There has been an increase in demand of more than 100% for senior leaders from South African companies over the past three months, as businesses urgently play catch-up to fill their top posts.
Debbie Goodman-Bhyat, CEO of Jack Hammer, rated one of the top 3 executive search firms in the country, says there has been a wave of briefings from across all sectors since September.
“Comparing the months of September to November from 2015 to 2016, it shows that there has been a massive spike in hiring demand at a leadership level, with a year-on-year increase for these periods of just over 100%,” she says.
And although some of the demand is spurred by the need for companies to make key hires in line with their transformation policies, it is not significantly more than usual.
Rather, the recent rush can be ascribed to a combination of macro-economic factors, the local political context, and business imperatives.
“All of these factors of course play a role in general. But the way they have converged in this instance, has led to an interesting trend in the leadership space,” she says.
“Very recently, Statistics SA released the third quarter labour force survey, which showed that unemployment levels in the country now stand at their highest in 13 years, at 27.1%. Many analysts are predicting that the situation is set to get worse, not better. Yet an opposite trend is starting to become evident at senior levels.”
Goodman-Bhyat says that despite SA’s ongoing economic woes, there is a greater than ever – and increasing – demand for top leaders across the retail, FMCG, financial services, NGO and education sectors.
“Last year, the commodities crisis and shakiness in China in August 2015 had a bigger impact than expected on the South African economy, resulting in caution and conservatism regarding senior management hiring,” she says.
