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Welcome to Executive Recruitment, redefined.

Posted on 3rd April 201923rd April 2019 by The African Talent Company

We are The African Talent Company, also known as TATC. As a Pan-African brand, we pride ourselves in building Africa’s businesses with Africa’s own talent and we have carefully redesigned our service offerings to match Africa’s unique HR requirements. We now offer Fit For Purpose solutions, tailored to your bespoke HR needs.

Over the last year, we have grown our team of seasoned HR specialists across our respective geographies who are passionate about Africa’s growth and well-versed in understanding and solving the complex challenges in Africa today. Most importantly, we all at the TATC take pride in delivering the right people for the right job; thereby ensuring our clients’ growth and continued success in Africa.

Are you an employer? Have a look at our services, then connect with us today and we will help analyse your requirements, provide you with bespoke HR solutions and unlock the potential of your team.

Are you a highly qualified candidate? Make sure you follow our Jobs page, or visit our LinkedIn page, to get updated on exclusive high level jobs from premium employers.

3 elements to include in your talent sourcing strategy right now

Posted on 1st March 201919th March 2019 by The African Talent Company

Recruitment used to be painless.

HR managers simply drafted job descriptions with an application deadline and slapped it on a few job boards. Pronto, top candidates trooped in.

But now, let’s just say HR managers are feeling a little stressed.

The quantity of applicants hasn’t seen much drop, but the quality has taken an immense dive. Worldwide, 47% of companies say that very few qualified applicants indicate interest for the positions they have open. If you are an HR professional in Africa, that data point is nothing new.

In South Africa, 55% of surveyed recruiters indicated that high-quality candidates in limited talent pools is a major obstacle for their company.

Quality talent won’t be dropping into your laps.

That’s why your candidate sourcing strategy needs an upgrade. Like the halcyon days of posting simple job descriptions on job boards, the effectiveness of deploying run-of-the-mill strategies (like social sourcing, employee networks or outreach messages on LinkedIn) have declined.

To build a robust pipeline of quality talent for your company in 2017, use these often-ignored elements in your sourcing strategy:

Be on the same page with the hiring manager

Have a long conversation about your company culture, needs, what a strong candidate looks like and how those candidates will fit in at the company. If you are a hiring manager, then you should be having this conversation with your recruiter.

When any party in the recruitment process isn’t clear about the details, it’s easy for the resulting candidate pipeline to be anemic. All parties (CEO, hiring manager, and recruiter) should run some sample searches together to know why some candidates may or may not be a good fit for your company or the roles. Also, review existing talent pool to understand if perhaps the job requirements need to be eased or tightened.

As an extension of this strategy, ensure there is a full understanding of the company such that you can source for roles you don’t yet have open. This proactive approach to recruitment lets your company get ahead on roles you’ll need to hire for in the future.

Combine sourcing across offline, online and niche channels

It’s not unusual for companies to limit their talent sourcing exclusively to online channels or offline activities. Fifty-percent of recruiters submits that their first port of call to new talent is their professional network and another 28% say they turn to LinkedIn. But those are already overfished waters, talent wise.

If you want to reach the widest amount of quality candidates, deploy a blended approach. Look at less explored sources like specialized online gatherings like GitHub for developers or Dribble for design candidates. Those sort of industry-specific gatherings also exist offline in form of meet-ups. Attend those meetings and seed your business cards. If you don’t know where those meet-ups happen, rely on your existing talent by asking them where people with their skills set congregate.

Also, consider working with a recruiting outfit who already combine offline and online channels with tested HR technology trends.

Fix your retention strategy

When retention is on lock, then you won’t need to hire a lot and often. A hack to fixing retention is to, ab initio, hire professionals who will stay.

Only 37% of employees globally see themselves staying long-term at a company, for three or more years, according to LinkedIn’s 2016 Talent Trends report.

As LinkedIn questioned the data point, they discovered that there was one major difference between the 37% percent who will stay long term and the 63% who won’t. The professionals who stayed were purpose-oriented.

“Their primary motivation is using their work to advance a greater good, a higher cause, a mission they deemed worthy of working toward. In contrast, other professionals are motivated mainly by status — career advancement, prestige, and working for a hot brand [and money].” – LinkedIn.

