Why do we hire like this in Africa ?
The tragedy of unemployment in Africa has wired us to believe that getting a job is a priority . Jobs in Africa are viewed as a breakthrough and an emancipatory victory against poverty . They are also considered to be a source of other forms of selfgratification as one can amass a lot of wealth particularly in the public sector .
The hiring teams in our African context seem to strongly believe that allocating jobs has nothing to do with performance , but is rather a reward system for loyalty and for political expediency .
Most people believe that hiring in Africa particularly in the public sector is just for filling positions and for carrying out public projects which are streamlined for Government . A lot of private sector players have invested in the Human Resource arms to avoid the pitfalls of nepotism and tribalism though this is still a very prevalent malaise .
Setting the tone and culture of both the private and public sector is very critical from both corporate and government leaders . They must demonstrate that though there is a balance in the selection criteria by way of gender , race or regional representation , the right leaders must be engaged .
The process should also be validated to ensure that it ’ s flawless . I have seen very many people hired because the job was purposely designed for them . Adhere to the selection criteria and leave no room for criticism .
Hire the right candidate for the job . No matter the objective of managing the process , it ’ s prudent to hire a candidate who can manage the task at hand . Hire with achievement in mind to avoid unnecessary review processes and speculation .
It ’ s easy to hire within the rules instead of hiring to please . In the private sector , most HR managers are lost in the process of filling in for regional balance . They drop a lot of strong candidates to ensure they employ according to the face of the countries diverse tribes and regions .
You need to note that resource allocation is just a cue for failure if you hire the wrong people . Africans have a lot of educated people who do not have the confidence to get hired in some positions due the rogue processes which are involved .
A worthy leader whether public or private should be cognizant of the fact that documenting a process or deploying a robust human resource hiring system is not an end to corruption nor an end game tool for engaging the right leaders .
He must understand the cartels that are formed to collect money from innocent candidates who are enthusiastic enough to want to make a change .
They should understand that more pride rests with hiring the best candidates as we see in some organizations which endeavor to hire the very best .
Until we change the table where hiring is done to the boardroom and adopt the right performance indicators for our private and public organizations , Africa will always lag behind in development and the mental pulse of the experienced and educated who can make a change will forever be below average .
Time to rethink and recreate .
Pauline Warui is the Founder of East Africa Customer Care Centre . You can commune with her on this or related matters via email at : PWarui69 @ gmail . com .