Skills shortage, especially technical skills, is a real challenge faced by many companies in South Africa and Nestlé is no exception.
The turf war for talent and attracting the right people with the required skill is also presenting a serious problem that requires creative and long-term solutions.
People provide a competitive advantage to our business and it is with this understanding that we have always invested resources - financial and otherwise - in the development of our people to build their capacity, knowledge base and to increase their productivity levels.
We offer our employees training programmes which are job specific and aligned to their career development; these include: - General Business Programmes
Graduate Development Programme
The continued unemployment of graduates remains a concern in our country. To respond to this challenge, we annually recruit graduates from institutions of higher learning to be part of our Graduate Development Programme (GDP).
Through the GDP we aim to attract, select and develop newly qualified graduates to build our talent pool and at the same time contribute to the reduction of the high levels of unemployment in South Africa. This includes exposing the graduates to various parts of our business by following a structured and practical programme where they are guided by mentors to acquire skills which are relevant to their chosen fields.
In this two-year development programme, our graduate trainees learn on the job and are given real tasks to ensure meaningful learning. They are up-skilled through various formal training programmes for personal and career development.
Our senior managers provide morale support and motivation to the trainees through mentorship in order to help nurture leadership talent. Our past graduate trainees also provide support by encouraging them to achieve their goals.
Once they complete the training, our graduates are absorbed into our business and employed on a permanent basis.
Some examples of the outcome of this programme include graduate trainees who are now Brand Managers, Business Analysts and Internal Auditors; who are making an impact in their fields and are on their way to fulfilling exactly what the GDP set out to do which is:
“To cultivate leaders of the future for Nestlé.” Our graduate intake allows us to balance diversity within the organisation by employing graduates who are representative of our county’s rich culture.
In line with our strategic intent of increasing the number of women in the workplace, we also support and encourage the appointment and development of female graduate trainees. Statistics show that in the past, Nestlé has invested in a significant number of female graduates.