Major infrastructure projects are commonly planned around engineering, procurement, finance and construction.

Each workstream is critical. But none can move the project forward without the people required to execute it.

A project may have reached financial close, appointed its engineering contractors and confirmed its construction programme while still being unprepared to employ, onboard and manage the workforce. Critical roles may remain vacant. Work permits may be outstanding. Payroll may not be operational. Employment responsibilities may be unclear.

These are not secondary HR matters.

They are project delivery risks.

Workforce readiness means having the people, employment structures, compliance controls and operational systems required for employees to begin work lawfully and productively.

When these elements are planned too late, workforce delays can become construction delays, cost overruns and avoidable pressure on project management teams.

Why workforce readiness requires greater attention

Infrastructure investment creates demand for people at every stage of the project lifecycle: development, engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and operations.

That demand is increasing across energy markets. The International Energy Agency reported that global energy employment reached 76 million people in 2024. More than half of the companies, trade unions and training institutions participating in its annual survey reported critical hiring bottlenecks. Around 60% of companies said labour shortages were placing project timelines, system reliability or cost control at risk.

Botswana provides a clear example of the investment taking place. The country is targeting 30% renewable energy in its electricity mix by 2030 and 50% by 2036, with an initial 335 MW of renewable energy projects progressing through different stages of development. The World Bank is also financing grid investments and Botswana’s first 50 MW utility-scale battery energy storage system to support renewable energy integration.

The 100 MW Mmadinare Solar Project, Botswana’s first utility-scale independent power producer project, became operational in December 2025.

Projects of this scale require more than capital and equipment. They require project managers, engineers, construction specialists, quality professionals, health and safety teams, commercial staff, administrators, community liaison personnel and operational employees.

The workforce must be available at the right time, under the right employment structure and with the right systems behind it.

Workforce readiness is not the same as recruitment

Recruitment is one component of workforce readiness.

It answers the question:

Who should be appointed?

Workforce readiness addresses a wider set of questions:

• Which roles are needed at each project stage?

• Which positions sit on the project’s critical path?

• Are the required skills available locally?

• Who will legally employ each worker?

• How will contracts and payroll be managed?

• Do foreign specialists require work permits?

• Are professional registrations required?

• Will employees have access to the site, equipment and systems they need?

• Who will manage the workforce once it is operational?

Finding a technically suitable candidate does not resolve these requirements.

A professional cannot contribute to the project if the employment contract is not ready, the work permit has not been issued or the payroll and site-access processes are still being designed.

How workforce delays affect project delivery

Workforce delays rarely remain isolated within the HR function.

They affect the wider programme.

A late construction manager can delay contractor coordination. A missing health and safety lead can affect site activation. An outstanding work permit can prevent a specialist engineer from travelling. An incomplete payroll setup can undermine employee confidence during the project’s first month.

The relationship is straightforward:

These risks are generally foreseeable.

They become urgent because workforce planning begins after the project schedule has already been fixed.

The seven components of workforce readiness

1. A workforce plan aligned with the project programme

The workforce plan should be built around the actual project schedule.

It needs to identify:

• the roles required during each phase;

• the date by which each employee must be productive;

• dependencies between appointments;

• construction and operational headcount;

• likely employee turnover;

• project ramp-up and ramp-down requirements; and

• the transition from construction into operations.

The important date is not simply when a person signs an employment contract.

It is when that person needs to be functioning in the role.

Project leadership, HR administration, health and safety, quality control, community engagement and contractor-management positions may need to be appointed well before the wider site workforce.

2. In-country skills and labour-market intelligence

A workforce plan should be tested against the market in which the project will operate.

Skills availability varies materially between African countries and between locations within the same country. A role that is readily available in a capital city may be difficult to fill at a remote project site.

Early market analysis should examine:

• the number of potentially suitable candidates;

• local experience in the relevant technology or project type;

• remuneration and benefit expectations;

• notice periods;

• competing projects;

• professional-registration requirements;

• willingness to relocate or work on rotation;

• local-content opportunities; and

• roles for which regional or international recruitment may be required.

