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Which way forward on stemming brain drain?
The Herald (Zimbabwe)
March 05, 2008

http://allafrica.com/stories/200803050223.html

Industry and commerce has been found wanting in the fight against the flight of skills.

Their biggest achievement has been the talk, the acknowledgement that rapid brain drain is hurting companies.

Brain drain can be described as the loss of skilled intellectual and technical labour through the movement of such labour to more favourable environments, according to the definition provided by the know-it-all online dictionary -- Wikepedia.

At best, industry recruits new staff, usually inexperienced, to fill up gaps.

Human resource experts who spoke to The Herald Business yesterday said that a few companies, if at all, have engaged in active participation aimed at stemming brain drain.

Mostly, companies have released a cocktail of incentives for personnel thought to be key, and these include housing allowances, and even houses, cars, amongst others.

But this has not stopped employees from seeking greener pastures elsewhere in the region or across the oceans.

What this suggests is that employees are not happy, even when employers have done what they believe could attract and keep key expertise within an organisation.

Higher salaries are not the answer either.

A survey undertaken by The Herald Business over the past fortnight established that more than any other sector, the impact of skills flight has been felt within the engineering, health and environment sector.

Since the beginning of the year, the engineering field has accounted for 47 percent of job advertisements in the Press, safety, health and environment 20 percent, education 12 percent, medical 3 percent, finance and marketing 11 percent and secretarial and administration 7 percent, our survey reveals.

"Obviously the main reason would be that some of these countries are offering better conditions but the major drawback is that local companies cannot afford to increase salaries in light of the rising production cost base," said Peter Kipps, MD of Kipps Employment Agency.

It is estimated that over three million Zimbabweans are living in foreign lands, amongst them journalists, doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers and several other artisans.

"Zimbabwe has been exposed, and is now a training ground for most world economies seeking expertise, which they can gain very cheaply here," said a Harare-based human resources consultant.

Zimbabwe Stock Exchange listed groups, Ariston and Tanganda, the two largest horticulture centred groups in the country have also reported a serious loss in labour.

The companies say they have lost low-key staff who were now opting for gold or diamond panning in Manicaland.

Last year, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe openly encouraged the quoting of salaries for staff viewed as key in foreign currency, all an attempt of stopping the rapid flow of skill into neighbouring countries, particularly South Africa.

"The hyper-inflationary environment has made it difficult for organisations to adjust salaries and wages to employee satisfaction," said ZABG chief executive, Mr Stephen Gwasira.

"This is the fight we now have, having to ensure that salaries move in line with inflation. In most instances employees have left because of weak salaries, sometimes you cannot stop.

"Brain drain is one of the biggest challenges that we are currently facing, as an organisation, and as an economy."

The new global economy is being built around talented people with special knowledge and skills and measures taken to offset existing incentives for skilled or highly educated people to emigrate have unfortunately had an almost zero success rate because of the weak currency.

Organisations which invest in staff tend to be happier and more productive places to work and have lower employee turnover, according to human resource expert, Mr Anthony Jongwe of Global Workforce Communications.

He says: "In some companies, training programmes have reduced staff turnover by 70 percent and led to a return on investment of 7 000 percent.

"Such learning organisations produce more outputs and outcomes and pay attention to individual needs in clients as well as workers. Albeit training costs time and money, it is fundamental to a successful learning organisation."

So what is the way forward on stemming brain drain?

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