Flattered, guilty, doubtful, fear of change – these are probably some of the emotions you will feel during your resignation. Sometimes just one, or maybe the whole lot, depending on how your manager reacts. Resigning isn’t meant to be easy, but what we must remember and what should make us feel more confident is that it is very often the only thing that belongs to us. It does not need to be accepted, negotiated or signed. We own it. Another glimpse of optimism is that your resignation should mean that you are that much closer to realizing your wish list – the 5 things you said you would like to change about your current company/position when you began your search. But very often this is all forgotten by the craftiness of the counteroffer.

Did you know it can cost your company up to 5 times more to replace you than to keep you on board? So your manager’s initial reaction will probably be to ask you to stay because he/she will be under enormous pressure to keep you. With this in mind it might be a good idea for us to expect a counter offer because on almost every occasion it is easier and more economical for companies to keep us than to go through the rigmarole of replacing us. (more…)

Engineering News asked top recruitment consultant Diane Gotthardt about the future of engineering recruitment and DAV’s future therein:

1. What are the current trends in South Africa in terms of sourcing key staff in the engineering/technical/mining sectors and for sectors like renewable energy?
We are still in a skills short market. Excellent Engineers are being fought for globally and being paid high international salaries. Specifically in industries like Mining and Power Generation. It’s a global playing field and employers in SA need to come a long way to attract and retain key players in Engineering. In sectors like renewable energy we are starting to see some movement there but it’s early days. Some companies are progressive and have started looking for “green experts” but reports indicate that the massive boom for companies in the wind turbine manufacturing will come closer to 2015

DAV is listed with the Adcorp group and their Employment index for June indicates the following:
• Employment dropped sharply at an annual rate of 8.3% during June, the second consecutive monthly
decline. This represents a loss of 127,100 permanent positions and 5,712 temporary positions.

• Employment grew substantially in the high-skilled management and professional services categories
(21.9%), whereas employment declined sharply in the unskilled and semi-skilled categories (20.3%).

• Based on our monitoring of trade union activities so far this year, we estimate that South Africa will
lose 24.9 million days due to strikes and work stoppages in 2011 – an increase of 22% over 2010.

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF) – an international grouping of the world’s largest multinational corporations, South Africa’s labour laws and regulations rank 133rd among 139 countries in the world i.e. the 7th-lowest internationally.

“As the WEF notes in its 2010 Global Competitiveness Report, South Africa has the 8th-highest level of industrial conflict in the world (more…)