What`s the story with the skills shortage in South Africa? For Sydney Ramutla, who heads up Business Connexion`s Johannesburg region, the availability of skills falls into two broad categories. While there is an abundance of entry-level ability in the technology field, it is at the mid- to upper-level that companies are experiencing a dearth. However, he also believes that if businesses are prepared not only to look hard enough, but also to prioritise skills development, this issue is entirely surmountable.
"This is particularly true on the empowerment side - there is enormous demand and a limited pool of people available. The danger here is potential erosion of the quality of management skills through overly aggressive development and succession plans," he says.
Ramutla believes there is no excuse for putting underskilled people into positions for which they are not ready. "For services companies, the ability to create value within client environments has to come first, and that ability depends on the skill and experience of people. Empowerment credentials on their own are insufficient to maintain and grow market presence," he says.
Instead, Ramutla believes a three-pronged approach to recruitment should be adopted to ensure that appropriate skills can be fielded by professional services organisations. "The three levels [of recruitment] are, firstly, to find people who can move straight into the job, succession planning within the organisation occupies the second tier, and `recruit to train` is the third level," he says.
Within this approach, he adds, is a component of corporate responsibility to ensure that skills are shared among and developed in employees. It is also the responsibility of business to work with communities and learning institutions to ensure that resources are available to meet demand.
However, the necessity of investing in people development adds costs to a business, while also driving up the risk of losing such investments as competitors seek to lure skilled staff away with offers of improved compensation and benefits. Notes Ramutla: "Profitability is critical - if the investment in people drives margins up unreasonably, it would make any given company uncompetitive. Furthermore, if a business becomes unprofitable - for any reason - the jobs of everyone in the entire company are at risk. So, investing in people, while absolutely critical, also has to be balanced against the realities of doing business."
He makes the point that companies have always invested in people, albeit not equally, and hence funds are generally available for skills development. "It remains a fine balance, though, to ensure profitability, people development and business performance. Of course those companies that are prepared to plough profits back into their people are also demonstrating long-term commitment and are preparing to cope with future demand," he notes.
Retaining staff becomes the core issue for these and other companies in a market hungry for high-level talent. Achieving a high level of staff retention is not based on a formula, and is the result of activities, strategies and tactics that are sometimes difficult to quantify. Says Ramutla: "In our experience, the creation of an environment where transformation candidates feel welcome has been key."
Creating such environments in the workplace has necessitated activities such as diversity training and, significantly, instituting change management programmes.
Balancing the costs has been aided by the use of the available government subsidies. Also, Ramutla says, the participation and buy-in from clients regarding the value of such programmes has ensured success.
"The point is that creating a diverse workforce has to be recognised as an industry issue that requires the participation of many parties - suppliers, clients and government. It`s a responsibility that forward-looking companies are embracing, and which is beginning to make a real difference in the technology industry," he concludes.
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