Mass job database on the cards

By Christelle du Toit, ITWeb senior journalist

Johannesburg, 19 Oct 2007

The Department of Labour wants to create a one-of-a-kind mass employment database for South African business. However, IT stakeholders have questioned the motivation and implications of such a move.

This week, minister of labour Membathisi Mdladlana said the department is developing regulations that would compel employers to register all vacancies and job placements.

He said such a process would enable government "to systematically deal with the scarce skills issue... in that the skills base and gaps of the South African workforce would be available in one central database".

Mdladlana said the database would also enable the department to assess employment and unemployment trends, as well as identify sectors where jobs need to be created.

Tread carefully

Gerrie Terblanche, CEO of Deltalink Consulting, says the labour department`s database would probably be the first of its kind. However, he notes that it raises serious concerns, as companies do not necessarily want their competitors to know in which areas they are short of staff.

"If a system can show your weaknesses, it is going to be hard to get people to comply with it," says Terblanche. "I question the motivation for the creation of such a database."

Rudi Leibrandt, data management practice manager for Sybase, says he too is concerned by the privacy implications of such a database.

"The IT industry, for example, is so small and, if you can see what kind of people your competitors are employing, it could give you a lot of information about them," says Leibrandt. "A lot of companies would, therefore, want their input into such a database to be anonymous."

He agrees that the database would be a first of its kind, but says it should not be too hard to create. "You are basically looking at a database that encapsulates the entire South African workforce which, in technical terms, is not that big.

"You would have to look at whether you need more of a transactional database, or simply one that can give you analytical information, which I suspect will be the case. You don`t really need such a large set-up."

Thinking it through

Simon Jeggo, sales leader for IBM SA, says the major concern would be managing the data in the database.

"Who, for example, has access to it? If I capture data in it, how do you ensure I can`t access other people`s data? If one person in a big company is designated to update the data, how do you ensure other people can`t access that information?"

Jeggo says the database is quite plausible, although it would have to be "fairly large". However, he points out that key decisions would have to be made with regards to issues like the life cycle of data.

"How long will you store the data for? Do you simply want it to be available for a couple of months, or will you then need to archive it as well?"

Jeggo also points out that not all vacancies are externally advertised and it then becomes a fine line as to which vacancies need to be listed on the envisaged database.

"You have to question quite specifically what you are doing and why you are doing it."

Into the light

Addressing the first day of the department`s National Skills Conference, in Gauteng, this week, Mdladlana said government has "generally been shooting in the dark" when it comes to implementing national, sector and workplace strategies.

"You cannot have a national skills development strategy that does not respond to broader government goals, or a sector skills plan that does not relate to targeted growth strategies."

He lamented the situation where employers have been allowed to develop individual skills plans that do not relate to the country`s overall needs. He noted that the proposed register would help to alleviate this problem.

According to Zolisa Sigabi, the minister`s spokesman, pilot projects for the register are already in place in some labour centres. "We will probably look to roll-out the project on a larger scale in the next financial year."

Siyanda Zondeki, the department`s deputy director-general for service delivery, confirms that 28 of its 107 labour centres across the country are testing the system.

"Employers would update the system whenever they have a vacancy."

She says employers would be able to provide vacancy and placement details at all local labour offices, as well as telephonically or online. It would be done at no cost to the employer, but all employers, regardless of size, would have to comply with the regulations. The department will run the database, she notes.