1. HUMAN RESOURCES
H
uman resources professionals
are increasingly being tasked
with driving the national
transformation agenda by
ensuring that their companies
have a pipeline of strong black talent, both
to change the complexion of their businesses
and to help to eradicate societal inequalities.
It’s a big job, but the fact of the matter is that
boardroom promises can become a reality
only if HR departments lead the change.
HR must, therefore, influence the long-term
success of a company by being involved in recruiting
top executives and building a strong succession of
talent, says John Brodie, MD of recruitment company
Mindcor. “The succession issue is reaching a critical
point, because the top male, white managers
are getting to retirement point and you need
black candidates. But we are still building
that post-apartheid pipeline of good people
with 10 to 15 years of experience who are
executive material. So you need someone
who really understands where
that talent is coming from.”
As well as honing their
skills in recruiting
and retaining talent,
HR practitioners
must form creative
external partnerships
to skill up the
next generation
of workers – not only to feed the company,
but to benefit the country as a whole.
Brodie suggests that business forge partnerships
with schools, colleges and trade associations
to proactively drive the amount and depth of
talent being produced. “Thinking you can just
hire from a pool of people and not contribute to
that pool of skills is short-sighted. So having the
right strategic HR thinking is crucial. You need
to build partnerships with other organisations
in your space to develop skills, and that
requires someone at the top table who
can build a business case for investing
more in skills development.”
An engineering company, for
example, could partner with local
schools to encourage more emphasis on
maths and science, he suggests, or work
with trade associations on skills-
development initiatives. They
can also help to develop the
skills of unemployed people
to create a talent pool for
the future, while alleviating
poverty and unemployment.
That could be done
through knowledge-
building programmes
TIME TO TAKE
THE WHEEL
Human resources departments across South Africa can no longer
afford to focus on pushing paper, suggests LESLEY STONES
Mathieu
du Plooy
68 SK ILLS DE VELOPMENT

2. HUMAN RESOURCES
to help individuals to achieve certification.
“You are looking at a 10 to 15-year journey
to build a pipeline of talent, and that requires
a very different mindset from HR,” says
Brodie. “Building up the next tier to ensure
the longevity of the company is very different
from just hiring people. It’s also critical for our
transformation agenda and skills development.”
What about HR skills?
Often, the skills HR should be improving are their
own, however. Brodie believes HR practices in
South Africa are five years behind international
trends in ramping up their own skills. That is
worrying, since a global survey recently found
that, even in developed countries, very few
bosses think the HR team is doing a good job
of moving the company’s talent forwards.
A recent report by Deloitte University Press
found that 42% of global business leaders
believe their HR teams are underperforming
or just getting by. Tellingly, less than 8% of
HR leaders themselves are confident that their
teams have the skills to deliver innovative
programmes that impact on the business.
Legal requirements driving the change in
South Africa are the amended B-BBEE Codes
of Good Practice introduced by the Department
of Trade and Industry (DTI), which came into
effect in May 2015. The codes require companies
to meet specific racial demographics throughout
the organisation, making it the duty of HR to
come up with practical solutions to fill the gaps.
Methods could include creating a matrix of
desired competences for higher management
levels, and assessing junior managers against
that matrix to identify candidates for promotion.
The matrix will show where skills gaps exist, so
a targeted competency-building programme can
be created. Mentors from senior management can
be matched with juniors to help with everyday
problem-solving, to gain skills on the job. Once
HR begins to tackle talent-building in this way,
organisations will become more self-sufficient.
HR in action
Thuli Masuku, transformation manager at Servest
Landscaping and Turf, agrees that HR has a
new role to play in transforming organisations.
To overcome the lack of black talent in
middle and senior management, and meet the
demographic requirements set out in the amended
codes, companies must establish mentorship
and training programmes, and expose some
chosen staff to all areas of the business, in
order to develop their skills, Masuku says.
HR must become better at analysing the
skills and competencies needed to support
the company’s strategic imperatives, and,
with limited talent pools available, they must
implement a “grow or buy” strategy to boost
their ranks. They must also develop more
successful reward and retention programmes.
“Servest’s internal staff development
programmes will bring a different way of
motivating and managing people. It’s absolutely
proven that there is a direct link between how
motivated people are and their productivity. HR
management will need to leverage this to move
employees into the right places,” Masuku says.
Another successful example is being driven by
the HR department at engineering company WSP
Parsons Brinckerhoff, which runs several schemes
to tackle the mismatch of skills being produced in
educational institutes with the actual jobs available.
MD Mathieu du Plooy says the dearth of young
people with good enough results in maths and science
to have any chance of graduating with engineering
and construction qualifications will prevent South
Africa from reaching government’s economic and
developmental targets. He believes SA has passed
the point where businesses should be encouraged
to support skills development; rather, it’s now a
Thuli Masuku John Brodie
business imperative to future-proof your company.
WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff spent R3.5 million on
skills development last year through a three-pronged
approach: infrastructure support for organisations
that support youth development, tertiary education
and vocation skills development, and developing
staff. The company’s HR department channels
some corporate social investment spending into
supporting maths and science education at schools,
and engineering and science at tertiary level.
Bursaries and vacation work are also offered
to university engineering and science students; in
2014 the company supplied 12 external and 25
internal bursaries, with similar numbers this year.
The HR department then helps them to register
with professional bodies, and provides young
engineers with career guidance, mentoring and
hands-on experience to fast-track development.
Last year the company also signed a sponsorship
agreement with Engineers Without Borders, which
gives student engineers the chance to work on
community projects to practise their theoretical
knowledge and make a difference in communities.
“We believe it is our duty to give back
by supporting the development of young
engineers – not only to secure future talent, but
to be a part of the change we want to see in our
industry and the country,” Du Plooy says. ˜
“A recent report by Deloitte University Press
found that 42% of global business leaders
believe their HR teams are underperforming
or just getting by.”
Images:Thinkstock,supplied
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