Christine Leonardi
27 November 2007
opinion
Johannesburg — SA FACES huge challenges as the world shifts from a buyer to seller's market for labour. For the 24-million unskilled South Africans, surviving in this new labour market will be impossible.
The playing field has been levelled; all the rules have changed and no one can afford to be selective in a tight new market that requires an entirely new set of skills. This means all South Africans need to start making difficult, sweeping changes to everything we do.
However, SA is running out of time to be proactive. Done perfectly, it will take up to 10 years before we see real results. And, the longer we stall, the more difficult transformation will be.
"SA no longer has the luxury to take things step by step. The rest of the world is not standing still to give you a chance to put things in place for the next phase," says Canadian HR expert, Prof Linda Duxbury.
She says that on some level SA is not acknowledging the critical transition from a buyer's to seller's market for labour. In SA, a discussion about organisations hiring people because of race overshadows the fact that they are not hiring people because of skills sets.
"In a buyer's market, the state could get away with legislation affirmatively promoting certain groups of people. However, a seller's market does not look at gender, ethnicity or race; only skills -- whether you can do the work," Duxbury says. "I would be distressed if SA's leaders fiddle while SA falls; because the real issue in SA is education. The way out of poverty is through education. Instead of talking about legislation about who to hire, first make sure everybody has the skills."
She says that the new labour market is all about education. "All the mineral resources in the world won't do you any good, if you don't have a skilled labour force to exploit it."
SA is a rich country, but not when it comes to human capital. Research shows that almost 50% of the population does not have a Grade 6 level of education. This means half of the population cannot read or write.
"Organisations can train people for specific skills; but not basic skills, like reading and writing. Companies can only overlay specific job skills onto people who can read and write," says Duxbury.
She points out that most employers across the globe expect employees to have essential basic skills. People must know how to read and write, know the basic rules of grammar; how to read something critically; write a response; answer the phone; take a message and how to behave toward other people. They also need basic arithmetic and technology skills.
However, SA's unskilled population needs to understand that they cannot be turned into skilled workers overnight. Education takes time.
"It takes nine months to have a baby. You can't rush the cycle. Similarly, it takes 12 to 15 years to equip someone with the basic skills set required to make a positive contribution to the economy ," says Duxbury.
EDUCATION Minister Naledi Pandor agrees. "Equalising education provision and outcomes in a deeply unequal society is a complex and often frustrating challenge. Deep transformation in a big system takes a long time," she told an international gathering of educators in December last year. "Errors have been made and their consequences have had to be faced and repaired. Much has been achieved, but we are eager to achieve more."
In addressing public concerns about the quality of public education, the South African government trained 80 master maths and science teachers by September 2006 to increase the number of African children passing mathematics and science, succeeding at tertiary institutions and successfully taking on the scientific fields.
In addition, the government announced plans to:
Publisher and facilitating editor of Tribute magazine Tlhopheho Modise notes that the government needs to seriously consider what skills matric students can offer a knowledge-intensive economy after 12 years of schooling.
"Education should teach people how to learn," notes Duxbury. It is becoming increasingly popular to employ knowledge workers, because they have the ability to learn the things they don't know. For example, when a big Canadian oil company can't find a petroleum engineer, it hires a mining engineer. A person with basic engineering skills has the ability to learn the other specific skills required.
However, "education does not necessarily have to involve a tertiary degree", she notes. "In the last two decades, pushing children into university had more status. As a result, tradesmen, like electricians and plumbers, are now in short supply.
"The difference between education in Africa and the developed world is that education in the developed world is a given; a right people don't have to pay for. In some European countries, people don't even pay for tertiary education."
Education in Canada, for example, is free; but compulsory. All Canadians, including members of employment equity groups, must attend school until the age of 17. Duxbury notes that education goes out to the Canadian aboriginals who prefer not to live in industrial areas.
