Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, a youth employment programme has, over the past 18 months, placed more than 1 100 young people into SME jobs according to the programme’s project manager, Alex Hadfield.
Hadfield explained that Harambee has been working with SMEs that include start-ups, franchises and supply chains, placing young people in roles such as office administration, reception management, face-to-face sales, transport, retail and hospitality assistance and basic operations.
She added that sourcing and vetting of new staff was a particular challenge for SMEs but that Harambee’s SME Solution, offered just that – a way for small business owners to decrease their risk, while increasing employee success.
Hadfield said, “For smaller businesses, hiring new staff is risky and resource-intensive compared to corporates. They need workers that are more versatile and are more self-directed, yet they don’t have the resources to find and develop such employees.
“At Harambee, we are part of the solution space – we help to decrease the risk of an initial hiring mistake by identifying those attributes in candidates that increase the chances of success. In the case of SMEs, much of that attribute is the ability to self-direct.”
Since 2011, Harambee has connected almost 30 000 young people previously locked out of the economy with job opportunities with about 300 of South Africa’s top companies. In so doing, they have performed more than one million assessments for more than 200 000 young work seekers. This large database of information enables a scientific approach to the problem of matching job demand with the supply of work seekers.
Harambee assists SMEs in registering, contracting and logging their talent requirements in an easy and cost effective manner. The SME offering also includes an SME Knowledge Centre including an HR toolkit, policies and procedures templates, highly subsidised fees, and assistance to both candidate and employer through the hiring process.
Hadfield added, “As we assist in tackling youth unemployment, we’re also participating meaningfully in economic growth and real job creation. But sustained solutions require multiple stakeholders to work together with business, government, society and sponsors.”
Details: www.harambee.co.za; smeinfo@harambee.co.za
