Durban - A skills audit has found some staff members in eThekwini Municipality are highly educated and are over-qualified for the positions they hold.
The skills audit was conducted by the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), which looked at the skills of the city’s 26 000-strong workforce as well as the councillors.
The audit was done for staff and councillors in municipalities across the province.
In terms of education, the report found that of the city’s 26 000 workers, 34% had a matric, 16.5% had general education (Grade 1-9), 15.2% further education (Grade 10-11), 12.9 had a national certificate, 10% had a national diploma and 8.4% a degree.
Of those with tertiary qualifications, 1.3% had an Honours, 1.1% had Masters and 0.1% had obtained a doctorate as the highest qualification.
Dr Mpilo Ngubane, from the city manager’s office, delivered the findings of the report to the executive committee on Tuesday.
“One of the findings in the report was that some of the staff members of the municipality are overqualified for their position,” said Ngubane, adding that the city has an urgent need to align skills with grading.
“If you have a person with a PhD with Grade 6-level grading, you could have a despondent employee.” He said people would have that feeling if their education and skills weren’t recognised in the work environment.
In the electricity unit it was found that the unit should develop and implement a staff retention policy, manage talent and implement a succession plan.
The report recommended: “The unit should also have a search pool for highly technical competent staff who may be developed and groomed for managerial positions within the unit so that sustainability in the business process is in no way hampered should staff leave the unit.”
It also called on the city to encourage some staff members to further their studies and earn PhDs and others to earn Masters degrees.
In the finance unit, the audit found that there is stability with staff remaining in their position for longer periods.
“It is to be noted that 38% of the employees have been in their current position for 10 years or above, 25% have been in their position for five to 10 years,” saying this augured well for experience and mentoring.
It called on the municipality to encourage 15 staff members to enrol for their PhDs and 47 for their Masters.
The report called on the city to make sure that talent management is effective, to ensure it retains valuable employees, meets the requirements of employment equity, and applies recognition of prior learning and equipping employees resourcefully in order to transition to the 4IR.
“It is evident that in the upcoming years everything will be done through artificial intelligence, therefore every employee should have the basic skills.”