Expanding your business into Africa naturally comes with several legal, jurisdictional and logistic complications. Naturally then, you will need an in-country, local team that you can trust to ensure that your company’s expansion efforts run as smoothly as possible. Building this team doesn’t have to be difficult. Why not outsource your recruitment needs to a reliable African recruitment partner?
We’ve compiled 6 must-haves in an African recruitment partner. Each of these is focused on the nuances that come with operating in a multi-jurisdictional, multi-cultural environment.
Local expertise
As they say in South Africa, “Local is always lekker”. When choosing a recruitment partner, think about the importance of context. Your recruitment firm should understand local labour laws, cultural nuances, and business best practices for effective hiring. Having an effective hiring strategy for individual African countries is not a ‘nice-to-have’, it is a necessity for cross-border hiring. In addition to this, you want a recruitment partner that can effectively position your organisation as an attractive place to work, develop recruitment campaigns that will resonate with local talent, and ensure that your reputation is one of excellence.
Access to a diverse talent pool
Your African recruitment partner should have an extensive network of professionals and industry-relevant stakeholders in each country that they operate in. Access to these individuals and the big-ticket decision-makers means your company will be connected with the best talent in the market. This skills network enables your recruitment partner to tailor your team to fit your organisational design and budget.
Success-based recruitment solutions
Choose an African recruitment partner that places your success at the heart of what they do. A success-based recruitment model has no upfront costs, reducing the risk compared to a traditional recruitment agency. Outsourcing your hiring needs additionally reduces overhead costs associated with onboarding new team members such as advertising and background checks.
Offering a success-based recruitment solution is also a great sign that your recruitment partner is confident in their ability to deliver your perfect skill.
Flexible hiring solutions
The market is constantly changing, and likely your business with it. Tailoring recruitment solutions to suit your business’s needs should be seamless and not reactionary. Your hiring partner should have flexible hiring solutions that will allow them to adjust alongside your business, allowing you to focus on your core business objectives throughout the recruitment process.
Risk mitigation mechanisms
Hiring in any country where you are unfamiliar with the labour laws comes with considerable risk. A large percentage of this risk, however, can be mitigated by your African recruitment partner. Make sure that their hiring package includes services such as candidate screening calls, background checks, and company culture assessments. This type of due diligence protects your company from costly bad hires and unnecessarily long hiring processes.
Candidate focused processes
At the end of the day, your company wants to make sustainable hiring decisions. This requires recruitment strategies that place a heavy focus on candidate happiness and satisfaction. Your African recruitment partner should have regular candidate check-ins, follow-ups, and feedback sessions built into the framework of their hiring process.
Open communication and managing client expectations are crucial to hiring retention strategies.
EOR in Africa as an African Recruitment Partner
With countless recruitment companies out there, it can be difficult to differentiate between the good and the great. You need to find a recruitment company that meets these 6 must-haves in an African recruitment partner, a company that is flexible, offers comprehensive solutions, is affordable, can adapt quickly to changing circumstances, and most importantly, has excellent internal and external communication channels.
We like to think that EOR in Africa’s recruitment service offering meets that mark.
Get in touch with our team today to talk about how we can leverage our expertise to assist your company in meeting your hiring milestones.
Would you like to know more about our service offering? Visit our solutions page, send us a mail, or give us a call us at +27 21 330 5670.
Our team is on-hand and available to offer your team any support it may need.