He said applications from citizens are screened through a scientifically developed interview process called Target Selection. This ensures that appointees are capable of fulfilling their employment obligations to the company as well as fitting in with its the ethos and culture. Where no suitable citizens candidates are found, advertisements are placed in the international press. He refused to state the wage bill accruing to expatriate personnel saying “remuneration is a confidential matter.....and Botash does not have a separate pay scale for expatriates and citizens”.
He said remuneration packages are tailored to attract the right candidate, be they citizen or expatriate. Cochrane said the timing of the localisation of positions is as per the localisation plan, which is continuously reviewed and updated as events unfold. He said it was frustrating and unfortunate that citizens sometimes leave the employ of Botash just as senior positions are about to be localised and when considerable time and resources have been spent in training them. Citizens, he said, generally leave the company because of the location and remoteness of Sowa Town and quite often for personal and family reasons. “It is also a fact that the high quality of training given by Botash makes those citizens who are seeking employment in more hospitable places highly sought after”.
The major problem in localising positions is that very few citizens are willing to live and work in Sowa Town long term. Quite often, they will become employed by Botash to bolster certain weak areas of skills and as soon as these are addressed, they seek employment in areas which offer more than Sowa does. In any case, Cochrane maintains, the largest concern to Botash is not the lack of graduates but lack of suitably qualified citizens across all strata of employment.
He maintained that there might be suitable citizens to be employed instead of expatriates only that they never respond to adverts, generally because they have no urge to live and work in a place as remote as Sowa Town. Moreover, Cochrane said the system of understudying does have its deficiencies and strengths.
