www.affutjob.com took the initiative to offer this practical guide whose aim is to effectively enhance the recruitment of any organization in Africa.

1. How to recruit
effectively to Africa!
Recruitment channels
Practical guide to effective recruitment to Africa.
L’Afrique à l’affût de tous les talents

2. 2
How to recruit effectively to Africa! - Recruitment channels

3. Dear Business Leaders,
L’Afrique à l’affût de tous les talents
204 rue du St-Sacrement #300 Africa has been experiencing a sustained growth of nearly 5% of GDP for the
Montréal, QC H2Y 1W8 past 10 years. This economic growth also comes with a consequent need for
Tel: 514-907-08-56 labor. However, ignorance of certain aspects of culture, politics, technology, etc.
Email: info@affutjob.com ensures that deployed strategies are often not optimized. Therefore, with this
www.affutjob.com document, we focus on leading practices for recruitment of talent in Africa. It is
critical that organizations be able to develop effective and efficient strategies in
terms of planning their human resources to ensure sustainability of their activities.
Acknowledgements Some organizations with experience and knowledge of the continent are already
Completion of this guide was made by Af-
futjob. aware of some of the practices developed in this guide. For others, it will be the
We thank all our contributors for taking the opportunity to become familiar with it.
time to correct the study, and our present
guide. Through this guide we are trying put you in the best conditions 1) to find ideal
talents and 2) to maximize your full potential in regard to that of Africa.
Design and Drafting
Affutjob
Graphic chart Teddy Ngou Milama
Agence BigBenProd CEO Affutjob
www.bigbenprod.com
3
Practical guide to effective recruitment to Africa.

4. Table of Contents
Introduction P3
Who can use this guide? P3
How to use this guide? P3
Glossary P3
STEP 1 Diagnostic P4
STEP 2 Environment Analysis P6
STEP 3 Summary of Recruitment Channels P8
STEP 4 Case Study P14
Conclusion P16
Bibliography P17
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How to recruit effectively to Africa! - Recruitment channels

5. Introduction
Affutjob took the initiative to offer this practical guide whose aim is to effectively enhance the recruit-
ment of any business Africa.
Who can use this guide?
Anyone responsible for recruitment in Africa (CEO, VP, director and HR manager, etc.). The guide can also be used as a
dashboard etc.
How to use this guide?
This guide is divided as follows:
A quiz to help you make a quick diagnosis of your organizational practices in terms of recruitment in Africa.
An environment analysis
A summary of recruitment channels
Case study
Recommendations
Glossary
Diaspora : Terme pour décrire d’abord un phénomène de dispersion d’une partie d’une population au-delà de ses fron-
tières nationales. Pour constituer une diaspora, les communautés d’expatriés doivent cependant conserver des attaches
avec le pays d’origine, ou des pratiques ou des habitudes propres au pays1
Diaspora: Term first used to describe a phenomenon of dispersion of a portion of a population beyond its national bor-
ders. To constitute a Diaspora, expatriate communities must however maintain ties with the country of origin, or practices
or customs of country-specific
Pan-African: Of or relating to all African countries
Prejudice: An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts, A pre-
conceived preference or idea: To have a prejudice against someone.
Rate appeals: a means businesses use to find candidates.
Recruitment rate: portion of recruits that can be attributed to each channel
Efficiency ratio: ratio between recruitment rates and rate appeals. The effectiveness rate is high in the event of a channel
less mobilized but often leading to recruitment, whereas it is low in the opposite case.
Recruitment channels: available means for candidates and recruiters to get in touch. They include unsolicited applica-
tions, job postings, and contacts.
1
http://perspective.usherbrooke.ca/bilan/servlet/BMDictionnaire?iddictionnaire=1627
2
http://www.linternaute.com/dictionnaire/fr/sens/panafricain/
3
http://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/préjugé/63519
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Practical guide to effective recruitment to Africa.

