Revolutionizing HR in Africa: Addressing the Root Causes of Talent Gaps and Unemployment

In recent years, employers have been complaining about the quality of human resource/capital in Africa. I vividly recall some notable business leaders adding their voice to the chorus. Personally, I have also had a brush with this challenge, and it continues getting worse by the day.

What really is the problem; is it with employees or rather, is that just the symptom of the real problem? What should HR managers be doing to hire the right caliber of human resources and what should both job seekers and employees be doing to improve their own fortunes and those of their employers?

The Symptom

I see the unfortunate quality of HR as, not the problem per se, but the symptom of the real problems. The real culprits are 1) the antiquated educational curriculum and 2) pathological HRM practices. Let us look at these factors individually.

Our educational system has not seen much improvement since independence. Meanwhile, the curriculum implemented by the colonial administrations was based on tenets of the industrial revolution in the Western world. And it was basically meant to produce clerical staff who would not be decision-makers, but implementers of decision handed down to them from the top. Unfortunately, decades on, very little has changed, if any, and I do not see any change in sight soon.

In school, students are taught the philosophies of scholars of generations past when those scholars did not know about electricity, let alone the Internet. While some of those philosophies are still relevant, is it not time to purge our textbooks of those that have out-lived their usefulness and start teaching more practical stuff?

Some business school students for instance are told by some of their lecturers that they should not deceive themselves into thinking that what they learn in class is what is practiced in the real world. But can we entirely blame these lecturers? Certainly not when they are only handing down what the obsolete system and textbooks have fed them. Is it any wonder, then, that the classroom is so uninspiring and boring to today’s student? Hence, when a graduate comes out of school to realize that practice is really diametrically different from the books just as his lecturers told him, he cannot help but be bewildered. In that state, it becomes a real nightmare for him to meet the expectations of his employer.

Employer says: “I hired this man because he has a certificate in this discipline. Yet he turns out to be a dumb!” Employee says: “I expect my employer to provide training for me, but he is too stingy to sponsor it!” Why the education, then? Was it useful in the first place? Hardly!

So, what is the way forward? I see the solution in discarding equally obsolete HR practices in our organisations. Since the textbook is not in tune with present requirements, it is high time we started questioning the recruitment process that has been handed down to us over the years.

The world has moved on, very much. Yet our recruitment processes have remained largely stagnant. Most HR managers are still obsessed with what one studied in school and his grade to determine the applicant’s suitability or otherwise when the educational system does not even meet the requirements of today’s enterprise, to begin with. Hence, HR should begin looking for certain human capabilities as determining factors in hiring employees instead of the penchant for certificates, looks, eloquence and the like. While those variables may still be important in certain circumstances, they are no longer the most important elements in today’s world. Following are some of the qualities I propose HR should be looking out for:

The Remedies

The first is to determine the creative and innovative aptitude of the applicant. In the creative economy of today, employing one with a fine certificate is not enough. It is impossible for any organisation to be creative and innovative if its employees are bereft of such qualities. And in the absence of those traits, no business will be able to satisfy the sophisticated demands of one of its very key publics, the customer. Yet, without the customer, there is no business. Hence HR should be able to gauge how creative and how innovative the applicant is. Unless such qualities are present in the applicant, he will only add to the liabilities of the organization, irrespective of how high he scored in exams and in the interview process.

I get perturbed when I see articles or hear of seminars that coach how to write a winning cover letter and CV and how to perform well at the interview. Granted, there are certain impressions that we form of people the first time we encounter them; whether through writing, interview or otherwise. That is innate. The problem, though, is that we are not always right. But since HR has been obsessed with those stereotypes, ‘experts’ have to teach them. But is that helpful?

There are a good number of people who hardly fail interviews and yet when it comes to performance, they are simply sloppy! There are those who have all the good looks, eloquence, interpersonal relations skill, good certificates and the like but add very little value in terms of creativity and innovativeness to the organisation upon being hired. The reason why is that just as the marketer studies the market to find out what customers need and provide it, so these applicants also equip themselves with knowledge about how to get that ‘hot’ job. Unlike marketers, though, landing the job is the end; not the means. And they succeed. Add to the agony, many of those likeable personalities and great academic achievers generally constitute the most part of the 80% of the workforce that is distracted; with high energy but low output/productivity, since they know they can either always switch jobs at will or maneuver their job security.

Second, HR should begin looking for the entrepreneurial spirit in applicants. In the present world order, the way business runs is very different. However, the educational system is structured to churn out clerical labour-force to couple the antiquated top-down model of administration. This misleads HR to look for employees that will be implementing decisions, instead of creating by being part of the decision-making process.

