Eskilz offers skills development facilitation services for companies who pays Skills Development Levies (SDL) to SARS. Eskilz will assist your company in completing and submitting your Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) and Annual Training Report (ATR). Eskilz will also advise you in submitting any learnership and other discretionary Grant applications that may be available.

Eskilz have been involved in Skills Development since before its inception in South Africa. Through the years ,we have been fortunate enough to secure many tenders for doing SDF work from various SETAS’s. These have included FASSET,ISETT,ETDP,SASSETA,FOODBEV,W&R SETA and we have received awards for this work.

TRAINING

Our skilled facilitators are able to deliver training sessions either at your place of work or at an alternative venue. We are currently accredited with the HW SETA and are registered as a training provider for the Department of Labour.

Some of the courses that we offer are :

- Team Management
- Being A Team Player
- Workplace Behaviour
- Safety And Fire Control
- Diversity Management
- Basic Computer Skills
- Goal Setting
- Pump Up Your Business
- Grow Your Business
- How To Start A Successful Home Business
- Fail Fast
- Motivate Your Self
- Power Sleep
- The Science Of Getting Rich
- The Business Plan Toolkit
- Success Is Yours
- Hiv/Aids Awareness
- How To Close More Sales In 21 Days
- Operate A Computer
- Customer Service
- Project Management
- Maintain Hygiene In Food Preparation
- Accept And Store Food Deliveries
- Cultual Awareness When Dealing With Customers And Colleagues
- Substance Abuse In The Workplace
- Personal Money Management
- Finance For Non Financal Managers

IR SERVICES

Given the many legal requirements in South Africa and the ever changing laws, we can assist you to protect both yourself and your employees.

Eskilz offers services including:

- Legal compliances
- Chairing Hearings
- Assisting with grievances, disciplinary issues
- Consultation
- Labour disputes between employer and employee

Employment Equity applies to all employers and workers and protects workers and job seekers from unfair discriminatic and also provides a framework for implementing affirmative action.

When must employers report?

Employers with less than 150 workers must send their reports:

- Within 12 months after they become employers; thereafter
- Every year ending with an even number.

Employers with more than 150 workers must send their reports:

- Within 6 months after they become employers: thereafter
- Every year on the first working day in October.

TURNOVER THRESHOLD APPLICABLE TO DESIGNATED EMPLOYERS

(Schedule 4 of the Employment Equity Act)

Sector or Sub Sectors in the accordance with the Total Annual Turnover Standard Industrial Classification

CONTENTS

Report must have all the necessary information and be signed by the Chief Executive Officer.

Based on Legislation in Section 21, of the Employment Equity Act.

EMPLOYERS WHO CANNOT REPORT

Employers who cannot report must let the department know in writing and give reasons.

Based on Legislation in section 21, of the Employment Equity Act

FORMS TO BE COMPLETED

EEA2-A report to the Department of Labour on staff compliment and then the movement in the company which includes promotions, terminations, recruitment etc.This effectively details hoe employment processes work in your company.

EEA4- An income differentials document .Reporting on ALL salaries in the company. This form details if there are any discrepancies in your company relating to salaries.

ESKILZ WILL, ASSIST WITH THE FOLLOWING:

Information gathering and completion of EEA2 forms EEA4 forms which will then be hand delivered and signed for by the department of labor.

Summary and recommendations for your company.

Eskilz will draft an Employment Equity Plan for the company and should it be necessary we will assist in the implementation of this including setting up the equity committee.

Policies and procedures.Es kilz can assist in perusing and developing policies should this be necessary.

Eskilz assists organizations develop an integrated, dynamic strategy for their BEE. This is achieved by exploring transformation within the organization the end results to ensure that the transformation strategy form an integral part of the organizations ethos and not a separate process.

What is BEE (Black Economic Empowerment )

Black economic empowerment was formulated to assist previously disadvantaged individuals to ensure that they contribute to the South African economy. It is imperative in today’s economy and effects all South African businesses.

Why is a BEE scorecard advantageous?

