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

2. Which sector is experiencing critical constraints?
If we’re talking constraints like hard hit sectors, that would be Construction Industry mostly
If we’re talking constraints regarding skills shortages, artisans (boilermakers, welders), engineers with power station expertise
Highly skilled engineers in specific industries like materials handling. Sales Engineers with qualifications.

3. How is DAV adding value in terms of sourcing of key staff?
DAV’s Engineering Team placed 345 Technical candidates in the period Mar 10 – Feb 11, that is not 1 working day in 2010 that we didn’t put an Engineer into a position at a company. 44% were true Employment Equity Engineers. That’s over 130 Engineers in a country chronically short of EE engineers.
This figure has increased by 27% from the previous year where we placed 249 Engineers in the same period with 40% true EE.
We can feel some market confidence where companies are hiring more easily than in 2009. June 2011 was our Engineering team’s best month ever.
We partner closely with our clients, being able to provide strategic input into their hiring decisions and future growth goals.
We also proactively let our clients know when good skills have come available in the market, often leading to companies creating roles for these key skills.
We inform our clients of progressive trends, what makes an employer a good one, what makes people stay

4. What are the challenges in terms of sourcing key staff and what needs to be done?
• Big corporates with lots of red tape slowing down decisions and we lose good engineers when processes take too long
• Global war for talent. Many of the skills in demand in SA are also in short supply globally. When mining in Australia is up many Engineers and Artisans go abroad attracting our skills with top dollars.
• Some companies don’t sell themselves well enough at the interview process. What makes your company / brand say to that Engineer out of all the companies in the world we are the best employer for you
• Rigid graded salary packages. The skills are hard to fin, but we uncover them and then the companies can’t afford to bring them over as it’s company policy to have a grading system
• Companies who are not flexible on their requirements or progressive in what they provide

5. What is DAV doing to solve the constraints?
We are flexing our clients all the time on their requirements, asking them to think out of the box. We are educating them on market trends and trying to influence them to hire on potential.
Many clients these days say they’ll rather hire for the right attitude and train the skills.
We are proactively marketing good scarce skills to all our good clients to make sure these critical skills find their dream jobs.
We meet clients and very closely match candidates to that unique company culture so that they are happy, motivated and productive. Productive staff make companies profitable and this contributes to South Africa’s economy
I am personally passionate about placing graduates into their dream jobs as quickly as possible to keep motivation level high as well as placing the right managers and executives into companies as they help shape the future of the organization.
DAV has a dedicated team focusing on Africa and the BRIC emerging markets. We are ready for our clients who want to do business in Africa. We have a partner in Munich also opening the door for transfer of skills between Europe and SA

6. Is sourcing technical skills still a challenge as well as skills constraints?
Yes it’s a challenge and companies need to partner with specialized consultancies who can uncover talent and give them the right opportunities to flourish in.
Also when the good talent is uncovered for the companies to move quickly in getting them on board instead of losing them.

7. Is the country doing everything to solve the skills crisis. And why?
No I don’t believe so.
• Every company no matter how big or small who employs technical skills should implement learnerships, apprenticeship programs or offer bursaries. Every company needs to be part of the solution. If you are in the power generation industry how are you growing and nurturing skills in that sector
• Our work permit system is very strict making is exceptionally difficult for good foreign skills to enter SA
• We have a complicated labour law process making companies afraid of hiring
• We have an expensive labour force making foreign investment tricky
• Companies should be open to hiring 2 people to do skills transfer, one more mature maybe even retired Engineer and a graduate who they can teach. Companies always say they want experience but how are the graduates meant to get experience if no one will give them a chance.

8. Does DAV believe that we are on course to solve the skills crisis?
Not yet. There is not enough buy in from all companies yet to move forward with some of the changes. There is not enough emphasis on promoting trades or engineering tertiary studies at a school level. Being hands on is no longer seen as a glamorous field

9. What needs to be done to solve the skills crisis?
We need to focus on boosting secondary schooling maths and science levels so that more students qualify for engineering at tertiary level. Some schools don’t even have libraries. Leaders are readers. Education is the key to freedom.
Companies must actively get involved in their own development and skills transfer programs

10. Did the economic meltdown affect the company in anyway?
Yes we were 30% down in the recession year. Some clients were harder hit than others. So we focused on the industries that were doing well at the time like the new power stations being built.

11. Has DAV identified any growth areas?
Power generation is still good with the Medupi and Kusile power plants where a lot of the smaller manufacturing and fabrication companies supplying components are doing well. Mining is doing well . 25% of our placements last year were Sales related roles. Showing that companies are in a generating phase. Many companies are trying to diversify their own client market to expand their base. Aftermarket and spares play a key role as that is some companies bread and butter business whilst they wait for new capital projects. We’ve seen a slow but slight increase from the project houses
Renewable energy will come still.
Africa is a massive growth area.
Last years 25% of our placements were in technical sales. 24% in Mechanical engineering roles, 15% in services (aftermarket areas) and 15% in Management. So we keep ourselves informed (often thanks to the articles in the Engineering News) and we target clients who are geared for growth and set up partnerships

12. How is the company planning to tap into those growth areas?
Our Consultants are ready for the growth areas like Africa. We interview key skills to send to the right clients. In the right markets. We educate ourselves on new skills and technologies.

13. How does DAV view its future
We are very positive about DAV’s future. We are a strategic provider to our companies, standing next to them on growth matters, we educate them on market trends, we talk their language and we help them become the best employers who can retain these key critical skills. We understand the very delicate and important role we play in SA’s economy and the future development of Engineers. We are passionate and purposeful