6. STEP 1
Diagnostic
Before getting started, it is essential to conduct a survey concerning the current situation of organizational
practices on the choice of recruitment channels. To do this, please respond instinctively to the questions be-
low:
1) In your recruitment problems in Africa, do you happen to not fill your vacancies?*
2) In your opinion what are the reasons?
3) Have you happened to hire a person with a qualification level below that required for the job?*
4) When successfully recruiting a candidate matching the desired qualification, do you have any particular dif-
ficulties? If so, please list them.
5) You find recruitment of candidates to Africa to be:
Not difficult Slightly difficult Difficult Very difficult
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How to recruit effectively to Africa! - Recruitment channels

7. 6) What was the recruitment process delay from broadcasting to hiring the candidate?
Less than a week Between 3 and 4 weeks
Between 1 and 2 weeks Between 4 and 5 weeks
Between 2 and 3 weeks More than 5 weeks
7) What recruitment channels did you use to fill your vacancies? Please rank them in order of importance (from
most to least important).
8) From the mentioned channels, which ones helped recruit more candidates. Please rank them (from best to
least effective).
9) Are you satisfied with your overall recruitment process in Africa?
Not at all To a large extent
To a small extent To a considerable extent
In an average measure
10) Are you actively involved in developing the program staffing of your organization?
Yes No
You have just received a photograph of your recruitment practices to Africa. It will serve as a standard to measure prog-
ress or not of your recruitment practices after completing this guide.
If you still want to improve your recruitment process and / or are very curious, you can advance to the next step: the
environment analysis.
* Taken from Spécificités et performances des canaux de recrutement by Anne-Sophie Genevois.*
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Practical guide to effective recruitment to Africa.

8. STEP 2
Environment analysis
You have already written the job offer and are ready to distribute it to different channels; two seconds is all you have
to take a deep breath of fresh air. You have to complete a preliminary step: The environment analysis of the country in
which you want to publish the offer (political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, etc.).
Why? Because the contextual analysis (in economic, socio-cultural, technological, etc.) will provide solid information to
guide you to efficient and effective sources of recruitment that will maximize your hiring goals.
For purposes of illustration, here is a brief macroscopic analysis of the African market. This exercise is to be performed
for each country in which the organization wishes to meet its recruitment needs.
External factors’ influence
Political Political
Political stability has increased substantially in Strong regional disparities can represent a bar-
Africa in recent years 1 rier to trade 19
Strengthening mechanisms of counterbalance 2 Canada’s image to be restored in Africa 20
Corruption remains a plague in Africa 21
Ecological Economic
Africa’s growth rate of 5 % on average in recent The high cost of Internet in Africa 22
years has been stronger than on any other conti-
nent 3 Serious economic inequality in Africa 23
Quebec exports to Africa have tripled from $168 Africa employs more than 150,000 expatriates
million in 2000 to $493 million in 2007 4 that cost more than $4 billion/year 24
More than 600 German companies in Africa (sales
of $25 billion in Africa/Nigeria’s first employer) 5
Nearly 1,000 Chinese companies in Africa have
signed for about $12 billion worth of contracts
(81% increase of FDI in the first half of the year) 6
Nearly 2,700 French subsidiaries in Africa 7
Foreign direct investments FDI has exceeded the
$1,200 billion mark in 2010 next to 1,114 in 2009 8
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
références page 19
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How to recruit effectively to Africa! - Recruitment channels

9. Demographic Demographic
Africa’s population is one billion 9 Africa’s population exceeded the one billion
Canada had 300 000 African migrants on its terri- mark in 2009 25
tory in 2001 10 The African continent is still under populated
The number of African graduates in Canada in with 20% of the world’s landmass and 13% of
2007 was estimated at 10,000 11 its population 26
With 44% of its population aged under 15 in 2006,
sub-Saharan African is undoubtedly the youngest
of the world 12
Socio-cultural Socio-cultural
People of African descent are more likely than the The level of education in Africa is still low 27
general population to have obtained a University
degree. In 2001, 15% of Africans aged 15 and Social inequalities in Africa are very high 28
older were University graduates compared to 15% 300,000 African professionals live outside of
in the general population 13 Africa 29
Heighten clash of generations in Africa 30
Lack of solidarity (somewhat probing tribalism)
Technology Technologiques
The rate of mobile Web users has exploded in The lack of infrastructure is an obstacle to inter-
Africa nal trade development in Africa 31
350 million Africans had a mobile phone in 2009
Africa is champion in mobile payment
« The mobile Web is critical in the region where
mobile phone penetration is substantially higher
than PC penetration. The widespread availability of
mobile phones means the mobile Web can reach
tens of millions more than the wired Web » 17
Ecological
E-recruitment reduces the use of papers 18
African economic juncture continues to follow an upward phase. To maintain its course, it is essential that
governments support the emergence of strong institutions. Some countries are more at risk from political
stability (Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Egypt, etc.). Regarding human resources planning, a great need
of vacancies is to be filled, and the recruitment channel that seems to represent the future in terms of recruit-
ment rate is mobile phone.
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Practical guide to effective recruitment to Africa.

