Tag Archive for: Economic Development

Over the last few months, Relocation Africa has chosen the Honey Bun foundation for their #CSR project this year.

The Honeybun Foundation, a Cape Town-based NPO, aims at improving the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable individuals.

Due to COVID-19, the Honey Bun Foundation has lost a few sponsors. We did the little that we could have as an SME to help them.

Head over to their Facebook group and see how you can help: https://lnkd.in/dAhQkUPA

This article serves to describe our lived experience from a longstanding Relocation Destination Service Provider (DSP) in the Relocation Industry, Relocation Africa. Founded in 1993, our footprint is the continent of Africa where they provide Mobility services to the Relocation Industry.
Price is an important factor in making any purchasing decision, but when it comes to our most important assets, our people, quality should play a much larger role in influencing the purchasing decision than for other products or services.
Price is just a number. Quality is an ideal we strive for in our business, and as a business that embraces the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, we see a constant improvement and positive influence in the quality of our service and in our decision making by keeping these SDG’s top of mind.
This focus on quality delivers a direct benefit to our clients and it is why we have received several global awards for the quality of our service, even though our volumes across the entire continent of Africa are a fraction that a competitor will be delivering in one 1st world city – we are extremely proud of these awards, and they reflect our focus on providing high quality service. “Best value for money” is a common phrase used in the service industry. The best definition to capture the message of this article is the United Kingdom’s Department of Finance’s definition; “the most advantageous combination of cost, quality and sustainability to meet customer requirements.” Sustainability is deeply rooted in influencing the choice of quality over price.
Is there a disproportionate focus on price rather than quality in the global relocation industry? Our investigations show that there are certain sectors in our industry where this appears to be the case. The pressures that this new COVID reality we are all trying to navigate puts on all business brings costs front and center for all, however the duty of care for employers hasn’t reduced – if anything it has become greater and bringing this debate to the fore is vital to ensure that all international assignees are receiving the appropriate care from their employers.
The drive towards throwing technology at the problem is vital, both for cost saving as well as planet saving, however it can’t replace the services delivered and the human imperative – it can complement and enhance them – an app can’t drive you to a house or provide emotional support to a concerned spouse … well, not in Africa … yet.

Unlocking Values with Andrew Stegmann

Core values are principles and beliefs that are the cornerstones of a company’s actions. They are guiding principles for your employees, the company culture and business strategies. In this day, stakeholders – internally and externally are asking companies to be transparent about their company values in an effort to hold them accountable. More and more, it has become apparent that the consumers are aligning themselves with companies that reflect and resonate with their own personal values.

Andrew believes that a business is a collection of people (read employees) with their own personal values, believing that their personal actions are right. Thus, it almost becomes imperative to define your own company values in efforts to not only build team cohesion but to achieve a collective goal and gain.

Stegmann says that defining company values with your employees is important so that they know what values to evoke in their personal decision making. More so, to identify which values closely resonate with them and that they can live out boldly, and which ones they may need to work on.

Relocation Africa presents their Four Core Values

After a 6-week robust, extensive workshop ran by Relocation Africa’s HR Generalist, Joy Jackson, the team defined Relocation Africa’s four company values. Every Wednesday, the team gathered to discuss their personal values and values they ‘think’ Relocation Africa represents. Stegmann highlights that the reason for this 6-week course was to create a collaborative space for employee and employer to define values not only to publicise but to define the true reflection of who they are.

“It is important to understand in defining our values that we are not trying to create some desirable, fictitious, theoretical values but to assess and document what the values in the business are” 

After an intense six-week deliberation, the team is proud to announce their four core values:

EMBRACE CHANGE

Our attitude towards change is an opportunity to be better. Adapt to progress.

UNCOMPROMISING ETHICS

We proudly hold ourselves to the highest standards in all our actions. We build trust through responsible actions and honest relationships.

CONSIDER THE PERSON

We believe in the power of each of our differences – Seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another, and feeling with the heart of another​

I DO IT, I OWN IT!