This creates visibility before salary budgets and construction dates are finalised.

Without it, the project may be based on assumptions imported from another market.

3. Recruitment in the correct sequence

A project does not need every employee at once.

It needs the right employees in the right order.

A typical sequence might begin with:

1. country and project leadership;

2. HR, payroll and site administration;

3. health, safety, quality and compliance;

4. engineering and construction management;

5. procurement, logistics and contractor coordination;

6. technical supervisors and specialists; and

7. the wider project workforce.

The sequence will differ by project, but the principle remains the same.

Early appointments establish the operating structure within which later employees will work. Recruiting the full workforce without first appointing the people responsible for managing it creates avoidable disorder.

Recruitment timeframes must also allow for interviews, reference checks, notice periods, medical assessments, professional registration, immigration and induction.

4. An appropriate employment structure

Before issuing offers, the project must determine who will legally employ each category of worker.

Depending on the market, duration and project model, the structure could involve:

• the developer’s local entity;

• an EPC or subcontractor;

• an Employer of Record;

• a Workforce Management arrangement;

• fixed-term project employment; or

• genuine independent contractor engagement.

The choice affects contracts, payroll, statutory contributions, employee records, leave, disciplinary procedures and termination responsibilities.

It also affects governance.

The project needs clear answers to questions such as:

• Who issues the employment contract?

• Who approves payroll?

• Who manages employee grievances?

• Who is responsible for statutory submissions?

• Who manages performance or disciplinary matters?

• Who carries the employment liability?

The fastest-looking arrangement is not always the most appropriate.

A fit-for-purpose structure should reflect how the person will actually work, who will direct them and how long the requirement is expected to last.

5. Work permits and professional registrations

African infrastructure projects often require a combination of local expertise and foreign specialists.

Where foreign nationals are required, immigration planning must form part of the workforce programme.

The process may involve:

• identifying the correct work-permit category;

• confirming employer sponsorship requirements;

• collecting qualifications and employment records;

• obtaining police or medical clearances;

• completing labour-market or localisation requirements;

• securing professional-body registration; and

• coordinating travel with approval dates.

Professional registration may also apply to engineers and other regulated occupations.

Internal Botswana project records demonstrate the breadth of this work. Workforce administration has included work-permit coordination, Engineers Registration Board applications, labour reporting and visibility over the demographic composition of project workforces.

A specialist should not be appointed against a start date that the immigration process cannot realistically support.

6. Payroll and compliance from day one

Payroll cannot be treated as a system to implement after the workforce has started.

Before the first payroll cycle, the project should have confirmed:

• the legal employer;

• employee and employer registrations;

• statutory deductions and contributions;

• payroll frequency and cut-off dates;

• salaries, allowances and benefits;

• timesheet and overtime rules;

• payroll approval controls;

• payslip requirements;

• bank-payment processes;

• leave administration; and

• reporting responsibilities.

Payroll should also account for project-specific arrangements such as accommodation allowances, travel, rotations, subsistence, overtime and site-based benefits.

Incorrect or late payment affects more than administration. It damages trust at the point when the new workforce is expected to focus on project execution.

A controlled payroll process gives employees certainty and gives project leadership reliable cost and headcount information.

7. Operational support beyond employment

An employee may be legally employed and still be unable to work.

Operational readiness can include:

• medical and health and safety clearance;

• project induction;

• personal protective equipment;

• site credentials;

• transport;

• accommodation;

• laptops, mobile phones and connectivity;

• office or workstation setup;

• timekeeping systems;

• reporting templates;

• grievance procedures; and

• access to project policies.

On remote or fast-moving infrastructure projects, these requirements must be coordinated across HR, procurement, logistics, health and safety, finance and project management.

They are individually small but collectively decisive.

When should workforce planning begin?

Workforce planning should begin during project development and mature as the project moves towards execution.

