The webinar, titled The Importance of Human Capital in an Agency, will be held on Thursday, 6 August and features business leaders drawn from a range of industries. According to ACA, the first order of business is to help those heading up organisations within the broader marketing and communications industry to understand the role of human capital and why it is necessary to have a qualified human capital professional within a business.

"It is critical that, beyond the numerous and much spoken about challenges facing the profession at this time, we bring to the fore the people agenda. Historically, we’ve tended to let this slide in pursuit of winning the pitch or executing the brief. It is time, however, that we take it seriously," says Mathe Okaba, CEO of the ACA.

The first webinar will aim to address the importance of effective human resource management in any organisation, while relating it to the creative industries. Okaba says that the industry would like to see a human capital mindset shift from the heads of businesses in order to allow organisations to operate effectively and profitably.

Areas of interest that will be discussed in upcoming webinars will cover a variety of HR-related topics. These include, among others, empowering agencies on what should be expected from an HR practitioner and the differences between transactional HR and strategic HR, as well as how these play an integral role in impacting the bottom line.

Lebo Masilela, human capital executive at Brave Group, and ACA Board Member, will host and facilitate the series. Masilela says, "We cannot ignore the fact that our offering is developed and executed by humans, not machines and robots. And to this end, people are our most important asset."

She adds, "Many successful companies globally partner with their human capital execs in everything they do, bringing them into the core of the business. This is because they are fully aware that it is their people who provide them with their competitive advantage."

"It is our people who allow us to achieve what we do for clients; they are truly our greatest asset. We cannot afford to be relaxed about this anymore. Perhaps this lack of focus on our people is precisely why we often feel threatened by the consultants — their people and their services are managed at the highest level. It is imperative that we operate as such in our businesses if we want to compete," concludes Masilela.

For more information, visit www.acasa.co.za. You can also follow the ACA on Facebook or on Twitter.