Diversity and Inclusion Practices: A Hindrance to Africa’s Job Seeking Market

TODAY’S DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION PRACTICE HAS LONG BEEN A SERIOUS ECONOMIC HINDRANCE TO THE LOCAL JOB SEEKING POPULATIONS ACROSS AFRICA. THIS HINDRANCE IS AT THREE LEVELS: THE LANGUAGE FOCUSED RECRUITMENT APPROACH BY MULTINATIONALS IS THE FIRST FACTORS. THE SECOND FACTOR IS THE CULTURE OF NOT HIRING ANY LOCALS NOT SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE USED BY THE HEAD OFFICE OF SUCH COMPANIES. THE THIRD HINDRANCE IS THE RECRUITMENT OF EXPATS UNDER THE PRETEXT OF THEM BRINGING IN SKILLS-TRANSFER.

Current Context

International companies that operate or open operations locally tends to only recruit people that speak English and because that is their language of communication. But this is a problem because it excludes the larger portion of the job seeking market in the country they operate. They make money and only benefit a very small portion of locals and thus add to this small number an ever increasing number of expats under the banner of scarce skills.

This practice has been seen across Africa and it is not benefiting the country without knowing this.

THIS SO-CALLED SKILLS-TRANSFER STRATEGY THROUGH EXPAT HIRING, IS NOT SERIOUSLY AND CLOSELY MONITORED BY GOVERNMENT TO SEE HOW MANY LOCAL SKILLS HAVE BEEN ON-THE-JOB-TRANNING EACH YEAR. EXPATS RECRUITMENT BY MULTI-NATIONS IS MISLEADINGLY DRIVEN BY THE COMPANY’S NEEDS TO GENERATE MORE BUSINESS TO REACH THEIR SALES TARGETS BY HIRING COMPETENT PEOPLE QUICKLY, THAN HAVING TO TRAIN, COACH AND DEVELOP LOCAL SKILLS.

Policy Proposal
Government has to introduce a new diversity and inclusion regulation to force multinational companies to change this practice by changing the roles: It is the company that must integrates itself into the local spoken languages to hire and do business, and not the locals to be forced to learn the language that the company uses internally or globally.

THIS EXPATS RECRUITMENT IS ONLY BENEFITTING THE COMPANY, BUT AT THE SAME TIME, HURTS THE AFRICAN LOCAL JOB MARKETS. COMPANIES MUST BE MONITORED BY GOVERNMENT THROUGH AN EMPLOYMENT EQUITY POLICY WITH IMPOSED EMPLOYEMENT EQUITY TARGETS THESE COMPANIES MUST MEET TO BE ALLOWED TO CONDUCT BUSINESS LOCALLY. SOUTH AFRICAN IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE WHERE THIS POLICY IS IMPROVING THE LIVES OF THE LOCAL POPULATIONS.