The new BEE codes that were released on 9 February 2007 requires that large enterprises and government departments procure a larger portion from :

- Micro-enterprises and QSE’s ( Qualified Small Enterprises)
- Black owned and black women –owned enterprise
- And a few more

Submit tenders with the strength of your BEE scorecard
Small companies can now compete against big companies as suppliers
BEE is not an ownership only issue, but is a much broader approach. The government demonstrates its understanding of various sectors and types of industries and that they will not be able to contribute to the economy if excluded. The new codes provide a flexible framework within which all categories of industry can operate within.

BEE

This is such a buzzword currently.

Allow us to demystify BEE, assist you in consulting and advising on the topic, aswell as preparing you for BEE certification.

Eskilz will assist with the preparation of your file prior to verification, ensure that obtaining a scorecard is painless and easy.

We shall assist you to understand your current strategy in light of BEE.

We will assist you with understanding where you are and where you would like to be, as a company, and how you need to get there in terms of obtaining a desirable B-BBEE Scorecard.

Please see below for a more detailed synopsis

SCORECARD ELEMENTS

Exempt Micro Enterprise (EME)

Turnover less than R5 million

Should the organization’s turnover be less than R5 Million the company’s auditor may wrote a letter on their letterhead, confirming that the turnover is less than R5 Million which automatically gives the client a Level 4 status.

Should the organization wish to have a verified scorecard it will be assessed on 4 of the following 7 elements.

PROCUREMENT RECOGNITION LEVELS

SCORECARD ELEMENTS

QSE SCORCARD

TURNOVER LESS THAN 35 MILLION

PROCUREMENT RECOGNITION LEVELS

SCORECARD ELEMENTS

Generic Scorecard

Turnover above R35 million

PROCUREMENT RECOGNITION LEVELS

LOBBY AND ADVOCACY

What do we mean by advocacy

Advocacy is first and foremost is process. It is strategic and targets well designed activities to key stakeholders and decision makers. Advocacy is always directed in influencing policy laws,regulations,programmes or decisions on funding made at the upper-most levels of public or private sector institutions.Advocacy includes both single-issue,time- limited campaigns as well as going work undertaken around a range of issues, and the activities may be conducted at a national, regional or local level.

A common definition and understanding of advocacy is; “A set targeted actions in support of a cause or an issue, because one wants to build support for that cause or issue, influence others to support it; or try to influence or change legislation that affects it.”

Advocacy campaigns can have a number of different aims and purposes .Some of the more common ones is:

- Sensitizing the public or decision-makers on a specific issue.
- Persuading or influencing decision-makers in a certain direction.
- Change legislation or work processes that negatively affect the organization’s members or beneficiaries.
- Expose a problem that needs to be addressed by others.
- Defend a right or a benefit.

What is lobbying and networking

Lobbying is-generally-more restricted and only a part of advocacy. It refers specifically to advocacy efforts that attempt to influence legislation.

Networking involves individuals or groups who want to work together in a loose organizational form for a common purpose. Good networks require a shared vision, a mission statement and committed members. Some important benefits of networks are that they;

Facilitate exchange of information skills,experience,matierals etc

Coordinate activity and reduces duplication of effort

Bring together a diverse range of people who would not otherwise meet

Provide peer support,encouragement,motivation and professional recognition

Provide critical mass for exchange-strength in numbers some potential problems when working in networks are that they;

- Can lack clear objectives.
- Sometimes have a very loose structure without shared leadership that makes action and communication difficult.
- May be dominated by one powerful organization.
- Can be bureaucratic
- Lack common resources.
- May suffer from a lack of trust between members of the network
- Are difficult to monitor and evaluate

All these problems can be overcome and are not reasons to not get involved in networks-just things to be wary of. Many networks fail because they are not managed properly.

Who is a target audience?

Advocacy and lobbying campaigns can be aimed at, or targeting, a wide spectrum of audiences.

Among those are;

- Policy makers
- Government officials
- The Public
- Professional associations such as doctors, police, teachers, etc.
- Enterprises/businesses
- Donor organizations
- Trade unions
- NGOs
- Media

WHY ADVOCACY WORK AND LOBBYING

You can make a difference: A single mother struggling to raise her son without the help of a workable child support system put an ad in a local newspaper to see if there were others who wanted to work for a change child support laws across the country.