10. Some useful refer- STEP 3
ences:
Summary of recruitment
To learn more about Africa:
channels
The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act:
http://www.agoa.gov/
African Development Bank:
http://www.afdb.org/en/
Targeted outcomes
Canadian Council on Africa: http://ccaf- Synergistic optimization of internal and external recruit-
rica.ca/ ment channels in accordance with the hiring goals of the
The African Union: http://www.africa- organization ;
union.org/ Increase opportunities to meet with African job seekers ;
World Bank Group: http://www.world-
Increase the database of CVs from African candidates to
bank.org/
complete the hiring process.
World Economic Forum: http://www.
weforum.org/
Relief Web: http://reliefweb.int/
Radio France Internationale: www.english.
rfi.fr/africa
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How to recruit effectively to Africa! - Recruitment channels

11. Professional rela- Employees are key ven- Can have adverse Develop reward systems
tionship: dors in your organization consequences on the attractive to employees (con-
People already person who recom- tests, remuneration in kind,
Can reduce steps in the
employed in the mended the appointed progressive cash)
recruitment process
organization if he is ineffective
Allows you to recruit
Organizational culture
potential future employees
can be sterilized if
whom by “acquaintance”
the candidate hired is
share the same values as
mimetically similar to
your employees
existing employees.
The appointed has valu-
able information from the
appointer. Key information
they could not get through
another channel of recruit-
ment.
In some situations when
the recruitment was suc-
cessful, the three parties
win: 1) The appointed
finds a job, 2) The ap-
pointer gets a bonus, 3)
the organization hires the
candidate by mobilizing
the fewest resources pos-
sible.
Post in-house of- Encourages current em- Spread the news in the
fers ployees to apply for a po- company’s social networks
sition within the company. (Facebook, LinkedIn, Viadeo,
Candidates already know Twitter etc.), on the bulletin
the cultural organization. board etc.
Low costs
Promotes the flow of of-
fers in professional and
personal networks. The
employee may get paid
for the appointed candi-
date; the company hires a
candidate competent and
reliable who in return gets
a job
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Practical guide to effective recruitment to Africa.

12. Company website Allows the company to explore more widely the labor market, without taking the posting out of the
context in which the employment is offered.
The websites can not only reduce routing costs of unsolicited applications, but also their treatment.
Internet allows for a screening of applications by relying on some benchmarks matching
Site d’emploi Internet Job posting cost is low.
(job board)
Allows you to provide more information in the job content
Allows company description in ads.
Access to CVs (resumes) is a means to look after candidates who may match positions that organiza-
tions seek to fill without going so far in a profile description or post of an ad.
Access to CVs data- Allows building a database of candidates for future vacancies especially in a market in growth phase
base (resumes) (main users: agencies, multinationals, etc.)
Allows confidential recruitment without competition knowing
Access to CVs (resumes) is a means to look after candidates who may match positions that organiza-
tions seek to fill without going so far in a profile description or post of an ad.
Post in newspapers Can reach locally and efficiently the lowest social classes in Africa
Can communicate on its activities by advertising
Associations, com- Can reach a specific pool of candidates
munity groups, profes-
sional
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How to recruit effectively to Africa! - Recruitment channels

