At PaySpace, we believe in investing in people to empower them in their careers. As South Africans raised in the spirit of Ubuntu, we know we will only succeed when everyone succeeds.
Being a fast-growing employer, we are constantly on the lookout for top talent and our directors like to keep a close eye on the skills market. During the height of the Covid-19 lockdown period, we noticed an increased number of individuals suddenly becoming employable. Businesses across the board found themselves under immense financial pressure and, as we know by now, many have had to close their doors or retrench staff in order to survive.
So, we decided to act swiftly.
In August 2020, we invited all payroll and HR professionals who found themselves unemployed or retrenched during the Covid-19 pandemic to become a ‘Payroll and HR Software HERO’ by offering them a free 10-day course of virtual training on our software.
We felt implored to help these specialists, now at the mercy of the job market, to expand their skill sets and to help them future-proof their careers.
Our instincts proved right.
We officially launched the HERO initiative on Monday 17 August and as of 27 August, we were looking at approximately 80 applications. Of course, all the CVs we received were excellent and we had a hard time choosing only 50 candidates. This was the first round of training, and the option of hosting similar courses in the future is definitely on the table.
In order to apply, individuals needed a minimum of two years’ payroll experience and had to have a good understanding of payroll legislation, as this is fundamental to the programme.
Applicants learnt the full spectrum of payroll processing on PaySpace’s solution. This included, among other things:
- setting up a new company on the system,
- configuring company parameters according to various customised requirements,
- understanding and defining security roles
They were required to complete a mid-tax year / tax year-end process on PaySpace, set up the Performance Management module, and write customised reports in Cloud-Analytics. In between training days, participants wrote assessments to monitor their performance, with a final assessment on the last day to state that they are fully certified in PaySpace.
Applicants who successfully completed the training could share their certification on their personal LinkedIn accounts to boost their chance of landing a job.
Having PaySpace proficiency is an excellent skill to add to any professional’s CV.
This course up-skilled participants to not only qualify for PaySpace specialist positions in in-house payroll and HR functions, but also qualified them for junior consultant roles at PaySpace or at our business partners.
With many businesses accelerating their cloud journeys, there is a big gap in the market among PaySpace customers for payroll managers and administrators. Following the HERO Initiative, when an organisation has positions available, they can now employ a skilled professional who knows the software inside and out, and who can also pioneer their systems migration to the cloud, should that be necessary.
The future is in the cloud…
