10.5 million to achieve 14 points under the Financial Sector Code (FSC).  This is spend on black people at the various levels of management.  We couldn’t get the unemployed skills spend points.  That is more often than not a raw cost.  We got the balance of the points by making use of our INTRATERNSHIP programme.  The cost to the client was less than 5% of the target spend.

IT’S ALL ABOUT INTRATERNSHIPS

The INTRATERNSHIP programme is inward looking and focuses on training that’s vital for your organisation.  It looks to reinforce the skills and knowledge that exist within the organisation.   It’s supplementary to external training. 

CASE STUDY TWO - A R5BN A YEAR COMPANY

That had spent a huge amount of money on outsourced disabled learnerships.  This would have generated 11 points on the generic scorecard.  We implemented an INTRATERNSHIP programme and their skills’ development score went up 4 points.  We found R22m of skills spend in the company that they were unaware existed, this was against a target of R10m.

WHY INTRATERNSHIPS

• INTRATERNSHIPS create a training and learning culture within the organisation. Everyone is a trainer and recipient of the training
• INTRATERNSHIPS teach staff efficiencies that perhaps only a few know about
• INTRATERNSHIPS lead to continuity, even in times of change. An INTRATERNSHIP programme spreads knowledge across the organisation.  It reduces silos of knowledge.  If critical people leave then stakeholders can be assured that tasks can continue
• INTRATERNSHIPS become the industry standard. Once a person has completed the programme they are awarded a certificate co-signed by the organisation and RISE BUSINESS CONTINUITY. To quote one of our clients “We are the first company in our industry to implement INTRATERNSHIPS, in two years’ time all our competitors will be following suit.  We will have set the industry standard by then”.
• INTRATERNSHIPS concentrate on internal knowledge and training and cost a fraction of external training.
• ORGANISATIONS get to ultimately control the quality of the information being imparted.
• INTRATERNSHIPS are not limited to a class of employee. Every employee is able to take part in the process..

CASE STUDY 3 – YOUR COMPANY

Each INTRATERN is regarded as a CATEGORY C Intern.  This means that salaries of each black person on the programme are regarded as skills’ spend.  We can get you up to 12 points at a much lower cost.  If you want the balance of the points we will try our best to help you, but that’s not our focus.

BEFORE YOU SIGN THAT CHEQUE

Please talk to us first.

Additional Benefits of the INTRATERNSHIP Programme

Introduction

The modern corporate landscape is continually evolving, and with it, the need for robust training and skill transfer mechanisms has never been more critical. The INTRATERNSHIP programme is one such initiative designed to foster a culture of peer learning, skills transfer, and internal mentorship within organizations. This document explores the myriad benefits of the INTRATERNSHIP programme and how it can revolutionize the way companies nurture and retain talent.

Peer Learning and Skills Transfer

One of the core tenets of the INTRATERNSHIP programme is the emphasis on peer learning. By enabling employees to learn from each other, organizations can facilitate a steady flow of knowledge and expertise across all levels. This method of learning ensures that the skills and insights are not siloed within specific departments or individuals but are disseminated throughout the organization.

This approach has several advantages:

• Enhanced Collaboration: Peer learning fosters a collaborative work environment where employees are encouraged to share their knowledge and experiences. This collaborative spirit can lead to innovative solutions and a more cohesive team dynamic.
• Steady Skills Transfer: By formalizing the process of skills transfer, organizations can ensure that critical knowledge is passed on systematically. This reduces the dependency on individual employees and mitigates the risk of losing essential skills when key personnel leave.
• Empowerment and Recognition: Employees who become trainers in their own right are empowered and recognized as experts in their field. This recognition can boost their morale and motivation, leading to increased job satisfaction and retention.

Creating Continuity and Reducing Risk

A significant benefit of the INTRATERNSHIP programme is the creation of continuity within the organization. By spreading expertise across multiple employees, the company can ensure that there is a buffer against the loss of corporate memory and critical skills. This continuity is crucial for maintaining business operations during times of disruption.

