The Biggest South African Mystery of all Time

Overview

Supply Chain and Logistics Managers are painfully aware of the constraints which skills shortages are placing on their ability to grow. At the same time we are sitting on a smoldering powder keg of unemployable youth.

The solution lies in our own hands, but why aren’t we seeing this?

South Africa: a rich legacy of mysteries

We boast the Flying Dutchmen, a Dutch trading vessel which sank just off the Cape in 1641.  It is said that whoever spots the phantom Flying Dutchman at sea will die a horrible death quite soon.

We have the tale of the vanishing hitchiker of Uniondale, said to be the ghost of a girl named Marie Charlotte Roux who was killed in a motor accident not far from Uniondale in 1968 and whose ghost still hitchhikes along the road but vanishes after being picked up. 

More recently Mbuyisa Makhubu, then 17, whose iconic picture is shown carrying the body of the dead Hector Pieterson, killed by police in Soweto on 16 June 1976, with sister Antoinette weeping uncontrollably at his side - he seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet.

The biggest mystery of all however is reluctance of the supply chain management and logistics companies to aggressively implement training strategies at this time.

Some facts:

• Between 1994 and 2014 the South African youth unemployment rate climbed from 39.4% to 53.0% whilst the rate of youth absorption into the economy declined from 20.1 % to 12.3%1

• A million jobs were lost in South Africa between Q1 2008 and Q1 20132

•  From 2006 to 2013 South Africa dropped from 35^th to 53^rd place in the Global Competitiveness Index rankings.³

The 2013 Global Competitiveness Report stated, “The quality of the educational system is very poor (146th), with low primary and tertiary enrolment rates. Raising educational standards and making the labour market more efficient will thus be critical” ³

The South African economy is evolving from a resource based economy needing relatively large amounts of unskilled labour into a service and manufacturing based economy needing relatively smaller numbers of skilled labour. However 59.4% of the unemployed have not completed secondary education.¹

Within the South African supply chain management environment the lack of skills is being felt acutely, “Respondents ranked the lack of relevant skills and talent as their number one strategic business constraint. This is a major shift from previous years. With the education system of South Africa under increasing scrutiny, there is a clear gap between relevant qualifications and skills that are marketable in the workplace.” ⁴

This is where the mystery really deepens: currently the university dropout rate between enrolment and first degree completion is 85%, whereas the successful completion rate for workbased training/ experiential learning programmes such as learnerships is 86%! In addition, 86% of those who successfully complete such programmes are able to find full time employment, meaning that employers see good economic returns from these graduates.

The message is clear: if you need skilled people in your organisation, then workbased training/ experiential learning programmes are the answer. Why aren’t we seeing this?    

In realising that South African society needs a skilled workforce in order to be transformed, Government has, through the newly introduced B-BBEE scorecard targets, placed heavy emphasis on Skills Development. At the same time this area is so incentivised through cash grants and tax incentives that fully utilising these incentives achieves the same after tax profit as acquiring an “A category” client. 

Why aren’t we seeing this?     

What training strategy does your company have in place?

What do you see as the factors inhibiting the enhancement of  workbased training/ experiential learning programmes in your organisation?

Could a better understanding of the incentives available for training lead to more comprehensive training in your organisation?

Are C level executives in your company equipped to implement training strategies which will enable the organisation to increase its global competitiveness?

References

1. Haldenwang, B 2014 20 years of democracy: Is life better or worse for the ‘average’ South African? Institute for Futures Research University of Stellenbosch

2.South Africa, SS 2013 Mid-year population estimates 2013. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa

3. World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014: 2013 World Economic Forum

4. Barloworld Logistics. (2014) 2014 supplychainforesight. The Rise and Fall of Customers and Companies

Building Strategic Weaponry for Competitive Competence

Introduction

The current speed of change requires employees to be trained continuously to out-think and out-manoeuvre competitors.

Customisation is key - this article explains how to tailor programmes to maximise synergies between company strategic objectives, individual needs and lifelong learning.

Identify areas to be addressed

A previous article, “Targeting Training for Strategic Success” identified tools for determining the skills gaps of each individual within the organisation, both in terms of the company’s current needs and future strategy.

Having applied these tools, the company will have a strategic overview of what must be trained, at what level and to how many people at each level.

Structure content and strategies for training programmes

Diversity of approach and company structures mean  that there is no “one size fits all”: every company must align training to its own bottom-line objectives.

To achieve this, the company will need to create a matrix in which the identified skills gaps are grouped into areas of similarity at different levels.

Such a matrix will look something like this:

	Technical	Company Systems	Strategy / Management / Supervisory	Soft Skills
General Management
Supervisory
Operator
General Worker

Identify the specific objectives of each training unit 
By populating this matrix we have a strategic overview of the competency requirements of our organisation. It also represents a lifelong learning path for each employee.

