Rapid growth in African markets means companies need the right talent. The Careers in Africa London Summit provided a selection of high calibre candidates for companies who are looking for their leaders of tomorrow.

Africa continues to see strong economic growth in 2014 and that looks set to continue well into 2015, with some African countries in double digit growth. The story for Africa currently is overwhelmingly positive. The average growth rate is about 4% year on year, although there are variations across regions and industries in this market, with East and West Africa showing the fastest growth.

In order to support sustainable growth plans, companies in this market are looking to invest in their future leaders who can drive businesses forward. The 12th annual Careers in Africa’s London Summit provided the perfect platform for companies to meet and interview talent that could be an integral part of their development plans, with over 1700 high calibre candidates in attendance.
As growth is on the rise , it is not a surprise that the multinationals are investing heavily in African markets. Seadrill, one of the companies recruiting at the Summit with roles available across Africa is expanding its global footprint, and recognises the need for the right talent to support this expansion . Sandra Branganca at Seadril commented on the level of available talent, ‘We are very happy to be here at this event, and we have found a lot of good talent for Africa.’ The future is promising for organisations as the talent pool is available and wants to work with leading brands to support economic growth for their home countries. Candidates that attended reflected this sentiment with one candidate commenting on the employment market and the benefits of returning to Africa, ‘‘It was always going to be the long term goal to head back home. What motivates me is my family and also the growth and opportunities in Africa that there is compared to Europe.’

With the majority of companies looking to fill opportunities in these African markets, it is no surprise that there were hour long queues at some of the exhibitor stands, especially those who have a wide business presence across Africa. Rapid growth can only mean aggressive investment in talent and recruitment strategies from these major players, with a trend that looks like it will only grow further in the coming year. Alex Mugan, the Marketing Director at Global Career Company has seen this trend develop over the last year ‘The market conditions in Africa continue to change rapidly, meaning organisations need to be recruiting talent that will help drive business performance forward over the longer term – with companies looking for those ‘star’ candidates, the potential business leaders of the future. These candidates have to display the right level and mix of both relevant qualifications and experience as well as soft skills that they can bring to an organisation. Staff retention is also on the increase, as companies invest more in their employees, understanding the value and impact investment in human capital can have on a business.’

The Summit this year was supported by a new initiative, the Talent Agenda Conference, that focussed on the skills and talent gap between local African talent and the Diaspora, to understand in more depth the challenges that companies face, and where they can resource a sustainable talent pool that meets all their requirements. Alessandra Zorzato, Events Director for Global Career Company who managed the conference commented on the positive contributions from attending clients: ‘The Talent Agenda 2014 London Conference was the first event in a Series that aims at supporting businesses in Africa in writing their future recruitment strategy blueprint. Speakers and attendees welcomed the Conference as informative and well-attended, and Careers in Africa and Global Career Company as forthcoming thought-leaders in human capital excellence for Africa.‘

The Careers in Africa London Summit was the most successful Summit for Global Career Company to date, which saw over 1700 candidates and 28 participating companies attend the weekend long event. For more information on the Careers in Africa Summit’s and how to get involved please contact Global Career Company on conference@globalcc.net.

Global Career Company would like to congratulate Aliko Dangote on being nominated by TIME magazine as one of world’s 100 most influential people in 2014. Being Africa’s most powerful business leader,

we are proud to have been able to work with him in the past through our Careers in Africa Recruitment Summits, and we look forward to continuing our support to Dangote Group.

Constantly looking to drive the economic growth, his work has undoubtedly helped support Africa’s continuing development. As we focus on Human Capital growth in Africa through our Careers in Africa Summits and other recruitment services, we hope our work with Aliko has been able to support some of the key areas of focus for this country.

Human Capital Excellence in Africa

The Talent Gap in Africa: Challenges to Businesses

With many markets across Africa in double digit growth, expansion in the continent is high on the agenda of companies around the world. Despite this potential however, Africa faces one big challenge in creating sustainable growth, a talent gap hindering the pace of growth. This is a challenge recognised at the top level, as the 16th Annual Global Survey conducted by PwC in 2012 of over 1300 CEO’s, highlighted that 82% of African CEO’s view the availability of key skills as a threat to business growth.