Mitigating Risk

The INTRATERNSHIP programme helps in mitigating various risks associated with knowledge loss and employee turnover:

• Corporate Memory: The risk of losing corporate memory is a significant concern for many organizations. By ensuring that multiple employees are trained in essential functions, the company can safeguard against this risk.
• Business Continuity: In the event of a disruption, stakeholders can take comfort in knowing that the company has a robust plan for maintaining operations. The INTRATERNSHIP programme provides a safety net that ensures critical skills are retained within the organization.

Informal Qualifications and Industry Standards

Another advantage of the INTRATERNSHIP programme is the creation of informal qualifications for the industry. By putting staff through an internal internship and issuing certificates co-signed by the client and the company, organizations can establish themselves as industry leaders.

Setting the Standard

One of our clients has embraced the INTRATERNSHIP programme to position themselves as the industry standard. This initiative has several benefits:

• Industry Recognition: By creating internal internships and issuing certificates, the client can differentiate themselves in the market. This recognition can enhance their reputation and attract top talent.
• Employee Validation: Employees who complete the INTRATERNSHIP programme receive validation of their skills and expertise. This certification can be a valuable addition to their professional portfolio, enhancing their employability and career prospects.

Conclusion

The INTRATERNSHIP programme offers a comprehensive approach to fostering a culture of learning, skills transfer, and internal mentorship. By empowering employees, creating continuity, and setting industry standards, organizations can reap significant benefits. As companies navigate the complexities of the modern business environment, initiatives like the INTRATERNSHIP programme will be instrumental in driving growth, innovation, and long-term success.

The skills are in the organisation.  Ask us to help you formalise them and create a culture of formal skills transfer.  It's a badge of merit really.

The mad skills development spend rush is very avoidable

SPEND LESS MONEY ON SKILLS DEVELOPMENT AND GET BETTER RESULTS

It’s coming to the end of your financial year and you’ve either not done enough about skills spend or you’ve done nothing.    If you’ve done nothing and your year end is December then you’ll struggle to get learners and the like sorted before South Africa goes on holiday – which is no later than the 16^th of December.

If you do manage to find the necessary people to train it will cost you A LOT OF MONEY, especially if you need disabled people.

If your year end is February then you’re still in trouble because you are going to pay a lot of money at the last minute.  It can be done and there are no shortage of service providers that can help you. Many of them are very respectable companies.

The best solution is formalise your informal training by virtue of an Internship for Internal people.  Something we call an INTRATERNSHIP.   The training exists in every organisation.  But it’s piecemeal and delivered by people who often don’t understand that they are imparting vital information. 

The INTRATERNSHIP programme is inward looking and focuses on training that’s vital for your organisation.  It looks to reinforce the skills and knowledge that exist within the organisation.   It’s supplementary to external training. 

WHY INTRATERNSHIPS

We are still exploring all the benefits of the programme.  Amongst these benefit are

• INTRATERNSHIPS create a training and learning culture within the organisation. Everyone is a trainer and recipient of the training
• INTRATERNSHIPS teach staff efficiencies that perhaps only a few know about
• INTRATERNSHIPS lead to continuity, even in times of change. An INTRATERNSHIP programme spreads knowledge across the organisation.  It reduces silos of knowledge.  If critical people leave then stakeholders can be assured that tasks can continue
• INTRATERNSHIPS become the industry standard. Once a person has completed the programme they are awarded a certificate co-signed by the organisation and RISE BUSINESS CONTINUITY. To quote one of our clients “We are the first company in our industry to implement INTRATERNSHIPS, in two years’ time all our competitors will be following suit.  We will have set the industry standard by then”.
• INTRATERNSHIPS concentrate on internal knowledge and training and cost a fraction of external training.
• ORGANISATIONS get to ultimately control the quality of the information being imparted.
• INTRATERNSHIPS are not limited to a class of employee. Every employee is able to take part in the process..

