Diaspora talent – The human resources demand in Africa is still very strong. However, companies have difficulties to hire local talents and often hire expats. With an economic growth more and more important, international firms settle in Africa and need sharp human resources in all fields and at every decision and execution levels. Also, local firms seek for talents that are able to improve their productivity and their competitivity.
However, despite the numerous job offers, the number of potential candidates is still weak. One more reason for African firms to call the diaspora talent who, because they are evolving in more or less developed contexts, manage to return to their homeland with more experience and knowledge, which are required on the continent.
1. High responsibility’s profiles, hard to find locally
Recalling in Africa some expats with a developed professional luggage is an asset for high responsability posts in your companies. It’s an approach allowing talents to find a stepping-board for their careers, not like the “glass ceiling” they can face abroad. But to motivate them more, the proposed salary may be higher than for a local recruitment because of a higher life quality’s ambition. Recruiting diaspora talents for high responsibility positions means, first of all, taking advantage of an experience gained abroad, mainly in technical fields. Also, in sales management, human resources, legal and financial management, a foreign experience can only represent an asset for the company.
2. Construction and oil, these sectors where experience abroad is an asset.
Diaspora’s brains’ return in Africa presents a non negligible advantage for companies’ competitivity. Above the technical skills, these professionals are very quickly operational. They show an important adaptation’s ability, a comprehension and a certain proximity with the local culture. Thus, very often, to these talents, the return in Africa results from a financial sacrifice. This effort is, nevertheless, filled with infinite career opportunities offerings. This is often seen in some fields like the construction and the oil ones. Oil has been a sector with a promising dynamism for years, especially in countries like Angola, Nigeria and today Senegal.
Experience abroad can allow to boost all the modern economic sectors in Africa. In addition to agri-food which attracts a lot, several investments are made in telecommunications, immovable and retail. It is normal for companies to need experimented managers to fructify, efficiently, those specific investments. In Africa, Western and Maghreb are areas that attract African people looking for a return in Africa the most, because of the opportunities they have to offer, .
3. A trend towards positions’ Africanization
The advantage of calling a diaspora talent instead of a foreign expat, is that this approach allows a cost gain for companies. Indeed, companies often have to take in charge housing, the financial move, retirement and some other aspects of the foreign expats’ life. For pan african firms that expand, there’s a great advantage to take into account : diaspora’s talents know better the professional field in Africa than foreign expats. If the return in Africa allows a lot of great opportunities, one should know that the african experience is also the proof of an adjustment to social, cultural, political -and even- economic local realities. It should be favored a lot.
It’s useful to ask about the recruitment trends depending on the area and the recruitment field before recruiting. On all plans, making a diaspora’s talent returning is preferable to recruiting a foreign expat: it’s cheaper and the talent know the realities better . They also have an experience abroad that is as good as the one of an expat who doesn’t know the working area the way a local talent would.