Author Archives: Alexander Mugan

Africa’s Talent Pool Speaks at Inaugural Careers in Africa Employer of Choice Awards

Multinational and Regional companies among outstanding employers across Africa recognised for their performance in continent-wide employer attractiveness report.

South Africa 19 November 2015 – The results of the inaugural Careers in Africa Employer of Choice Study, in association with Towers Watson, drawn from more than 13,000 survey responses by African professionals representing every market on the continent, have been revealed.

At the 2015 Careers in Africa Employer of Choice Awards gala dinner, prizes were awarded in 21 categories across all sectors and human capital themes, with winners determined by calculating ratings from professionals across the spectrum of attraction drivers. Driven entirely by survey data, these Awards are a uniquely credible barometer of employer attractiveness.

The awards dinner was a great success, with 150 senior HR professionals coming together to celebrate the successes of African business, and African talent, following a day of excellent debate at the Careers in Africa HR Conference 2015. The Marimba band, supported through the programme of Education Africa, opened the evening, playing traditional African music for the audience.

The overall Careers in Africa Employer of Choice for 2015 is P&G, who were also successful in the FMCG category, seeing off strong competition from East African Breweries in both.

Rupert Adcock, Managing Director of the Global Career Company, said of the Award “

In the Study behind the Awards, Global Career Company with support from professional services company Towers Watson, found significant difference in the key drivers influencing individuals within the African talent pool, compared to global figures.

You can view the Top 100 companies that African Professionals voted as the most desirable employer here.

Pay, job security and career advancement are the usual top factors for individuals when considering a new role across the globe according to previous Towers Watson research[1], however for the African workforce the opportunity to learn new skills and the ability to make an impact dominate. Base pay is of particular interest, on a global level it is the top driver but for the African talent pool only 48% of respondents cited its critical importance, placing it as 11^th most important factor to this group.

Yves Duhaldeborde, Director at Towers Watson comments: “This research adds a great deal to the debate on how we compensate workers in Africa. It’s clear that unlike many developed economies base pay isn’t an important driver and employers need to look at how to incentivise their workforce through initiatives that encourage new skills and promote opportunities to make a difference to the organisation. “

These findings are echoed across the African diaspora community, suggesting the important factors African employers must consider, to attract individuals back to country of birth once they have left to work overseas.

Rupert Adcock comments “An increasing number of African employers are looking to the diaspora to help close the talent gap and provide a source of internationally experienced professionals. A key concern, alongside cultural fit is whether expectations of the diaspora particularly in terms of pay, benefits and speed of promotion, can be matched. However the research clearly shows that such factors are not of central importance to this group.”

The report which was launched at “Careers in Africa Johannesburg”, the continent’s largest HR and recruitment summit, is the first of its kind covering a Pan-African talent pool of over 13,000 respondents across 54 markets.

Rupert Adcock, Managing Director of the Global Career Company, which is hosting the event, said that: “While the list of nominees for these inaugural Careers in Africa Employer of Choice Awards may get people talking, it is the lessons to be taken forward from the Employer of Choice Study as a whole that will make the lasting impact on the African talent landscape, as the best adapt to get better and those who do not make it this time strive to catch up.”

The runners up and winners in each category were:

Award	Winner	Runner Up
Employer of Choice	P & G	East African Breweries
Global Attractiveness	Unilever	Shell
Local Attractiveness	Ethiopian Airways	Seadrill
Pan-African Attractiveness	Unilever	KPMG
Corporate Social Responsibility	Safaricom	East African Breweries
Development	McKinsey & Company	P & G
Leadership & Management	Safaricom	East African Breweries
Reward	Total	P & G
	Sector Awards
Aviation, Shipping and Logistics	Ethiopian Airways	Arik Air
Banking	FNB	J.P. Morgan
Construction, Heavy Manufacturing and Infrastructure	General Electric	Nissan
Financial Services	Centum
FMCG	P&G	East African Breweries
IGO	World Bank	International Finance Corporation
Information Technology	Microsoft	Cisco
Media & Communications	DSTv	Vodafone
Mining	De Beers	bhp billiton
Oil & Gas	Total	Shell
Payments Technology	Visa	Mastercard
Pharmaceuticals	AstraZeneca
Professional Services	McKinsey & Company	Accenture

Find out more about how Careers in Africa Employer of Choice can help you by clicking the link below.

Employer of Choice Services 2015

[1] Towers Watson Global Workforce Study May 2014

Stories from our June Newsletter

We’ve sent out our June newsletter to let our clients know a little more about what we’ve got planned to support them in the second half of 2015. Here, in a little more detail, are the highlights.

