Originally published on LinkedIn:
View the original article.
This version is formatted for CoreCloud Insights.
South Africa isn’t short on smart, capable ICT professionals. We’re short on access to them — and we’re bleeding the ones we already have through slow hiring, poor role design, and offers that don’t match the value they create.
The reality you feel on the ground
- Critical roles sit open for months, while the team burns out holding delivery together.
- Great people leave quietly, pulled by remote-first roles, clearer growth paths, or just less admin.
- Recruiting becomes noise-heavy, with CV floods and little signal on who can deliver your outcomes.
What’s actually driving the bleed
- Friction everywhere: 6–8 interview steps, unclear salary bands, and multi-week delays between steps.
- Misaligned offers: market-level comp for scarce skills is viewed as “too high”, while the cost of delay is ignored.
- No path to mastery: senior engineers feel capped — no technical ladder, no sponsorship for certifications or conferences.
- Identity-free leadership: under pressure, managers revert to command-and-control instead of coaching and clarity.
Offer Architecture That Lands
- Clarity: role scope, 90-day outcomes, decision rights.
- Comp: market-aligned base + delivery-linked kicker.
- Growth: technical ladder, cert budget, conference days.
- Flex: hybrid norms, focus time protected, low-admin tools.
- Speed: two-step process, decision ≤ 24 hours post-final.
Retention Moves That Matter
- Quarterly growth plans for A-players (review progress monthly).
- Mentor time in the week (measurable, not ad-hoc).
- Kill low-value work: automate or drop the bottom 10% tasks quarterly.
30-day retention & access plan
- Day 1–3: identify the top 10 roles blocking delivery; define outcomes and success metrics per role.
- Day 4–7: publish salary bands; compress to two interview steps; name one decision-maker.
- Day 8–14: stand up a pre-vetted candidate pool; shortlist in 48 hours for each priority role.
- Day 15–21: secure your seniors: retention check-ins, individual growth plans, training budget approved.
- Day 22–30: measure time-to-offer, acceptance rate, and week-one productivity; fix bottlenecks weekly.
Need three vetted CVs in 48 hours?
Tell us the stack, budget, and start date. We’ll surface elite SA candidates fast — with references.
Request candidates