Rolls Royces, Bentleys and Mercs
It`s the old dilemma faced by IT companies: you spend thousands of rands on training your staff, and then they up and leave. Now a new class of trainers say they can help your company keep people for longer, get more out of them – and even improve your employment equity profile.Photographer Sally Shorkend is struggling to get this shoot just right. The problem seems to be the setting: this Rosebank house is an art connoisseur`s paradise adorned with objects begging to be captured on camera.While the photographic assistant obediently shifts the position of various objets d`art – a wooden statue of a king, a sculpted bust, a gilt-edged frame – executive coach Alain Willem obligingly does what he`s told … lifting his chin, raising his arm, lowering it, moving a hand, sitting further forwards, leaning more to the left.“Can you help me get some direction?” Shorkend jokes to Willem.“I`m probably too expensive for you,” he replies, face deadpan.“How much do you charge?” she asks, eyebrows rising at the answer: R5 000 for a single three-hour session, with at least four sessions needed to tap and extract a client`s full human capital.But then, as Willem demonstrates later, his coaching techniques aren`t exactly one-size-fits-all, off-the-shelf stuff for the mass market. What`s more, you`ll find much the same approach – they call it customised – over at pi africa intellectual holdings in Midrand, and at Connemara Consulting in Illovo. When it comes to unlocking human capital, you don`t cut corners. These things take timeWhile Willem insists on a minimum of four one-on-one sessions, pi africa needs months to start delivering the goods – in the form of handpicked people who love their jobs, know their stuff, fit like a glove into the company culture and, joy of joys, will actually stick around for a decent length of time, says CEO Niel Human.“We all know that staff turnover is a huge problem in IT, especially among black professionals,” he says. “There`s a growing perception that it`s pointless to train black people because they leave. Our model is increasingly in demand by companies in an employment equity crisis, because of our track record in bringing in people with staying power, people who give you a lot more, a lot sooner. Of the 1 400 people we`ve taken into IT to date, about 82 percent have been black.”Bear in mind, though, that pi africa`s not offering quick fixes. On average, it works with a client for up to two years before finally handing over its candidates (or “cadets”, as Human calls them) as full-time employees.It all starts with a shopping list. Let`s say IT Company A is looking for ten development specialists, including five black women (don`t giggle, Human says you just need to know where to look). Making the order taller is that Company A wants people who work for job satisfaction rather than the biggest pay cheque around, and share its values and personality.Next, pi africa sends in the psychologists to check out the company culture, values and personality – there must be a match, or you might as well not bother – and then draws up “an identikit of the most likely suspects, using lots of science”. This part is often pretty quick, says Human, since pi africa does its marketplace homework in advance: it draws from a pool of over 4 000 people who`ve attended its regular IT career guidance days, have undergone full psychometric and personality testing, and are actively looking for work they really want to do.So the scouts return with 20 possible cadets, from whom Company A selects ten. And now the heavy part starts: the training. Investment and returnsFrom day one, the ten cadets will earn a salary and benefits, which pi africa pays, even though they`re not yet working. This early phase is highly intensive, very practical rather than lecture-led, and takes six weeks to five months, depending on what skills and knowledge the cadet still needs to fit in at Company A.It includes simulating the actual work environment and could involve any or all of nine different training institutes on pi africa`s books, from the University of Pretoria to CS Holdings.“We overlook no detail of the job and we make no assumptions,” says Human, whose own qualifications include an MBA, a post-graduate marketing diploma and a master`s degree in neuro-psychology.Add it all up and the investment so far – which pi is still paying – comes to about R90 000 per cadet for salaries, benefits and training.Now the ten cadets are ready to set foot on Company A`s premises, but not yet on their own. For another six months, they`ll undergo intensive coaching with a “co-pilot”, meaning an internal company mentor. For 12 months after that, they`ll “fly solo”, although still as contract employees officially on pi africa`s books. Only then, after 18 months of hands-on work, do they become fully fledged Company A employees.Meanwhile, pi africa has a formula for getting a return on its R90 000 per person investment, while earning a bit more besides. It`s complicated, so Human puts it simply: “We contract the person to the customer for the 18-month period at a rate that covers our investment, the person`s salary and our margin.”Of course, the proof of the pi is in the eating, and Dimension Data`s Richard Askham reckons the company`s investment has been worth it. Askham, Centre of Excellence manager in the service providers solutions business unit, formally took 19 pi graduates into his fold as full-time staff in November 2002. Only one is black, incidentally, since this particular intake wasn`t driven by employment equity requirements.Are they delivering? “We`ve actually come out tops,” says Askham. “We`ve come out with people who are strong in a number of different ways: they`re solutions-focused and in the game for the right reasons. Sometimes people move into IT because they think that`s where the money is. These people are here because they want to be and they`re delivering value for money. Of all our billable people, they