Get to know us
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Gente is a human resource management (HR) and industrial relations (IR) consultancy primarily based in Gauteng. Our main focus is outsourcing our HR and IR services to employers in the small, medium and micro enterprises (SMME) sector.
Employer Orientated Focus
Right off the bat we need to be clear about this - we are unashamedly for the employer. That does not mean that we negate or denigrate the essential role of employees – we just believe that employers in general and SMME employers in particular get the short end of the stick.
That also does not mean we are for all employers – there are some really "crazy" people out there and frankly, while handling crazy employees is part of our stock in trade we do not do "crazy" employers –it gives the rest of us a bad name when they get away with stuff they shouldn’t. Our emphasis is profitability within the confines of the law.
What do we do?
We offer a comprehensive range of HR and IR services, tailored to meet the unique needs of your business. These include:
Human Resource Management Services: Full-scale management of HR functions to help your business run smoothly.
Payroll Services: Efficient and accurate payroll management, ensuring compliance with South African labour laws.
Recruitment Services: Finding and hiring the best talent for your organisation.
Industrial Relations Services: Resolving disputes and managing employee relations to minimise business disruptions and risks.
Disciplinary Hearing Services: Providing guidance and support, in order to handle disciplinary matters professionally and legally.
Employment Contracts: Creating clear and legally compliant employee contracts.
Business Philosophy
As HR/IR professionals with decades of experience we’ve witnessed what a profound change a basic job can make in an individual’s life. Through the simple act of giving a person a job on behalf of a client we have been party to inter-generational positive changes in the employee’s circumstances as well as the circumstances of their children and other dependants. This is not theory, this is practise – we have SEEN this (co-incidentally so have most SMME employers we deal with).
As responsible South Africans we firmly believe that currently unemployment is the greatest scourge in our society (actually in a fair chunk of Southern Africa as well). Basically we need more jobs. We believe the SMME sector is where we are going to find those jobs and that’s partly why we are focused on providing our services there.
Practical Approach
Please don’t get the impression from this that we are noble - we are not. We are imminently practical - by virtue of their size SMME’s are the least likely to be able to afford or justify full time HR and IR managers; at the same time by their very nature SMME’s are the most easily derailed by HR and IR issues. As an outsourced HR/IR consultancy, Gente is naturally positioned to fill the gap that exists in this sector and compliment the in house management of the said SMME in order to ensure day to day productivity.
HR Approach
In Gente our approach to HR management is clinically pragmatic. We don’t do “touchy feely” HR. Our view is that HR management is primarily focused on ensuring employee productivity; basically ensuring bang for your buck when it comes to employee investment. Our view of organizations is that the sum of the whole is more than the sum of the parts and that seen in its totality no individual is indispensable to the continued survival of the organization. We value diversity and appreciate constructive dissent but will not tolerate destructive division. That said, we are not callous, just focused.
IR Approach
In Gente our approach to IR management is more conciliatory. Our SMME clients can rarely afford becoming the poster boy for ideological causes, the face and coffers behind the changing of case law or the white knight intent on the toppling of theoretical windmills. Basically that translates to trying to keep the peace. That said, when no other course of action is open to us there is nothing we enjoy more than a good, old fashioned, all-out, gloves off brawl.
You Get What You Pay For
Finally, nothing that we do is an exact science. Admittedly as HR/IR consultants we operate in an arena where alot of things are counter-intuitive and complicated but with a sound mind and enough inclination, time and effort you could pretty much do what we do. That said, if you are our target market, namely an SMME entrepreneur, the same can most likely be said of you and what you do. We’ve all been around the block and got the scrapes and bruises to prove it – you ultimately always end up paying for what you get and we would like to think that with Gente you get what you pay for.