Australia becomes SA's top executive export market

Australia has topped the United Kingdom as the most popular destination for executives leaving South Africa according to Human Capital at Deloitte.

Deloitte said that the average executive turnover for Africa’s powerhouse between August 1 2007 and July 31 2008 increased to 13.5 percent from 10.5 percent during the previous period.

“This statistic extrapolates to South Africa losing up to 50 percent of its executives every four to five years,” Deloitte spokesperson Willem Verwey said.
Australia was actively recruiting South Africans disillusioned by generally poor leadership as its government struggles to deal with incompetence and corruption, and unnecessary political squabbles. The survey found that the manufacturing and finance sectors reported the highest percentage of executives emigrating over the last three years.

Executives gave the following reasons for deciding to emigrate: crime and violence (60%), better employment opportunities (35%), and company transfers (30%).

Other reasons for attrition included early retirement (22%), emigration (15%), retrenchment (11%), and lack of career advancement (11%).

The survey said that during the period salaries were up a healthy 9.3 percent on average.

Verwey said that with inflation above 8.8 percent and recently reaching 13 percent, companies have had to take active steps to ensure their salaries remained competitive. However, higher salaries alone were not enough to keep a significant number of executives from deciding to jump ship.