Plan more and you
get more
GOVERNMENT HAS been encouraged to set targets for the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) Act because industry is too slow to change, according to management consultant, Chris Richards.
President Thabo Mbeki, who champions empowerment, hopes to have cabinet approval by October, and to have it enshrined as an act before his State of the Nation address next February.
"I'm not surprised government has taken this step," said Richards, "because,
certainly in our freight industry, the move to co-opt the various procedures in the Employment Equity Act were slow.
"Too few skills facilitators. We're just not getting there."
Richards agrees that it is difficult in such a service industry to put people without skills in the front line.
But the answer, he added, "is to do things quicker and better.
"It's sad, but we've just not been fast enough in using the facilities that are available," Richards said.
The fact that every company faces a levy on its salary bill should provide a financial trigger, according to Richards.
"If one gets a plan together, and it's facilitated by the SETA (Sectoral Education and Training Authority), then you get money back," he said. "Plan more and you get more."
In terms of training, Richards points to the fact that if you can set up a training plan - and get it accepted by the SETA Ð then the cost of that will be covered as well.
"But companies are just not doing it," he said.