Not every issue needs to be fully resolved during early development.

It should, however, be identified, costed and assigned to a responsible party.

Workforce readiness in practice: Botswana solar projects

EOR in Africa’s experience on the Bobonong and Shakawe Solar PV Plants in Botswana illustrates why workforce readiness extends beyond recruitment.

The projects required workforce activation and operational setup under accelerated timelines.

The employment requirement was connected to a wider operating structure that included:

• workforce management;

• employment contracting;

• onboarding;

• payroll and statutory compliance;

• timekeeping and salary reporting;

• health and safety support;

• site and office setup;

• procurement and logistics;

• labour administration; and

• coordination with local stakeholders.

Project-based workforce experience in Botswana has also involved employee relations, contractor oversight, labour compliance, professional registrations, accommodation and site logistics.

The lesson is not simply that teams need to be hired quickly.

It is that the employment, payroll, compliance and operating components must become ready together.

Recruitment without payroll would not have made the projects ready. Payroll without employment contracts would not have provided an appropriate structure. Appointed employees without site support would not have been able to perform.

Readiness came from the system as a whole.

Common signs that workforce planning has started too late

Project teams should take notice when:

• construction dates have been set without a role-by-role workforce plan;

• salary budgets are based on another country;

• recruitment begins before the employing entity is confirmed;

• international candidates are interviewed before permit requirements are checked;

• payroll ownership is unclear;

• the EPC and developer each assume the other party will manage site employees;

• accommodation and transport are addressed only after offers are issued;

• local-content commitments are not connected to recruitment planning;

• timekeeping is designed after employees arrive;

• operational roles are considered only near the end of construction; or

• internal HR teams are expected to manage local issues without in-country support.

These conditions do not necessarily mean the project cannot proceed.

They indicate that workforce risk is being transferred into the construction programme.

A workforce-readiness checklist

Before confirming that a project is ready to proceed, the project team should be able to answer:

Workforce demand

• Which roles are required at each project stage?

• Which positions sit on the critical path?

• When must each employee be operational?

• How will headcount change over the project lifecycle?

Recruitment

• Have local skills and salary assumptions been tested?

• Which roles are difficult to fill?

• What recruitment lead times are realistic?

• Are relocation or remote-site considerations understood?

Employment and compliance

• Who is the legal employer?

• Are the employment contracts appropriate for the country and project?

• Who manages statutory registrations and contributions?

• Are worker-classification risks understood?

Immigration

• Which employees require work permits?

• Are professional registrations required?

• Have realistic approval timeframes been built into the schedule?

Payroll

• Is payroll configured and tested?

• Are timesheets, overtime and allowances clearly controlled?

• Are payment and approval responsibilities documented?

Site readiness

• Are induction, access, equipment, accommodation and transport ready?

• Who manages employee queries and grievances?

• Are reporting and workforce-governance systems operational?

An unanswered question should have an owner, a deadline and a clear risk response.

Workforce strategy belongs in project governance

Workforce planning should not sit outside the main project programme.

It should be represented in:

• the project schedule;

• the risk register;

• the procurement plan;

• financial modelling;

• contractor responsibilities;

• compliance reporting; and

• project governance meetings.

This allows management to see workforce constraints before they affect execution.

It also makes it possible to distinguish between a recruitment issue and a wider structural problem. A vacancy may be caused by a scarce skill, but it may also reflect an unrealistic salary, a remote location, delayed decision-making or an unresolved employment model.

Good workforce governance makes these dependencies visible.

Projects begin before construction

Infrastructure projects depend on capital, engineering and equipment.

They also depend on people.

As Botswana and other African markets continue to build renewable energy, infrastructure and industrial capacity, workforce readiness must become part of the project conversation earlier.

That means identifying skills before they are urgently needed. It means establishing an appropriate employment structure before offers are issued. It means addressing work permits, payroll and site systems before employees arrive.

Projects do not become operational when construction begins.

They become operational when the right people, employment controls and in-country support are in place.