Growing Our Team – Finance and Operations

As we grow and develop our team to support our clients more effectively, we are building up our management team in support of our founding directors. We’ve been delighted to welcome two new team members in the last couple of months. Sally Field, our Finance and Operations Director has supported a variety of firms, blue chip and SME, across ICT, media and recruitment. While Scheherazade Zekkar, our Director of Human Resources has worked client and agency side in the UK, France and Africa. They will lead the development of the training, management processes and reporting that will improve our delivery to clients. We are confident the results will make a big difference to you.

Sally

Scheherazade

Talent Agenda London – A Fantastic Conference

“Loved the workshops and interactive nature of the sessions”, “Great choice of panelists; wide and relevant expertise in the various subjects covered.” So goes the feedback on May’s Talent Agenda Series Conference in London. Staged ahead of this year’s Careers in Africa London Summit, the Conference highlighted the enormous value which can be gained from gathering one hundred of Africa’s senior HR and business leaders for discussion of the continent’s key HR and recruitment issues. Rated our best ever Conference by the attending professionals, who also appreciated the presentation of thought leadership and analysis by Global Career Company consultants, it paves the way for us to move onto Johannesburg in November and reconvene with data from Careers in Africa Employer of Choice Report to raise the bar once again. You can find out more about this year’s Talent Agenda here.

New Annual Agreements, Services and Flexible Summits

One thing we hear a lot, when presenting our support services to HR leaders, is “I know the GCC model”. When you’ve been in the market as long as we have you expect familiarity, and in many ways it is positive. Yet, to support our clients’ needs in fast changing markets, we’ve added a variety of services over the last few years offering flexible recruitment services from executive search to digital campaigns, and even more flexible participation approaches for our Summits. One result of this is a deepening of relationships with our key clients, including a number of major employers across a variety of sectors. This has led to the creation of our first Annual Agreements, where key clients can draw on our range of customisable services as best fits their requirements at any given time. So if you think you know the model, we’d still like to speak with you about what’s new and how we can tailor the service to your needs.

Discover, Recognise, Discuss, Recruit – Join Us in Johannesburg

This is big. You know we have a recruitment event in Johannesburg, we’re sure, but this year that event is changing a little bit. Actually, an awful lot. This year, our Careers in Africa Johannesburg Recruitment Summit is joined by our Careers in Africa Employer of Choice Report and Awards, and our Talent Agenda Series Conference to create a four day HR and Recruitment leviathan for the continent’s top employers to come together and Discover, Recognise, Discuss and Recruit. From Thursday 19th November’s first look at our Global Talent Pool Employer of Choice Report, to the last interview on Sunday 22nd, this is 2015’s must-attend event for HR and recruitment in Africa. Call our team to find out a little more.

Updated for 2016: The 11th Reason – We now guarantee your hires.

By Lindsay Storie, Events Manager

Running dozens of Summits and working with our clients and candidates over 14 years, we’ve built an understanding of the factors that make our Summits what they are – the best African recruitment events in the world.

Here are the reasons all at once, and you can read on to see how they set Careers in Africa Recruitment Summits apart:

You are Not Buying an Event
The Recruitment Process
The Global Talent Pool
Flexible Participation Packages & World Tours
Track Record & Reputation
Client Experience
The Passion of Our Events Team
The Expertise of Our Regional Recruiters
Positivity and Professionalism
The Summit Swing

You are Not Buying an Event

People talk about attending career fairs. These Summits aren’t career fairs. There is an exhibition and the Summits are filled with people seeking the best career opportunities in Africa, but the similarities end there. The main thing that separates our Summits from career fairs, and from recruitment events in general, is that our clients and candidates aren’t actually ‘buying’ the event at all. What’s on offer is in fact a recruitment process, run by regional recruitment specialists and taken part in by top employers and candidates. It just happens to be focused into an event scenario, but it’s this process that is really on offer.

The Recruitment Process

For two reasons. First, Careers in Africa Recruitment Summits feature, at their core, a robust recruitment process including sourcing, pre-selection, selection (face to face interviews, the exhibition & spontaneous) and even offers on the day. Second, that process is fully customisable to your recruitment needs and methods. We build your participation around the recruitment process you want. If you want an assessment centre, we run one. If you want to pipeline candidates only, that’s what we do for you. If you want to offer and fill 10 roles during the weekend, we direct the process to that goal.