"SA has the resources to legislate education. The right thing to do is for someone to be brave enough to say: People have to stay in school. It is free. It is the law," says Duxbury.
Leading global executive recruitment firm SpencerStuart's Chris van Melle Kamp notes that SA will be able to compete on the global stage only if it transforms its working environment. SA needs to:
SA's skilled professionals leave because they feel unappreciated.
In comparison to Africa, SA is doing phenomenally well, notes Duxbury. "But don't be complacent. It is not the rest of Africa that will come in and steal SA's skilled labour. The developed world, including Canada, recruits skilled South Africans; not people with a grade 3 level education and no skills.
"In a seller's market for labour all the rules have changed. It is all about getting and keeping people."
Van Melle Kamp says that economies across the globe have skills shortages in the engineering, sales, accounting, teaching, banking and medical fields. Moreover, the world's fastest growing economies in Asia don't have enough senior leaders and managers."
As a result, countries are developing aggressive human capital attraction, retention and development strategies to maintain their competitive edge. "They offer highly mobile, well-educated and trained people in high political or social risk countries, including SA, better living conditions, more money and better career opportunities," Van Melle Kamp says. "The social and environmental risk associated with HIV/AIDS in SA also negatively affects the country's current and future skills base."
Duxbury adds: "The developed world is profoundly short of skilled workers in the health-care sector in particular -- an area in which SA is losing most of its key people."
SKILLED professionals don't leave for more money. Research shows that SA's doctors, nurses, professors and engineers leave because they do not feel recognised and respected for what they do.
Duxbury says, "Issues of respect, real appreciation and poor job satisfaction generally crop up in working environments that focus on pay levels. The change from a buyer to seller's market for labour shifts the focus from shareholder value and taxpayer's rands to recruitment, retention, engagement, succession planning and career development. This will be a huge leap for many South African organisations."
Meeting esteem needs is extremely important. "You can pay people well and treat them poorly; or you can treat people well and they won't expect as much money. But, you can't expect to pay and treat people poorly," she notes.
Duxbury uses the following example to illustrate this point: A coloured woman with high credentials does a fabulous job. But, because of legislation, a black person is promoted over her. She starts thinking: "I am not respected. I put in a lot of extra effort for nothing; and that no matter what I do or how much extra effort I put in, I will never be appreciated. But, I will be treated a lot better in another country, which only looks at my qualifications and whether I can do the job."
Companies must realise that concepts like innovation, engagement, customer satisfaction and service delivery will never resonate "with a bunch of people who could not care less, because they have retired on the job", Duxbury points out.
"If an organisation's employees are unhappy; so too are its customers. If you treat employees poorly, they turn around and treat customers badly."
She adds that "developed world organisations that are fighting for people; struggling to get key people, and are worrying about who to promote and train, are moving ahead in leaps and bounds".
SA organisations still seem to focus on efficiency and service delivery; not on how well they treat people. Companies that focus equally on people and productivity will be winners," says Duxbury.
"For the last 20 years, organisations have talked about the importance of managing people, as they downsized, restructured and reengineered their processes to do more with less people. But, organisations actually managed money. In a buyers market for labour they could get away with it. A buyer's market for labour, in which the 'Baby Boomer' generation competed for jobs in the 1980s and 1990s, spoilt many countries, including SA."
The market was flooded with unemployed people. People felt lucky to have a job , were prepared to do anything to keep it and did not complain about their conditions of employment or pay levels.
Baby boomers tended to be workaholics. Research shows that a typical baby boomer was paid to do one job, but worked the equivalent of 1,5 fulltime jobs. This explains the large number of burn-out cases observed in the 1980s and 1990s.
In a buyer's market, companies asked: "Why should we hire you?" Now, the tables have turned. In a seller's market, the employee asks: "Why should I work for you? And don't lie to me, because if you do, I'm gone."
Duxbury points out that in a seller's market, non-performers stay and good people leave. This means companies can no longer afford to promote "the jerks who get things done at great human expense into managerial positions."
