Government must follow Datacentrix example
FURTHER evidence of the skills shortage facing information technology companies comes in the results from Datacentrix, showing its staffing costs have risen a hefty 20%.
Of its R631m operating expenses, the greater part goes on ever-higher wages and extra training for its staff.
Granted, its staff has risen 10% since February, but that nowhere near accounts for the 20% hike in costs. The need to find more technicians with higher skills has also dented its empowerment status, as there is no avoiding the fact that most top technicians are still pale males.
The government has already admitted there is a shortage of about 37000 technicians in SA, but there is no sign of schools and universities doing much to solve that.
So what’s to be done?
Datacentrix makes a lot of effort to train employees, not only to offer better services to its customers but also to help it attract and retain recruits.
Technicians love a challenge and the chance to learn new skills as well as earn a decent wage.
Chairman Gary Morolo says it must employ more skilled and therefore more expensive staff to differentiate itself, by offering increasingly specialised skills around the technologies it supplies. That’s expensive given the skills shortage, and the job-hopping by talented staff — especially the black ones who can boost a company’s empowerment profile.
Every IT and telecoms company faces this crisis, which is also hitting any company with an in-house IT department. Datacentrix is merely the latest to lament the lack of skills and do its bit to alleviate it.
But it’s not enough. It’s time for the government to stop compiling lists of scarce skills and start ensuring that schools and universities are geared up to deliver them.
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