Retention becoming a major challenge

“As initiatives by major academic institutions over the past decade to set up logistics faculties begin to bear fruit, more and more graduates are coming into the market at a time when the economy really needs them. But it seems like David fighting Goliath in the battle of retention, which is bound to become even fiercer as time progresses,” says Sue Wood, operations director of Cargocare Freight Services. “We find, as do many industries these days, that the ‘Y’ Generation, as they begin to integrate into the workplace, are very keen to improve their qualifications and their understanding by additional training, more so than we have seen at any other time in the recent past. “Some of the very large global players are quickly tuning into the preferences of this age group and using it to recruit and retain the cream of the graduates that are coming into the market. Fortunately this is beginning to be seen more frequently in our domestic environment, but I believe that the trend is not yet widespread enough to have a major impact on the loss to the South African economy of these qualified and valuable individuals as they are enticed away to greener pastures abroad,” Wood explains. She notes that the importance of training for Cargocare cannot be over-emphasised, to the point where it is written into its ISO manual.