Metro faces huge staffing bottleneck
It takes an average of 216 days to fill a vacancy in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality, from the time that job applications are submitted.
This is a result of the city having only two fulltime data capturers in its employ to process the thousands of applications it receives every month.
For August alone, the municipality received 5,500 applications for various posts it had advertised.
This was revealed at a human resources and corporate services portfolio committee meeting on Tuesday.
Human resources management services acting director Mzi Mangcotywa said there were several reasons for the slow processing of applications, including the shortage of data capturers.
“We also have one typist for the entire institution – that limits our capacity as an institution, which limits our capacity internally.
“Hence our recruitment processes are slow,” he said.
Mangcotywa said the department was faced with a huge backlog due to a moratorium that had been placed on filling vacancies in 2015.
“The backlog is also putting a strain on the limited capacity that we have.
“Other factors include the calls for the department to amend job descriptions after we have advertised and, in some instances, unions intervene because they are unhappy,” Mangcotywa said.
He said the analysis of vacancies had started in June. Most were in the infrastructure and engineering department.
“This is because of the nature of the services they are rendering.
“The department is followed by electricity and energy and the public health department,” Mangcotywa said.
The Herald reported in June that a comprehensive report on vacancies in the municipality would be presented to the committee. In September 2017, the officials presented an elaborate plan to the committee to cut short the turnaround time for recruitment to a maximum of three months.
But Mangcotywa said this had not yielded the desired outcome due to the fact that most positions were between grades three and 11.
Applicants for those positions were still required to use the conventional hardcopy applications, while applications for managerial positions used the city’s electronic E-recruitment system.
Other bottlenecks included the internal recruitment notification forms that department heads were required to submit should there be a vacancy.
Councillors in the corporate services committee called for more data capturers to be hired to solve the crisis.
DA councillor Pieter Terblanche said: “We need a turnaround strategy.
“This does not paint a positive picture – if people wait 10 months after applying for a vacancy, they will obviously apply elsewhere.”
EFF councillor Lukhanyo Mrara questioned why the city had only two data capturers.
Human resources acting executive director Nosipho Xhego said the city would not employ more data capturers as they were not on the municipality’s organogram.
Xhego said the only solution was for departments to provide typists and other people to assist the data capturers when the need arose.
“We are not going to get more data capturers, but to mitigate this, departments need to provide the resources because they also have an interest in fast-tracking this,” Xhego said.
On Thursday, she said it was unclear how long it took for data capturers to sort through the thousands of applications.
“The turnaround time differs for various positions.
“However, with regard to street sweepers and non-managerial positions, we get an overwhelming response because of the rate of unemployment,” Xhego said.
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