As human capital is the key to growth in this market, finding the right talent to ensure continued growth for organisations is paramount. Constraints on the availability of local talent possessing the skills and expertise to support businesses in a booming economy will have a major impact on future growth. Assessing skilled human capital in many African countries is an issue, and many do not have the expertise or experience required by the businesses to fulfil the roles available – the roles that will drive businesses – subsequently resulting in many turning to the pool of available diaspora to ensure business growth. The talent gap widens the higher up the hierarchy of a company you go, with the lack of soft skills and international experience required at a managerial level being the catalyst for companies to seek talent from outside Africa. Although this is one solution to ensure continued growth, it overlooks the fact that the real issues are around developing local talent to meet these organisational requirements. Local talent needs to be supported and developed early on to reach the skill and experience levels required by companies in Africa. Companies need to nurture Africa’s future business leaders from the outset to ensure the talent pool is available to them at a local level.

It is inevitable that the levels of growth will slow down if local talent is not managed and developed. What is required is a deeper understanding of the skills needed, and skills specifically that will benefit businesses in the African market, some of which do not currently exist in the local talent pool available.
In most cases, a mix of both local and diaspora talent could be the solution – ensuring local talent is exposed to those who have gained international experience in order to share their knowledge and expertise, creating a development agenda within organisations. This is until the levels of education and work experience available to African talent wishing to stay in their home country are at the standard required by organisations, and therefore more competitive internationally. Alongside this, the cultural knowledge and understanding of the market place that local talent can bring to a company is also essential. Without this deeper level of understanding of a market place, organisations may find growth is not at a level they require as this intrinsic knowledge is invaluable. It must also be taken into consideration that returning diaspora, whilst they may have certain soft skills required to fulfil an organisations requirements, may need support re-integrating back into society. How long they have been away and their level of experience and education could have an adverse effect in terms of embedding themselves easily into the culture and environment of an organisation.

The Talent Agenda 2014 Conference organised by Global Career Company is taking place on May 16th in London at the Hilton in Canary Wharf. It aims to cover this increasingly important topic for discussion, and is a unique opportunity to bring together HR Leaders, business leaders and academics to provide an understanding of the challenges businesses face in finding or creating the talent needed to operate and grow internationally.
Alex Mugan, Marketing Director at Global Career Company said about the conference: “Rapid growth creates demand in human capital, not just for new talent, but for the delivery of excellence across the field. From in- house recruiters to consultancies and agencies, this is the reality for anyone operating in Africa. The Talent Agenda 2014 Conference is a long term view of the market place as it stands and where it wants to get to. Assessing and addressing the issues, and creating a blueprint to support businesses in achieving human capital excellence, is critical to the success of all professionals in this space.’

With a packed agenda and a panel of guest speakers from companies such as Exim Bank, Amatheon Agri Holding, Ashridge, Schlumberger and Unilever, Talent Agenda 2014 will lead the discussion on human capital excellence in Africa. There are still a limited number of opportunities to attend so contact Global Career Company for more information on conference@globalcc.net.

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”.”

Coming Soon to a Market Near You…

Global Career Company is kicking off 2014 where we left off last year – on the ground in the markets. Building on a 2013 itinerary that saw the team visit an unprecedented number of countries, this year on the road begins with Hedi Samari, Senior Recruitment Consultant, representing our Careers in Maghreb brand in his native Tunisia. During the trip he’ll be joined by Managing Director Rupert Adcock and together they will be connecting with a number of current clients to check delivery standards and assist with developing needs.

Hedi and Rupert will also be introducing Careers in Maghreb to a some important prospective clients, who we hope to be able to help via a combination of recruitment services. They still have a few meeting slots remaining, so anyone interested in finding out more about our service mix should get in touch soon.

Meanwhile, in Angola…

Three of the team, including Mariana Castanheira over from the newly opened Johannesburg office, will be fact-finding and shaking hands in Luanda. With demand growing month on month and a fast-paced, competitive talent market, this Angola trip promises to be an exciting one. The team, including Senior Recruitment Consultant Roberta Dutra, Business Development Manager Paloma Bernar and Recruitment Consultant Mariana, will be on the ground at the end of February with a small amount of room still open in the diary. A face to face presentation remains the best way to find out how Careers in Africa’s unique recruitment service blend can work for you, so demand some of the team’s time today.

Elsewhere in the emerging markets…

Global Career Company strives to spend more time in the market than any international recruitment consultancy. We believe it’s the only way to deliver on our promise to “lead the talent agenda in emerging markets”. It’s critical that we continue to go and listen to our clients, to go and see what is really happening. That’s how we can keep delivering the kind of recruitment services our clients need.

Watch this space for information on future trips.

Employers

Candidate Login