News Africa

INTERVIEW

 

For a number of years, job seekers have faced a challenge of unscrupulous employment companies that take advantage of their desperate situation to swindle them of their little money. Lilian Bagambe, the Country Director CV People Africa, a job recruitment firm spoke to East African Business Week′s Paul Tentena on how genuine firms like theirs can help to clean up their image.

 

 

We are recruitment specialists with a presence in fourAfrican countries and counting: Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Within the next year the target is to have offices in Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa.

 

We basically hire and place job seekers or talent in organisations that require the skills of these people.

 

CV People Africa has been operational in Southern Africa for over 20 years and now here in Uganda and have been operational here since March this year. We are a Ugandan company, Zoe Recruitments Limited, registered and owned, but trading as an international brand, CV People Africa. We operate on a franchise model in the various countries where we have a presence including Uganda.

 

 

I believe this is the time for Ugandans to prepare for what God has blessed us with. Africa is now the investors′ destination of choice.

 

We have a spectrum of resources in Uganda with discoveries still being made from oil to harder minerals etc.

 

There is a lot of investment going on in energy and minerals, telecoms as well as agriculture. Call centres are shifting from China; India to East Africa, because of our unique ability to speak clear English and low labour costs; the list is enormous. This comes with a need for auxiliary services to support these industries and all this is job creation. We think we can make a significant contribution in facilitating this process.

 

The regional integration is also taking shape in the background on many fronts and pretty fast too. Soon the labour force will be highly mobile across the region. We would like to be a part of facilitating that. It is already happening but will be at a larger scale in the near future.

 

 

We recruit mainly skilled staff . These are executives right down to the technicians and further down to the clerks.

 

 

Our main job market is here in Uganda. However because of the ease of processes with the advanced technology that the group has invested in, we are able to recruit for companies outside Uganda. We are also able to source for talent from across the globe where we have a skills gap in the local market here. Placement in the countries where we have a presence is also easy since we have offices and consultants in these countries.

 

Uganda as a country is facing a big challenge of unscrupulous job recruitment firms that flaunt Ugandans with bogus job deals. How is your company going to win the confidence of Ugandans that your recruitment is genuine?

 

Yes we are aware of unscrupulous recruitment companies taking advantage of the growing population which is not matched by the rate of job creation therefore creating desperate job seekers. That is rather unfortunate but what I will say is that not only is it wrong, but that kind of business is not sustainable. You get found out and that is the end. We are here to do the right thing and for the long haul.

 

We shall win the confidence of Ugandans through our commitment to consistently deliver on what we promise. Our processes are highly automated until the point of face to face interviews and transparent. As a group we do use technology that is able to show the job seeker at what stage of the process we are. We flag all our jobs on our website which is the front end of our system and which the public can see.

 

 

Because of the unscrupulous recruitment agencies, it has been a challenge to convince the Job seekers that we are legitimate. Our process not only targets the businesses that are hiring, but the Job seeker as well. We encourage skilled staff to register with us through our website and it is free. However the "free" is perceived as suspicious because of the job seekers experiences.

 

Our fee model has been to receive payment on success of the placement. However collecting money after the Job is done can be a real challenge in most instances. We have had to review and charge a small commitment fee to cater for the delays by the clients and just the commitment to pay.

 

Getting the business leaders to understand the value we bring on board. Outsourcing is a fairly new concept in Uganda which is taking root really fast but not yet there. To the business leaders, it is extremely costly to use your productive time doing things like hiring. Give it to the experts

 

We would like to contribute to better productivity at the workplace through the way we place people. Our profiling of candidates is quite detailed and therefore the chances of us making the right placement the first time are high. If we do that, we shall be able to address other problems like staff retention. If the right placement is made, most likely the candidate is highly motivated from within and is more likely to stay longer and be productive on the job.

 

We would also like to shorten significantly the time it takes to place a candidate, which in this market ranges anywhere between 1 month to 1 year. This is extremely costly, which cost businesses don′t seem to know or acknowledge. The cost of having a key position vacant and trying to re-distribute the work is quite high. The job won′t get done or will receive little attention, the people to whom the work is re-distributed are stretched and therefore unable to perform their role or added tasks properly and so this goes directly to the bottom line ! The longer this situation is left to linger on the worse it gets.

 

We hope Ugandan businesses can seriously begin to evaluate and measure the impact of people decisions even including training, on the performance of the business.

 

As a secondary item, we would like to attract back home the talent in the Diaspora. With our tools we are able to do that. This group however needs to be re-assured of the opportunities. By flagging the Jobs we are able to do that and they too can apply for the various Jobs.

 

We also would like to contribute in making the Ugandan workforce competitive. So for all the Job seekers in our database we issue a newsletter every month that focuses on issues of personal development. From how to get that job, to dealing with difficult bosses to Impression management and the like.

 

 

Uganda and East Africa at large arise and shine, this is our time and we at CV people are committed to help you make it happen.

 

Register with us on https://uganda.cvpeopleafrica.com. Click on the < register> button on the right top corner of the webpage.

 

You may be looking now or perhaps not even ready to move from your job. Still register and when "that" opportunity turns up, we shall be at your door