HR leaders gather in Johannesburg to address compliance burden as South Africa's employment legislation shifts

SAP HR Connect surfaces growing pressure on HR teams to move beyond manual systems as regulatory complexity compounds across payroll, leave and workforce management.

Nazia Pillay, Managing Director for Southern Africa at SAP.

Business leaders, HR professionals and technology specialists met in Johannesburg for SAP HR Connect, an event organised by SAP to examine how organisations are managing a period of significant change in South Africa's employment legislation. SAP is a German enterprise software company whose human capital management products are used by organisations globally to run payroll, recruitment, performance management and workforce planning functions.

The timing of the event reflects a specific shift in South Africa's regulatory environment. Recent changes include a Constitutional Court ruling that prompted an overhaul of parental leave provisions, proposed increases to statutory severance pay, and new regulations covering unpredictable and on-call work arrangements. For HR teams, the combined effect is a heavier administrative load and less margin for error in record-keeping and policy application.

Nazia Pillay, Managing Director for Southern Africa at SAP, framed the moment as one where workforce strategy and technology investment are converging: "Public and private sector companies are racing to unlock the power of AI and cloud technologies to improve their competitiveness and build capacity for future innovation. Every organisation needs an active, motivated and fully enabled workforce to realise full value from business transformation initiatives. At a time when demand for certain skills is at an all-time high, companies are increasingly leveraging powerful human capital management technologies to attract, retain and empower their employees."

Much of the conversation centred on the limitations of manual HR processes in an environment where compliance requirements are growing more specific and more frequent. Manishwar Tiwary, Head of SAP HCM for MEA South, described the shift in how organisations need to think about compliance:

"Compliance is no longer a periodic exercise but a continuous, data-driven discipline. Organisations that continue to rely on spreadsheets and fragmented systems without leveraging the power of AI-driven innovations are exposing themselves to unnecessary risk and inefficiency." He added that manual systems also constrain what HR teams can actually do with their time: "They also consume a significant portion of HR capacity, limiting the ability of teams to focus on higher-value activities such as talent development, workforce planning, and employee experience. As compliance requirements grow more complex, the need for integrated, digital HR systems is becoming more urgent."

A 2025 PwC global study cited during the event found that 82% of companies plan to increase technology investment in compliance activities. The research pointed to faster identification of compliance issues, cited by 53% of respondents, better risk visibility at 64%, and increased productivity at 43%, as the primary drivers behind that investment trend.

Representatives from two South African organisations shared their own experiences navigating this environment. Ravika Bandyopadhyay, Group Human Capital Chief Operating Officer at Sanlam, a South African financial services group, described the company's approach: "We have adopted an ambidextrous strategy for our digital and data transformation journey, simultaneously exploiting operational excellence, proficiency and efficiency in our current landscape while exploring incremental innovation that enhances and elevates the user experience while driving the longer-term transformation journey focused on leveraging intelligent, transformative technology to drive business value."

Kammy Sing, Chief Operating Officer of Discovery People at Discovery Ltd, a South African health and financial services company, pointed to integration as the condition that makes scale possible: "When data, technology, and people are fully integrated, organisations don't just scale but evolve, creating platforms for growth, innovation, and long-term impact."

Tiwary closed with a point about where digitisation should ultimately lead HR functions: "Digitisation should go beyond efficiency to enable HR to play a more strategic role in the business. When compliance is embedded into systems and processes, HR teams are freed up to focus on developing talent, strengthening culture, and driving long-term organisational performance."