13. Costs may be high for optimizing the website on search Include African candidates within your company documents
engines (career section)
Invest in SEO campaigns (Ad words) to attract qualified candi-
t. dates.
The high volume of applications generated has the effect Advertise in online job sites
of “drowning” the “right” candidates within electronic files,
Examples of job sites
causing them to develop alternative strategies to be “res-
cued” (Neuville, 2001) http://www.affutjob.com
za- http://africarrieres.com
http://findajobinafrica.com
http://www.careerjunction.co.za/
se Provides databases of CVs from job sites mentioned above
za-
Newspaper ads have the disadvantage of being short- Identify media viewed by African immigrants for job postings.
lived, as they can be disposed of with the paper at the end
Examples of Pan-African medias
of the day.
Jeune Afrique, New African Magazine, BBC focus on Africa,
etc.
Establish contact with African Diaspora associations, programs or
support groups for immigrants
Examples
The Nigerians in Diaspora Organization (NIDO), The Associa-
tion of Cameroonians in Canada, The Algerian Cultural Centre
of Montreal, etc.
Immigrants aid programs :
Emploi Quebec PRIIME program,
Program from Interconnexion
You now have a comprehensive and clear enough idea of the benefits and limits of different channels and re-
sources to use during your recruitment to the African market. Below, we present a few cases of figures that will
help you better identify situations in which to use such channel instead of another.
13
Practical guide to effective recruitment to Africa.

14. To facilitate a little more the choice of recruitment channels, here are some indi-
cators for adequate operating of your recruitment channels:
Intermediaries and ads are widely used in the following conditions of recruitments4:
Prior to writing job descriptions: the public is the first intermediary in the channel of recruitment.
A large number of applications are reviewed: when more than ten applications are reviewed, ads are the first source
of recruitment.
When conducting many interviews with the successful applicant (apart from the exceptional case of recruitment
through acting agencies, which do not require interviews) ;
When the length of the recruitment process is over a week or a month. Ads are the primary source of recruitment
when recruitment is over a month. Closely behind are other intermediaries and agencies.
When external costs are not void and internal cost are significant in terms of length. This is especially applies to
recruitment by « other intermediaries » and ads.
When problems are identified.
Recruitment through contacts, re-employment or unsolicited applications is over-represented when5 :
Recruitment does not result in the written description of the post to be filled. Recruitment through contacts is caus-
ing a third of these recruitments.
Few applications are reviewed, limiting in the process competition among candidates.
The candidate is already known before the start of recruitment. This is less true with unsolicited applications which
often lead to the recruitment of an unknown candidate.
The number of interviews with the hired candidate is limited. Rehiring is particularly over-represented when the can-
didate doesn’t pass any interview.
The entire process is often very short
No external cost is generated
Internal costs are limited in length
Recruitments are declared to be « problems free », except for recruitments through contacts which are over repre-
sented among very difficult recruitments.
Some difficulties may undermine the ability of organizations to fill their vacancies; although we have discussed about it
previously, we will place a greater emphasis on some of them. Here’s a non exhaustive presentation of three categories
of recruitment difficulties in Africa:
We have identified in “Step 2 Environment Analysis” what were the opportunities and threats inherent in the
African market. We will demonstrate in the following spreadsheet the impact of certain opportunities (facilita-
tors) and threats (challenges) on organizations’ ability to fill their vacancies and on their influence in the choice of
recruitment channels.
4 Translated from Bessy, C., Marchal, E. (2007). L’usage des canaux de recrutement par les entreprises. n°89.
5 Translated from Bessy, C., Marchal, E. (2007). L’usage des canaux de recrutement par les entreprises.
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How to recruit effectively to Africa! - Recruitment channels