This kind of administration worked perfectly for employers during the industrial revolution when management used to be the repository of wisdom. However, today, any organization that continues to run in that mode can expect to fold-up in the next few decades. HR should therefore be looking for employees who have the ability to start their own business. Such ones are eager to learn new things and are more likely to be highly productive since they work creatively. And, if given enough autonomy, they would perform amazingly well. In other words, organisations that encourage employees to start “intrapreneurs” would perform better.

Third, HR should take a re-look at its job appraisal systems. Currently, the most popular methods that are being employed in big organizations as performance appraisal processes are: Management by objectives (MBO), 360 degree appraisal, Behavioral Observation Scale (BOS) and Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS). None of this gives attention to the critical human capabilities that drive success in the creative economy. For instance, they do not measure the entrepreneurial capabilities of the employee which are essential for developing new products or enhancing existing ones or developing new markets. In other words, the performance of employees should, among others, be measured in terms of the value they add to the organisation’s business and adequately reward such.

Fourth, HR must revise its reward systems. Rewards must not be automatic; tied to one’s qualification. They have should be linked with value-addition. I expect that when HR hires someone whom the company pays an X amount a month, that employee should be able to add value worth YYYY or more. Otherwise, what business sense would it make? When such reward systems are put in place, employees would eschew sloth and loafing and put in their best for the organisation and themselves.

Fifth, HR should be wary of applicants who work for money and not for a higher course of bettering the lot of the organisation’s publics. An employee who is not customer-oriented, for instance, is absolutely a ‘no-hire’ person. This is because, irrespective of one’s duty/assignment, respect for the customer and a sense of social responsibility would reflect on how he works. But if the emphasis is on money, that would lead to disastrous consequences as we see around us.

Sixth, redefine working hours. The notion that productivity is linked with the number of hours at work is a fallacy. Maybe, that would pass for factory work and the like that require less use of the brain and more physical activity. However, the case is different when it comes to the present knowledge/information economic dispensation.

Let us face the fact: how many of us can continuously sit behind their computer and work for eight hours daily? You would burn-out and make unpardonable mistakes. The truth is we are most active for brain work in the morning hours; 3-4 hours a day max. The rest of the time, we are receiving visitors, replying to emails, discussing politics and the economy and the like. Thus it would be more prudent if HR would reduce working hours to the most productive hours of, say, 8am to 2pm, and save cost for the company while increasing productivity and consign the 9-5 working hours to the museum.

Seventh, HR should learn from the law of diminishing returns. The law states “that we will get less and less extra output when we add additional doses of an input while holding other inputs fixed. In other words, the marginal product of each unit of input will decline as the amount of that input increases holding all other inputs constant”–Samuelson & Nordhaus.

This law applies with equal force to our over-staffed organisations. It is therefore high time HR began to evaluate the productivity of each employee and seek to fine-tune the relationship between the amount of human capital and output.

For the above to succeed, the relationship between the IT department and HR must also be fine-tuned. IT technology is supposed to help human capital achieve more within less time. However, we hardly appreciate the extent to which the IT department must be integrated with HR. The result is that, instead of achieving more with less, we are achieving less with more! This situation must change. And once productivity is improved, more jobs would be created as a result of growth.

Eighth, it is wise for HR to hire people with a wider range of knowledge. For instance, could you imagine how much time would be saved if every employee could at least troubleshoot and fix a malfunction on their computer instead of waiting on the ubiquitous IT officer to do that for them? The accountant, also, is supposed to provide financial information to management. But how much better it would be if he understood marketing enough to advise on what new product should be developed to appreciate cash-flow, for instance. Thus, HR must audit and eliminate the disconnect between departments to encourage productivity in order to trigger off a multiplier effect on wealth creation.

