Working With Africans

Foreigners recruited to working in an African country often assume that their experienced and competent working spouse will easily get a job locally. The image of the continent in many foreigners’ eyes is still one of poor and uneducated Africans.

In search for information, some foreigners contact me with detailed questions such as these: ‘ Is there any gender discrimination in this or that job market? Can my spouse expect the range of salary that she/he gets at home? How should foreign females behave with their African colleagues and superiors? Are there taboo topics of conversations? Can my pregnant wife hide her situation when applying for this or that country?’ and the likes…

These questions are logical as the newly recruited person has approached his/her prospective job with the same concerns.

The situation of trailing spouses in African countries is poorly understood by prospective workers and foreign employers alike!

It is a fact that competence and experience are very important criteria when it comes to recruiting people.

Yet in Africa, these are not the only criteria and foreign spouses may be wise to consider the following:

The Work Permit

One of the prevalent topics of conversations among trailing spouses is their struggle to get a work permit. It seems as in some places and for some positions, it is just impossible to get one, whichever the scarcity of skills and competences that these spouses are featuring.

Why?

Many African countries have adopted a stringent regulatory system that strictly limits the number of work permits granted to foreigners. Priority should to given to nationals. Often such approach has been initiated by foreign NGOs and international aid agencies. Some NGOs are proud to have their local office entirely staffed by indigenous.  These organizations have devoted much effort in funding local capacity building as well in organizing training workshops. Many foreign organizations have also granted bursaries and fellowships to their promising African employees who take time to go and study abroad. On the other side more and more foreign universities set local antenna in some African countries and fly their teaching staff according to the local needs.

As a result a pool of educated indigenous get the jobs that otherwise would have been given to expatriates. Often these jobs are paid according to a salary scale that takes the local conditions of the job market into consideration.

The increasing number of qualified local workforce is however not always enough to meet the organizations’ needs.

Some welcome applications of qualified foreign job seekers. In such type of scenario, the organization applies for its foreign recruited employee’s work permit.Yet this does not guarantee the success of the endeavor. I have witnessed numerous spouses who had to quit their new job as their employer was informed of the refusal to grant the work permit. This can take place even when there is no evidence that a national has the required skills!

Other factors can interfere and affect the decision made:  often that are tied to the specificity of the local job market or to the cultural expectations of both employers and work permit granters.

For example, in South Africa, there is a regulation that encourages employers to recruit and promote indigenous Africans. Through a system called ‘scorecards’, employers are monitored and can be penalized for hiring too many non- indigenous Africans, being South African nationals or foreigners.

Elsewhere, employers may express preference for recruiting nationals because there is a known pool of local talent. This is increasingly the case in Kenya and in Nigeria where education is highly praised and where competition is fierce to access the best local schools and universities.

Even when there are not enough local talents, more and more local authorities or organizations wish to see educated and experienced nationals living and working abroad to repatriate.

For example the Ethiopian government has regularly called its emigrated citizen to return and bring their know-how to help developing growth in their former country.

The Angolan government is also pushing foreign businesses to develop local capacity in such a way that in a near future, most positions in foreign firms be held by indigenous workers. Foreign firms may look favorably at this prescription as it will reduce their costs: Luanda, the capital of Angola is the most expensive city in the world.

Such picture may sound gloomy for prospective foreign job seekers.

Nevertheless this does not mean that it is impossible to get an interesting job locally or that it is totally inconceivable to get a work permit. This raises the second factor that foreign spouses should be aware of:

The local approach to being recruited…

While many African countries feature recruitment agencies that are structured the same way as elsewhere, the way they operate may still be influenced by the local expectations and mores. This can be confusing for foreigner job seekers especially if the recruitment agency is a subsidiary of a famous foreign firm. They might approach these firms with the same spirit and strategy as that they would use at home. This may be ineffective!

Besides, the use of standardized professional recruitment procedures, but also the use of interviewing techniques does not mean that recruiters will not interpret them according to their societal expectations and values.  In a previous post found under the link http://www.workingwithafricans.com/recruitment-across-countries/   I gave some illustrations of these interpretations.

Foreign spouses might find it effective to learn the local expectations and procedures. This includes awareness and ability to adjust to the local way of building trust, to adjust to the local communication style, as well as the right attitude and demeanor during the whole process.

Specific cross-cultural training can help them in developing their skills!

Finally foreign spouses might be interested in knowing that some jobs do not require a work permit or that some firms can find some arrangement to make working possible.

The little attention drawn to these issues cause many frustrations. For G Sawadogo from the World bank, firms and organizations should pay attention to this issue. So far very few employers do, which can potentially impact on their recruited employee’s own performance.