GETTING TO KNOW YOU

This month Powernews gets to know the new managing director for Manpower SA (Pty)Ltd, Jan Coetzee.

Star sign:

Aquarius

School:

Adelaar High School

Birthplace:

Roodepoort

Favourite Food:

Fillet steak

Favourite Drink:

Savanna

Favourite Pastime:

Tennis & family

Favourite TV Programme:

CSI & most reality shows

Favourite Music/artist/band:

80's music & Nickleback

Who influenced your life the most:

God

Who is your rolemodel:

Madiba for his wisdom & patience, Richard Branson for his vision & entrepreneurship, Roger Federer for his commitment to excellence.

Favourite Sport:

Tennis & Rugby

Which player/team:

Roger Federer & The Bulls

Family Life:

Married to Debbie and they have two daughters and two sons - Talia (14 yrs), Alexa (12 yrs), Ruben (4 yrs) and Luc (16 mnths)

Who would you have as the ideal dinner guest?

John Robbie, Margaret Thatcher & Angela Jolie (althoughI don't think my wife will approve of this one!).

Who would you least like to be stranded on an island with?

Phillip Burger (Free State rugby player) - the most annoying person that I have seen in a long time!

Personal Motto: The true measure of greatness is not being able to avoid difficult situations, but how you deal with them

NEW STARTS at CAPE TOWN GENERAL

Tasneem Jacobs

Leah Brink

JULY BIRTHDAYS

We would like to wish the following people a BIG happy birthday for July. We hope that you have a BIG month and a GREAT birthday!

Kesselinah Maleka 02/07

Ryan Alcock 10/07
Hayley Barr 21/07
Candice du Toit 23/07
Olenka Scotten 24/07
Sanet Botha 26/07
Susan Jooste 31/07

and.....

Peter Moon from Jeffersonwells 13/07

THE 'H' BRANCH

Durban General (Technical Engineering + Hospitality) is full of 'H-People'. What is 'H-People'? you well may ask. The explanation is simple, out of six personnel only one person, Sanet, name does not begin with H. In the branch we have: Hayley, Holly, Henry, Hamlet & Hilton. Uncanny isn't it?

WELCOME TO THE MANPOWER FAMILY

We would like to welcome our new managing director, Jan Coetzee, to our big Manpower family. May your stay with Manpower SA (Pty) Ltd be a long and fruitful one.

HR ISSUES with MARIE JACOBS

Manpower is experiencing tremendous growth and we are on track to exceed our quarter 2 budget. Congratulations to each one of you for your consistently high productivity levels that have contribution to our success thus far.

It is so important for each one of us to remain conscientious about our productivity levels. It is very easy to slip into an unproductive environment. I would like to highlight one of the real “thieves of time” – smoke breaks.

Companies often complain about productivity loss due to employees taking frequent smoke breaks. To make matters worse, employees tend to want company when they do take a smoke break, so, typically three or four employees will congregate to smoke together and sometimes non-smokers will join them. A 3-minute smoke break becomes a 15 or 20 minute social. The effect of this on productivity can be major.

To ensure that smoking does not negatively impact on our productivity, we should try to control the number of smoke breaks that we take. To keep productivity loss to a minimum we should:
· Consciously record the amount of time we take on our smoke breaks
· We should not encourage social chats with smoking or non smoking colleagues
· We should stick to the company designated smoking areas
· We should smoke during lunch time, or during tea breaks, before or after work
· Be a clean smoker and dispose of cigarettes and matches conscientiously

MANAGERS SOAPBOX

This month we feature an article published in The Star on 18th January 2005 featuring our very own Rowene Bowker. Rowene is asked whether GOLF DAYS ARE A FORM OF DISCRIMINATION.

A golf day for a company's top clients has been arranged and all the men have been invited, leaving the women behind to ensure the smooth running of the business.The women are unhappy that the men not only get a day off, but that the company will have spent maybe R600 or R700 per head on each of the men, for green and caddy fees, prizes, meals and drinks, etc.The women feel it is their right to also be treated to a day off and an equivalent amount to spend as they please, such as on shopping or a day at a health spa.Does this constitute discrimination in the workplace and do the women have a case?Rowene Bowker, Branch Manager of Manpower, Gauteng, says: "In the business world, golf is an established and accepted practice which plays an important role in company and client relations."I feel that companies have an obligation to their staff to be fair. Apart from the possible unfair discrimination, the other scenario where golf-playing females are excluded, while their non-golfing male colleagues are invited along for the ride, can be demotivating for the excluded staff and would certainly not be in the interests of good employee relations within a company."Lisa-Ann King, a director of Fluxmans Labour on the Move, feels that there were grey areas in the scenario, which need to be clarified."From a labour relations point of view, it could certainly be regarded as unfair discrimination if all the men went off for the day, regardless of whether they play golf or not, and some of the women who do play golf were excluded.""In most offices, however, it would be standard practice for all the golfers, male and female, to be invited," she says."In an extreme case where all the guys get invited, even those who don't play golf, but the women golfers are excluded, that could certainly be viewed as discriminatory and the women would have a case."But whether it's worth going to war over is debatable. Perhaps we need a test case to determine the merits of such an argument!" "Golf is undoubtedly one of the sacred cows of the business world and it would be a brave soul who would launch an attack against this tradition. But companies would do well to heed the advice given above and to adopt a fair and balanced approach if they don't want to end up at the CCMA or investing a good sum of money for a day at a spa for all the non-golfers!" added Bowker. By Workplace Staff