Ninth, the workplace should be made homely. If HR insists on maintaining the 9-5 fixation, then what about making the workplace more homely? For instance, would it not add to productivity if there are rooms with a few camp-beds to enable tired workers to take a nap? If siesta was good for us when we were in school what makes it evil when we are adults and working? I believe you appreciate the calming and refreshing effect of just 5-minutes of deep sleep in the afternoon. Even though there is the possibility of abuse, this can be curtailed very easily. Yet the benefits would be invaluable. On the side, there is this growing canker of sexual harassment that is seriously tarnishing the image of HRM and if this is not checked, the time would come when HRM would be synonymous with sexual harassment. One of my very good friends posted the following on her face-book wall some time ago: “People, what is the meaning of this? You go through 4 years of books, exams and sometimes no sleep just to come out to land a decent job but the second your application gets to some CEO or MD he sees it as an invitation to trespass your private property. Your mistake is that you don’t want to be unemployed!” And here is someone’s response to that: “My dear that is why some of us are hiding in our own small ghetto…” Pathetic indeed! I would challenge every company that is worth its reputation to provide a channel, maybe a desk, to handle such complaints for those villains to be dealt with adequately. Otherwise, apart from further destroying the moral fibre of society, the wrong persons would always be hired to do slip-shod jobs just because they are ready to trade sex for jobs.

Turning attention to prospective job seekers and employees

The fact is that what you need to be a successful worker is not taught in class. So, take your days in school as an opportunity to train your analytical skills by reading widely. Whereas most of the things we learn in school are not practicable, they can be intellectually stimulating. Thus it pays to develop a broad mind and be able to analyse situations as they emerge to solve problems. Also, it is wise to take advantage of good training workshops/seminars where you will learn practical on-the-job skills that will add to your employability and competence on the job to assure job security. The following are some more of the qualities to develop:

Desist from following the colonial-old mentality of finishing school to work with some large organisation, a bank and the like, earning good cash and living large. I would not encourage you to go into entrepreneurship if you are not inclined to, though it is the best. Yet, look for employment with the purpose of learning and adding value to yourself and your job. This would eventually rob-off on the larger society since more jobs would be created.

Avoid the trap of choosing the size of a pay-cheque over the opportunity of a learning experience that is presented to you. Looking for a job with the sole intent of making money is seriously flawed and robs many of job satisfaction and blinds them to golden opportunities staring at their faces. Admittedly, you spent valuable resources on your education, and you would rationally want to reap the rewards. However, you would never be satisfied with money if making money were your main goal. This is because the more you earn, the more you would spend to reflect your financial and social status.

Let us look at one scenario here:

You receive a job offer from company ‘A’ for a salary and benefits three times what company ‘B’ offers. Meanwhile, company ‘B’ offers a working environment where you are allowed much autonomy and the possibility of unearthing your potential to reach your peak while company ‘A’ only offers you a repetitive, discrete and routine work schedule that is hardly challenging. Which one would you choose? Please answer for yourself.

Mind you, though, that just as there is a waiting period between planting and fruiting; and, depending on the type of crop fruition can take between 3 months and 7 or more years, cultivate that patience even in the face of the seeming early fruition for some of your colleagues. Always remember though that there is someone whose fruition time is longer than yours. By being such a valuable employee to your employer, you would learn valuable lessons and reap greater rewards later.

Further, take time to learn all you can about, not just your job, but the whole organisation to which you belong. Seek to understand the mission and vision statements of your organisation and continually seek to fine-tune your efforts towards contributing to the achievement of those. It would amaze you just how much you would be inspired to be creative and innovative, thus adding value to your employer’s business and securing your job and your future.

If you are still looking for a job, identify the organiastion you would like to work for and determine what you can do to enhance its business. If that does not still land you a job, can you ‘create’ a department for that organisation and head it? That may as well be a business opportunity for you. And you might end up earning several folds more than you would have if you were employed! Eventually, you would also be employing others. And given your experience, you would be able to hire very good employees, maybe even better than yourself.

I see the unemployment situation in the economy of the world and in Africa in particular partly as a result of failed HR management. If HR were effective in hiring the right people to meet changing times and employees were self-motivated to give of themselves, productivity would be higher. And when productivity is higher, business would expand and when business expands, jobs would be created to absorb the glut on the job market.

All that we have been addressing is not taught in the classroom, they are not in textbooks. They are qualities that the prospective employee should develop along the way. Yet if HR itself is not in that mode, then the problems will persist.

I would be most grateful for your thoughts; whether you agree or disagree with any of my views or you have some contribution.

The author Jules Nartey-Tokoli is Founder and Group CEO at Groupe Soleil Vision, comprising Soleil Consults (US), LLC, NubianBiz.Com, ShopNubian.Com and Soleil Publications. He has lived and worked in both Ghana and the United States, having extensive experience in Strategy, Management, Entrepreneurship, Premium Audit Advisory and Web consulting. He has also published several articles on Strategy, Management, Corporate Governance, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Economics, e-Commerce, Information Technology (IT), Customer Service/Care, Sales, Marketing, Communication, Branding, Education, among others. 

Jules Nartey-Tokoli

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