WANT TO TAKE THE LEAP INTO WORKING ABROAD WITH DIGIOUTSOURCE AS A POSSIBLE OPTION?
As a company situated at the foot of Africa, you might think that we're a little off the beaten track. This couldn't be further from the truth, as our offices are situated in one of the most vibrant and exciting cities in the world - Cape Town, South Africa. We're looking for staff in a number of positions, and need to fill roles ranging from those in technical and marketing to customer service and internal training departments.
AS A FOREIGN (OR LOCAL) APPLICANT, WE'RE HERE TO HELP MAKE THINGS EASIER BY ANSWERING A FEW OF THE QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT HAVE, BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR CV.
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WORK VISA & PERMIT OPTIONS
As a foreign applicant, what options are available for me to work at DigiOutsource?
The options available are:
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RELOCATION
Does the company pay for my relocation costs?
- Local relocations (inter-city) are considered for senior and specialist roles. This would include the cost of furniture removal within reason, the transporting of pets, and one vehicle. Local accommodation will be provided in a self-catering apartment for an initial period, to allow time to find suitable private accommodation. One-way flights, for the employee and immediate family only (spouse and children), alternatively, the cost of self-driving at applicable rates.
- International relocation is covered for any relocation that takes place at the request of the business. This will not include the relocation of furniture, but does cover accommodation for up to 3 months in a company apartment (shared), or at a suitable rental subsidy for 3 months. A one-way flight and one excess luggage cost are covered.
- As an alternative to these direct costs, the business may allocate a fixed amount for the employee to use at their discretion. This amount will be paid to them tax-free as per SARS relocation expenditure allowance, provided proof of expenditure is retained.
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BENEFITS
Do you provide any insurance cover, such as Group Life and Disability cover?
Yes – as a compulsory benefit. This is currently provided through Discovery Life. The Employee and the Employer share the cost in accordance with tax legislation. The benefits are outstanding and include a tax free lump sum of five times your annual salary as a life cover benefit to your elected dependents, and school fees and university fees paid for your children. The disability cover benefit pays you a monthly income of 75% Flat of your monthly risk salary, up to a maximum of R100 000 per month for a valid Income Continuation Benefit claim.
Do you offer Retirement Annuity?
This is an optional benefit provided by a preferred provider (currently Alan Gray). Employees receive the tax benefit monthly, rather than waiting for their own annual tax submission. You may contribute anything up to 27,5% of your taxable income to a Retirement Annuity and enjoy this as tax-free savings plan for retirement.
Do you provide Medical Aid?
This is a compulsory benefit. With the costs of medical treatments and the strain placed on government medical services, everyone should have private medical aid insurance. We offer our employees the choice of two Providers: Discovery Health (who have 16 different plans to choose from) and Momentum Health (who have 6 plans to choose from). This benefit is structured into the salary so that the employee enjoys the maximum allowable tax benefit.
Do you offer additional benefits to Foreign Language Employees?
Due to the shortage of Foreign Language skills in South Africa, we rely on employing non-South Africans so that we can utilise their home-language skills in our business. In return, we offer a world-class employment experience. We strive to make the move to join our company and relocate to Cape Town as stress-free as possible. We also acknowledge that some foreigners may not want to settle in Cape Town permanently, and simply want to experience the life and culture of another country for just a couple of years. We therefore offer many additional benefits to our 'imported skill providers' as an incentive to keep them employed with us for as long as possible. Besides the obvious benefit of having international working experience added to your CV, we offer the following additional benefits to our Foreign Employees:
Foreign Language Retention Incentive Scheme: This benefit takes the form of a guaranteed incentive bonus. It pays out quarterly and applies only to non-SA citizens who work in our shift environments. Terms and conditions do exist, essentially meaning that the scheme is designed to encourage the employee to stay with us for an additional quarter.
