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30 January 2008
There’s more pressure for companies to employ black candidates - and South Africa is fingered as the no.9 political risk facing the globe in 2008 While it seemed that, during 2007, corporate South Africa took its foot off the accelerator when it came to requesting recruitment companies to source black candidates for vacant posts, 2008 looks poised to revert back to a concerted push for sticking within the government’s employment equity constraints. This is according to Karen Geldenhuys, MD of Pretoria-based IT recruitment company, Abacus Recruitment, who said she expected “increasing pressure for recruitment agencies to find black candidates” during the remainder of the year. “With South Africans feeling increasingly negative about recent developments in the country, such as the ongoing Eskom load-shedding debacle, and pending court cases for disgraced national police commissioner, Jackie Selebi and ANC president, Jacob Zuma, this new drive is certainly not going to have a calming affect. Skilled workers, who are worried about the situation in South Africa, are most definitely going to start looking for greener pastures. And in bigger numbers. “Our research shows that an alarming number of skilled workers are already hedging their bets by seeking postings overseas – just in case they feel they need to leave the country. They are keeping their back doors open. This is not good for our already critical skills shortage.” Geldenhuys said during 2007 there appeared to be less demand for Indian males, while white males were, surprisingly, “more in demand than in previous years”. “There wasn’t such a concerted push by corporates to fill posts with black candidates. But this certainly seems to be the case at the moment. Our clients are pushing the black empowerment issue. We are facing pressure to fill posts with black candidates.” While Eskom has already been extensively lambasted by the business sector, opposition political parties and the press, one of the questions being raised is the skills shortage at Eskom. “There has been a lot of conjecture. Many people believe that when Eskom shedded staff, it got rid of skilled workers – mostly white. Certain quarters are blaming the power crisis on a lack of skills at Eskom. This is really worrying, especially given the fact that we are seeing a return to levels we last saw in 2005 and 2006 – when local companies were pushing to fill vacancies with black candidates. “This remains a catch-22 situation because, as much as we would – as a recruiter – like to fill these posts, there are just not enough skills evident in the skills pool. We are facing a tremendous skills shortage in the IT industry as it is. If we are pressured to fill posts with only black candidates, this just exacerbates the situation. “There are a lot of rumblings in the marketplace. A lot of candidates we are talking to are saying that they are looking off shore. This does not auger well for the country’s skills shortage – and certainly not for the country as a whole. “Already, “ she added, “South Africa has been ranked as the 9th biggest political risk facing the globe during 2008.” She said influential research and consulting firm, Eurasia Group, has fingered SA as one of the top-nine political risks for 2008. Other top risks include Iraq and terrorism, the security risk posed by Pakistan and Afghanistan, the energy bottleneck in Latin America and the trend of US antiglobalisation. “We are not really in good company at the moment,” she quipped. |