{"id":888,"date":"2019-09-01T14:20:20","date_gmt":"2019-09-01T12:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yannhazoume.com\/?p=888"},"modified":"2019-09-02T10:39:14","modified_gmt":"2019-09-02T08:39:14","slug":"2-3-elements-of-a-successful-talent-acquisition-strategy-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yannhazoume.com\/en\/2-3-elements-of-a-successful-talent-acquisition-strategy-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"2, 3 elements of a successful Talent Acquisition strategy in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

As\u00a0the\u00a0head\u00a0of\u00a0my\u00a0recruitment\u00a0firm\u00a0at\u00a0that time,\u00a0I\u00a0was\u00a0involved in an exciting strategy\u00a0for\u00a0the\u00a0acquisition\u00a0and development of talents in West Africa for an industrial multinational group. It was probably the most thrilling project I have worked on. The area manager I worked with warned me: \u201cit\u2019s not a five-legged sheep that we\u2019re looking for, Yann, but a flock of sheep with five legs!\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

Business\u00a0Case<\/h4>\n

The\u00a0Africa\u00a0strategy\u00a0of\u00a0this\u00a0Anglo-Saxon\u00a0multinational,\u00a0one of the world leaders in\u00a0industrial\u00a0equipment,\u00a0led\u00a0it\u00a0to\u00a0create a regional West African hub. \u00a0The aim was to provide the\u00a0hub with the best talents and expertise in the market, in order to serve better its distributors: marketing, sales, technical expertise on new products, support for network development, new products, digital services, …<\/p>\n

The\u00a0recruitment\u00a0of\u00a0all of the regional hub staff, which I led at that time with my team, included more than one challenge.<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

Real\u00a0“local\u00a0content”<\/h4>\n

My\u00a0client\u2019s wish was to\u00a0implement\u00a0a\u00a0“local\u00a0content”\u00a0policy\u00a0for this region. I mean a real one, to support his long-term strategy in West Africa.<\/p>\n

From\u00a0the\u00a0positions\u00a0of\u00a0Country\u00a0Director,\u00a0to\u00a0those\u00a0of Area Managers and\u00a0Consultants\u00a0with\u00a0highly specialized technical expertise, we had to look all around the world for\u00a0candidates\u00a0from\u00a0the\u00a0region\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0countries involved.\u00a0They\u00a0had\u00a0to\u00a0be\u00a0experts\u00a0in\u00a0their\u00a0respective fields and to have been exposed\u00a0to\u00a0international\u00a0corporate environments for a long time, before planning\u00a0for\u00a0a\u00a0long-term\u00a0commitment in\u00a0Africa.<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

Mandarin\u00a0or\u00a0Nothing<\/h4>\n

Moreover,\u00a0the\u00a0employer\u00a0had\u00a0long\u00a0smartly\u00a0anticipated the rise of its large Chinese accounts in Africa, which he provided in equipment for mining, construction and energy supplies. Also for more than one third of these recruitments conducted over several years, in addition to the perfect\u00a0French\/English\u00a0bilingualism,\u00a0we\u00a0had\u00a0to\u00a0find candidates (West African then,\u00a0 I recall) who spoke fluently Mandarin, or with the basics and willing to improve very quickly in the language, in order to consolidate a competitive advantage. A sixth leg had just grown to the flock of sheep!<\/p>\n

Our\u00a0networks\u00a0within\u00a0the\u00a0Conficius\u00a0Institutes\u00a0covering\u00a0the African continent (https:\/\/www.lemonde.fr\/afrique\/article\/2016\/07\/11\/l-operaion-seduction-des-instituts-confucius-en-afrique_afrique_4967787_3212.html<\/a>) and the contacts we had within the professional associations of African people trained in China were of great help at that time.<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

Talking\u00a0to\u00a0future\u00a0“returnees”\u00a0about\u00a0real carrier bridges bringing them back to Africa.<\/h4>\n

Once\u00a0we found the\u00a0rare\u00a0pearls,\u00a0it\u00a0was\u00a0necessary\u00a0to convince these professionals working in international carriers in the US, Canada, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the UK and China to give up sometimes half of their pay\u00a0\u00a0 as “returnees.”<\/p>\n

This\u00a0is\u00a0where\u00a0the\u00a0recruiter\u00a0brings\u00a0a\u00a0bonus.\u00a0Because\u00a0he was able to develop a\u00a0special\u00a0relationship\u00a0with\u00a0his\u00a0client, giving him an opportunity to better know him. It is also because he fully understood him and believes in his project that he is perfectly able to \u201csell\u201d his next years of professional life to candidates he finds for his client.<\/p>\n

And\u00a0in\u00a0this\u00a0case,\u00a0we\u00a0were\u00a0able\u00a0to\u00a0convince\u00a0those candidates only because the employer offered real \u201ccarrier bridges\u201d with opportunities for evolution, involvement in exciting projects and attractive mobility in the continent and beyond.<\/p>\n

These\u00a0factors\u00a0largely\u00a0mitigated,\u00a0over\u00a0a\u00a0few\u00a0years, the initial wage \u201crenunciation\u201d.\u00a0 As proof, more\u00a0than\u00a090%\u00a0of\u00a0the placed candidates I have been in touch with are still in group 6, 7, or 8 years later, and fully happy.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0have\u00a0learned\u00a0two\u00a0lessons\u00a0from\u00a0this\u00a0experience:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. When\u00a0you\u00a0look\u00a0for\u00a0African\u00a0talents\u00a0of\u00a0high\u00a0levels,\u00a0you\u00a0find them. Today in the multinational subsidiaries in Africa, the number of\u00a0expatriates found among executive\u00a0committees\u00a0or\u00a0technical managers has reduced from the 40 or maybe 50% only 20 years ago, to\u00a0less\u00a0than\u00a015%.<\/li>\n
  2. In\u00a0order\u00a0to\u00a0attract,\u00a0retain\u00a0and\u00a0get\u00a0the\u00a0best\u00a0from\u00a0these African Diaspora talents, some companies have understood for a long time the value of making their long-term Africa vision\/project consistent with their actions.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    However,\u00a0companies\u00a0may\u00a0not\u00a0always\u00a0have\u00a0very\u00a0clear ideas, due to lack of experience of these geographic areas and specific contexts. A headhunter specialized in these issues can be of valuable assistance and help them save time and \u2026. money.<\/p>\n

    No, No, I am not referring to anybody in particular\u2026\u00a0 : – )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    As\u00a0the\u00a0head\u00a0of\u00a0my\u00a0recruitment\u00a0firm\u00a0at\u00a0that time,\u00a0I\u00a0was\u00a0involved in an exciting strategy\u00a0for\u00a0the\u00a0acquisition\u00a0and development of talents in West Africa for an industrial multinational group. It was probably the most thrilling project I have worked on. The area manager I worked with warned me: \u201cit\u2019s not a five-legged sheep that we\u2019re looking for, Yann, but a flock of sheep with five legs!\u201d. Business\u00a0Case […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recruitment"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/yannhazoume.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/african-people.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yannhazoume.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yannhazoume.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yannhazoume.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yannhazoume.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yannhazoume.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/yannhazoume.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":893,"href":"https:\/\/yannhazoume.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions\/893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yannhazoume.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yannhazoume.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yannhazoume.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yannhazoume.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}