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More than 500 MTN staff face uncertain future

Martin Czernowalow
By Martin Czernowalow, Contributor.
Johannesburg, 21 Jan 2015
MTN needs the right skills to venture into new markets, says chief enterprise officer Alpheus Mangale.
MTN needs the right skills to venture into new markets, says chief enterprise officer Alpheus Mangale.

MTN SA has announced today that it will start a process of reorganisation and transformation of its local enterprise business unit, as it seeks to "strengthen its competitive advantage in the enterprise business solutions market".

While the company did not issue official figures, it is understood all 570 employees in the operator's business unit will be expected to re-apply for their jobs, as MTN seeks to match the best skills with available positions. The company did not immediately say how many positions would be made redundant, or what its timeline is for the completion of this reorganisation.

MTN explains it is reorganising the unit to implement a new go-to-market structure that will enable MTN Business to "optimally serve its customers and partners". This, it says, is in line with a revised group-wide business model that seeks to reposition MTN's enterprise business unit for future growth and service excellence.

MTN's move follows the appointment of former Microsoft SA head, Mteto Nyati, who joined the company in September last year as group chief enterprise officer. Nyati has said he wants to bulk up the overall business unit's IT capabilities as part of a broader bid to make it a meaningful contributor to MTN's revenue.

"We are reorganising to enhance our customer service and market differentiation. We also acknowledge that the success of the new structure lies in a strong value proposition for our employees.

"To this end, as we reorganise ourselves to focus on specific markets in a changing ICT environment, we will also be making investments in attracting, developing and retaining our talent. This is to ensure we have the best people, best fit to deliver on our promise to inspire and enable growth for our customers," says chief enterprise officer Alpheus Mangale.

The company notes, as part of the process, consultations with all employees were held today, in keeping with relevant employment legislation, while further employee engagements within MTN Business are expected to continue over the coming weeks.

In addition to making substantial investments in the development of its people, the unit plans to attract the right skills to service customers in a reorganised and solutions delivery-focused MTN Business, says the company.

"We plan to venture into certain market segments and, to successfully do so, we need to acquire the right set of skills," explains Mangale.

MTN is following in the footsteps of fixed-line giant Telkom, which is also trimming costs and increasing efficiencies through an organisation-wide restructuring process. Last year, during the first phase of this process, Telkom shed 302 management-level staff through voluntary severance packages and voluntary retirement packages - exceeding its stated target of 223 retrenchments.

Labour unions said towards the end of last year that they are bracing themselves for more retrenchments within the telecoms sector, including at Telkom, and these are expected to be announced during the first quarter of this year.

Last year was considered a brutal time for ICT jobs, with an estimated total of about 2 800 people affected by labour-related issues. While not all of them may have lost their jobs, some have had to re-apply for positions under new company structures, and yet others have had to take on different responsibilities as their job specifications have been altered.

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