People working together can make a difference: An association against drunk driving convinced the government to toughen the drunken driving law. As a result, the number of drunken driving deaths is lower.

People can change laws: History is full of people and groups that fought against great odds to make great changes; child labor laws, public schools, clean air and water laws, social security. These changes were not easy to achieve. They all took the active involvement-the lobbying-of thousands of people who felt that something needed to be changed.

Lobbying is a democratic right: The act of telling our policymakers how to write and change our laws is at the heart of democratic system.

Lobbying helps find real solutions: People thinking creatively and asking their elected officials for support can generate innovative solutions that overcome the root cause of a problem.

Lobbying is easy: Lobbying is not a mysterious rite that takes years to master. You can learn how to lobby-whom to call, when, what to say-in minutes.

Policymakers need your expertise: Few institutions are closer to the real problem than NGOs, DPOs and CBOs.Every professional lobbyist will tell you that personal stories are powerful tools for change. People and policy makers can learn from your story.

Lobbying helps people: Everything that goes into a lobbying campaign-the research, the strategic planning, the phone calls and visits – will help fulfill your goal.

Lobbying advances your cause and builds public trust: Building public trust is essential to the non-profit organization and lobbying helps you to gain it by increasing your organization’s visibility. Just as raising funds and recruiting volunteers are important to achieving your organization’s mission, so is lobbying.

STEPS IN THE ADVOCACY PROCESS

There are a number of important steps that you need to take in your advocacy work. They are presented in sequential order below.

Indentify the issue: Advocacy begins with an issue or problem that an organization o r network agrees to support in order to promote a policy change. The issue should support the organization’s mission and meet the criteria set for its advocacy campaigns.

Set goals and objectives: A goal (sometimes called a strategic objective) is a general statement of what the organization hopes to achieve during the next three to five years .The advocacy objective describes the short-term, specific and measurable achievements that contribute to the goal.

Develop the message and indentify target audience: Advocacy messages are developed to frame issue and persuade the receiver to support your organization’s position. There are 3 important questions to answer when preparing advocacy messages.

What type of people is this message for-what do they already know?

What do you want to achieve with the message?

What do you want the recipient of the message to do as a result of the message?

The primary target audience includes the decision makers who have the authority to bring about desired policy change. The secondary target audience includes persons who have access to and are able to influence the primary target audience- other policymakers, friends or relatives, the media, religious leaders, etc. The organisation must identify individuals in the target audience, their positions, a relative power base and then determine whether the various individual support, oppose, or are neutral to the advocacy issue.

Develop implementation and activity plan for your advocacy work: The organization should develop an implementation plan to guide its advocacy campaign. The plan should identify activities and tasks, responsible persons or committees, the desired time frame and needed resources. When you develop the plan you need to select channels of communication. Selection of the most appropriate medium for advocacy messages depends on the target audience. The choice of medium varies for reaching the genera lpublic, influencing decision makers, generating support for the issue among like-minded organization, etc. Some of the more common channels include press kits and press releases, press conferences, fact sheets and a conference for policy makers. You may also need to raise funds. Advocacy campaigns can always benefit from outside funds and other resources can assist in the development and dissemination of materials, cover travel costs and cover cost of training.

Implement the plan: The organization should try to follow the plan and do what has been planned, on time and within budget frames in order to achieve the set objectives for the campaign.

Monitor and evaluate: From the outset of the campaign, i.e. step one above; the organization must monitor progress and expenditure. It must ask itself questions like;

Are we doing the right thing and are we doing it right?

Are we following our plan and are we approaching our objective?

Are we within our budget frames or are we spending more than anticipated?

Revise advocacy plan: If any of the questions above is answered in the negative the campaign management must take corrective action. At the end of the campaign the organization should evaluate whether the objectives were met and whether the work was done in a cost-effective manner. The main purpose of this evaluation is to learn from one’s experiences and use this knowledge in the planning of future advocacy campaigns.

