Aiming for a world class workforce This month Sierra Rutile launched a Localisation Plan which will, over the next two years, identify the company’s most talented Sierra Leonean employees and begin the process of fast-tracking them into jobs as supervisors, managers and top technicians within our organisation. For Sierra Rutile, it is a major step forward in developing a world-class Sierra Leonean workforce, and particularly significant given that big mining firms, both in Sierra Leone and globally, traditionally make regular use of imported expertise. The need to call upon subject-specialists from abroad at specific stages in the mine’s life-cycle, will most certainly remain a feature of mining in Sierra Leone and in most other countries. For example re-establishing Sierra Rutile’s mining operations after the war necessitated a range of highly-specialised subject, technical and operational expertise, which could not be sourced from one country alone. Similarly expatriate expertise has been invaluable in the recent construction of Sierra Rutile’s new dry mining operation at Lanti. While it is important that we recognise the value of specialist migrant labour and keep our doors open to it; it is equally important that we focus on more long-term solutions to our skills needs by developing Sierra Leonean citizens as technicians, specialists and managers for the benefit of the economy as a whole. At Sierra Rutile, we are proud to be able to say that 95% of our employees are Sierra Leone nationals. Even so we have been able to identify clear opportunities to increase the numbers of Sierra Leonean employees in our organisation, particularly in our supervisory, technical and managerial positions. Our Localisation Plan will ensure that we make the most of these opportunities. It is a massive undertaking, which has been many months in the planning. It necessitates identifying our high potential employees (HiPos); defining their training and development needs; and providing learning opportunities to accelerate their progress and experience. It is not an overnight process and it will require an exceptional amount of hard work and commitment from our HiPos, our HR department and our management team. The benefits of the Localisation Plan however are considerable. It reduces our dependency on imported knowledge and skills; contributes to Sierra Leone’s technical and managerial pool; makes Sierra Rutile less susceptible to vagaries in the global skills market and allows us to build a team of skilled and hardworking home-grown experts. To say that with the right education and training, Sierra Leonean expertise and experts, will be as good as that which businesses large and small frequently buy in from abroad, may seem obvious. But there is a tendency to draw negative comparisons between our own workforce and those of other nations, forgetting that our workforce was effectively deprived of 10 years of training opportunities and skills development by the war. Most of our business community would agree that we need to find a sustainable way to replace that lost capacity if we wish to build a prosperous economy. Where unanimity disappears is on what our options are. For much of the business community the government’s Local Content Policy is seen as adding a particularly onerous complication to the debate. But it doesn’t have to be. A few months ago, I was privileged to take part in a discussion on the Local content policy, organised by the John Akar Independence Trust. The point I made there, I make again – without a world-class workforce, Sierra Leone can never become a world-class economy; and instead of seeing the local Content Policy as a threat to be avoided, businesses must seize the opportunity it offers to work with the government, educational institutions, NGOs and each other, to develop our national skills base. The potential advantages of a trained and competent labour pool, for Sierra Leonean businesses large and small are considerable; reductions in operational costs and less staff turnover by keeping imported expertise to a minimum; enhanced engagement with national stakeholders and customers to name just two. Surely that’s worth aiming for. By John Sisay, CEO, Sierra Rutile (johnsisaycomments@gmail)
Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 11:35:20 +0000
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