Pnet’s Helping Hands campaign offers relief to jobseekers stuck in workplace frustration

Helping Hands aims to inspire jobseekers about the possibility of positive change in the career-decision moments where they feel stuck, overwhelmed or underappreciated. The witty, relatable creative uses high-reach media and context-aware placements to dramatise workplace frustrations like demanding bosses, unpaid overtime and underwhelming salaries.

The campaign aims to break through the digital clutter and drive emotional resonance with the target audience. A helping hand literally appears – seemingly from out of nowhere – throughout the campaign videos to guide struggling workers to the Pnet app, reflecting how the platform supports jobseekers in taking the next step in their careers.

The creative concept marks the local debut of Pnet’s new look and feel, a visual evolution that aligns the South African platform more closely with its global parent, The Stepstone Group, and other brands within the group. The multichannel media strategy focuses on high-quality environments to build trust and will run from late June through to the end of August.

“Helping Hands is inspired by real workplace challenges,” says Michelle Dobson, head of brand at Pnet. “Many South Africans feel stuck in jobs where they’re undervalued, overworked or failing to meet their potential. But they don’t need to. Our campaign shows frustrated workers that they have options, and that Pnet is here to help them find a better, happier, more fulfilling job, faster.

“Our creative approach was to meet jobseekers where they are – not physically, but emotionally. Career decisions are often made in moments of frustration or reflection. We wanted to tap into those high-emotion instances and offer people a light, witty, and visually compelling reminder that they have choices.”

Pnet connects jobseekers with thousands of top employers across industries and company sizes – from large corporates to agile SMEs. As part of its brand evolution, Pnet continues to invest in tools and features that simplify job discovery, improve employer transparency, and support better candidate matching.

“Helping Hands is a creative expression of our mission: to help South Africans find meaningful work that reflects their value and potential,” says Dobson. “We’re passionate about enabling people to find roles where they can be happy and achieve their goals – and we have the reach to help them find and land that dream job.”