eBusiness Weekly
Economy Uncensored with Tapiwanashe Mangwiro
Brain drain is nothing new for Zimbabwe, but, this time, we face a particularly difficult task in retaining talent and replenishing the depleted base of skilled manpower.
Due to brain drain, countries are losing their qualified people and this situation also leads to a decrease in the skilled manpower required for the development of countries. In a country where the number of qualified people is decreasing, it will be very difficult to take innovative steps and ensure sustainability in the development of the economy.
In trying to bandage the wound, Zimbabwe decided to establish a Skills Attraction, Retention and Development Fund (SARDF), as a way to retain critical staff in the country.
As a way of retaining critical skills, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development reportedly allocated $1,5 trillion for the SARDF to pay the retention allowances.
The retention allowance is aimed at attracting highly competent professionals into government service and ensuring those already employed do not leave the civil service due to low remuneration.
Grades from the deputy director and below will be eligible for the allowances and it is set at 70 percent of the basic salary of the member’s grade.
The aim is to attract highly skilled and experienced professionals to all levels in the public service and enable the Government to plan and implement initiatives necessary to achieve sustainable development and economic growth within the context of National Development Strategy 1 and in pursuit of Vision 2030.
It also seeks to attract skills and competencies necessary to drive the devolved structures of Government and bring into reality the devolution and decentralisation agenda and also strengthen the capacity of the public service to retain critical skills and prevent skills flight in crucial areas of public service delivery.
In May the Public Service Commission (PSC) started to implement the first phase of the retention allowances payments to civil servants under the fund, targeting 11 categories of critical skills with total pay benchmarked to local and regional earning levels.
Engineers, information and communication technology specialists, mining surveyors, forensic scientists, architects, veterinary officers, quantity surveyors, social development officers, psychologists, metallurgists, and legal drafters make up the 11 categories.
Although there is no silver bullet when constructing a retention strategy that works, the good news is that a mix-and-match approach from a menu of possible human resources policies and practices can ensure greater retention effectiveness.
The experiences of the Republic of Korea and Taiwan are instructive in this respect and we should find a way to adopt such initiatives and work towards retaining critical skills.
The two countries established active programmes combined with incentives from the early 1980s well before the current wave of globalisation and the lessons from their experiences are several.
Rapid growth of the local economy was crucial in attracting back skilled persons and active Government policies and special incentives under particular political regimes was important.
In the Republic of Korea, the emphasis was on return whereas investments and brain circulation was given more priority in the case of Taiwan. The establishment of parallel Silicon Valleys, especially in Taiwan, was very important in retaining their skilled citizens.
The emigration was mostly of students, and a large proportion of the returning migrants were seasoned experts with 10-15 years’ experience abroad. In both cases, high priority was given to research and development at home.
In these two countries, there was major involvement by private sector industry which went “head-hunting” for talent in developed countries and this is cheaper for the country as we only need to put in enabling policies.
However, not only monetary rewards can help us stop the bleeding of talent and skills as, according to some research done by Mckinsey & Company, it was seen that technological developments play a very important role in the fight against the brain drain problem.
Therefore, it is very important for the countries to develop their technologies first in terms of the efficiency of the actions to be taken.
Technological development is effective on many factors that are of key importance for the country’s economy and thanks to technological development, it is possible to increase the productivity of enterprises in the country.
In this way, companies operating in the country will be able to compete with other international companies and as a result, reach the monetary benefits being sought after by many leaving the country.
Also, this will contribute to the selection of talented personnel from these companies and in this way, it will be easier to minimise the brain drain problem as qualified personnel stay in the country.
So conclusively, we need a national plan that should be adhered to the dot if we want to keep the skills drain to a minimum.
Giving people money only is not the solution as it needs to be a competitive salary in the region and also they should be able to enjoy it on world-class facilities and recreations.
Tapiwanashe Mangwiro is a resident economist with the Business Weekly and writes this in his own capacity. @willoe_tee on twitter and Tapiwanashe Willoe Mangwiro on LinkedIn.
