3 tips on adapting to new HR Tech - Meet Gerhard Hartman, Vice President: Medium Business, Sage Africa & Middle East - TopCo Media %

Please could you tell us about your journey – how did you get to this point in your career?

I graduated with a B.Com Accounting from the University of Pretoria in 2000. I joined Sage soon thereafter because it offered a career at the intersection of my interests – accounting, technology and entrepreneurship. Over the past 20 years, I’ve developed extensive experience in the accounting and payroll software space. My career highlights included leading Sage’s entry into the African payroll and HR solutions market. Today, I oversee the expansion of Sage’s accounting, human resources, and payroll business across Africa and the Middle East. 

What are the key HR focus areas in the company – and what excites you the most about the work you do? 

The workplace is in flux as organisations grapple with the suitable business model for the future – fully remote, fully on-premises or a hybrid of the two. We need to support flexible working patterns while keeping employees productive and motivated. There’s a new focus on wellness in the workplace, and of course, the compliance challenges continue to grow. Plus, organisations must respond to changes in the workforce population (i.e. Generation Z) and their specific needs and wants. I am excited to work for an organisation that provides the solutions that help companies manage teams and engage employees wherever they are.

How do you see yourself contributing to your company’s culture?

We are driving a culture of  Flexible Human Work,  built on the principles of customer-centric performance, human connection, fairness and trust, and courageous experimentation. We see our people as our most valuable asset, seek to understand their needs and preferences, and strive to be more people-orientated and less admin-focused. We use technology to provide great workforce experiences and to design new, better ways of working. It’s also about continuous, two-way communication, listening to employees, and acting on their feedback. We also track our  Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) as one of our key KPIs—it tracks whether our employees would recommend working at Sage to a friend.

What three tips do you have when it comes to adapting to (new) HR Tech?

1. Leverage cloud-based platforms: Research conducted by Sage shows South African organisations who were already using cloud-based systems for HR management were better able to adapt to the remote/hybrid work environment when the pandemic hit. 
2. Stay connected to your employees: Keep your entire business engaged, reassured and connected during this time, wherever they are, with digital self-service and employee communications. ​
3. Have a single source of HR data: Put in place a system that gives you full visibility of the workforce – wherever your people are – with an online employee database that’s your single source of truth. 

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