HR Professionals Forum Workshop

Accelerate Cape Town is hosting a new initiative, our HR Professionals Forum which as part of our Accelerate Cape Town Human Capital Programme and aims to support the talent attraction and retention programmes of our member companies.  The HR Forum will provide a cross-sectoral engagement for HR professionals in Cape Town to collectively unpack and explore topics such as the effective recruitment and retention of highly skilled and BEE candidates, innovative recruitment solutions, improving the work readiness of candidates, strengthening business and university collaboration, as well as additional HR topics.

Programme

• 07:30 – 08:00     Registration
• 08:00 – 08:15     Welcome and overview of the Accelerate Cape Town Human Capital Programme – Juliet Prowse, Programme Director
• 08:15 – 08:40     Addressing talent retention in Cape Town and growing the talent pool – Shirley Zinn, Group HR Director at Woolworths
• 08:40 – 09:05     Insights into BEE excellence – career paths for retention – Dionne Kerr, CEO, Siyakha Consulting and Deputy Chair for Membership at Association of BEE Professionals
• 09:05 – 09:20     Q&A
• 09:20 – 09:30     Coffee
• 09:30 – 09:55    Discussion on HR Forum – future topics and format
• 09:55 – 10:00     Wrap up and close

About the Speakers

• Prof Shirley Zinn is the Group Head of Human Resources at Woolworths Holdings Limited. Shirley has held a number of senior HR roles for Standard Bank SA and Standard Bank Group, Nedbank and SARS. Shirley was recognised as a Top Woman in Business and Government by Black Business Quarterly and Topco Media in 2008. She received World Human Resources Congress awards in 2007 and 2013 for Excellence in Global HR Leadership. In 2012, she was listed in the Top 30 Wonder Women in South Africa by the Wits Business Journal. She serves on the Advisory Boards of Monash South Africa, and the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Shirley holds an Ed.M and Doctorate in Education from Harvard University, is an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria’s Human Resource Management Department, and was recently appointed as Adjunct Professor at the University of Cape Town. In 2015, she wrote ‘Swimming Upstream’ – her autobiography focusing on her personal and professional journey.

• Dionne Kerr is CEO of Siyakha Consulting and Deputy Chairperson of the Association of BEE Professionals. Dionne is passionate about transformation and development in South Africa and has consulted to various private sector organisations to define their approach and implementation of BEE. She sits on the dti’s Joint Technical Committee and BEE task team to define the implementation and verification of the new Codes. She was appointed to the Presidential Review Committee to assess transformation within the public sector. A recipient of the DIVA Africa award for her role in SMME development, Dionne has rolled out development programmes in rural and urban environments. She serves as a Catalyst, a programme of UKTI to promote SMME growth between South Africa and the UK.