Andrew Stegmann
,

Relo Originals: The Value of Teambuilding

Written by Quintin Coetzee

Over time, at Relocation Africa, we’ve realized the value of engaging in teambuilding activities. We’ve seen how it brings out team members together, and fosters a sense of community throughout our head office. We’ve even seen the innovation that comes with allowing each person in the office the chance to lead these sessions. In this article, we’ve outlined some of our teambuilding efforts.

Team Memo

At the start of each week, Quintin Coetzee, our Marketing Assistant, sends out a team memo which contains helpful information including staff leave days and out of office days, the latest news, weather, links to our social media for our team to engage on, and a feelgood cartoon. This memo kicks the week off on a lighter note, and helps keep the head office crew informed.

Wacky Wednesdays

Each Wednesday morning, for 15 minutes, we have Wacky Wednesday. Joy Jackson, our HR Manager, started this initiative to allow everyone the chance to get to know one another better, or just have some fun before the workday starts in the middle of the week. Wednesday was chosen as this is the day our staff meetings are held and everyone is at the office (we now have a hybrid work system that allows for 2 days of work from home, as well as flexi time).

What started off as Joy presenting questions has now turned into team members taking turns to come up with something to ask everyone on a Tuesday afternoon, giving them enough time to prep their answers. These questions have included:

  • What is your current obsession? (by Lucy Smith)
  • What is your spirit animal? (by Eloise Williams)
  • What is your fondest childhood memory? (by Quintin Coetzee)
  • What is your pick-me-up jam? Please bring your song to the office to play. (by Chantelle Butcher)
  • Describe a defining moment in your life when you realized your gift, how it played out and what you did with it. (by Andrew Stegmann)
  • What’s on your bucket list? (by Rene Stegmann)
  • What was your favorite childhood game, and why? (by Joy Jackson)
  • What fictional family would you like to be part of, and why? (by Lynn Mackenzie)

These sessions have evolved in all kinds of ways, including the team bringing in items that represent their heritage to celebrate South Africa’s Heritage Day, as can be seen in the photos below.

Heritage Day items.

From left: Eloise Williams, Quintin Coetzee, Lucy Smith, Pumza M, Joy Jackson, Lynn Mackenzie, Marlyse Wood

Team Building

Each month at our head office in Cape Town, a new staff member has the fun task of hosting a morning team building session for the rest of our team. Names are drawn in rotation, so that everyone has a chance to come up with a team building idea, and organize their session.

We do this because we understand the value that these kinds of ongoing experiences can have for team members. Team building activities have included:

  • Mini parachute and paper plane building (by Quintin Coetzee)
  • Playing board games (by Andrew Stegmann)
  • Going for a walk around the neighborhood (by Eloise Williams)

Clockwise from left: Quintin Coetzee, Andrew Stegmann, Lynn Mackenzie, Rene Stegmann, Lucy Smith, Tanja Glatz, Marlyse Wood, Inaaz Arend, Nausheena Hoosain, Joy Jackson, Eloise Williams

CSR Projects

Each month, the team comes together to hold an CSR project. These are either half an hour to an hour long sessions on the day, or take place during the month, such as with a collection, and are then completed on the day of the CSR project. In this way, our company has a chance to give back to the community, and team members have a chance to lead a project, and learn about how valuable corporate social initiatives are. Projects have included:

  • Sandwich making for the poor (by Rene Stegmann)
  • Book drive for charity shops (by Quintin Coetzee)
  • Neighborhood litter collection (team idea)

Each year on Mandela Day, the team also gets together to give back to our community in some way, as part of the Mandela Day campaign’s call for 67 minutes of giving back, to recognize the 67 years Nelson Mandela fought for social justice.

From left: Quintin Coetzee, Marlyse Wood, Vulcan Guests

From left: Chantelle Butcher, Joy Jackson, Quintin Coetzee, Marlyse Wood, Help the Rural Child Guests, Andrew Stegmann, Lynn Mackenzie, Eloise Williams

Wellness Workshops

Joy Jackson, our HR Manager, hosts a monthly wellness workshop that is attended by all head office staff. In this workshop, team members are asked what their states of mind are, and to assess their experiences at the company using a number of different metrics. Group discussions are held about how to improve the company culture, and through this collaborative effort, make the workplace better for all.

In Conclusion

Team building should be an integral part of any business’ operations, and value should be placed on ensuring that each team member has a chance not only to take part, but to take the lead sometimes.

For some fun team building ideas, visit this site.

