Competitive workplace demands lifelong learning culture Mergers shrink opportunities

AGAINST THE background of a shrinking job market, respect your jobs and think twice before you indulge in any frivolous job-hopping. Unemployment impacts critically on the body, mind and spirit.
That’s the advice from recruitment consultant and industrial psychologist Lynn Ribton-Turner who encourages candidates to consider lifelong learning to ensure that they’re not left behind in an increasingly competitive and pressured workplace.
Gauteng-based Ribton-Turner believes that finding the right candidate for the right position has become ever more challenging, but it’s an area where her near completed PhD in Psychology has helped to make the difference.
As more and more companies set up learnership programmes, psychometric testing has been successful in finding the right fit, says Ribton-Turner.
Similarly, in the case of graduates, using assessments for selection purposes has achieved considerable success where there is no work record to act as a guide.
In terms of salaries, these have levelled off particularly for export staff after the inflation experienced during 2001/2002, in her view. “It was a question of supply and demand with salaries almost doubling overnight as export business grew and the available skills pool remained static.
“But employers have now become more circumspect, and as the rand has strengthened and profitability per file has decreased, so clearing and forwarding companies are forced to become more demanding of their staff without substantially increasing remuneration.”