Our recent webinar titled "Building a sustainable workforce: The Business Case for YES," unpacked the tangible impact that YES has had on prominent South African businesses, The Foschini Group and Famous Brands. Head of Business Development at YES, Thabo Moloi, was joined by industry experts from these leading businesses in the consumer service and retail sectors for an hour-long discussion on how they’re using the YES programme to reach strategic business goals, and tackle youth unemployment in South Africa through quality work experience.
Host: Thabo Moloi, Head of Business Development at YES
Building a talent pipeline: Insights from TFG and Famous Brands
According to a World Economic Forum Report: “More than 60% of South African companies acknowledge specific skills shortages, including management and technical fields, posing a serious challenge to transformation by 2030.” Addressing these shortages through targeted skills development initiatives is crucial for sustaining business growth, improving employment rates, and unlocking the country’s full economic potential.
The Foschini Group (TFG) and Famous Brands both operate in sectors threatened by skills shortages, and panellists unpacked how the YES programme ensures future organisational resilience by building an in-house talent pipeline structured around their unique business needs.
Nancy Pakkiri, COE of Skills Development at TFG highlighted how YES Youth placements have grown talent across their supply chain. In TFG’s first year participating in the YES programme, they placed just under 500 youth across their organisation. This year this number has grown to 1,800 and youth placements have expanded beyond stores into contact centres, distribution, and manufacturing, supporting.
“Our YES programme reaches between all of the different divisions within TFG,” says Nancy. “As employees move from being entry level into a more senior level, our YES Youth in that space have a layered programme that includes supervisory development so that they're prepared to come into the business, understand what their role is at the moment, but also quickly move through into a more senior role within the business, and they're cooked for the future success, sort of three to five years down the line.”
Similarly, Famous Brands has found immense value in placing YES Youth across their franchises to develop a talent pipeline familiar with Famous Brands’ unique ways of operating. “With YES, we are able to train the people and take the people on and get them to be the employees we want them to be,” Danielle explains. “Because we're a franchisee business, our franchisees are so willing to take them on and accept them on a full-time basis, because now we can say, well, here you go. Here's a full-time trained employee.” Famous Brands has now expanded its YES programme to encompass nine different streams, including call centres, point-of-sale systems, sushi specialists, and logistics.
Through these examples, Danielle and Nancy highlighted the adaptability of the YES programme and how placing youth strategically across the business creates a steady pipeline of skilled talent, reduces the training burden on franchisees, and fosters a positive work environment that promotes internal advancement.
YES B-BBEE benefits and EE strategy integration
The value of YES goes beyond upskilling and growing talent. One of the key benefits of the YES programme is how it integrates seamlessly into Employment Equity, ESG, and B-BBEE strategies, providing businesses with frequent updates and tangible progress reports. Shannon Munnick, Senior B-BBEE Specialist at BEE123, touched on these points and how they connect to create broader organisational value. She highlighted three key themes: the boost to B-BBEE scorecards, the importance of Impact Reporting, and the innovative solutions YES offers through its adaptable models. "Your BEE strategy cannot exist in isolation; it must integrate with your business strategy," she said, also noting that YES not only provides organisations with tangible results through comprehensive monitoring and evaluation but ensures meaningful impact by aligning youth development with long-term business goals.
Celebrating YES Youth success
While the YES programme has numerous benefits for businesses, Danielle also emphasised that participating in the YES programme is not just about the numbers. It’s about embracing YES’s people-first ethos and taking a holistic approach to providing a quality work experience. "The key to success is caring for the youth- ensuring they complete their training, providing tough love when needed, and treating them as individuals, not numbers," she explained.
She further illustrated this with a powerful example: "One of our YES alumni, Cabela, started as a barista and is now a full-time trainer and blend developer at our coffee company." This is just one of many success stories that Famous Brands has made possible through their participation in the YES programme as their youth progress from entry-level roles to outstanding professionals.
It's a win-win=win for company, country and youth
Ultimately, webinar panellists agreed that by partnering with YES companies can align their transformation efforts with broader business goals, unlocking long-term corporate value and shaping the next generation of young talent to drive broader economic growth.
Click here to watch the full webinar on YouTube
About YES
YES is the largest full-time, 12-month youth employment programme working in the private sector in South Africa. Since its inception, YES has created over 172,510+ work experiences for youth, contributing a staggering R9.8 billion into the economy through youth salaries. As a private-sector led initiative, YES empowers businesses to create quality work experiences and set unemployed youth up as future managers, skilled employees, professionals, change-makers, and entrepreneurs.