In addition to sticking around for longer, these purpose-minded professionals are happier with their jobs.

As part of the sourcing process, therefore, bring on board only talent that are willing to play the long game. That way, you are not back on the recruitment mill after a few months.

Other ideas exist that your company can explore in sourcing talent, but these ideas should form the foundation of your sourcing strategy. If you go looking for talent without a clear idea of your company needs, it would only amount to a major time wasted. Also, combine online and offline sourcing platforms to maximize your reach, and finally, look out for talent that will stay for the long haul.

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The African Talent Company combines tested online and offline sourcing strategies with the latest HR technology trends and the understanding of the client’s needs to handpick the best professional talent for the best companies across Africa. We can help your company. Call or leave us a message to start.

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If you answer “yes” to these questions, your employer brand is surely not attractive

Posted on 27th October 201819th March 2019 by The African Talent Company

he recruitment landscape is a buyer’s market.

The talent has all the power. At any point in time, great talent have a plethora of job options locally and internationally.

This reality is why more employers are exploring employer recruitment branding.

The idea is simple; build a reputation as a choice destination to work and top talent will beg to have a seat at the table. The top 100 lists from our sister companies; Jobberman and Brightermonday feature the best of the companies in Africa that have had recruitment branding down to a science.

Employer recruitment branding is a crockpot of your values, existing quality of your talent, their level of satisfaction, reputation with past candidates and more.

At the bleeding edge of recruitment branding are companies like Heineken who have premium ads out for new talent.

Whether you know it or not, your brand has a recruitment brand? The question is; what is it? The type that repels talent or one that pulls them in?

A bad employer recruitment brand could cost your company as much as 10% more per hire.

In the checklist that will follow, to have any of the ideas apply to your company will require you to take a fresh look at your recruitment brand and burnish it:

1. Is your online presence weak?

Seventy six percent of professionals research a company online before considering a job opportunity. Chances are if you are reading this, your company has some sort of online presence. But what does your online presence say about you?

Is your landing page a sad copy of Yahoo’s homepage from 1999? Is there enough about your business online for talent to weight your company’s values?

You can continue the list from here. It comes down to this; if you are ugly and vague online, talent will step back and away.

2. Do your current employees “hate” working for you?

Employees are your ambassadors – the voice of your company and its brand. They embody what you stand for and what you want to say.

As you know, top talent often reach out to existing employees at a company to find out the lay of the land before they sign the dotted lines.

What are your current employees feeling and saying about your company and its culture?

You don’t need to ask. Chances are they won’t tell you honestly. But if you slow down to observe, you can feel it in the air.

3. Do you find it difficult to attract top talent?

Nothing more needs to be said here, really. It’s the ultimate voice from heaven. If top talent are not coming – even when you throw wads of cash at them – then your recruitment brand needs a makeover.

4. Do you tell more than you show?

The key goal of building a recruitment brand is to show what it’s like to work in your organization and what makes it great.

Are you doing this? Do you have a culture blog?

If not, pull in photos, videos and graphics that tell your brand story. Reach out to industry magazines with your story and watch as the talent court you.

5. Are your core values or vision vague?

For millennials, it’s often “mission over money.”

If you cannot articulate your mission and what defines your company, and in as short a sentence as possible, great talent will always pass you over.

6. Do you have a sour reputation with applicants?

How do you treat applicants? How quick do you give feedback? Do you offer any at all? Do you seek feedback? Is your recruitment process well-thought out and friendly enough to leave a good impression on candidates?

The experience of candidates – from initial application to actual interview – affects your recruitment brand. Be excellent to candidates, even when you won’t have them on your team.

If you are wondering, as a hiring manager reading; “shouldn’t I be talking to marketing about this?” then you’ve already done 80% of the job.

In the final analysis, recruitment brand is all about perception. Work hand in hand with the masters of perception to get your employer recruitment brand up to speed.

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The power to pinpoint talents, explore leadership options, increase employee engagement and increase your organization’s earnings reside in HR Data analytics. Know your human resource and know how to make the best of them. We can help. Call or drop us an email.