The Global Talent Pool

The differentiator at the core of all of our recruitment services, our Global Talent Pool is a network of 500,000 graduates and professionals around the world and our means of attracting more through our 20,000 sourcing channels. Wherever you join us for a Summit, the word of your employer brand and opportunities will be spread through our Global Talent Pool, so you can recruit the best of it.

Flexible Participation Packages & World Tours

Much the same as a customised process is at the heart of our Summits, customised participation packages are also key. Whether you prefer fixed fee or recruitment fees, whether you want to sponsor or go under the radar, there is a participation package to suit. Anticipating that you want the best of the Global Talent Pool worldwide, we also offer you the chance to join us at a series of Summits, with your participation package customised per location throughout.

Track Record & Reputation

Careers in Africa Recruitment Summits are the original and the best. In a consortium event, this fact, and other employers’ and candidates’ knowledge of it, is of paramount importance. We’ve recruited more than 7,500 professionals back into Africa across 45 countries. These numbers attract the best, making for the best events.

Client Experience

Much the same as we differentiate from other events in terms of process, we also differ in the client experience and service. You should expect a high-touch service throughout from your Recruitment Summit supplier. With Careers in Africa, you’ll get one.

The Passion of Our Events Team

Our experienced events team has been delivering Careers in Africa Recruitment Summits around the world for a decade between them. Their experience in handling our clients’ and candidates’ requirements is superseded only by their passion. We love what we do and every client participation at every Summit is an opportunity to show that.

The Expertise of Our Regional Recruiters

23 nationalities, speaking 21 languages, drawing on a wealth of experience in African recruitment. Our team has what we put in the strapline – International Perspective, Regional Understanding. This is what allows us to deliver on a multitude of client requirements at each Summit, across all levels. As much as our customised recruitment process, it’s our team of specialist recruiters that set our Summits on a different level from other recruitment events.

Positivity and Professionalism

The way your project is handled by our team, the way our candidates conduct themselves but most importantly the atmosphere around any Careers in Africa Recruitment Summit. The story of opportunities in Africa is a positive one, generating great feeling and a powerful message. It’s also a deeply professional environment, with the focus on a serious recruitment process, for serious employers and professionals.

The Summit Swing

The Swing is our ongoing commitment to your recruitment needs. We are confident of delivering significant ROI on your Summit participation. To further ensure you are supported though, in the months after a Summit is completed, we support our clients with a contingency search service delivered by our retained-only Search and Selection team. For months after the Summit, it’s clear that you didn’t just buy an event.

Guaranteed Hires

We are so confident in our recruitment process and team that we will guarantee a number of hires you will make from the Summit. We hope this gives you the confidence to plan ahead and join us at Summits, knowing your ROI is guaranteed.

Who will you be aiming to meet at the Johannesburg Summit?

We are aiming to find out which of our clients is causing the biggest stir among the talent pool in Johannesburg ahead of November’s Summit. As more clients sign, we’ll add their names to the list and see whose opportunities are the ones that are getting candidates talking. With a great mix of local, regional and multinational companies, we’ll see how the employer brand landscape is diversifying in Africa.

[poll id=”4″]

Global Career Company Office Opens in Joburg

We were delighted to celebrate the opening of our Johannesburg Office with friends, alumni, clients and partners last week. The event, which took place at The Maslow Hotel, was a great success, combining networking with live music (courtesy of the marimba band organised by our CSR Partner, Education Africa), and speakers addressing the talent agenda in Africa.

The Speakers

I have great confidence in the GCC’s ability to reverse the brain drain and make a significant contribution to the African HR space.
Steve Teasdale, Eskom

Our message here is that Global Career Company was founded because we saw an opportunity to contribute to Africa’s success through the provision of international standard talent.
Sarah Roe, Global Career Company

Unliever has built a strong management trainee recruitment approach underpinned by a compelling employer brand proposition and resulting in Number 1 or top 3 employer of choice status. They have developed strategic partnerships with
firms like Global Career Company.
Tswelo Kodisang

What Next?

We hope our Johannesburg office will provide our clients, candidates and partners with a link closer to home, which will lead to deeper relationships and better service. We are committed to the future of Africa, and to a future in Africa, which will see us add Lagos and Nairobi to Johannesburg this year.