What would you consider ESKILZ’s role to be in this process?

- Indentify the issue
- Set goals and objectives Develop messages and identify target
- Audience
- Develop advocacy plan and raise funds
- Implement advocacy plan Monitor and
- Evaluate revise advocacy
- Plan
- Build support/ a network

HUMAN RESOURCES

So often in medium-sized enterprises the burden of the Human Resources function fails to the already overburdened Financial Manager.

Eskilz offers this service on an outsourced basis. A nominal retainer is charged monthly and Eskilz will make your worries disappear.

We can assist you with:

- Policies and Procedures
- Job Profiles
- Competency Profiles
- Recruitment and Selection
- Letters of Appointment
- Personalized Recruitment

All of the above will be handled by our competent consultants.

In order to ensure that you get the best out of your Workplace Skills Plan, Eskilz will carry out a skills audit for your company which will assist you in identifying any skills gaps or training needs.

ADULT BASIC EDUCATION AND TRAINING

There are estimated 3.3Million illiterate adults in South Africa.Edradicating illiteracy is one of the nine priorities of the National Education Strategy.

Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) is available to adults who want to finish their basic education. An outcomes-based programme, ABET aims to provide basic learning tools, knowledge and skills, provides participants with nationally recognized qualifications.

The four levels of ABET training are equivalent to Grades R to 9

ABET includes training in:

- Language, literacy and communication
- Mathematical literacy, mathematics and mathematical sciences
- Natural Science
- Arts and Culture
- Life Orientation
- Technology
- Human and Social Science
- Economic and management Science

Eskilz can assist you with computer-assisted ABET language, literacy and communication as well as mathematical literacy, mathematics and mathematical sciences.

Black economic empowerment was formulated to assist previously disadvantaged individuals to ensure that they contribute to today’s economy.

It is imperative in today’s economy and affects all South Africans businesses. Eskilz is not a verification agency but will be able to assist clients get their BEE scorecards with a recognized verification agency.

VERIFICATION AND CLEANSING

INTRODUCTION

Organizations that have large databases often have certain challenges that we are able to address:

A large number of database entries’ that exist in a written format-not captured.

Their current database program does not address all current needs.

The information on their current database is not relevant or is outdated.

IT SOLUTION

We offer IT solution in the form of customized software to address any challenge that the client may have. Full training is also offered as well as back up services.

WHAT IS DATABSE CLEANSING

It is just that! Taking the information that currently sits on your database, removing all the old irrelevant information and ensuring that the new information is true and correct.

- Employees had invested interest in companies on the database.
- Vendors had two companies and this resulted in covering quotes.
- Info such as contact details and banking details had since changed.
- Companies had gone out of business.
- Tax clearance certificates, BEE scorecards and CIBD certificates were not present and had expired.
- Companies on the database had changed their line of business and were not being contacted in the result of this.
- Case of fronting were uncovered and are currently under investigation.

TRACK RECORD

We have just concluded the database for the UGU district municipality (400 Vendors). In 2006 we did the affirmative database for the ICC (5000 Vendors) this contract was awarded to us by the mayor’s office. We are currently in the process of assisting the HWSETA-KZN in cleansing their database (600 ORGANIZATIONS)

OPERATOR BASED DATA CLEANSING

Eskilz have a dedicated and professional team of operators, who are experts in cleansing and updating business databases.

DATABASE VALIDATION

This is where Eskilz simply confirm the details that you have and make any changes to your database. All changes are flagged so you can see clearly where updates have been made.

DATA ENCHANCEMENT

This is where Eskilz will take your existing database, validate and update all the details and then add extra details that then add extra details that you need such as direct dials, best time to call again current suppliers etc.

DATA VALIDATION

- Checking names against ID’s supplied
- Job title-against organ gram
- Company name-against company registration documents and membership
- Address-against FICA documents
- Contact details- against letterhead
- Banking details-against proof of banking
- Tax Clearance, BEE scorecard and CIBD –Validity

Each record is attempted a minimum of 3 times where appropriate.

