The 2018 Careers in Africa Employer of Choice Study sees seven of last year’s top 10 once again in leading positions, with 2017 leader World Bank Group retaining top spot. If it’s variation you want, though, looking further down the list of brands and digging into the attraction and engagement drivers that support the ranking will reveal some big changes.
New entrants at the top have more in common while 2018’s top 10 has a lot in common with 2017’s, it’s even more interesting to look at the things in common between the returning brands and our new entrants to the top 10 this year.
The inclusion of the Development Bank of Southern Africa is firmly in line with the overall success of multilateral institutions, but the presence of Bridge International Academies is more interesting.
Founded in 2008, the organisation has grown rapidly from its base in Kenya to cover several African countries with its affordable private education model. Backed by Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, the IFC, CDC and others, the organisation’s purpose-centric business model is a natural fit for the core employer attractiveness drivers identified in the Careers in Africa Employer of Choice Study.
Those core drivers, selected by African professionals from a list of 20, focus on the development of skills and the ability to make an impact. Leadership too is key, but more on that later. The ability to make an impact has been identified as a core attractiveness driver every year in the study. Unlike in other geographies globally, in Africa this driver is of central importance, so much so that additional questions were added this year to drill down into the exact nature of the impact that professionals were looking to make. This idea was developed by Matthew McDonnell, senior consultant at Willis Towers Watson, which collaborates with Global Career Company to produce the Careers in Africa Employer of Choice Study.
The study revealed that rather than the speed of the impact a person can make, or their level of autonomy, what really matters is the ability to positively impact a company and through it, wider society. This goes some way to explaining the continuing popularity of multilateral institutions as employers, along
The ability to make an impact has been identified as a core driver every year in the study. with the affinity talent has for commercial organisations such as Bridge International Academies, whose model is mission-driven, or for those who have set up programmes alongside their commercial activities to focus on making a positive impact in Africa, such as Microsoft with its 4Afrika initiative.
Read the full study covered by the African Business magazine by clicking here