Relocation Support: Foreigners relocating to Cape Town can opt for 3 months free accommodation in a shared apartment, or a tax-free relocation allowance (only tax free if proof of expenditure is provided) for 3 months. This initial 3-month period provides enough time to acclimatise and find suitable lodgings for a longer term. We also offer the services of a Concierge who will assist you in finding a suitable place to rent in safe, clean suburbs, and within easy transport of the offices. We do add a 'Claw-back' period to this benefit – thus encouraging employees to remain with us for at least 12 months afterwards to ensure the return on this investment.
Work Permit: Please see the FAQs on Work Visa & Permit Options for full details here. Essentially, most costs incurred in obtaining the necessary Work Visa are covered for all foreigners. The only exception is the personal costs of passport renewal fees, a medical or radiograph report, and your personal police clearance certificate. All other fees are covered. We add a 'Claw-back' period to this benefit – thus encouraging employees to remain with us for at least 12 months afterwards to ensure the return on this investment.
Annual Flight Subsidy: This benefit is applicable to foreign language employees who are not permanent residents of SA. Once a year, we will subsidise the cost of a return flight ticket to your home country. The subsidy amount is sufficient to fully cover most flights anywhere in Europe. We add a 'Claw-back' period to this benefit – thus encouraging employees to remain with us for at least 12 months afterwards to ensure the return on this investment.
What are your Leave Provisions (paid time off)?
Work-Life Balance. We all strive for this, and to ensure you have time off to enjoy the beauty of what Cape Town has to offer, we provide an extensive list of leave options. Annual paid leave starts at 18 days in year one, and increases to 21 from year two, then 25 days per year from years five onwards. Paid sick leave is the SA standard of 30 days per 36-month cycle. We also provide Family Responsibility Leave, Compassionate Leave (for bereavement, funerals, traumatic life events), a handful of specific Religious Holy Days, Maternity leave, Paternity leave and Study leave.
What are your Allowances and Subsidies?
Depending on the nature of your role within our business, you may be furnished with a Mobile Phone, a Mobile Allowance for costs, or full reimbursement for all business incurred expenses. Home-based Internet access is also subsidised for all roles that are required to provide after-hour technical support to the business. As the nature of our business is virtual and international, a car or travel allowance is unfortunately not applicable.
Do you offer Referral Fees for Recruitment?
Absolutely, we offer very generous referral fees. From the standard R5 000 rate per successful hire, to specials of up to R20 000 for specific skills. We encourage all our employees to assist us in sourcing the best talent, with the added benefit of being able to work with your friends.
Do you offer any financial assistance?
We are able to assist our employees with financial assistance in the event of an emergency, and for study purposes. A Personal Loan is provided for emergencies, or for those unforeseen expenses that could not be budgeted for. Loans are for a limited amount, and although offered interest-free, they do attract a small amount of tax as a taxable benefit. Study loans are offered for specific studies only, and are interest and tax-free. These loans also need to be repaid over a maximum of 12 months.
Do you have parking available?
We do, but on-site parking is limited. However, we ensure that everyone has parking available at parking sites within walking distance of the offices. We also offer free shuttle services to and from the parking sites.
Do you support health, wellness or fitness programmes?
Health and Wellness is core to our culture at DigiOutsource. We encourage all employees to strive to be the best they can be in all aspects of their lives, believing that a happy, healthy person is a productive, balanced person. They're also just so much more fun to be around. To support employees in being healthy we offer the following benefits:
In-house Gym: Free to employees, our Gym is open Monday to Friday from 6am to 7pm, and on Saturdays from 9am to 3pm, and overlooks a running path that surrounds the nature reserve alongside our offices. Staffed by a biokineticist and personal trainers with expertise in specific sports management, we offer personal training, group classes, and personalised training programmes customised to your specific needs. The gym is well equipped with weights, functional and cardio equipment. Newly renovated shower facilities are available, as well as lockers. We also have a bicycle available for employees to borrow. A lock-up bicycle storage shed is located in our basement for those who wish to cycle to work.
Subsidised Sporting Events: We sponsor any formal sporting event that you partake in by paying 50% of any entry fee. From time to time we also incentivise the participation in sporting events like a half-marathon, a team obstacle course, or mountain cycling races.