15. RECRUITMENT DIFFICULTIES
Related to cul- Almost 95% of young Creates a problem of Target recruitment
to the environment
Difficulties related
ture Gabonese want to be of- matching supply and de- channels with heavy
ficials mand, resulting in a lack traffic: in order of
of availability of quality importance, online
labor job site, TV, Radio,
Reduces the effective- job fair, etc.
ness of professional and Improve reward
personal relationships programs
recruitment channel
because the information
is not transmitted to the
greatest number.
Related to highly Shortage of manpower : Creates a problem of Target recruitment
Difficulties related to
skilled jobs quality labor availability. channels with heavy
Morocco’s manpower
The pool of candidates is traffic: in order of
shortage in the banking
employment
very limited. importance, online
sector in 2007 job site, TV, Radio,
Lack of skilled labor in job fair, etc.
South Africa in the areas
of agriculture, mining, Develop local training
and especially energy programs
and transport
RECRUITMENT FACILITATORS
Related to tech- 350 million Africans had a Creates a terrific op- Create mobile applications for
nology mobile phone in 2009 portunity to reach all recruitment.
candidates. Create a web mobile site for the
company
Related to politic Develop Pan-African Creates an opening for Target recruitment channels with
and economy market easier movement of heavy Pan-African traffic: Televi-
people sion, Radio, etc.
Now that you are aware of the methodology to effectively choose your sources of recruitment: 1) Diagnostic, 2)
Environment analyst (opportunities/threats and difficulties/facilitators), 3) Recruitment channels summary (ad-
vantages/limits and options to exploit), you are set for the final stage: 4) Case study.
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Practical guide to effective recruitment to Africa.

16. STEP 4
CASE STUDY
July 2011, Turcotte Energy, a Quebec company specialized in exploration and engineering services has just landed a
major contract valued at $ 200 million. This contract covers the installation of pipelines and production systems at 900
and 1200 meters deep at the offshore of Kole Cameroon. To carry out this contract, the Cameroonian government has
demanded that Turcotte Energy agrees to hire at least 40% of Cameroonians, both in senior and operating positions.
According to you what types of channels should be used in priority to join the pool of Cameroonian candidates for senior
positions? Why?
What are the opportunities and
threats in the country where the
position needs to be filled (eco-
nomic, technological, etc.)?
answer
Is the population more homoge-
neous or heterogeneous?
answer
Is the population largely edu-
cated or not?
answer
What is the role in the position
to fill?
answer
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How to recruit effectively to Africa! - Recruitment channels

17. Does the position require spe-
cialization or not?
answer
For how long is the job offered?
answer
Is it a full time position?
answer
Do you need to fill several posi-
tions at the same time?
answer
How much time do I have to fill
the position?
answer
Is it a new position?
answer
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Practical guide to effective recruitment to Africa.

18. WARNING
We emphasize the need for periodic evaluation of the entire process to measure the effectiveness of different channels
you have selected.
To do so, it is crucial that you develop performance indicators i.e.: the amount of CVs received, the effective rate of hir-
ing, etc. You can also use as a relevant indicator the questionnaire that you completed at the beginning of the guide.
CONCLUSION
The concern for efficiency in talent recruitment and a desire to act ethically with its environment are the two
concerns that organizations operating in Africa must prioritize. This guide was designed, in line with these re-
quirements, so that organizations and recruited talents could all evolve in harmony in the interest of Africa.
Thank you for completing our guide, How to effectively recruit to Africa! Recruitment channels. We look for-
ward to our next appointment (pre-screening, selection, etc.).
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How to recruit effectively to Africa! - Recruitment channels

19. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Autor D-H. (2001), « Wiring the Labor Market », Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol.15, n°1, pp. 25-40.
Bessy, C., Marchal, E. (2007). L’usage des canaux de recrutement par les entreprises.
Fondeur Y., Tuchszirer C. (2005), Internet et les intermédiaires du marché du travail, Rapport final, IRES.
Genevois A-S. (2011), Spécificités et performances des canaux de recrutement, Les Cahiers du Ceps/Instead
Khun P., Skuterud M. (2004), « Internet Job Search and Unemployment Durations », The American Economic Review, vol.94, n°1, pp.
208-232.
Neuville J-P. (2001), « Les bons “tuyaux” du marché de l’emploi. Internet peut-il faire de “l’économie de la qualité” un marché », Soci-
ologie du travail, n°43, pp. 349-368.
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Practical guide to effective recruitment to Africa.