Skills

Eskom’s manpower numbers show a net growth of 2 208 over the reporting period. A combination of internal development, internal promotions, learner pipelining, external recruitment and contracting constitute the skills resourcing strategy. National and international recruitment expos were held during the year. The initial international focus has been on South Africans living abroad.

Given Eskom’s formidable new build programme, additional recruitment practitioners have been appointed and trained. Long-term skills requirements have been determined in terms of critical workforce segments as well as core, critical and scarce skills. The recruitment section on the Eskom website (www.eskom.co.za) has been improved considerably to make it easy for job seekers to find opportunities in our organisation.

An integral part of retaining current staff and recruiting new people is establishing Eskom as an employer of choice. Key activities in this regard were:

• incentives: motivating people by looking at reward and recognition strategies. Where there is a shortage of core, critical or scarce skills, we will pay competitive salaries and fringe benefits and review the latest remuneration principles and practices
• employee engagement: meaningful engagement through effective organisational communication and ensuring that people are given work that is challenging and motivating, while having a work/life balance

An annual performance bonus scheme is in place for all Eskom staff, excluding senior general managers and above. The scheme is governed by a predetermined set of rules and targets, which are approved annually by Exco. The actual performance of each employee is assessed at the end of the year and those employees who have achieved or exceeded their performance contracts are eligible to claim from the bonus pool relative to their performance, salary and grading.

The total bonus pool payable is determined by actual company performance relative to these targets. Performance measures include technical, people-related, customer, social and financial performance. Allocation of this bonus pool is based on division/ department and individual performance.

2 958 additional core, critical and scarce skills need to be recruited or developed cumulatively over the next five years to replace losses and cater for Eskom’s new build programme.

Cumulative projected additional core, critical and scarce skills requirements

Eskom is not unique: there is a general technical skills shortage in the global market. Given the global electricity expansion programmes, Eskom will continue to face a challenge in terms of skills. The likes of China and India are also competing for technical skills internationally.

We will continue international and national recruitment drives. However, resourcing options do not only include permanent employment. We are also seriously considering contracting in skills via agencies for specific projects. This also calls for more flexible remuneration packages.

Training interventions

Training has always been a major focus area in Eskom – to such an extent that many outside organisations make use of our training facilities. We have 28 facilities with 244 training venues spread across South Africa, which can accommodate a maximum of 3 300 students. There are approximately 540 teaching staff with 153 instructors and in excess of 1 600 courses in Eskom’s course catalogue.

These facilities, staff and programmes are used to support the development of new employees and of existing employees, in accordance with individual development plans, to ensure optimal performance in the work environment.

Eskom’s total training investment per year

Furthermore, development plans have been established for critical and scarce skills to ensure appropriate succession management. Currently, for the purposes of knowledge transfer, we are also using the skills of highly experienced former and current employees. This includes involving the extremely valuable experience of Eskom pensioners in a formal mentorship programme.

Last year, Exco approved the implementation of an Eskom university. This resulted in the appointment of a university council consisting of managing directors and general managers. A chief learning officer was appointed as well as the university management team.

The university will co-ordinate and integrate all learning throughout Eskom, focusing on business needs, and will cater for all facets of the learning value chain, covering strategy and planning, learning design and development, learning delivery, learning administration, as well as learning operations, supported by a quality management process. Four faculties have already been created.

The key focus will be on engineers and artisans for the future. We have 5 368 learners in the pipeline – 85% of them studying in engineering and technical fields. Once they have completed their training they will be absorbed into the business as engineers or graduates-in-training.

The Eskom Learning Institution (ELI) drives artisan and technician training and development across Eskom. ELI’s role has become increasingly important, as the skills challenge continues to mount. In response, ELI has embraced e-learning and formed learning partnerships with various organisations, independent individuals and learning providers.

ELI responds to immediate learning needs within functional areas and to strategic imperatives such as Eskom’s commitment to Asgisa and, specifically, the need for accelerated skills development and transfer to drive Eskom’s new build and maintenance programmes.