Company Sports Teams: We sponsor and take part in an indoor football league, and indoor cricket league, a five-a-side football league and an action rugby league. We also have a running club and a cycling club. Should any employee wish to start a club, we will gladly support their initiative and add it to the list of fun, active events.
Health and Wellness Checks: We provide an annual health and wellness check-up at our offices. During this event we provide the following health checks to all employees: blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, HIV, diet, posture, eyesight and general mental health assessments. All testing is 100% confidential. We also offer annual flu injections, and encourage blood donations at the offices every six to eight weeks.
Are there any social events?
Every Friday afternoon we host a social event at our DigiBar. These events include karaoke evenings, guest DJs, open-mic nights, and much more. Every team in the business has a social budget to use at their discretion and we also have an internal Events Co-ordinator that schedules fun company events on a continuous basis. Events such as Market Days, Halloween dress-up, Wicked Waffle Food truck, Carnival days, Charity days, and many more form part of our calendar, so there is always something fun and exciting happening at DigiOutsource.
I heard you offer free massages?
We have two professional Masseuses available onsite. Both specialise in sports injuries, but also offer relaxation massages to assist in creating a stress-free environment. One of the masseuses is also a qualified Physiotherapist. Due to the demand for this free service, bookings are taken on a first-come-first-served basis. Additional sessions can be booked at a fee.
Do you have a Coffee Bar?
Our in-house Coffee Bar is in the centre of our business and is manned by professional Baristas, serving every coffee variety available. The coffee bar is highly subsidised, and the majority of the sales go towards our charity fund. A daily pastry is also available to go with that cappuccino!
Do you have a Cafeteria?
Our onsite canteen trades under the name of DigiCafé and is managed by professional caterers. Here we offer a free meal per day, where you get to choose from the variety of hot meals on offer, a healthy salad bar where you can mix and match, or a sandwich bar with a wide variety of fillings. In a rush? Opt for a smoothie or a selection of fruit.
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TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT
What initial Training do you offer?
Due to the nature of the industry in which our clients operate, most competitors have Restraint of Trade clauses in order to protect their intellectual property, safeguard their customer data and ensure competitiveness. As a result, it is very seldom that we employ anyone who has industry knowledge and expertise. We therefore have to provide this ourselves. And we do…exceptionally well! We provide all our core customer support and risk and fraud employees with a full, extended period of initial training. The bulk of this is technical, system and procedures training, teaching you to navigate effectively through our state-of-the-art customer management solutions and workflow applications. We run a full Training Centre with professional facilitators and fully equipped computer-training rooms. A great Learning Management System that provides access to online learning supports this programme. All our training is paper-less, and all materials are available online and fully searchable. All our assessments are completed online, with instant results.
What is your People Development Model?
Our People Development Model sums up all our development practices. We provide training and development initiatives aimed at the individual, at work teams, at performance generally, and at a wider audience, encouraging employee engagement. Each of these stages is addressed in a managed, defined, planned and optimised manner and comprises a number of interventions that contribute towards growing the individual, the team, or a specific performance metric identified in the business, or within a department.
Do you offer study sponsorships?
Yes, depending on the role and the specific studies. Studies will either be sponsored in full, in portion or via a study loan. Study loans are offered for specific relevant studies only, and are interest and tax-free. They also need to be repaid over a maximum of 12 months.
Can I attend business conferences or seminars?
Anyone can motivate to his or her manager to support this request. All requests are considered on a commercial return-on-investment basis. If value is identified in the content of the seminar or conference, then a full business case is expected, specifying a post-seminar action plan where the employee will indicate how they will transfer knowledge gained to their peer-group.
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CHARITY OR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Do you have a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programme?
Our Social and Ethics Committee is responsible for maintaining the overall direction and control of social responsibility performance. Senior managers responsible for legal and regulatory affairs, ethics and compliance, Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (‘BBBEE’), consumer affairs, protected disclosure, risk and fraud services, human resources and corporate affairs are invited to the Committee’s meetings to obtain guidance, and report back on company performance. Social responsibility is managed across the company, and encourages participation from all employees. Our CSR Business Principles include:
- Compliance with all relevant laws, standards and principles.
