If you asked many employers today, they’ll tell you that gone are the days when students sought employment upon graduation. “We should equip students such that they leave college with the mind set of creating a job for themselves,” says Nancy Mathenge, Training and Development Manager at Posta Kenya.
Hence, the uptake of entrepreneurship: finding your big idea and running with it.
But success won’t come cheaply. “It will require dedication and skills,” says Peter Macharia, a successful entrepreneur and CEO of Jijenge Credit Limited.
You need a team to work with to execute your idea: move it from a start-up to a solvent SME. And maybe even further to a corporate player.
Who should you hire: What qualities should you look for to find the right people? Emmanuel Mutuma CEO of Brighter Monday – a recruitment company that operates in East Africa shares some tips.
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First, you need to determine the staff gap that you need to fill so that the company can achieve milestones and the value they ought to bring to the group.
“You start by asking yourself what skill set you are lacking,” he says.
Being alive to the skill gap is especially important because you don’t want to waste resources hiring when you already have someone who can deliver in a certain area.
When to look for hard skills
The best person(s) to reel into your team will have two main qualities: hard skills and soft skills.
“Both of these are important,” Emmanuel says.
Hard skills are the qualities that will directly go into accomplishing the assignment, he says.
“If you are looking for an accountant, for instance, do you need entry level, mid-level or senior level? What type of education, or professional certifications will you need the accountant to have? How many years of experience are you looking for?”
The hard skills, Emmanuel says, cannot be ignored because the new recruit will have to show that they cannot only get the job done, but it will be executed to its level best.
In other words, if you need a plumber they must possess plumbing skills – it cannot be someone who comes to learn on the job.
When soft skills matter
Then there are soft skills. These are the qualities that make the person able to perform in the environment you want to place them in.
“Soft skills are supposed to make a candidate with hard skills able to produce at work,” Emmanuel says.
“Things like the cultural fit, attitude, temperament, are you lazy or hardworking, your ability to work with a team and so on.”
It is his opinion that one may not be the most qualified when it comes to hard skills yet possess some soft skills that will bolster their suitability.
“The two – hard and soft skills – are complimentary. The candidate who scores high in both is the ideal candidate,” he says.
Between hard and soft skills, which ones are paramount?
Emmanuel advises employers to prioritise hard skills.
“Sixty per cent look at whether the person is qualified and can do the job. The remaining 40 per cent look for the softer elements,” he says.
The hard-and-soft skills method of hiring, albeit comprehensible, can be aggregated into four main categories.
“They are: behavioural aspect, cognitive tests (personality), the know-how and technical skills,” Emmanuel says.
As a recruiter, Emmanuel says, get into your team the person with the right drive, passion, dedication and ability to do the job: someone who checks on nearly all the four categories.
Whatever you do, he says, do not hire for reasons other than merit.
Given Kenya’s history with tribalism and nepotism, Emmanuel is alive to the possibility that some workplaces have incompetent staff whose only claim to their job is knowing the right people.
“Employers recruit because they are looking for the best. We recommend to them to always conduct recruitment based on merit.
“It is unfortunate that some employers, maybe for lack of information, will select candidates based on likability, nepotism, and tribalism: basically prejudice.”
Emmanuel argues that those given jobs where merit was not considered are likely to disappoint. Hence the employer would be running at a loss because they would be paying for substandard or derailing services.
Brighter Monday, Emmanuel says, has developed an AI based recruiting system for clients. Named ‘Best Match’, the system is able to sift through job applicants, selecting those who have met the basic hard skills criteria set by the recruiting organisation.
“An employer feeds the system with hard-skill qualities they are looking for and the system quickly analyzes the data and information,” Emmanuel says.
‘Best Match’ however cannot pick out the best soft skills. Hence it has to be backed by a team of qualified recruiters that will be able to grade the final list of interviewees on their soft skills.
hustle@standardmedia.co.ke
