At Smart Workforce Solutions (SWS) we value our staff. We value where they come from and what led them to become a part of the SWS story. Sharon, a highly skilled and qualified South African marketer, with a wealth of knowledge and experience in the corporate world of marketing, recruited by SWS and now employed as full-time Marketing and Communications Manager for an Australian company, tells her story. A story she personally refers to as, “The Business Professionals Crisis in South Africa” :
“Growing up in South Africa you are always taught to learn and work hard and you will achieve great things. So of course this is what I did.
After finishing school, my family was unable to send me to University, but this didn’t stop me! I started working as a PA at 19, for a tiny salary but I was geared to succeed. I worked myself up through long hours of hard work, doing short courses and being loyal and dedicated to the companies I was employed by. I went from a Sales assistant, to a Team Leader, to Sales Manager and then to Group Sales and Commercial Manager for a Global Company at 39. I was at the peak of my career and well respected by my peers when I was surprised with my second child.
When my beautiful daughter was born she experienced health issues. I was torn between my position, for which I had worked so hard and my little human that needed me the most. At 41, I decided to take a break from my business career to look after my daughter. Over the next 2 years I could of course, not sit still and started my own marketing business, which as any small business, had many bumps in the road. But we survived.
My husband was offered a key position in New Zealand and we sold our house, cars, and all our furniture. The kids were taken out of school and I handed over my clients to other agencies. Then COVID hit… and one week before our departure to New Zealand, they closed their borders. We tried various routes and ways to get around it, but there was no success.
Over the next few months we waited and hoped that COVID would pass, but this did not happen. As a result, my husband lost his job in New Zealand, as he could not get there. On top of that, trying to get my small business off the ground during COVID was impossible. So, we decided we needed to go back into the workforce to support our family, which I was sure with my experience in marketing and communications and my husband’s extensive experience in financial services and Project Management, would be no problem.
However, it was in fact a problem. The South African Employment market hit; and hit hard. We went for numerous interviews only to be told we are over experienced, too old and that our skins were the wrong colour. Welcome to Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment. Our lives took a massive decline and we found ourselves under HUGE financial constraints, that left us wondering how to feed our family. I wondered how this had happened when we had worked, so hard, for so many years, to make something of ourselves and now we couldn’t even find basic employment in our own country.
Then a blessing arrived from above, in the form of Smart Workforce Solutions, who gave me the opportunity to be employed by an Australian Company. I was recognized for my experience and as a professional. Today, I am proudly employed and working for a well-established Australian Company as a Marketing and Communications Manager!
How sad to live in such a beautiful country like South Africa, but not being given a fair opportunity to survive by our own local businesses and government!” – Sharon
Sharon has delivered results of immeasurable value to her new company and her team. Sharon is an expert in the field of marketing, and her skill and experience has not only saved her new company an immense amount on advertising, but she’s getting better results from clients and potential clients through mere client engagement than her company did with major ad expenditure. As said by the CEO and founder of the Australian based company, “Sharon is just AMAZING!”
Through SWS An Australian business owner has acquired a qualified, experienced and committed Marketing and Communications Manager, who’s doing what she loves every day, with the freedom of managing her own time and having the financial security of the Australian economy to safeguard her and her family. All, within the comfort of her own South African home.
We love our success stories and we love our South Africans. May the journey ahead, be uplifting, prosperous and rewarding, Sharon.