Home office? Well, it’s official, companies who want to force employees back to the office are crazy. A new working paper by an Australian finance prof shows that companies with WFH policies post better financial returns.

Can we get an “I told you so”, anyone?

In this Open Letter:

• AI for Wellness: The quest to save SA R161bn in burnout tax.

• African VC connections: Come join our JHB and CT events next week.

• Boston Dynamics creeps, a new Mac mini & free POS for err’body.

• What SA’s townships need most: The results are in.

• Lonely building your startup? Join The Open Collab and get support.

TechSafari 🤝 The Open Letter: Big news! Our friends over at TechSafari are coming to SA for two gatherings, and we are partnering up to offer you all a great deal to get there! Check it out here.

TRENDING NOW

The Quest to Save SA Companies R161bn in Burnout Tax

Can you believe it’s November already? 

What are we saying, of course, you can – we feel the moeg in our bones this time of year.

It’s been a fun but tough one: A lil less loadshedding but economic up and downs, interest rates, elections, a new GNU, Siya and Rachel’s divorce – not to mention hard work and looking forward to a well-deserved break soon…

And it’s needed, South Africans work hard, VERY hard. You can see it in the numbers as we approach burnout season:

• SA ranked 69th out of 71 participating countries in a recent Mental State of the World report – only the UK and Uzbekistan did worse than we did.

• 36% of the SA workforce experience excessive daily stress, with 71% either disengaged or actively disengaged – all signs of burnout.

• And it all costs the SA economy a staggering R161 billion every year due to lost days of work, presenteeism (being at work but unwell), and premature death.

But what can HR do?

Staff are normally your most important business “asset”, but by far the most complex and expensive to manage.

And it doesn’t help that HR is notorious for overestimating employee wellness levels (i.e. in surveys more than 75% of HR leaders tend to think “our employees are super happy” but, when asked, more than half of those same employees are miserable and struggling).

It’s an expensive over-estimation. Employee turnover costs between 1.5 and 2 times an employee's annual salary to replace them – so it's in everyone’s best interest to keep our workforce happy and healthy.

The local player with a global mental health reach...

We’ve featured mental health scale-up Ollie in previous editions of The Open Letter, but they’ve added something new worth checking out – a global 24/7 AI Mental Health Coach…

Having established their B2B employee mental health platform (complete with a network of therapists, psychologists, counsellors and coaches), Ollie has introduced a custom-trained AI called, well, Ollie, that can chat with employees (via chat or voice) in over 21 languages to either:

• Coach them through a situation itself (AI)

• Pick up where the time is right to escalate it to a human, where they can chat with one of over 150 mental health experts around the world.

Ollie was trained by a research team using psychological methodologies. And, as a basic feature, can determine a baseline of where someone's mental state is at, giving a score out of 100 that indicates potential for burnout.

And it seems to be working…

Already making an impact

According to Ollie Health, Ollie the AI is already having over 1’000 daily chats with employees in need, with an average duration of 230 minutes (nearly 4 hours). So that’s like having a work bestie that you can dish with – except Ollie won't use anything you’ve told them to throw you under the bus for a promotion. 😊

This way, Ollie helps employees track and manage their own mental health score and build good habits – only using pro resources like therapists when it’s really necessary.

But then it becomes really interesting: The AI conversations are anonymous, but the data from conversation topics can be correlated with data points like sick leave and then give an overall burnout predictor at an organisational level.

Ollie then reports this in the company’s HR dashboard, which, together with their talent acquisition algorithm, can help HR identify which teams need more resources.

With companies like Ollie leveraging AI to give companies (and their HR teams) powerful insights into areas that were previously unseen spaces, we’re watching this space.

PS: A little over a year ago, we had Ollie’s founder, Marc Gregory, on the How Would You Build It Podcast. And some things have changed, of course, but it’s cool looking back at his founder’s and growth journey, with some insights on:

• Creating your own brand “currency” to grow your business.

• The hardest sell: growing when you’re selling a grudge purchase.

• Why AI is not about following the AI trend, but following human behaviour.

CHECK THIS OUT

Come Make African VC & Startup Connections

The Open Letter is happy to be collaborating with our African tech newsletter friends, TechSafari, when they come to SA next week.

We’ll be there, happy to welcome them to SA — and we’re inviting all of you to come along and meet some tech players, from founders to VCs from the wider continent setting.

