The Labour Market Navigator is the definitive guide to market trends

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Written by Loane Sharp, Dr Neil Rankin, Peter Aling and Ted Black.

Loane Sharp
Director: Economic Analysis, Prophet

Loane Sharp is a labour economist at Prophet Analytics, South Africa’s leading labour analytics company. Loane is an international award-winning researcher who has published widely in books and academic and business journals. His research interests include employment, employment policy and workforce optimisation. He is an expert in the fields of atypical employment and labour productivity. Prior to Prophet, Loane was an investment strategist at Investec, South Africa’s leading investment bank, where he was one of the country’s highest-rated analysts. Loane has an MCom from the University of Cape Town specialising in economics and statistics. He has received scholarships from, among others, the National Research Foundation, and he has been awarded prizes by, among others, the Natale Labia Society. In competition with companies such as Sony, IBM and Vodafone, his work recently won two coveted European awards. He is a director of Productivity SA.

Dr Neil Rankin
Associate Professor, University of the Witwatersrand

Neil Rankin is an Associate Professor and the founding Director of the African Microeconomics Research Umbrella (AMERU) in the School of Economic and Business Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). He obtained his doctorate from the Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford, in 2005 and since then has been based at Wits. One stream of his current research work examines the links between company performance and labour-market outcomes in an African context, and particularly the impact of trade at a microeconomic level. As part of his research he has managed and administered firm and labour-market surveys in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Rwanda and Tanzania. Dr Rankin has published in a number of academic journals, has provided policy inputs to the South African Presidency, the Department of Labour, the Department of Trade and Industry, and the National Treasury as well as the Rwandan Government and has provided consulting work for the World Bank, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation.

Peter Aling
Director: Quantative Analysis, Prophet

Peter Aling is a quantitative analyst at Prophet Analytics, South Africa’s leading labour analytics company. Peter joined Prophet after completing his MCom in Economics, Finance and Statistics at the University of Cape Town and is currently pioneering alternative workforce management approaches using self-designed software-based algorithms in the area of human capital optimisation. Known as “distribution-based management”, Peter has successfully worked with a number of JSE-listed companies over the past three years achieving cost savings of over R15 million for clients. Among his personal achievements, Peter is an avid and accomplished tennis player, oarsman, golfer and squash player, having represented his university at provincial level.

Ted Black
Management guru

Ted Black has held senior positions in organization development, general management and been a director of companies. Today, he acts as mentor and coach to executives. Using the ROAM model (Return-on-Assets Managed) to pinpoint opportunity, he helps them design high-precision, results-driven projects. These turn strategy into action. In turn, the process grows managers and their teams fast and measurably – the prime goal.

He has published three books. One of them, “Who Moved My Share Price?” was co-authored with Professor Andy Andrews. It was a successful and controversial story about the issue of ethical management, asset productivity and shareholder value.

He also speaks at conferences and business schools, writes regularly for Business Day, and is an affiliate of Robert H. Schaffer and Associates (www.rhsa.com).