Q: You have described your BEST Service as the fastest growing service line within DRG Outsourcing. What exactly does this service deliver?
A: Whilst the BEST Service is especially valued by enterprises with no or limited BEE / HRcapability, HR managers in larger organisations are also attracted to this support service as it spares them from the distraction of last minute panic as statutory submission deadlines approach. We help enterprises move from the mind-set of "getting their
BEE Verification in on time" to creating an on-going "BEE Dashboard" thus avoiding any potential last minute frustrations. We contract with you to deliver the service as a programme of regular visits
during the year. Here we review your current BEE status across all five BEE elements and agree
on desired outcomes. We then produce the company's BEST "Action Plan". Our BEST "Action plan" creates the ability for a company to align, monitor and analyse initiatives around the respective BEE elements. It also helps with planning, understanding cost and investment implications related to BEE initiatives. Through properly understanding of the BEST
"Action Plan" requirements, it allows the company to scenario plan, therefore providing the company with an easy and effective way to analyse and change the company's current BEE situation. The entire BEST process uses the BEST TRAX software programme, administered by DRG, to track BEE initiatives.

Q: BEST Service is quite a mouthful but I can see that it is all integrated, how did you conceive of this service?
A: DRG Outsourcing's BEST Service is a "total solution model" where we identify "where you are now" relative to "where you would like to be". The BEST Service helps companies understand their BEE position. Here DRG Outsourcing provides a simple process to help companies comply with their statutory
BBBEE & HR requirements and help develop the company's BBBEE Strategy.
Q: My take on this service is that, whilst employers are confronted by many distractions detrimental to strategic thinking and activities, it helps them to maintain focus on what's really important and takes on much of the hard labour involved?
A: Exactly right, this is why the service has attracted so much interest! Both from line managers who really do not have the time for compliance issues as well as hard-pressed HR Practitioners who prefer to devote their energy to strategic initiatives, especially those directed at productivity improvement.
Q: How do you go about delivering this consulting service in practice?
A: Gayle, we do not position ourselves as consultants but, rather, as business partners to our clients; delivering support which is unique and exactly right in meeting their specific needs. As such, we prefer to
contract for at least a year - a period covering the statutory deadlines, on a retainer basis and allocate a skilled team member to our client as a dedicated resource who will carry out activities according to an agreed time and delivery plan. This arrangement allows us to become familiar with a client's particular culturewhilst cultivating a working relationship founded upon both trust as well as confidence in
our competencies. BEST Service offers you a software programme, BEST TRAX, administered by DRG Outsourcing that gives companies real time BEE reporting. Meeting companies BEE initiatives. This allows for fast efficient BEE reporting. Our BEST ACTION PLAN - "DASHBOARD", as we call it, is there to help focus the companies BEE initiative around all five pillars of empowerment, avoiding any surprises and to continuously address any BEE shortfalls. DRG has a unique inhouse administered software programme that assist companies comply with their Skills Development & Employment Equity legislation, allowing for the co-ordination and scheduling of day to day training, included is the coordination and administration of learnerships, skills programmes and interaction with relevant SETAs.
BEST TRAX assists with your BEE file preparation, making sure your evidence is ready and that you can claim the maximum number of BEE points. Making your BEE verification fast, efficient and "headache free".
Q: Tell me about the typical Client profile?
A: We originally conceived this service with smaller clients in mind +/- 10 - 150 employees. Those who had grown to a point where BEE / HR bestpractice and compliance became important factors in conducting business in SA but, with no competent resources to delegate such responsibility to. Whilst this represents the profile of many of our BEST clients we have actually taken on larger clients who, despite the availability of in-house BEE / HR resources, give preference to outsourcing compliance and strategic guidance to a specialist entity. Very few, if any, such service providers are able to deliver an integrated, one-stop solution as we can with the BEST Service.

Q: And the typical profile of your team members tasked with the delivery of this service?
A: We have been providing this service for a couple of years so our team members, over time, have become seasoned BEE / HR practitioners who have a proven track record within a diversity of industry and service sectors. They are mature people who know their business, are service-focused and capable of working independently. They are constantly updating their knowledge as legislation evolves. We find that their experiences within a diversity of clients provide them with an ever growing knowledge base around practical BEE / HR best-practice and innovative approaches to compliance issues.

Q: In closing, having closed the deal with a client, how does the service start off?
A: Gayle, what we generally like to do is draw the proverbial "line in the sand". We need to understand what pressure the company is under i.e. "Do they need an immediate BEE Verification?" or do we have
time to scenario plan? Here we identify "where they are now" and "where they would like to be". We then upload company information into our BEST TRAX software programme identifying shortfalls. Create
the companies BEST "Action Plan"- Dashboard. Our interaction with the company starts and the BEST Service is underway.

Thank you Raoul De Marco and Rachel Manzie, there seems much to commend your specialist service to employers in their quest for performance enabling and legislatively compliant workplaces! 


DRG Outsourcing (Pty) Ltd
Tel: +27 (0)31 767 0625
Fax: +27 (0)31 767 3280
david@drg.co.za
www.drg.co.za