Africa Business Communities

Stallone-Obaraemi Samuel: Talent Challenges in Africa

Top of mind I would say that the growth and expansion of the African Continent is inevitable. The challenge would be who will steer this expansion?  Africans or expats? That brings us to the question of availability and retention of “African” talent.

That multinationals are expanding rapidly across Africa is no story. This has brought about fierce competition for talent, and  businesses need to be more aware of what their competitors are doing and offering, they need to be attuned to the satisfaction of their assignees and they need to be well informed about best practice in order to remain competitive in the ‘war for talent’.

In the light of the above, I do believe that the scarcity of talent is truly worrying, and is a challenge to the growth and expansion in the African continent. Various factors contribute to this ugly situation. They include:

Poor quality of education: Our educational system is old and outdated. The curriculums are rusty and our institutions are not designed to prepare talent for the business world. The disconnect between the immediate business requirements for skilled labour and the time it will take to train and develop a sufficient portion of a local workforce means that the rapid deployment of skilled labour (Expats) will grow  in importance for any business expanding into Africa.

Demographic changes:  Most African businesses are not yet prepared for the changes, speed and diversities of today’s employee. Millennials will soon make up 50% of the workforce.  Most of the managers are out of option and remedies to keep nowadays employees engaged.

Corruption & Socio-economic Instability: In PwC’s 17th Global CEO Survey, 85% of African CEOs are concerned about bribery and corruption compared to 53% globally across most of the 54 African countries, the rate of corruption, political and socio-economic instability is alarming. Consequently the few bright talents tend to seek greener pastures in more stable climes.

Some Suggested Strategies

- HR practitioners should leave the back bench and get to the forefront as policy makers and influencers. We must push for the overhaul of our educational system to reflect the growing global trends and business demands. HR practitioners should work with other professionals to design and implement professional, straight-forward programmes that may complement traditional education to better prepare graduated of various institutions to hit the ground running. In Nigeria, the NYSC programme should be overhauled either effectively prepare graduates for the business world, or it should be scrapped as it is currently overtly ineffective. Our Educational system is the foundation of our problems.

African governments must take governance seriously. Eradicate corruption and ensure socio-economic stability.

- African businesses must offer global career opportunities and facilities that make it possible for their employees to perform to the best of their ability. “Developing and retaining the best talent is so crucial to a company’s growth strategy that they may have to look five years down the road to see what talent will be required. HR and top management must be alive to identify High flyers and to expose same to international learning opportunities and career growth, and other leadership initiatives.”

- African businesses must go beyond employee engagement. Today’s employee wants to be enriched, not just engaged. Employee Enrichment”— is a strategic approach that addresses both work and non-work factors in order to enhance employees’ lives based on the expectation that the better a person’s well-being, the better that person performs. Simply put: Employee enrichment is “Put People First”.

- Our managers appear to have been trained to generate revenue, maintain the desired gross margin, and make profit, but not to manage employees or to develop performance. For increased talent retention, organisations must build a strong performance culture that is alive all year round and not just once in a year at the point of appraisals – if they happen. This makes an employee’s career boring and a high flyer won’t take that. In fact, as a continent we are weak in the area of great performance culture. This is true for both private and public institutions.

Stallone-Obaraemi Samuel is Senior Human Resources Manager with TNS Global. Follow him @twitter.com/Stupendousstal

 

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