Soft values in a hard science industry

Soft values in a hard science industry
Jul 2010 Roy Johnson 
  
 
Dr Rob Adam has always been a proponent of nuclear energy.
Skills retention and development is a focus for businesses in practically any sector. For NECSA CEO Dr Rob Adam, this has been a career-long focus.
Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa (NECSA) CEO Dr Rob Adam is often called “Mr Nuclear”. Even prior to becoming CEO at NECSA, he was a leading proponent of increasing the country’s investment in nuclear energy as a key element in addressing future electricity generation needs.
In fact, as a former academic and former director general of Science and Technology, he is a proponent of many high-tech schemes and investments, including the construction of new base-load nuclear power stations, the pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) development project and the country’s ongoing investments in high-tech astronomy, including the bid to build the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) in South Africa.
Taking over the reins at NECSA, which is basically a state-owned entity, he encountered familiar problems of transforming an organisation that had for decades focused on specific areas of nuclear technology while simultaneously retaining existing skills and developing a new generation of nuclear technicians, engineers and scientists.
Although the nuclear industry is highly specialised, the challenges are similar to those in any sector where relatively rare skills are essential and staff are often poached by other organisations or opportunities overseas.
Change is the only constant
“The organisation had focused for decades on reactor technology and weapons development,” says Adam. “This was heavily subsidised by the former government up until the decision was taken to dismantle the weapons programme.
“At that point, the local industry faced the realities of the nuclear industry being globally in stasis because fossil fuel generation systems were given priority, along with early projects aimed at renewable power generation systems.
“That meant that South Africa had a massive investment in people and equipment that was not being fully utilised and no longer supported by generous public-sector funding,” he comments.
Today, there is renewed international interest in nuclear power generation as a way to meet increasing power needs without dependence on fossil fuels and without the consequences of greenhouse gas issues. For as many as 20 years, however, the industry had been “on hold” because of concerns about nuclear waste disposal, overall safety and the enormous investments required to establish new power plants. Nuclear is cheap to run but very expensive to build.
As such, NECSA turned its focus to the production of radio-isotopes (used in medical and industrial scanning equipment). South Africa has now become a world-leading supplier in this market.
“Achieving this meant a change in business model and a change in mindset,” says Adam. “Along with that, it required a redeployment of skilled staff into new areas of research and development.
“From this experience, we can say that, whatever the precise details are in terms of how you do this, the most important aspect is to have an overall vision and commitment to support it.
“People at any level of involvement in an organisation need to believe in what the organisation is doing. At the same time, the vision must include the creation of a sustainable model for retaining skills, transferring skills and developing a new generation of skilled people to meet future needs.”

Switching focus

At the same time as NECSA was turning its attention to the lucrative radio-isotope market, a separate business in the country was focusing on developing PBMR technology. Adam was a strong supporter of this research, aimed at giving the country the ability to build smaller, less expensive nuclear power plants that could be established on a regional – as opposed to a national base-load – basis.
Currently, in a much-debated change of direction, government has decided to freeze its subsidy of PBMR development. Other countries have done the opposite. In the US, PBMR is a component of what they are calling “next-generation nuclear initiatives”.
This leaves South Africa in a situation where a large number of people with specialised skills that are hard to replace are no longer guaranteed employment at a time when their eminently portable skills are in high demand elsewhere.
“The issue of talent management is critical,” says Adam. “But there is sometimes too much focus on what this means for an organisation in terms of
productivity and the bottom line – basically, the hard values of the equation. I would say that the often neglected soft values are just as important.
“We are dealing with people, and their commitment to a corporate vision that inspires them is just as important as what they get paid or the programmatic requirements of their job description.
“While it is advantageous that a manager should know a business from the bottom up, the same management skills are needed whether you are in manufacturing, mining or any other sector. Intelligent redeployment of skills is always an option, provided the people involved support the larger initiative.”
As a case in point, during his tenure as DG of Science and Technology, Adam’s de-partment changed its systems over from an outdated paper-based system to an electronic document system that was largely automated.
“This meant that a large number of people who had been employed to file hard-copy documents and move them around no longer had a useful function,” Adam says. “The solution we arrived at, rather than just firing these people, was to retrain them as document scanners and document managers. This not only retained their skills but gave them new skills.”
It’s well known that business consultants point out that as much as 80 percent of a company’s IP sits on individual PCs. Simultaneously, there is a softer type of IP that resides in the people themselves – knowing how things are done, how the organisation runs and what its vision really is.
“It’s not always practical or even possible to document this type of IP so that you can make it available to new employees,” says Adam. “Even in the simplest business processes or organisational models, these soft skills can be lost when people move on.
“This movement of staff is unavoidable but a heal-thy organisational culture will allow for this and make sure that hard and soft skills are passed on without being lost.”
“Transformation of an organisation is not quickly achieved,” says Adam. “It is necessary when there is a change of vision, core activities or as an inevitable consequence of changing personnel on a generational basis. In such circumstances, the issue of retaining skills and developing new ones is even more important than it is when an organisation is only looking to carry on in a sustainable manner.”
It took several years to switch a government department over to a “paperless” office system. There is inertia in both the system and the people, many of whom will resist a change to the way things are done – let alone redeployment.
“This is where you really need to look at the soft va-lues,” says Adam. “People need to be inspired by some over-arching vision so that they do not fall into some cubicle-based, silo-based view of what their job entails.
“One example here is a former reactor technician. He was always approachable and eager to explain the technology to visitors. Now he has a key position in our communications department, that is far removed from his hard skills but much better aligned with his soft skills.”
Retaining hard skills is not an issue for a company that has a pipeline in place for training and a holistic view of succession planning.
What is less easily measured – and, consequently, not completely covered by talent management or business consulting – are the soft skills.
It might not be possible to demonstrate the impact of soft skills from a bottom-line viewpoint. But the inspirational vision of the organi-sation as a whole, its business culture and the support that is given by the buy-in of the people involved are key factors in making that organisation successful, sustainable and able to handle changing needs and business environments.

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