Recruit a Development Team in SA

Lessons learnt recruiting in South Africa

Recruitment in the South Africa high-tech industry in my experience over the last two years has been a very strange and frustrating journey…

Many of the smartest South African guys I have ever had the pleasure of knowing have been lured by shiny things in distant lands - and good on them for being able to leave the comfort of their nests to take advantage of these opportunities. The rest have been absorbed by the thirsty sponge that is the South Africa economy to quench it’s insatiable need for competent and sharp minded resources.

The end result is that there is a very small pool of floating resources in the system jumping between freelancing, startups, and big corporations that have become increasingly more difficult to motivate other than with a bigger pay cheque. Which is understandable — demand and supply they say.

The irony is that considering the need for smart skilled people, there is an army of highly-skilled labour from a diverse range on African and European countries bashing at our gates. The only thing holding them at bay are stringent labour laws and immigration policies, but is this hurting our economy or securing job opportunities for South African citizens?

The South African economy has a shortfall of 50 000 developers alone it’s been estimated every year… We are not producing nearly enough to satisfy this need. I am starting to hope those gates are torn down.