AND THE BLACK ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT BENEFIT

Each INTRATERN is regarded as a CATEGORY C Intern.  This means that salaries of each black person on the programme are regarded as skills’ spend.  We know that we are able to attract 16 points on the DTICs generic BEE scorecard if there are disabled black employees in the organisation. 

Speak to us now.  We can save you a lot of money and create a strong learning culture in your organisation at the same time.

Email: [email protected]

Contact: 087 164 6660

Why skills continuity and retaining corporate memory is so important

A recent article in a South African publication discussed how certain public officials fear losing their jobs after the conclusion of the 2024 South African general elections.   The article discussed how certain people had been employed by the most dominant party and this party was likely to lose its dominance.  This has not happened in South Africa for 30 years, most people felt that their jobs were secure.

The problem for the citizens in that province is that if new people in upper management are brought in to replace those political appointees they could  probably have no understanding how that provincial administration is supposed to work.  And because the outgoing administration hasn’t implement an Intraternship programme the employees under them will not know how to train the new appointees.   This has a major impact on the citizens of that province.  This is probably not the impact an incoming political party wants to have on their voters and rate payers at the outset.

Corporate continuity is not only important to government departments.  It is just as applicable to companies that have been subject to a merger or acquisition.  The new owner may want to rationalise jobs and will do so through a series of interviews that don’t actually discuss how that person understands the job that it is interviewing internal people for.  There is a lot more to interviewing a person who is hoping to retain their job after an acquisition.  Traditional interviewing techniques can never covering this.  But examining the records of the Intraternship programme will show how that person works in the team with the people below and above them, and most importantly how adaptable they have been when it comes to innovations proposed by the people in the same Intraternship programme.

Intraternships extend even further than that.  A shareholder may want to know that there is a culture of internal learning in the organisation that encourages innovations that lead to more cost effective delivery of that company’s mandate. 

This is the reason why RISE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT issue a  RISE CERTIFICATE OF CONTINUITY (RCC) at the completion of every Intraternship programme.  This offers shareholders and stakeholders assurance that if there any major changes in personnel the work can continue and that the new people will be up and running in a much shorter period of time, whether they occupy executive positions or lower.

A Free Seminar

The response to the emails we have sent out has been incredible with many people requesting a follow-up seminar.  We think this is a good idea and will be hosting a free online seminar on the 20^th of June 2024 at 10:00 Central African time.  If you would like to attend please click on the email link and let us know how many people would like to attend.  We’ll confirm your attendance.  We are restricted to 100 people but will arrange a second seminar if the demand is greater.

Click on the email link to confirm your attendance. 

Staff tenure in South Africa and institutional memory. Emulation and Innovation

Career Junction recently reported that staff retention in an organisation depends on the age of that person. It noted that baby boomers (age 58 to 77) tend to stay in a job for seven years. The length of time in a job tends to decrease in age groups with the most productive age group between 28 to 42 staying in a job for only 2 and half years on average. The report also notes that executive and senior managers stay in their position for four years.

This job fluidity has a huge impact on institutional memory. A corporate entity whether that be private or public relies on a consist level of stability in performance to run optimally. The best way ensuring this level of service is to retain the institutional memory in an organisation. Training plays a vital role in this process. Sending people on courses related to their jobs is an important component of this, but it doesn’t do much to retain corporate memory.

In our experience the most effective method of ensuring corporate continuity is through a series of internal internships, known as INTRATERNSHIPS. These Intraternships encourage staff to exchange information through a series of seminars. They go much deeper than that, the trainers are encouraged to pass on information and receive information that might lead to innovations that could lead to operational efficiencies resulting in streamlining the business.

Trainers are taught to deliver these seminars to both their co-workers and executive and senior managers. Each person on this programme is regarded as an intern. After 12 months of seminars and idea sharing each person, irrespective of position in the company receives a certificate of INTRATERNSHIP. This certificate becomes a negotiation tool for promotion or for future employment.

Over the next few months will breakdown each concept in detail.

