Employer, Wake Up and Stop Losing Money...

Employer, Wake Up and Stop Losing Money…

   Over several years ago, Nigerians had access to quality education from reputable institutions locally. But with the advent of emerging challenges and political misfeasance, our quality education gradually eroded and institutions lost their credibility in delivering excellent relevant content to students. In 2019, a revolution is apparent especially in the hiring space – where global multinationals and blue chip companies now review hiring practice and pretty much ‘lower barrier to entry’ for potential employees.

  Certain positions have always required particular levels of education i.e. credentials and qualification. In recent times, companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. began realizing the need to get more inclusive in hiring people, as they were fast losing valuable talent due to the qualification barrier they had unconsciously elevated in their recruitment behavior. As the rest of the world adapts to the evolving work of work, Nigeria and Africa must not be left behind. As we are quick to do (copy and paste foreign practices without contextualizing), it’s important that we emulate also these companies and systems in hiring more inclusively.

   In Nigeria (our main context), many stories of competent yet denied talents are told every day; sometimes even by those who greatly influence recruitment decisions and policies, both in organizations and government. Young and bright minds constantly recount their bitter experiences with talent recruiters or organizations’ HR departments. Extreme policies are made and enforced at the expense of the same organizations who make them. Imagine a bright young man who demonstrates all the competencies required to do a job exceptionally well denied the opportunity to be employed – simply because he doesn’t have a particular qualification that supposedly accompanies that role.

    It’s extremely frustrating for the young man who has been denied but most unfortunate for the company who vehemently rejects an unknown opportunity to increase their profitability through the immense value this young man could actually have added to their operations. HR practitioners, business leaders and policy makers need to rise up more than ever and challenge this long standing notions and ideas they have consistently (and some times blindly) preserved. If a young talented man is turned away because he lacks a credential or the certificate he can defend – through execution and implementation of his deliverables – then shouldn’t we start rethinking this credentials obsession.

   We imagine the monumental proportion of talent and value constantly lost to outdated and fairly unreasonable recruitment practices demonstrated every day across Nigeria. On the employee side, the alternatives many seek is emigration to countries where their competencies are valued and accepted. Perhaps we have induced a lot of what we now know as ‘brain drain’ by turning competent candidates away, further deepening the unemployment rate of our dear nation.           Employers, it’s time to wake up and start making money by responsible and reasonable hiring.



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