Burning platform change is extremely difficult; SA needs its leaders speak up.
The same problems highlighted by President Thabo Mbeki in 1999, still haunt SA today.
"Apart from the enormous delivery challenges the ANC faces in many core delivery areas, the country has a long way to go in terms of interpersonal relationships, which are still driven by race, ethnicity and identity," says the University of Pretoria's Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) director Prof Nick Binedell. "Some business leaders believe we need to be patient, because the SA experiment is too new to deliver the kind of economic growth achieved in Asia. However, many others feel the time for patience is over. We need delivery now."
Yet, despite their litany of concerns about SA's future, "many business leaders continue to hold misaligned views of business's role in politics", Binedell notes.
The problem is that in SA, politics drives and determines economics. The notion that economics should, in fact, drive politics, makes many leaders feel uncomfortable. They therefore avoid confrontations and engaging in over-heated debates with political leaders on issues.
By looking at the economy first and politics last, Binedell says "we do not only fail to acknowledge the real risks involved in a lack of political activism, but also limit our own interests".
"In the long term, the success of many South African Johannesburg Stock Exchange- listed companies is directly tied to the dynamism and direction of the state."
POLITICS either creates or destroys value. Political leaders and state policy either enable or constrain a country's economy and its business leaders. The state therefore plays a key role in sealing a nation's fate.
"An inward-oriented state causes inefficiency and lack of direction; a productive, efficient and dynamic state will add enormous value to the economy," notes Binedell.
"Politics should represent the highest form of leadership in any society. Politicians hold together the moral fibre of a nation. They set a nation's broad direction, allocate scarce resources, and speak on behalf of its citizens by articulating their values, aspirations and needs.
"When business leaders engage directly in political matters, they have the opportunity to contribute to the quality of a country's political leadership."
Duxbury says SA needs sustained leadership with the courage to say:
"We have already done a lot of phenomenal things, but we can't rest yet. A big tsunami -- a seller's market for labour -- is coming our way. We need skilled labour; we can't afford to be selective. The market does not see colour; we must keep our talented and skilled people, regardless of their race or gender.
"It may take a little longer to right the imbalances of apartheid; but, we can't afford to take things step by step. It will not be nice; some will not like it. It will be ugly; there will be winners and losers.
"It will be difficult; people will feel pain. It cannot be done overnight; despite what people want. But, if we do not do this as a nation, we will fail."
Binedell says since the private sector and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are at the centre of economic life, business involvement in political matters should be welcomed and encouraged for the benefit of all South Africans.
"Perhaps we should rethink the role of business and move away from a Western business model, which primarily sees business as a taxpayer, employer and contributor to society through social responsibility programmes," he says.
"Perhaps it is time we deepen our definition of the nature of citizenship and realise at a personal, organisational and national level that business in South Africa has a vital political role to play -- one that calls for political activism; not merely observation and analysis."
But political scientist Prof Sipho Seepe questions South Africans' ability to engage in intelligent, healthy disagreements or debate.
He says recent political developments reflect a worrying culture of political intolerance where people cannot disagree with one another without engaging in unpleasant or disgraceful behaviour.
The South African "body politic is infected so heavily with this intolerance that conferences are cancelled because delegates decided to trade physical blows, instead of addressing differences in a mature manner.
"The intellectual challenge demands that issues raised are proven to be valid or invalid, true or false, logical or illogical. Anything else is anti-intellectual and an expression of intellectual bankruptcy."
Seepe says, "Through consciously adding our voices to matters of national and international import, let us ensure that the country and nation begin to engage in a real dialogue on its challenges. This should be a conversation characterised by sincere and genuine attempts to solve our problems and show the way ahead. This requires an intellectual humility that appreciates that there are other ways of seeing."
Multiple perspectives will enrich South Africans' understanding and approach to the country's sociopolitical and economic challenges.
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