Corporate SA is gatvol of BEE

Those aren’t words from my mouth, I would have used more choice words.  This came from a person who is a player in SA business.  I approached the person to ask their advice about certain skills projects we have going.

This is not a surprise at all.  The largest corporates have long paid lip service to the process.  Claiming that they are committed to transformation.  They “engage” with the government at every level.  And to what end?

Corruption, crime, potholes, electricity, infrastructure. Theft, incompetence,  duplicity, racism, blame, you name it.  We’ve all had enough of this.  And the government knows it.

Where does this leave us?  I can’t see that BEE is going to be canned in a hurry, but I do see that the desire to comply to the letter of the law is waning.  I don’t think we need worry about the BEE Commission.  They have probably  realised that they are toothless.  As for the DTIC I think we need worry – because the incompetence levels there are scary.  How’s this for a story

There is a company that dropped a level (multiple levels)  because they had lost their ownership.  They had completed  a YES programme and wanted to go from that skimpy level 8 to a 7.  I sent an email to someone whose name was on the DTIC’s website.  And I was given the name of a militant Millicent who would hear our case.   It was obvious that she had little time for two white people pleading their case.  She found fault with the fact that there had been a two year gap between certificates.  I informed her (and I know this as a fact) that there is no requirement to renew ever.  “Oh yes there is!” thundered Millie.  “The Verification manual requires it was well.”   Pity Millie didn’t know that the manual is only applicable to VAs.

She then went onto to insist on evidence that the verification agency would have taken into account.  Why would you do this?  It  sounds like a personal agenda.  And you know you are powerless because she’s clueless and militant.  Where’s the reward for doing YES?  It doesn't exist.

It all talks back to the government.  They are not to be trusted.  This article came out a few weeks ago and I wholly agree with it.  The author concludes with

The biggest hurdle, in my view, to making the undermining of BEE more common is not the risk of legal jeopardy, but the sentiment harboured by too many South Africans that they owe the South African government a duty of obedience in conscience. Once this hurdle has been scaled – and it is becoming easier to scale as government’s incompetence and incapacity gets more pronounced by the day – BEE will all but collapse under the weight of noncompliance.

We aren’t there yet but it’s coming.  As this awful government starts losing power so will the revolt gain momentum.  If we become a coalition government then it’ll move quicker.  There’ll be so much infighting that governance is bound to suffer.

Ownershield is geared for this change.  It’ll be cost effective and non-invasive.  Like the things we’ve been offering over the last few years, we have expanded beyond ownership and intraternships.  Budgets are tight and BEE was only invented for the good times. Perhaps that’s the point.  We’ve been taken for complete and utter fools for 30 years.   If you want compliance that talks to your internal requirements then we can help you.  If you want to spend a lot of money then we’ll have to turn you down.

And why do you want to spend huge amounts of money on this ludicrous programme.

Overview of Intraternships: Fostering Growth from Within

With training budgets slashed and productivity being prioritised it's time to have a good look at the training of staff.  Throwing money at training detracts from productivity.  Focused and customised individual training with re-inforced quizzes are the future.  Think of it as a type of skills development microdosing - but over a longer period of time.

HENCE - INTRATERNSHIPS

Intraternships, a portmanteau of "internal" and "internships," represent a groundbreaking approach to talent development within organizations. Unlike traditional internships aimed at external candidates, Intraternships are designed exclusively for internal staff members. This innovative concept recognizes the untapped potential of existing employees, offering them a unique opportunity for professional growth and skill enhancement within the familiar confines of their workplace.

The key features of intraternships:

Internal Talent Cultivation: Intraternships focus on identifying and nurturing existing talents within the organization. By offering structured learning experiences, companies can harness the expertise and potential of their employees effectively.

Skill Development: Intraternships allow employees to acquire new skills or enhance existing ones, aligning with the organization's current needs or future objectives. This targeted skill development ensures that the workforce remains adaptable and proficient in an ever-changing business landscape.

