The latest on COVID-19 for HR: Important resources on legislation and monitoring during lockdown
Types of leaves for lockdown, staring down retrenchment and useful resources and monitoring tools on COVID-19 for HR and managers in South Africa.
We’re updating this page constantly with news, updates and important legislative and organisational tools specifically for human resource pros and managers during SA’s lockdown and the fight against COVID-19.
COVID-19 RESOURCES FOR HR AND MANAGERS IN SOUTH AFRICA

OFFICIAL SOUTH AFRICA COVID-19 INFO
Remember that, while news outlets and information suppliers are doing their best to help in this time of crisis, the only official resource on the COVID-19 disease in South Africa is Government’s dedicated coronavirus website: SACoronavirus.co.za.
Official hotline: 0800 029 999
WhatsApp support: 0600 123456

COVID-19 LEGISLATIVE RESOURCES FOR HR
HR Works compiled an extremely useful online resource specifically for human resources during COVID-19 and the lockdown. It contains the updated 2020 labour legislation, info on all the temporary relief schemes amid COVID-19, including UIF and info on essential services. See it here.

TERS UIF PAYMENT ASSISTANCE
After numerous HR managers and business owners indicated that they hadn’t received the official Covid-19 disaster relief scheme’s TERS UIF payments even for April, we created a page with some news and ideas to help you sort out your UIF TERS payments.
FREE EMPLOYEE HEALTH-STATUS MONITORING TOOL
To help SA businesses keep track of their own workforce’s health and possible infections and infection rates, and then have a super-easy way to report on those daily to their stakeholders, SA software developer The Social Collective has created a Free tool. Find it here.
See all the latest exciting & unique HR Software.
NEWS AND UPDATES ON COVID-19 FOR HR

WILL LOCKDOWN END ON 16 APRIL?
We don’t really know. Numerous analysts, including NetCare South Africa, told BusinessTech that the latest modelling shows SA’s measures might only prove effective if lockdown is sustained until June or August. This while two SA ministers expressed their concern about lockdown possibly needing to be extended. But, for now, we don’t know yet.

DOCKING ANNUAL LEAVE DURING LOCKDOWN
While the Department of Labour confirmed SA businesses are within their rights to dock annual leave form employees during lockdown, they did last week urge employers not to. The Department said Government’s Covid-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) might be a better alternative, according to a post on CHRO South Africa.

A BATTLE-PLAN FOR BUSINESS OWNERS
Amid the fear and human costs of COVID-19, almost all SA businesses are being hit financially. So business coach Trevor Clark has created a handy 11-step “battle plan” for businesses to better face COVID-19. See it here.

NOW’S THE TIME TO FOCUS ON YOUR PEOPLE
While SA’s focused on “flattening the curve” and business on the economic impact of COVID-19, Decision Inc’s group HR executive Tarryn Swemmer says it pays for managers and HR to keep in mind the human impact of the pandemic. “As managers, we should keep our focus on enabling three major success factors in our teams – productivity, collaboration, and engagement.”
Empathy will be a key component of how well companies come out of this, and King Price Insurance’s head of culture Marno Bosshoff stressed the importance of focusing on company culture in this time.
Also see LifeXChange Solutions’ information on company culture in South Africa, why culture is so important and 3 steps to creating a high performance culture.

TIPS ON WORKING REMOTELY
If you didn’t know, we at LifeXchange Solutions are experts at remote work – we’’ve been doing it across the country for decades, now even across continents, too. So we have some awesome tips, including tools and software and how to manage teams, as well as the human side of things. Check out our resource on working remotely.

DAILY UPDATES FROM THE SABPP
If you haven’t checked them out yet, the SA Board for People Practices (SABPP) have asked Stellenbosch University HR lecturer Dr Marius Meyer to do a series of blog posts during the lockdown. There’s a new one every day, with topics ranging from email etiquette and social distancing to finding small joys at home and even focusing on studying during this time. See them all here.
UPCOMING WEBINARS FOR HR

COVID-19 LEGISLATIVE UPDATE WEBINARS
8, 15 APRIL 2020 (every Wednesday)
Every Wednesday during lockdown, HR Works presents a practical legislative look at HR with a labour law expert at 12:00 noon. Topics include regulations during lockdown, leave and absences, travel during quarantine, policy guidelines and working-from-home protocols. There’s a once-off for all these webinars of R125pp. And you can register here.

VIRTUAL ONBOARDING AND RECRUITMENT TOOLS WEBINARS
7 & 9 APRIL 2020
To assist companies in keeping up their recruitment processes during lockdown, companies specialising in creating “virtual environments” for HR are hosting webinars this week. There’s a showcase of their tech at 12:00 for Virtual Onboarding on 7 April. And another tech showcase at 12:00 on Virtual Recruitment on 9 April.

MENTORING VS COACHING IN YOUR COMPANY
14 APRIL 2020
The different definitions, philosophies and outcomes of mentoring in the workplace and intermittent coaching. Plus: What’s best for your business? LifeXchange Solutions is holding it’s mentoring VS coaching webinar at 14:00 (CAT) on 14 April. Register here.
In fact, see all of this year’s big upcoming management and HR webinars.
ABOUT COVID-19 in SOUTH AFRICA
Again, please remember that for the official information on COVID-19 in South Africa, see Government’s dedicated coronavirus website: SACoronavirus.co.za.
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