- Maintaining financial integrity by basing business decisions on commercial principles, whilst taking social, economic and environmental criteria into account.
- Voicing our opinions on industry issues while taking an apolitical stance.
- Communicating openly with our stakeholders while maintaining commercial confidentiality.
- Valuing our clients and their customers’ trust and safeguarding their personal information.
- Basing employee relationships on respect for individuals and their human rights – having open, honest conversations valuing accountability and responsibility.
- Protecting the health and safety of our customers, employees, partners and communities.
- Acting with honesty, integrity and fairness in all our dealings.
- Ensuring adherence to our code of conduct.
Do you support charities?
DigiOutsource has an unusual process for investing in social upliftment. A coffee bar is fully funded by the company, and staff are asked to donate cash instead of paying a set price for the coffee they consume. Our Charity Committee accounts for these funds, which are allocated to a specific account and then distributed to qualifying charity organisations. The Charity Committee is made up of volunteer members of staff, and is required to minute their meetings and ensure criteria for recipient charities are met. Total donations for the calendar year of 2016 amounted to more than R226 000. Check out our #DigiOutreach blog on this site for more info.
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TECHNOLOGY
Are specific project methodologies used at DigiOutsource?
The project methodologies utilised at DigiOutsource are Agile and Waterfall – Hybrid approach. The teams consist of highly skilled project managers that ensure processes are adhered to, while giving the project teams the independence to deliver quality technical solutions. The development teams use an Agile iterative approach to deliver solutions, while reporting results within a Waterfall view.
What type of projects can I expect to work on?
Our Technology Infrastructure team projects range from major software release upgrades, to hardware upgrade projects, all the way to complete green field data centre builds, where you have the freedom to design the solution from the ground up.
The projects within Business Intelligence (BI) are split into business area and general BI focus. For the business areas, we focus on items like Visualization, EDP integration, Cubes, Analytics and Modelling initiatives. On the general BI team front, we have our Enterprise Data Warehouse project with a focus on data integrity, performance and monitoring. Some of our latest projects include e-commerce website development, predictive analytics, event processing, infrastructure optimisation and customer real time messaging.
What are the main software development languages you apply?
Our Business Intelligence teams focus on T-SQL in SQL Server, and with EDP we have an expectation of some background around C# or equivalent languages. From a skill perspective: SSAS, SSIS and SSRS. We also use SharePoint extensively, and frequently require skills in SharePoint Online (Office 365), SharePoint Framework (Typescript, Nodejs, React, Yeoman, Gulp) development for the cloud, and on premises. Key languages include: C# and Javascript, whilst frameworks and tools include: ASP.NET, HTML, XML, jQuery, JSON, Angular, materialize, Rabbit MQ, Mongo Chef, SQL, X-Sockets, SignalR. We frequently upgrade to new frameworks and new technologies to keep up with the industry and user trends.
What career paths are available to a Developer?
We offer numerous career development streams, with the flexibility to change track should you display the capability and drive to enable this. As an example, we have Graphic Designers who progressed into Web Designers, then on to Web Development, and changed track again to Application Development. Within each of these tracks, we also have the scope to accommodate Junior, Intermediate and Senior roles. Within our Software Development teams we have roles dedicated to Product Management, a PMO that includes Business Analysts, and a full QA team for both functional and technical testing.
What career paths are available to an IT Infrastructure specialist?
We offer a large range of career paths; you have options to specialise in roles that focus on core hardware infrastructure, networks, security and the full suite of products offered by Microsoft. We also have roles that focus on automation of deployment of in-house development systems, should you want to move into a hybrid role of Dev and IT.
What career paths are available to a Data and/or Business Analyst?
We have 3 streams: Analytics, Data Science and Development. These 3 streams have scope for Junior, Intermediate and Senior positions. The next levels include management, which at the moment are Team Leads, Tech Leads and BI Managers. From there, the growth path for Tech Leads would be Architecture.
Do you hire interns?
Yes, we do. And unlike some companies, our interns earn to the value that they contribute. We participate in Graduate Recruitment Career fairs at the major local universities annually, but also accept applications outside of these institutions.