Knowledge Transfer: Seasoned employees can serve as mentors during Intraternships, facilitating the transfer of institutional knowledge and best practices. This mentorship aspect creates a collaborative environment where experience meets enthusiasm, fostering a culture of continuous learning.

Retaining Institutional Knowledge: Intraternships enable the preservation of institutional knowledge by encouraging experienced staff members to share their expertise with newer employees. This ensures that vital company-specific information is passed down, enhancing organizational stability and efficiency.

There are several application possibilities when it comes to intraternships

Leadership Development: Intraternships can be tailored to groom future leaders within the organization. Promising employees can be exposed to leadership roles, decision-making processes, and strategic planning, preparing them for higher responsibilities.

Cross-Functional Training: Intraternships facilitate cross-functional training, allowing employees to explore different departments or roles within the company. This exposure promotes a holistic understanding of the organization, encouraging collaboration and innovation.

Innovation Hubs: Organizations can establish dedicated Intraternship programs focused on innovation. Internal teams can work on research and development projects, exploring creative solutions to industry challenges while leveraging the company's resources.

Project-Based Learning: Intraternships can be structured around specific projects or initiatives. This approach promotes teamwork, problem-solving, and project management skills among participants, leading to tangible outcomes for the organization.

Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives: Intraternships can be instrumental in promoting diversity and inclusion within the workplace. By providing equal opportunities for employees from various backgrounds, organizations can create a more inclusive environment, fostering creativity and diverse perspectives.

Succession Planning: Intraternships play a crucial role in succession planning by identifying and grooming potential successors for key positions within the company. This proactive approach ensures a seamless transition when senior employees retire or move on to other roles.

Intraternships represent a paradigm shift in talent development, emphasizing the value of internal expertise and continuous learning. By investing in their employees' growth, organizations can enhance employee satisfaction, boost productivity, and maintain a competitive edge in the market. This innovative approach not only benefits individual employees but also contributes significantly to the long-term success of the organization as a whole

Intraternships offer a wide range of benefits for both employees and organizations

Some key advantages:

1. Internal Talent Development: Intraternships provide a structured platform for nurturing internal talent, allowing employees to enhance their skills, explore new areas of interest, and develop expertise within the organization.
2. Cost-Effectiveness: Training existing employees through Intraternships can be more cost-effective than hiring external candidates. It eliminates recruitment expenses and reduces the learning curve associated with new hires.
3. Knowledge Retention: Intraternships enable the transfer of institutional knowledge from experienced employees to newer staff members. This knowledge sharing ensures that valuable company-specific information is preserved and passed down, enhancing organizational stability.
4. Increased Employee Engagement: Offering Intraternship opportunities shows employees that the organization values their growth and development. Engaged employees are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs, leading to higher retention rates and a positive work culture.
5. Promotion of Diversity and Inclusion: Intraternships can be designed to promote diversity and inclusion by providing equal opportunities for employees from different backgrounds. This fosters a more inclusive workplace, encouraging diverse perspectives and ideas.
6. Boosted Productivity and Innovation: Employees who participate in Intraternships gain new skills and knowledge, which can lead to increased productivity and innovation within the organization. They bring fresh ideas and perspectives to their roles, driving continuous improvement.
7. Succession Planning: Intraternships play a crucial role in succession planning by identifying and grooming potential successors for key positions. This ensures a smooth transition when senior employees retire or move on to other roles, mitigating the risks associated with leadership gaps.
8. Enhanced Employee Loyalty: Investing in employees' professional development through Intraternships fosters a sense of loyalty. When employees feel supported in their career growth within the organization, they are more likely to stay committed to the company in the long run.
9. Adaptability and Skill Alignment: Intraternships allow organizations to align employees' skills with the company's current and future needs. This adaptability ensures that the workforce remains competent and capable of meeting evolving business demands.
10. Positive Employer Branding: Organizations that offer Intraternship opportunities demonstrate their commitment to employee growth. This positive employer branding can attract top talent, enhance the company's reputation, and make it an employer of choice in the industry.