Global Career Company partner ESSEC preparing students to take the lead in emerging markets

From Cassandra Pittman, Global Talent Acquisition Director, at the ESSEC conference in Paris this week

It is 17:14. The event closes in 16 minutes, but you wouldn’t know it from the buzz in the room. My colleague, Celia Injai and I are sharing the room with the likes of Carrefour, Total, Axa, Johnson & Jonson, Michelin, Capgemini Consulting and more than 100 other top European and multinational firms, all here to attract top talent from one of Europe’s premier institutions for business education, ESSEC.

ESSEC has a reputation for developing many of France’s most prominent business leaders. Alumni of the Grand Ecole include Michel Bon, CEO of France Telcom (1995 – 2002), Jean-Luc Decornoy, CEO of KMPG France, and Nicolas Hieronimus, President of L’Oreal Luxury, among many others. Less well known, perhaps, is the footprint ESSEC alumni have begun to make in the emerging markets.

ESSEC is one of the many world-class educational institutions in Global Career Company’s partner network, and, today, Celia and I have come here to meet some of the future business leaders of the emerging markets. People like, Heang Chhor, a 1984 alumnus of ESSEC who is now CEO of McKinsey Singapore, and Charles Konan Banny, who, after graduating from ESSEC, enjoyed a meteoric career at the Central Bank of West African States and eventually became the Prime Minster of Côte d’Ivoire.

It has been a busy day. Between the two of us, Celia and I have spoken with hundreds of bright young minds, hungry for a chance to make their mark in Africa or Asia, and to be a part of the growth in those regions which outpaces that in France by more than two to one. When we tell them that 68% of global economic growth over the next decade is predicted to come from the emerging markets, and that collectively, Asia and Africa comprise more than two-thirds of the world’s fastest growing markets, some of them become wide eyed, but many of them nod their head in enthusiastic acknowledgement, as if to say ‘I know! That’s why I’m here!”

We will see many of these faces again,

at one of our upcoming recruitment Summits in London and Paris. And as we flip through the pile of CVs the students have left, we can’t help but wonder how many of these names we might see again in business headlines next to the titles like CEO, Chairman, and, yes, maybe even, Prime Minister.

Airtel’s triple vote of confidence fulfils brand vision

In a year when entries to the AfricaCom awards were higher than ever, it’s no small achievement to be shortlisted in three different categories. Airtel, the telecoms services provider which operates in 20 countries across Africa and Asia, managed just that. Three different campaigns, each designed to ensure Airtel achieves its aim of being the most loved brand in Africa by 2015 were all shortlisted by the judges of the 2013 AfricaCom awards.

Airtel’s Success in Africa

What’s enabled Airtel to grow their market share in the face of global competition and produce innovative products and campaigns? Values and visions succeed when the right people are in the right jobs to make theory work in practice. Airtel Africa has become a strong brand with clear market differentiation and it’s Airtel’s strong focus on personnel that has delivered this clear vote of confidence for its digital marketing.

Global Career Company contributes to Airtel’s recruitment success

Global Career Company’s Business Development Director, Sherin Helmy, commented on Airtel’s success, “Congratulations to everyone at Airtel on once again setting the standard in their market. We’re proud to work with a company delivering at the cutting edge across Africa, and to have recruited some of the people who’ve helped make it happen.”

Airtel jobs have been defined with care, and filled with the most suitable individuals, not just for the role, but to contribute to the overall growth and development of the company in a competitive and fast-moving environment. This focus on talent location and selection has been good for Airtel but good for Africa too, as it creates a competitive market for talent in one of the biggest and most influential global

areas – telecoms services spend is predicted to increase by 1.2% globally this year.*

* http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2643919

Mauritius: in transition from playground to regional powerhouse

Famous as the destination of choice for the world’s celebrities (and their yachts), the island nation of Mauritius has quietly become a new oasis for savvy investors. At the end of 2013, Mauritius was judged to be the most competitive nation in Africa* by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and has begun attracting substantial amounts of interest from South Africa. To put that achievement in perspective, sub-Saharan Africa as a whole demonstrated economic growth rates of nearly 5% in 2012/13, so for Mauritius to top the table reveals exceptional levels of growth, investment and development, all from a base of considerable stability, according to WEF.

Mauritius – stability, trade and infrastructure

There are three primary reasons for Mauritius to be such an attractive proposition: a stable political system, low trade barriers and good infrastructure. At just 788 square miles, the island punches way above its geographical size; in a region where distance can be a real disincentive to good trading relationships, this compact state has developed strong internal structures to support entrepreneurship and its famously friendly holiday vibe has translated well into a positive business attitude currently being transmitted on a regional basis.