We accept accountability for what we are entrusted with by our stakeholders.

 

Values as a structural framework in Decision Making 

Speaking to Stegmann is quite interesting as I ask why it is imperative to document and publicize a company’s values. He says, “Our team needs to see what our values are, to use them with their decision making. And if people are making decisions, they need to have a framework which they reference it against. We can only be more productive when people are making decisions without having to get approval to check if it is the right decision”. Indeed, values give a structural framework for decision making. Core values simplify and facilitate the decision-making process for not only the employees and employer but also for the client. Clients know what the value system is of the business they are partnering with and to know what is acceptable and what is not.

Values as a counternarrative to the world’s misrepresentation of Africa

Africa is often misrepresented and mis-imaged. This draws back to centuries of work through colonialism, media, religion, education, and science. The only way to counter these narratives is with intentional acts such as defining company values for stakeholders, clients and the broader community to see. This is an active construction of a counternarrative which deconstructs and debunks the world’s negative perceptions and representation of Africa, while actively legitimising and it documents what is true and a lived experience in African by Africans.

Stegmann speaks quite extensively about the importance of having contextualised Relocation Africa’s core values. While some values may seem to be a ‘no brainer’, we must be cognisant of the Africa’s positionality in the global sphere. It is seen as a corrupt and disorderly nation. Therefore, defining and publicising their values is not only an act of internal team cohesion but an act of committing to represent Africa in a positive light.

Measuring and Monitoring the Fulfilment of Values

With almost everything in life, there is an expectation of measuring and monitoring what it is you have introduced/implemented in life and in business. In efforts to measure one’s progress with the newly implemented object or routine, one sets measuring tools or criteria for accountability.

Posing the question to Andrew, he replies “I would suggest that it is almost irrelevant, because values are supposed to be part of what you are doing. Values aren’t something to measure, they just are what they are”.

These next few weeks, we will be discussing defining core values in its entirety. From the workshop with Joy Jackson, to discussing each of the values and their alignment with Relocation Africa. Watch this space. Unlocking core values with Andrew Stegmann.

 

 

 

 

 

The world has come to a complete standstill due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many industries, companies and businesses have been affected by this, compelling them to restructure the way business is conducted. The global mobility and relocation industries are some of the industries that have been severely impacted by the global pandemic. This in turn has affected the mobility industry, ultimately affecting the relocation industry. Relocation Africa, mobility, relocation, and immigration business has been largely affected by this pandemic.

In efforts to combat the spread of the virus and ensure the safety of their citizens, states have enforced bolder border entry restrictions, travel bans, and quarantine adherences. This has made managing the expatriate and international assignee workforce complex and challenging. Relocation Africa, situated in a continent that has been administered severe travel restrictions from third world countries while undergoing a slow vaccine rollout. Relocation Africa provides a variety of Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration and Expatriate Tax services across the continent of Africa, assisting individuals and corporate clients settle into new environments as efficiently as possible.

The mobility, immigration and relocation industry has had to change the way they conduct business, to resort to flexible and remote ways in engaging their mobile expatriates and international assignees. At Relocation Africa has had to change their normal procedure/ operations of mobility and relocation to accommodate the travel restrictions and their clients.

Relocation Africa has flexed all its programs. Adding new services such as remote packing up for clients, remotely or virtually selling products for countries who are not in the country, conducts virtual and adjusted services such as opening bank accounts to allow expatriates to do this more remotely. Relocation Africa has also extended its online platforms to include more information that is readily available to its clients. Relocation Africa has also had to ensure that all training and expectation management has considered COVID-19 protocols and to ensure each assignee safe and prioritised. We have also attempted to communicate more extensively to all our clients as we cover a large geography with very different regulations, border closing and re-opening, as well as immigration regulations that are adjusting as the pandemic changes.  We would like you to connect with us on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Twitter to ensure you are getting our updates on service offerings as well as travel updates and border regulations.

 

 

 

 

 

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