WHY BOTHER TO CLEANSE DATA

There are 8 principals that we abide by. Good data management will ensure that all these principals are in place. Data cleansing specifically covers principals 4 and 7.

PRINCIPALS:

There are 8 principals put in place by Eskilz that make sure that information is handled properly.

THESE STATE THAT THE DATA MUST BE:

- Fairly And Lawfully Processed
- Processed For Limited Purposes
- Adequate,Relevant And Not Execessive
- Accurate
- Not Kept For Longer Than Necessary
- Processed In Line With Your Rights
- Secure
- Not Transferred To Countries Without Adequate Protection.

By law data controllers have to keep to those principals.

CONCLUSION

If data is not cleansed regularly and properly, there is a greater margin for mistakes to be made

SMALL BUSINESS ADVICE

The Small Business Advisory Services aims to maximise the growth potential, prosperity and sustainability of small businesses. It provides enhanced access to information and advice on issues important to sustaining and/or growing small business in response to the current global financial crisis. Some of the aspects that we offer business advice on are :

- Business registrations
- Marketing plans
- Business plans
- Funding
- Finance
- Market research
- Customer surveys
- Mentorship and coaching

INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION FOR STANDARDISATION (ISO)

WHAT IS ISO?

The ISO is a world – wide federation of national standards bodies. The aim of the ISO is to promote the development of standardization and related activities in the world with a view of facilitating the international exchange of goods and services and to develop cooperation in the spheres of intellectual, scientific, technologies, and economic activity.

The scope of the ISO covers standardization in all fields except electrical and electronic engineering standards of which the responsibility of the international electro technical commission (IEC).The ISO brings together the interests of producers, users, governments and the scientific community in preparation for international standards.

South Africa joined the international Organizational of standardization (ISO) in 1946 as one of 25 founding members.

ISO 1009-2000

The new ISO 9001:2000, a significantly changed standard for the business and has supersede the existing 1994 version. The revised standard will require a recommended substantial modifications and enhancements to your organizations document and data control including your business performance structure. Significant improvement to the previous ISO framework is the focus on the voice of the customer, measurement, analysis and the continuous improvement requirement. The ultimate goal of sustained customer confidence and satisfaction will be embedded throughout the entire ISO 9001-2001 framework.

ISO 14001 environmental management standard development by the international standards organization focuses on organizational behavior and how this behavior is managed to prevent damage to the environment. These organizations implement their environmental management systems in accordance with the requirements of the ISO 14001 voluntarily and there by provide proof of their conformance to internationally acceptable environmental practices, taking responsibility for their organizations impact on the environment and making continuous improvement a way of life for the organization. Many organizations world wide are realizing the importance of implementing, maintaining and managing a recognized and measurable environmental management system based on the requirements of the internationally recognized environmental management system ISO 10041.

Achieving certification gives these organizations a competitive edge when trading both nationally as well as internationally.

Eskilz has been in operation since 2002 and has always believed in giving back to the community. Eskilz has adopted SIZANANI as a beneficiary of CSI initiative. SIZANANI is a registered NPO with the department of social development. The reason Eskilz has chosen SIZANANI is that their activities and focus areas compliment the mission and vision.

Some of the focus areas of SIZANANI are:

- Feeding schemes
- HIV/AIDS awareness programs
- Adult Basic Education and Training
- Disaster Aid
- Community cap citation projects
- Empowerment
- Entrepreneurial development
- Agricultural Projects
- Rural Women
- Black Youth
- Disabled

Eskilz encourages other organizations to get involved as SIZANANI is a very active NPO and is making a positive impact on the lives of its recipients.

To get involved or to make a contribution contact SIZANANI’s chairman (Mr. K.P Timmal ) on HYPERLINK "mailto:kpt@telkomsa.net"kpt@telkomsa.net.

RECRUITMENT

Eskilz is a registered recruitment agency with The Department Of Labour. Our services includes :

- Permanent placements
- Temporary placements
- Vocational training

We also assist companies in sourcing, shortlisting and conducting checks on potential candidate.