Communications is a booming sector around the world, and retaining talent is key to any successful organisation. To better understand this industry in South Africa, VMA GROUP Africa conducted research into the South African landscape, exposing issues that impact the communication world today.

According to the 2015 VMA GROUP Africa research, one out of two communications professionals leave their organisation because it doesn’t provide career growth or because there’s no adequate training available within their field of expertise.

Employees want to improve
Daniel Munslow, a principal consultant at VMA GROUP, South Africa says; “South African employees are clearly focused on their careers and the importance of skills development and a challenging work environment.” He says that if employers want to hold onto their communications employees, training programmes and skills development opportunities need to be put into place. “Further, skilled communicators know that to grow they need to elevate their role to an exco positioning,” he explains. “If the company doesn’t recognise the strategic, board-level responsibility of stakeholder engagement, good talent will move to where it is.”

The good news is that 60% of the communicators surveyed in the country are spending more this year on skills development than they were last year. “This is in line with global best practice, which advocates skills development as the key proponent of improving and investing in an in-house capability,” says Munslow.

Recognising the value of human capital
He says the 2015 CEO Conference Board research, which surveyed over 900 global CEOs showed the number one business driver that keeps them up at night is human capital. “This was not the