This morning I heard Thabo Mbeki say something that is very familiar to us. In addressing the high salaries that councilors of local government earn, sometimes higher than his own, Mbeki explained how skills come at a premium in the municipalities … they get recruited, apply themselves and then shortly leave (The problem has grown so much that the municipalities are now in the habit of recruiting teachers to fill the gaps).
On the one hand it is not surprising that Talent is leaking out of the governmental structures at such a rate – government does not rank highly in sexy work! But on va uver hand Darren, it shows how remaining competitive is also an issue for local government when the municipalities have to compete so heavily for Talent – competition in the form of paying ‘managers’ and ‘supervisors’ more than the ‘CEO’ in an attempt to retain them.
The governments idea of a retention strategy is “Uh, um, well, let’s pay them more!�. Is it no surprise that it is not working?
Pay ’em more to keep ’em