We even organised you 20% off as an Open Letter reader…

The JHB mixer is happening on 7 November — Get your tickets here.

And the Cape Town event is at Yoco on 14 November — Get your tickets here.

And remember to use the code OL20% for your Open Letter discount.

See you there!

IN SHORT

Sound Smart at the Braai Tonight

💳 You Get a Point of Sale! Local online & e-commerce payments provider Payfast is planning to roll out FREE Point of Sale devices to SA merchants to make it easier for them to process payments.

🤖 RoboMechanic? Creep Factory Boston Dynamics has released a video of its robot Atlas sorting car parts. And while Atlas’ walking does seem a little awkward, it gets the job done. Hmmm. Wonder how it will react to getting shouted at by his Dad for holding the torch wrong, though.

🍎 Mini Apples. Apple announced the new Mac mini this week. A new M4 chip upgrade, iPhone Mirroring and Apple Intelligence, not to mention being Apple’s “first carbon-neutral Mac” — the 5 x 5in Mac truly is tiny but mighty. Check out the cool Mac mini launch video.

🍞 Smart Shopper eBucks. Hot off the heels of 99c bread for qualifying FNB customers, Pick n Pay announced that FNB Private Clients and eBucks members from RMB Private Bank can get as much as 30% of their spend back in eBucks when using PnP’s asap, and 20% back for those shopping in-store, as well FNB account specific rewards when shopping at PnP clothing.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with sustainable scaling and growth strategy help through Metavolve, your own CTO and tech team at a fraction of the cost with Octoco and 11 more vital startup tools & services.

BUILDING TOGETHER

Happening over at The Open Collab

In the last few days alone, in our online community, we…

• Helped connect Trevor with leads for a full-stack developer.

• Celebrated Sebastian’s moves into the Portuguese property market.

• Got excited for our first LIVE and in-person Office Hours next week 🔥.

• Helped Danei with the ultimate sales deck template.

• Celebrated Sabeeha’s 4 new clients.

• Celebrated Gustav’s first revenue & closing partners!

• Had a lekker discussion around mugging detection for bike riders.

• Secured our seats for today’s collab-exclusive Sales Masterclass.

Thinking about joining The Open Collab?

• Supercharge your network in the SA startup landscape — get that introduction, get that customer, or meet that partner.

• Get feedback on your products, services and/or offers from others who have built and are building their own products right now.

• Join all our online and in-person events for free!

• Exclusive 1-on-1 sessions with startup consultants.

SA’s only dedicated tech startup and scale-up founder community.

HAPPENING SOON

Upcoming Events

Join us at 12 PM today (Friday 1 Nov) for the first in a 3-part series with The Open Collab exclusive B2B Sales Series. Want to learn what it’s about? Watch the video on IG below…

1 November 2024 — Sales Masterclass — Online: Keep your B2B sales pipeline filled with this Masterclass session with sales expert, Sebastian Chapman — Join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

4-6 November 2024 — Injini EdTech Week — Cape Town: This is where EdTech entrepreneurs, the broader ecosystem members, government and policy stakeholders come together in Cape Town — PS: entrance is free.

7 November 2024 — Cape Town: Tinder for Business: Meet 20 investors, corporates or potential customers at Innovation City. Sign up here.

7 November 2024 — JHB: TechSafari is hosting its first JHB mixer. Get tickets here and use OL20% code to get a sweet 20% off!

8 November 2024 — Product Masterclass: Part 2: How to keep shipping truly great products, fast — Join The Open Collab community to attend for free.

14 November 2024 — TechSafari is coming to Cape Town! Join Caleb and team for a memorable night at Yoco to talk all things Tech and Startup in Africa. Get tickets here. Use OL20% code to get a sweet 20% off!

View all our upcoming events here.

WHAT YOU SAID

Kasi deliverables…

We asked what you think townships need more of, and services are the key…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⚡️ Infrastructure (electricity & running water). (32%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 🦺 Safety & security initiatives. (27%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🌐 Inclusion in the digital economy. (14%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🎓 Education. (23%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🚐 Last-mile delivery solutions. (4%)

Your 2 cents…

Nice one, Sakhile, it’s that kind of user insight that can help tech companies know where to put their efforts. 🙌

We certainly hope so, Liesl, and love that so many startups are trying to make a difference here. 🇿🇦

No probs, in our books you selected all 3. 😊

Keen observation, Lynne. Safety and security is NB. 🔐