HR leaders advocate tools to cut compliance risk

Industry leaders have called for accelerated adoption of digital technologies to help organisations reduce compliance risks, streamline operations, and unlock greater strategic value from their workforce functions.

The call followed a gathering of HR executives, business leaders, and technology experts at SAP HR Connect in Johannesburg, where participants examined how rising regulatory pressures are reshaping human resource priorities across organisations.

In a statement, Managing Director for Southern Africa at SAP, Nazia Pillay, said the region’s employment landscape had reached a turning point as firms race to stay competitive.

“Pillay said, “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.”

The discussions highlighted how evolving labour laws and regulatory reforms have increased the complexity of HR operations, forcing organisations to rethink how they manage compliance obligations.

Head of SAP HCM for MEA South, Manishwar Tiwary, warned that compliance has moved beyond periodic checks to a continuous process requiring advanced tools.

“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,” Tiwary noted.

He added that manual HR systems are no longer sustainable in a fast-changing regulatory environment. “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,” Tiwary said.

A 2025 global study by PwC showed that 82 per cent of companies plan to increase investment in technology to strengthen compliance processes, underscoring a shift away from manual systems.

Chief Operating Officer, Group Human Capital at Sanlam, Ravika Bandyopadhyay, said organisations must balance efficiency with innovation in their digital transformation efforts.

“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,” Bandyopadhyay remarked.

Also speaking, Chief Operating Officer, Discovery People at Discovery Ltd, Ms Kammy Sing, said integrating technology with people and data is critical to long-term growth. “When data, technology, and people are fully integrated, organisations don’t just scale but evolve, creating platforms for growth, innovation, and long-term impact,” Sing said.

Participants at the meeting emphasised that digitising HR processes can create a single, reliable source of workforce data, improve accuracy, and ensure consistency in compliance across organisations.

They added that embedding compliance into digital systems would free HR teams to focus on strategic priorities such as talent development, organisational culture, and long-term performance.