have been the guys being asked for by project managers.”High praise, indeed, and Askham adds. “It`s been two years since the preliminary selection and, originally, they were intended to work in a hard-core development environment, but our projects have changed and they`ve made the transition well. In this environment, skills are only 30 percent of the equation; the other 70 percent is character and attitude.” Accountable to deathWhile pi africa draws heavily on scientific formulae (its name refers to the relationship between the diameter and circumference of a circle), Connemara Consulting gets hopelessly physically, mentally and emotionally involved: “Totally addicted and immersed,” says Connemara`s Esta Viviers. “And accountable to death,” she adds, “otherwise it`s too easy to come in, talk, bill and leave.”What this means in practice is that Viviers and her two co-directors fling themselves head first into the client`s business. “We often work in a company to understand their business and their internal debate,” says Viviers. “Yesterday, we met with panel beaters and for the next two weeks I will be at five panel beating shops, wearing overalls and listening. At IQ Business Group, I`m a person with business and IT experience, and I understand outsourcing. At an events management company, I`m an events manager.”At all times, she says, there must be an “absolute fit” with the client`s culture. “We have clients who dislike me intensely. I`m Afrikaans, I`m too straight-talking. So I don`t go, I won`t irritate them with me. If the culture calls for someone refined, cultured and soft-spoken, but not wishy-washy, we send Ina (a co-director).”This is all aimed at figuring out what a client really needs – or doesn`t – in terms of skills development.“Sometimes people just need plain, old ordinary skills, like standardised PC training,” says Viviers. “You do training that a business needs at a particular point, you don`t do things to pay this month`s rent. If it`s not right to spend the money, I often walk away from things or even assist in bringing in suppliers other than ourselves – our competition – if they`re suitable to deliver.”What niche, then, has Connemara found in the market? “Customised training in areas that we can do better than anyone else.” In Viviers` case, with 15 years of large-scale change management experience before starting Connemara six years ago, that`s her specialisation.“Some people will only accept knowledge if you give them seven international studies. Others will never change until they have been intellectually convinced in a debate, when they give their commitment by defending the concept they were originally opposed to. So it could be debate, or it could be simulation, or role play, like actually holding a cocktail party to learn to interact with huge groups of suppliers.“Or let`s say you are an incredibly successful company where the people are used to increased profits and everyone is incredibly comfortable. To position yourself for the future, you will have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. So you create an intellectually uncomfortable, pressure-cooker experience, perhaps out in the veld, where people need to gather information without the Internet access they are used to.”The point, says Viviers, is that nothing Connemara does is standardised. “That is why we could never have a million clients.”Executive coach Willem also keeps his client base small, for two reasons. One is that with each personal or “path coaching” session taking three hours, it`s highly intensive. Second, he specifically seeks out a certain kind of client: he only takes “successful” people.If that sounds like targeting the converted – or perhaps a trifle arrogant – he explains: “Remember what Freud said about preferring rich patients to poor patients because at least the rich already know that money can`t buy happiness?” Well, Willem buys that. Engineering a new lifeIn fact, he says it`s a lesson he`s personally learnt. Formerly an engineer of four varieties – mechanical, electrical, geo-technical and systems engineering – Zairean-born Willem, who studied in France and emigrated to South Africa 17 years ago, became “burnt out” about eight years back.“My life was about making money, and I thought, ‘What am I doing?` I started exploring the whole human aspect, from hypnotherapy to neuro-linguistic programming. After going through a period of chaos, I realised that I could integrate the whole of my life experience in one point. Now my purpose in life is to bring wisdom to business by taking successful people, filling in the other dimensions, and transferring it to their organisations.“So unsuccessful people are not my target. I`m not a psychologist. My target is people who have already found the magic in some respect, who have already tapped into some aspect of their power.”Just how does he fill in their “other dimensions”? “By using a set of 200 tools that are like hooks, that help people develop intuition, find their purpose in life, understand who they are, ask powerful questions, negotiate more effectively,”Before I know it, Willem is using some of his toolkit on me. Breathing techniques. Questions that are gently but deeply probing. Meditation. A decision path based on harnessing the mind, body and soul. Now, if I just had R20 000…
07 April 2003
It`s the old dilemma faced by IT companies: you spend thousands of rands on training your staff, and then they up and leave. Now a new class of trainers say they can help your company keep people for longer, get more out of them – and even improve your employment equity profile.
While the photographic assistant obediently shifts the position of various objets d`art – a wooden statue of a king, a sculpted bust, a gilt-edged frame – executive coach Alain Willem obligingly does what he`s told … lifting his chin, raising his arm, lowering it, moving a hand, sitting further forwards, leaning more to the left.
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