“The South African interest in Mauritius is just one example of a trend we’ve seen across markets in the region. Increasingly, African business is being defined as much by internal dynamics as by relationships with other markets worldwide, and as recruitment follows investment, the challenge for firms like ours is to demonstrate a capability to deliver talent from local markets and the Diaspora within and beyond the African continent,” says Mercia Dube, a Recruitment Consultant at Global Career Company’s Johannesburg Office.

Mauritius – recruitment and continuing talent investment

The dynamism of investment is the exciting phase, which will ideally be supported by a strategic development of talent based on recruitment in Mauritius, both from local pools and from outside. Effective recruitment and talent development will extend this competitive advantage further across an island which is superbly placed to be a regional transport hub and a centre for excellence in logistics, banking and – of course – tourism-related enterprise. As a result, jobs in Mauritius are becoming ever more diverse, with a new focus on professional roles outside the hospitality industry and agriculture.

http://www.weforum.org/reports/global-competitiveness-report-2013-2014

Ghana’s Oil and Gas Industry – How a global skills shortage might hamper this unique opportunity

Sometimes Ghana does things the hard way. Take last week’s penalty shoot-out victory over Nigeria after a goalless semi-final in the African Championship of Nations (CHAN). Not content with being a man short, the extra time penalty shoot-out that will take Ghana to the 2014 final was a complete nail-biter.

In the same vein, Tema Port’s feasibility study for a four-lane road to service the docks is long overdue. It’s an absolute necessity, given the volume of traffic using Ghana’s biggest port and the fact that 70% of national trade goes through Tema, plus around 50% of traffic to and from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Whether you marvel at the tenacity of a country that manages such an international hub on just two dual carriageways, or feel frustration at the fact that it’s still necessary to do so, Ghana is still finding ways to overcome obstacles – even ones (partially) of their own making.

Oil Recruitment in Ghana

Feisty determination and working against the odds are two factors affecting the talent market for the oil and gas sector at present. There’s a skills shortage, certainly, but it hasn’t stopped analysts labelling 2014 as a promising year. One reason for this is that recent research by DNV GL has suggested that oil and gas recruitment is suffering a global skills shortage. Another is the determination of Ghana, and the companies investing there, to make the most of the opportunity at hand, leading to fierce competition for skilled oil and gas workers both at home and abroad. Ollie Pearce, Business Development Manager for the Anglophone Africa Region at Global Career Company, notes that

“Nowhere is the ‘War for Talent’ fought harder than the oil and gas sector. With significant resources supporting their recruitment efforts, these firms are seeking to leverage every advantage they can find in the battle to bring the best candidates into their operations.”

So what does this mean for the oil and gas recruitment industry in Ghana? The general outlook is positive, with the population of Sekondi-Takoradi doubling as a

result of the oil boom, which has led to some welcome regional development that makes the twin cities even more attractive. Nevertheless, the substantial skills shortage, especially in project management, is a test of the region’s ability to support its growing energy industry and will decide if Ghana can make this ‘energy boom’ sustainable.

For oil and gas professionals, Ghana’s growth presents some tempting opportunities – salaries are competitive and the lifestyle in Ghana is often seen as an attractive one. In the short term, Ghana may then be one of the most attractive prospects for oil and gas personnel, especially those with project management or offshore skills. In the longer term, it will be vital to the sector’s success to find ways to support the growth in oil and gas recruitment in Ghana, with balanced local and international sourcing strategies paramount in this.

The first constitution since the ousting of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali has been passed by an overwhelming majority of the National Constituent Assembly, sparking the unfurling of flags and joyful scenes within the parliament.

The move ends months of deadlock between Islamist and Secular forces and enshrines, amongst other articles, parity between men and women and freedom of worship. Prime Minister-designate Mehdi Jomaa has indicated that the formation of a new caretaker government will shortly follow.

While many Tunisians remain unconvinced by the new document, coming as it does at the end of a protracted drafting process and against a backdrop of economic strife, there is a sense of international optimism at the news. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, via a spokesperson, hailed what he described as “a historic achievement”, and suggested that “Tunisia’s example can be a model to other peoples seeking reforms”.

Commercial analysts eyeing the Tunisian market will be hoping the new constitution can lead to the creation of business and professional opportunities that will remedy high unemployment and make use of the diversified skills base of the Tunisian talent pool. Global Career Company’s Maghreb desk leader Hedi Samari shares this view,

“This is good news for the North African state, as it sends re-assuring, positive signals to foreign investors and local companies, leading to hopes that 2014 is very much a year of growth and stability for this beacon of hope for the “Arab Spring”.”

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