Page 25 - CAO 25th Ann Coffee Table Book

such as an enhanced ICT infrastructure, handling requests speedily and more efficiently, providing more nuanced data, and listening and reacting to the needs of clients won over many previously hostile individuals. In the CAO’s never-ending quest for perfection and advancement, it increased its skill pool with a number of new appointments, upgraded much of the technology and invested heavily in enhanced software and workforce well-being. The greatest single annual expenditure after staff salaries was ICT. While salaries accounted for 48% of turnover, the ICT average annual spend was 20%. This outlay allowed the CAO to keep up to date with the ever growing demands on staff and technological advancements in IT and telephony.
The CAO also attended many more career fairs during the 2014 cycle. The CAO covered over 7 000km and staff hours amounted to just over 80 days. The CAO remained supportive of initiatives to extend the benefits of a central applications service to other parts of South Africa but confusion concerning the model envisaged by the DHET caused uncertainties.
While the larger percentage of applications remains hard copy paper, the slow and steady shift being evidenced by 2015 in the increase in web applications was an indication that the percentage of online applications would soon surpass the percentage of paper applications. The 50-50 point was reached with the 2016 application cycle and in the 2017 cycle, online applications outnumbered paper applications. While the CAO celebrated this achievement, it remained vigilant in its commitment to provide equal access to all its aspirant applicants. The vast majority of CAO applicants come from KZN, which has the largest number of rural areas in South Africa. The CAO continues to maintain its distribution of hard copy material through various outreach platforms to accommodate applicants who do not have access to computers and internet.
The year also saw the CAO replacing most desktop computers and moving away from the physical servers to
Finance Team at CAO’s 2015 year end function held at the Olive and Oil Restaurant at the Westville Country Club From left: Pretty Ngcobo, Lee Anne Soobramoney and Bongi Nkabinde
Selfie time with CAO staff at CAO’s 2015 year end function
CAO’s Prudence Chonco with Radio DJ from Ikhwezi FM after a live radio interview in September 2015
CAO’s Cecilia Khoza assisting an applicant with an online application at reception 2015
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