From left: Joy Jackson, Quintin Coetzee, Lynn Mackenzie, Chantelle Butcher, Lucy Smith, Nausheena Hoosain, Eloise Williams, Inaaz Arend, Marlyse Wood

 

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email info@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].

Andrew Stegmann
,

South Africa May Be First in Region to Produce COVID-19 Vaccine

South Africa may sign a deal to help produce a Covid-19 vaccine, potentially boosting access to immunisation on a continent with limited manufacturing capacity.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, a global organisation funding vaccine development, is considering the Cape Town-based Biovac Institute as a fill-finish site, according to Helen Rees, the chair of the organisation’s Scientific Advisory Board. The state vaccine company is one of few in the country that has the capacity to package doses into sterile dispensers if clinical trials are successful.

“What we are looking at is partnerships,” Morena Makhoana, Biovac’s chief executive officer, said in response to questions. “Once that is signed, we will be able to make an announcement.”

A manufacturing agreement will “put Africa on a similar path to other continents, much like the clinical trials are doing,” he said.

South Africa is the only country in Africa that hosts several clinical studies. It has 2,000 people in the AstraZeneca Plc and University of Oxford vaccine trial, while Novavax Inc. announced earlier this month it’s starting a Phase 2b clinical trial. One-fifth of the 60,000 volunteers expected to enroll worldwide in Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine trial will be in South Africa, said Glenda Gray, the chief executive officer of the South African Medical Research Council.

“Covid-19 has really thrown into focus that we have very limited capacity for vaccine manufacturing across the African continent, even in countries like South Africa,” said Rees. “But there’s tremendous interest and we need to have more countries being able to manufacture vaccines.”

 

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email info@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].

Andrew Stegmann
,

Relocation Africa’s Monthly Social Responsibility Project, Month 1: Making Sandwiches for the Poor

As part of our constant drive to give back to our community, our team has endeavored to join together to participate in a monthly community-focused CSR initiative. The team comes together each month to participate in an activity aimed at uplifting the community around our head office in Cape Town, after which ideas are put forward for the following month’s initiative.

In this way, as South Africans, we are giving back not only on Mandela Day, but throughout the year, as the need doesn’t end after the holiday.

Naturally, we take all necessary COVID-19-related precautions when participating in the activities, so as to ensure the health and safety of our team members and those we are interacting with outside our office.

For our first month, in September 2020, we came together to make sandwiches for the poor, with the theme of ‘Nobody Should Go Hungry’. We set up a sandwich stations in our boardroom and kitchen, and made different kinds of sandwiches which we then distributed to the needy in the surrounding area. We have posted pictures of the activity below.

Sandwich station in the Relocation Africa head office boardroom.

Sandwich station in our downstairs kitchen.

Our team gathered outside the office, ready for distribution.

We hope this inspires our readers and other companies to start similar initiatives, as if we all work together, we can greatly improve the quality of life of those in need around us.

 

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email info@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].

Andrew Stegmann
,

Work Begins on South Africa’s ‘Mega-bridge’ Project

The South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) says it is making ‘steady progress’ in developing the multi-billion-rand N2 Wild Coast Road Project.

The agency said that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused some delays to the project but activities have now resumed following the easing of lockdown restrictions according to the government’s risk-adjusted strategy.

The project will see the construction of two mega-bridge structures on the Msikaba and Mtentu Rivers, seven additional major river bridges and several interchange bridges, as well as new intersection, interchanges, pedestrian walkways and agricultural under and overpasses.

The N2 Wild Coast Road, which stretches 410 km from the Gonubie Interchange in East London to the Mtamvuna river near Port Edward, will shorten the current distance by 85 kilometres in comparison to the current route.

This will mean a travel time saving of between one-and-a-half to three-hours for road-users once it is completed saving the economy R1.5 billion annually, Sanral said.

Project manager for the N2 Wild Coast Road Project, Craig McLachlan, said the roads agency’s investigating team has done its utmost to ensure that it works together with local community representatives whilst conducting their surveys.

“As far as possible, our investigation team tries not to disturb residents when we go onto sites,” he said.

“Sanral would like to point out that the N2 Wild Coast Road Project holds significant socio-economic benefits for local communities, including an estimated 8,000 direct jobs envisaged for construction work, whilst operational work is anticipated to create 900 direct jobs in addition to the 16,000-20,000 indirect jobs that will flow from the project.”

The Msikaba bridge is set to become one of the longest span crossings ever constructed on the African Continent, with a tower-to-tower distance of 580 meters.  The new cable-stayed bridge will also become the one of the highest bridges in Africa with a deck 194 meters high.

Construction was set to begin in February 2019, but was marred by community protests and delays.

 

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email info@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].