The CX industry is an economic heavyweight, injecting R35 billion into the national economy annually and employing over 100 000 people. But it’s being held back by visa red tape, says Nita Morgan.
Cutting red tape – like just about every other policy pronouncement – is easy to promise, but much harder to do. This is why government regulations the world over tend to proliferate despite the best intentions of those in leadership positions.
That said, and while it is still early days, there does appear to be fresh impetus to address key obstacles to economic growth and job creation in our country.
One such blockage is the massive work visa backlog within the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), which has prevented thousands of skilled professionals from other countries obtaining the right to work here. The big losers are local employers and employees who would otherwise benefit from the expertise and skills transfer of an increasingly globalised workforce.
An illuminating case study of the problem can be found in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) or Customer Experience (CX) sector – one of South Africa’s biggest economic contributors, with huge potential for growth.
The CX industry is an economic heavyweight, injecting R35 billion into the national economy annually and employing over 100 000 people. On its current trajectory, the sector aims to create 500 000 jobs by 2030, with the majority of these work opportunities going to young people. However, this will only be possible if our work visa application system enables overseas companies to bring in training experts to upskill their employees and ensure their South African offices remain internationally competitive.
Since opening our doors at the V&A Waterfront in June 2023, Foundever in South Africa has employed over 800 mostly young people and aim to hire 3 500 employees by 2026. To ensure our contact centre advisors are able to provide efficient, quality services to our growing list of top global clients, we need members from our overseas team to train and upskill them. However, despite following the necessary application processes and jumping through all the required hoops, we have been unable to obtain the necessary visas for our training experts to visit Cape Town and transfer their skills to our local team.
We are not the only global CX company facing this challenge. In May, the Western Cape government revealed that one of the biggest impediments to the province positioning itself as a leading global CX destination is the work visa backlogs crisis. Within the first three months of this year alone, 4 500 local CX jobs were created in the Western Cape in addition to the 70 000 people already employed by the sector in the province. However, an additional 50 jobs were unfilled as a result of the visa backlog, costing the local economy approximately R17.5 million.
With our large talent pool of young English-speaking candidates, South Africa could become a hub for international CX companies, but we need to address the visa backlog to make it happen. Global companies must be able to send over their specialists to provide skills development and training so that they can help educate and grow our local workforce.
We therefore welcome the announcement made by newly appointed Minister for Home Affairs, Dr Leon Schreiber, that fixing the visa crisis would be one of his top priorities moving forward. One of his first acts as Minister was to extend temporary visa concessions while the current backlogs are cleared.
Minister Schreiber made several positive commitments in his recent Budget Speech in Parliament. This included the finalisation of a points-based system for work visas, updating the country’s critical skills list more regularly and the reactivation of the Immigration Advisory Board to enable stakeholders to engage with his department more easily on immigration and visa blockages.
When professionals first arrive in South Africa from overseas, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is one of their first points of contact. It is so important that their experience is a positive one – friendly, efficient, and hassle-free. This sets the tone for the rest of their visit to our country and it shows that we’re a nation that’s open for business – eager to attract international top talent and investment.
Skilled foreign professionals help us stay up to date with international best practice and maintain a competitive edge within our rapidly developing sector. Importantly, these professionals provide training and skills development to our local employees so that they are empowered to move into more senior roles. But becoming a desirable employer of choice for talented locals also means we need a regulatory environment that enables us to expose them to the best the world has to offer.
We will be keeping a keen eye on steps taken by the Department of Home Affairs to address thework visa crisis. Our hope is that this can help to unlock access to the critical skills needed to build our economy, and to launch fulfilling careers for thousands of young South Africans.
Morgan is Country Manager for Foundever South Africa
News24 encourages freedom of speech and the expression of diverse views. The views of columnists published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24.
