Outsourced services industry organisation Business Process Enabling South Africa (BPESA) has launched its Impact Sourcing Practical Guide to help South Africa's global business services (GBS) sector grow while creating sustainable employment.

The guide provides operational models that local business process outsourcing (BPO) and GBS companies can use to improve their sourcing of employees, such that sourcing and talent development is a core part of business strategy, said BPESA CEO Reshni Singh at local BPO Digiforte, in Randburg, on August 7.

“[South Africa has] a young, capable, English-speaking workforce and its GBS sector is known for a culture of service excellence and the ability to deliver quality services at scale. This has positioned the country as a trusted part of GBS.”

The sector has created 180 000 jobs over the past decade, with 90% of these new hires being young employees, and the aim is to increase this figure to 350 000 or 500 000 by 2030, she said.

To achieve this, the guide aims to enable organisations to intentionally identify talent that has traditionally been overlooked in recruitment processes and to provide this talent with the skills and means to succeed.

“Businesses in our sector can build globally competitive businesses while creating pathways to economic participation for people who have historically been excluded. This is why the launch of this guide matters. It was developed by practitioners for practitioners.

“It is about connecting young people with the growing opportunities in an increasingly global and digital services economy.”

The guide is a reflection of what has been learned in the sector. It is an end-to-end talent development and operational strategy, said BPESA future skills executive Ranay Chetty.

South Africa will not be able to grow its GBS sector if it only taps into the limited talent pipeline of those with experience.

The question is how the country can build a talent pipeline to support the growth and competitiveness of its GBS sector. There is talent among South Africa's young people; meaning that growing the sector is a business challenge, she said.

During a panel discussion, BPO Quest Staffing Solutions GM Cathy Kalamaras said her company had used impact sourcing for the past decade.

Impact sourcing needs to be part of a business' strategy, particularly in operations where the young, new employees will work. There has to be a roadmap for how they will be inducted, trained and developed, she stated.

“While many new employees will not have work experience, they do have an eagerness to work and no existing bad work habits. To ensure they are set up for future success, including where business globally is heading, companies must look at how they assess candidates and how they incorporate AI into their training of new employees.

“Sourcing must provide a return on investment for the business, and companies should track, measure and build case studies to ensure they have developed a model that is effective and suitable for their operations.”

However, BPO Quantanite senior human resources director Fuziswa Moyo emphasised that impact sourcing is not an operational cost, as hiring is a crucial part of companies' overall strategies.

“We conducted a study of our assessments of 111 newly-hired individuals. The assessments involved cognitive, personality, emotional quotient, integrity and English proficiency, among others. We then observed how the candidates performed and measured this against our initial assessments.

“The cognitive strength of an individual was only indicative of the overall capabilities of an individual in 12% of cases. Emotional quotient mattered more, with high empathy values being indicative of the overall capabilities of an individual in about 18% of cases.”

The most important elements for performance by an individual identified in the study were perseverance, conscientiousness and the ability to manage stress, she noted.

The GBS sector must relook at its hiring processes. As an important element of the industry, the GBS sector must invest in how it selects candidates, as well as how it identifies the correct person for a suitable job and how it equips individuals to excel at their jobs, said Moyo.

AI IMPACT
Singh raised a similar point in her introductory remarks, pointing out that the sector had to train new hires to have the skills and be able to use the tools that will be required by businesses in the near future.

“We must not dismiss the concerns of our employees about the impact of AI on their jobs. AI is changing our industry. Automation is increasingly capable of handling routine interactions and repetitive processes that have historically supported many entry-level jobs in BPO.

“However, the question is not how many jobs will AI replace, but how many new jobs and services and capabilities can be created through the use of AI, and how quickly we can prepare our people to participate,” Singh said.

The next generation of GBS work will increasingly combine human capabilities with technology, which will see customer services professionals working alongside AI.

Work is changing and it is the responsibility of the sector to ensure its workforce changes with it, she added.

“This is especially important for impact sourcing. We must prepare our young people for the jobs of tomorrow; not prepare them for jobs of yesterday.

“Impact sourcing is not only about providing youth with their first employment opportunity, but must be about creating pathways to employment; from entry-level to digitally capable agent, from agent to analyst, and from process execution to problem solving.

“GBS companies must ensure they and their people are using these technologies to understand how work will be affected, and how they will change alongside it” Singh noted.