UPDATE – NEW BPESA NATIONAL ORGANISATION
- August 11, 2017
You will recall that in my last communication in August, I shared with you the process that BPESA is undertaking to re-establish itself as a National Industry Body that is truly inclusive, representative of all its stakeholder groups and properly enabled to fulfill its mandate.
To remind us all, the mandate of BPESA is to create jobs. It does this by raising awareness of the industry’s potential internationally and domestically – in the process attracting new investments. It achieves this by helping to create an enabling environment for investments to thrive and grow – partnering with specialized institutions to develop the skills base, supporting SMEs, and providing linkages to national, provincial and local government, ensuring the implementation of pro-growth policies.
I’m happy to report that good progress has been made with this transition and that we are on track to have established a new National Body with a suitably representative Board of Directors and a new CEO by March 2018.
To date, the Transition Committee have: finalised the new operating model and structure; made good progress in formulating a financial sustainability plan for BPESA; and have re-established a working engagement model with the dti, which will include collaboration in reporting on quarterly job growth data. During the next two months, the Committee will conduct a survey of BPESA stakeholders to obtain your inputs to a new membership value proposition which will be presented to Industry before the end of this year.
In parallel to the planning and managing of this transition process, the Transition team have been working closely with the Regional Bodies of BPESA on a number of demand and supply-side initiatives aimed to build the industry and enhance our global competitiveness.
On the demand side, these initiatives include: conducting research into specific aspects of the South Africa value proposition, to be published in November; the hosting of an international BPO analyst conference in November, in Gauteng; and preparations for the hosting of the GSA Summit in Cape Town in March next year.
On the supply side these initiatives include: the production of a career awareness video (in partnership with the CCMG), to be released in November; the mobilisation of role players in the BPS skills supply chain and the implementation of pilot projects in Gauteng, KZN and soon to be implemented in the Western Cape.
The team is also preparing to convene a skills forum in each province before year-end out of which technical working groups will be established to tackle and resolve some of our more pressing skills challenges standing in the way of us realising our full growth potential. The 2016 Key Indicator Report will also be presented in these forums together with an update on the BPO Industry Standards.
We have also been working closely with our partners in the industry to improve the level of collaboration between us, the most recent example of this being the co-hosted industry Awards that were held by the CCMG and BPESA in Gauteng in August.
In closing, we are looking forward to a new era for BPESA as a National Industry Body, strengthened by its partnerships and empowered by you to help Make South Africa great!!
Yours sincerely,
Fagri Semaar
On behalf of BPESA National