BrioHR + Brastorne: Together, Empowering Communities

The Company

If you’ve stumbled upon this article, it is likely that you’re reading it on an Internet-connected device. It is also equally likely that you enjoy all the trappings of online life: email, social media, news portals, streaming video etc.

Yet there are still vast swathes of the world that aren’t connected online. The United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimates that a third of the world – or 2.9 billion people – have never used the internet.

This is where Brastorne comes in. Based in Botswana, Brastorne connects the unconnected across Africa, enabling rural villagers to access the digital world without smartphones. This is done using the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) protocol, allowing information services to be provided to feature phones across 2G cellular networks. Despite the comparatively primitive protocol, these services encompass everything from virtual farmers’ markets, to checking examination results, and even enabling online purchases.

With a presence in Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and expanding, Brastorne needed an HR software system to support their growing HR requirements. Brastorne approached BrioHR to facilitate this, and today BrioHR is proud to be a partner to Brastorne in their mission to connect communities across Africa.

Meet Refilwe, HR Specialist at Brastorne

As the HR Specialist at Brastorne, Refilwe Seitei is in charge of the wellbeing of the company’s 50 or so employees. As they are a tech company, Brastorne encourages remote work. Thus, Refilwe’s duties consist of monitoring staff performance, providing support where they need and ensuring that the right documentation is at hand. She also handles routine HR matters like recruitment and onboarding.

The Search for a Comprehensive Solution

Due to Brastorne’s rapid growth, they needed an HR system to manage their workforce. “I literally spent days researching, comparing different platform systems that were available. And after intensive research and analysis, I then came across BrioHR, and found it to be the best fit as the system or platform that had everything that I wanted in one, and at a very reasonable price,” said Refilwe.

Refilwe needed the software to have the following functions:

• integrated database
• performance management
• self-service leave application
• recruitment and onboarding

“We couldn’t find any solution that was comprehensive, I think, during our search,” said Refilwe. “But what we also didn't expect is the HR interaction feature, where we can actually make announcements to staff, I think that is a lovely feature,” she added.

“Plus, the fact that BrioHR has a notification system, the team would actually get alerts, and I would be able to have a view of what is happening. I didn't imagine there was a system like that. I just thought, you know, if managers can access it, then it's okay. So it came with a lot of added advantages,” noted Refilwe.

In addition, Refilwe also appreciates BrioHR’s reporting abilities. “For the management meetings every month, I have to produce the leave usage report. I used to have to sit and do that manually. But now, because everyone applies for leave on BrioHR, these reports are easily generated. I can download them and share them directly with the management.”

Embracing Digital

Nevertheless, Refilwe feels that more can be done to adopt the digitalisation of HR. “So far, the digital part of HR in Botswana is payroll. That's the only thing. But in terms of wider HR administration, that is lagging behind. And I think it makes companies slower in processing HR matters. If we could adopt more tech, then we would have more time to focus on the team outputs, and support them instead of spending more time doing things manually,” she says.

“If more people can see what BrioHR can do, they will want to adopt it as well.”

“I think that in a wider context, people are not willing to adapt. Even us, as a tech company, we are still providing USSD services. Because as much as people interact with our platforms, there will still be people who don't want to go and actually buy online but prefer to use calls,” she added.

“What we do as an organisation, we often encourage people and show them a demonstration. In Botswana, people will adopt something because they see someone else doing it. They will want to first understand the experiences of other people. I think that if more people can see what BrioHR can do, they will want to adopt it as well,” explained Refilwe.