The skills gaps which have been identified in each of the matrix cells need to be fleshed out so that each defines what the person who has been trained in that area will be able to do. 

For example, if we have identified “manage inventory” as a skills gap at operator level, we might, after consultation with those involved in the function, decide that a person who has been trained in this function will be able to:

• Explain the principles of freight logistics 
• Receive, dispatch and return freight
• Control and locate stock
• Locate freight in a warehouse
• Pack, handle and secure freight 

Million dollar question- insource or outsource?

Now the burning question: which of these competencies should be trained on an in house basis and which should we outsource to external providers?

According to the supplychainforesight 2014 report “With the education system of South Africa under increasing scrutiny, there is a clear gap between relevant qualifications and skills that are marketable in the workplace.” This is a clear indication that, at least in the field of supply chain management, the bias should be towards insourcing. This, by the way, is not a uniquely South African phenomenon.

Other considerations are:

• What do we have the ability to execute in-house, and what can’t we perform internally with quality and consistency?
• Which of the competencies we have identified give us our competitive edge, which of them give us our unique character in the marketplace?
• Consider outsourcing those generic “soft skills”  (communications, time management, leadership development, decision-making, and problem-solving), as well as environmental and health-safety issues. Keep in mind that if we were to keep training entirely in-house, the only resources we’d have are the skill sets that exist in our current staff.
• To what extent can we insource training without compromising the operational requirements of those Subject Matter Experts who will be required to do facilitate training? Put another way, how do we manage the risk of loss of focus on our core business, if we implement in house training programmes?

Moving target

Nothing stays the same. Both the competency matrix of the company should be subject to annual review as an absolute minimum.

Targeting Training for Strategic Success

Introduction

Training is a key weapon to manage change in the battle for increased competiveness in a rapidly evolving environment.

This article offers important tools to optimise training investment by accurately determining the organisation’s competency needs. 

Competency as key to competitiveness

The business of implementing efficient and effective supply chains is transforming at light speed. This presents new opportunities for greater cost reductions and market growth.

Training is an essential but expensive tool in building and maintaining competitiveness.

To make this investment effective we must be able to target training for maximum impact.

The first step is to accurately determine the organisation’s competency needs, where competency is defined as a combination of knowledge, skills and attitude.

How to do this without the need for sophisticated software or specialised knowledge?

This particular elephant is best tackled in meal sized chunks:

Business strategy

Consider these trends:

Consumers

More than ever before, consumer is king and the pace of change in consumer demands is accelerating. The agility to adapt to these radical and rapid changes is what makes a winning organisation.

Technology

The ability to identify and embrace new technologies which will strengthen the organisation’s ability to determine changing market needs and adapt to them is a vital competitive weapon.

One world  

Whilst “multinational” denoted a corporation with turnover in the billions and workforce in the hundreds of thousands, this is no longer so: the tools are there for even the smallest to diversify into global markets and this versatility is crucial to all.

Today’s business strategies focus on how to meet rapidly changing consumer needs by harnessing best in class technology for enhanced competiveness over an expanding global footprint.

It is essential that such a strategy also defines the competencies required to achieve the objectives. It should answer the question “Which are the competencies which, if we don’t have them, will prevent us from achieving our strategic objectives?”

Skills profiles

The strategy describes the future state of the company- by analysing the current skills profile of each function within the company we determine:

• How the current functions need to be adapted to achieve the strategic objectives
• To what extent the identified competencies are applied in the current functions, and at what level. For example, the competencies, Distribution, Warehousing and Logistics are practiced at many different levels
• Which of the identified competencies will need to be acquired/ enhanced in the adapted structure.

Whilst there is no rocket technology in carrying out this exploration, it will take time and the commitment of Line Managers. Best to see that they are compensated/ recognised.

Individual Assessment

A critical step in the process is to determine the extent to which each individual within the organisation possesses the required competencies to:

• Carry out their current function
• Function successfully in the future organisation.

To determine these gaps requires that those within the organisation (and possibly outsiders) who already have these competencies to write assessments which determine the knowledge and skills areas required by each function.

This may be unfamiliar territory but it has been done in many organisations.

The results of these assessments will identify the company’s unique skills gaps and give clear direction as to where training resources need to be allocated.

The bottom line benefits

• Ensures learning is directly aligned to organisational strategy
• Directs resources to areas of greatest demand effectively and efficiently
• Identifies the "gap" between required and current performance
• Enables the organisation to tailor training to meet current and future requirements
• Provides a platform to enable an organisation’s sustainable competitive advantage based on employees’ ability to learn and adapt to change.

Would this strategy work in your company?

How could you adapt it to better serve your needs?

Is this an area which receives enough attention?

Are there better ways of determining the competency needs of an organisation?

Please share your thoughts.