Draft:AltGen

AltGen, a specialist recruitment and employment services agency, was established in 1997 as a traditional recruitment company. In 2012, their focus shifted towards providing recruitment and employment solutions in the cleantech, sustainability and renewable energy industries in Africa, the UK, and Europe.[1] The company additionally provides services in the USA and Middle Eastern energy markets.

AltGen’s services include recruitment for solar PV, wind energy, energy storage, clean cooking, carbon management, green hydrogen, electric vehicles, and more. The company has become known for addressing the talent demands in the renewable energy sector, helping businesses source skilled professionals in these fast-growing fields.

History

AltGen was founded by Sean Gibson in 2012. With a foundation of prior recruitment experience, the company found its niche in the renewable energy market where its focus lies today. This focus was inspired by the Renewable Independent Power Producer Programme (REIPPP), a programme that is aimed at facilitating additional megawatts onto South Africa's grid through private sector investment in solar, wind, biomass, and hydro projects.

Sean Gibson started AltGen out of a small office in Techno Park, Stellenbosch, South Africa. With the renewable energy industry being relatively nascent at the time of the company's conception, AltGen initially only facilitated employment consulting services. Success in renewable energy recruitment allowed for the expansion of AltGen's services into the spheres of HR consulting, skills development, employment services, workforce management, and social entrepreneurship.

AltGen was employed by Vestas for the Lake Turkana Wind Power Station. The company was tasked with building the construction team for the first stage of the project. Later, AltGen was tasked with recruitment and selection of the operations and maintenance staff for stage 2 of the project. The project required in-country recruitment, consequently resulting in the establishment of AltGen's Kenyan office.

Offices

AltGen has offices in United Kingdom, South Africa, Kenya, Mauritius, Botswana and Namibia.

Services

AltGen's service offering can be categorised into three pillars: recruitment, consulting, and employment solutions. They cover the entire hiring life cycle from early-stage consulting to executive search, organisational design, recruitment, to managing your entire workforce and executing on payroll.

Recruitment Services

AltGen’s Recruitment provides recruitment services to entities involved in executing renewable energy products and services. The company's initial focus centred on the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) in South Africa in 2012. AltGen has since provided recruitment services to large international EPCM’s, Developers, Engineering Consultancies and Asset Managers. The company's recruitment services include recruitment and selection, the development of job profiles, interviewing, selection matrix development, sourcing, screening, background checks, competency testing, compiling offers of employment, relocation, on-boarding and integration into the corporate environment.

AltGen additionally facilitates upskilling and reskilling prgrammes. The company is noted in N.J. Ayuk's "Just Transition: Making Energy Poverty History with an Energy Mix" as responding to a general skills gap in the South African energy market by "developing a Renewable Energy Specific Skills Programme for independent power producers (IPPs) and operation and maintenance (O&M) providers to help residents in South Africa's Northern Cape find long-term employment."

Team Structure

AltGen's recruitment team is divided into three categories: finance and legal, engineering, and sustainability.

HR Advisory & Employment Services

AltGen’s Employment Services provides business-to-business HR solutions, allowing for the entry of local and international engineering, sales and general services entities into the African energy and engineering markets by facilitating the fundamentals of in-country compliance and HR process systems. In instances where it is not possible to own the responsibility of employment, AltGen provides an outsourced employment service by aiding with the administration of employment and employee relationship management.

AltGen has additionally, assisted REIPPPP operators with services to upskill their labour force through the facilitation of community works and internship opportunities. Renewable energy projects are required by South African law to employ a certain number of local people. This is known as ED spending. Local populations in rural areas of South Africa and greater Africa, however, do not always possess the required skilled level. AltGen provides basic workplace and skills training in order to properly equip them for when the project required them.

The company's HR advisory services saw AltGen listed as one of twenty-three on a list of "pros" in their area of expertise. AltGen was awarded Best Recruitment Company of the Year by Vincere in 2021 and were finalists in 2022.

Consulting Services

AltGen's consulting division essentially provides data to organisations involved in policy and programme development for job creation initiatives within the climate mitigation sector. Previous clients included the Pan African University of Water and Science Technologies; the South African Department of Energy; the UNDP and other African renewable energy associations.

The company's service offering includes the monitoring of evaluation of communities affected by the development of renewable energy projects, and the facilitation of impact assessments of donor-funded renewable energy-related interventions. In addition to this, AltGen's consulting services include the project management of productive use of energy (PUE) for developers, NGO's and state actors. 

Publications

• GIZ SAGEN BioGas Job Potential - Biogas Industry in South Africa: An Assessment of the Skills Need and Estimation of the Job Potential.