By Louise Bailey Tait

At OfferZen, we’ve been doing remote days once a week for about a year now. Now that remote is likely going to be the new norm, it’s becoming particularly important to help set us up to work productively from home. In the South African context, having reliable access to the internet during load shedding is particularly important. Here are a few things we’ve done to help our team stay online.

Read the blog post here! (http://bit.ly/2TU9srT)

By Louise Bailey Tait

As of Tuesday, 17 March 2020, the OfferZen team is going fully remote. Whilst we have tested optional remote days once a week for about a year now, full-time remote work will now indefinitely become the new norm. Because we don’t know how long the situation is going to last, we are making sure our team is well set up.

Here’s what that looks like.

Read the blog post here! (http://bit.ly/33mt772)

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Resources and links mentioned the episode:

• Slack: Team communication and visibility tool
• Miro: Screen-share alternative and project management tool
• FocusMate: Accountability and productivity tool
• BambooHR: Team organisation and contact details
• Zoom: Video conferencing tool with cool interactive features
• Helpful articles on our blog about remote work
• Article by Andreas Klinger about setting yourself up to win in 'the new normal'
• Article by Hot Jar about productivity while working remotely
  
  

By Philip Joubert

The outbreak of COVID-19 and its global economic effects have reached South Africa. Only a few patients have been diagnosed so far, but it’s likely only a matter of time before we see significantly more cases.

While the impact of COVID-19 may be limited at the moment, we’ve decided to get ahead of the virus and take precautionary steps before they’re required. Our priority is to keep our team safe and ensure that OfferZen doesn’t contribute to the spread of the virus.

Here’s what we’ve put in place so far.

Read the blog post here! (http://bit.ly/2W6M8J6)

By Ridewaan Hanslo

Scrum and Scrum variants make up for about 70% of today’s Agile methods and practices globally. At the same time, there are still many problems and failures during its adoption and implementation. In this article, I will discuss how to identify and categorise the different problems arising during Scrum adoption according to who they affect and how to overcome them.

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Resources

Here are resources Ridewaan suggests to help teams, individuals and organisations overcome these problems:

• Scrum guide: This is the go-to guide for Scrum introduction as it is a vital resource for entry-level Scrum certifications. This document is written by the “founding fathers” of the Scrum Agile Methodology, namely; Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland.
• Scrum - A pocket guide: A good short book to read for anyone who wants to get a basic understanding of Scrum. It’s written as concise and complete as possible.
• The state of Agile annual report: The largest and longest running survey on Agile, in the world! View the latest 12th annual report, which discusses the benefits of Agile adoption, Agile methods and practices, Top 5 Agile techniques, Agile project management tools, to name just a few.

Other sources that you can take advantage of include joining local communities like SUGSA (Scrum User Group South Africa), and keeping up-to-date with the annual Agile Africa Conference proceedings which attract industry experts to speak about their experiences.

Read the blog post here!

DigsConnect is a small tech startup that helps students find affordable student accommodation with minimum mindshare. This means they work with sensitive personal data, from students to institutions, and need quick experimentation to accommodate each customer’s specific issues and needs as they arise. Brendan Ardagh, DigsConnect’s CTO and co-founder, says that rapid-prototyping on cloud native gave his team the ability to handle data securely, and run experimentation quickly and safely.

Read the blog post here!

By Shalina Naicker

It has become common practice for IT professionals to work long hours in order to meet demanding deadlines. As my own workload increased, I found that 8 hours was just not enough time to complete all of my tasks and soon working overtime became the norm for me. In an effort to avoid this, and to work more efficiently, I started to reflect on my days to figure out what I could improve. In this article, I will share some of the challenges that reduced my efficiency and the methods that I applied to overcome them.

Read the blog post here!

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Resources mentioned in the podcast:

• Trello helped me organize my goals and create checklists for each of them.
• Reddit offers plenty of funny cat/dog memes to aid with your daily dopamine release.
• I tried out a few of these techniques from Aubrey Marcus to overcome fatigue.
• Dr Matthew Walker talks about the impact of sleep on human health and disease in this podcast.
• Dr Rhonda Patrick and Chris Kresser are my go-to resources for nutrition and health.

Music Shalina recommends to help with focus:

• Super Intelligence: Memory Music, Improve Memory and Concentration, Binaural Beats Focus Music
• Assassin’s Creed Origins (Full Soundtrack) - Sarah Schachner
• Man of Steel Soundtrack Deluxe Edition
  

By René Chunilall

When I was still at university, I had no idea what a ‘good’ job looked like. People around me spoke a lot about big paychecks and impressive company names, so when I set out to find a job, these were the things I was chasing. However, I soon realised that these things were not enough to make me feel fulfilled so I set out to change how I approached finding the right job for me.

Read the blog post here!

By Heena Manglani

Applying for a critical skills visa to work as a developer in South Africa can be quite confusing and stressful. Here’s what I’ve personally found to be most useful at each stage of the process.

I had been in a good job working as a software developer in India when I married a South African man and decided to make the move to Johannesburg. Applying for a critical skills permit, however, took a long time. My application was denied the first time around and all in all, the process proved to be a lot more difficult than I thought it would be.

That’s why I’d like to share some of the key things that I’ve found important when applying for a critical skills work visa, as well as some tips for overcoming the hurdles along the way.

Read the blog post here!

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Links mentioned in the audioblog:

• What is VFS?
• Do my skills count as critical skills in South Africa?
• Verify my education/qualifications with SAQA
• Template for submitting  company's registration document
• Checking what other documents you need for VFS
• What is the status of my visa application?
• Facebook community

By Philip Botha

Recruitment can be a major hurdle for companies - and they’re often their own worst enemy. As an organisational health consultant with years of hiring experience, I’ve seen the impact that a new mindset around hiring can have. In this article, I will debunk some myths around hiring, and provide a practical checklist to not only improve your hiring process, but also enable you to shift gear from just “recruiting” to building a high-performing team that creates awesome software.

Read the blog post here. 

Having a team of individuals that feels supported by its company means people are more likely to have higher morale, better motivation at work, and be more resilient to things like burnout and stress. Emily Smith, Agile Coach at Naked Insurance, ensures the above by fostering personal connections with her team, encouraging regular engagement between team members and complete transparency, and deliberately steering away from traditional models of hierarchy.

Read the blog post here!