Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/73199
Regional Report Despite this, doing business in Africa still presents many challenges. Although a business-oriented culture and commercial mindset is inherent, plus a positive outlook and widespread optimism about the future, fundamental issues such as security and corruption can still be factors in business life. Many organisations are facing the demands of growth and rising expectations without supporting structures and systems in place. For example, employment legislation and frameworks are still evolving; the administrative burden of managing payroll and benefits can be high with a largely unbanked workforce; and a lack of IT systems makes it difficult to develop data resources to support HR activity. And while educational standards are steadily improving in Africa, more highly qualified technical and managerial people are still in short supply. "There's a huge sense of opportunity, but not a lot of structure," adds Ellis. In large regional businesses and global multinationals with operations in Africa, HR teams are picking up the challenge of supporting growth. The priority for many organisations includes the sourcing of top talent and providing opportunities for career development and progression to ensure that once found, it is retained. Diaspora, Inc. Expatriate staff deployed from outside the continent often play a vital role in providing skills and experience to African operations, but many businesses are increasingly seeking to attract African professionals studying, living, and working abroad into careers back to their home continent. For multinational employers, candidates from the diaspora offer global experience and qualifications, combined with an innate understanding of local people, markets, business culture, and languages. "The diaspora is such an important part of building capability," notes Ellis, "it is a really significant force." Global Career Company (GCC) specialises in recruiting internationally-based candidates from graduate entry to senior management level into positions back in their home countries. Rupert Adcock, GCC's founder and managing director, first identified this need a decade ago when "multinational corporations were looking for internationally-oriented black African professionals for key roles back in South Africa." Today, the majority of GCC's 480 clients are global multinationals for whom emerging African markets are a strategic priority, but the company also works with a significant number of domestic and regional businesses to help them access the African diaspora's talent pool. For the candidates, says Adcock, "the major reason for choosing to work back in their home country is career progression." Having studied or lived abroad, individuals are seeking international careers offering advancement potential in a fast-growing economic and business environment. However, GCC's candidate surveys also highlight that achieving personal goals, such as returning close to aging parents and enjoying a higher quality of life, also can be strong pull factors. The pool of managerial talent in Africa continues to evolve. "Historically, GCC's role was about redeploying people," says Adcock, "but having hired 7,000 professionals into the region, we are now finding that around 30 percent of our candidates are already based in Africa." Employers are often looking to hire individuals with a specific nationality, reflecting the strong national focus on growth in many African countries, although some mobility within sub-regions such as West or East Africa can be found, and a pattern of regional headquarters is developing amongst some organisations. With growing competition for scarce skilled talent, organisations are implementing more retention programmes for staff at all levels. They are also ensuring that African staffs are integrated into global training and development programmes, looking for systems which enable them to achieve this objective in a cost effective manner. HRO 1.0 While exciting growth in Africa is giving rise to a range of HR issues for businesses operating there, the provision of HR outsourcing services to clients in the region is still very much at the pioneering stage: "Things are moving quite slowly," says Sarah Seabury, director and EMEA HR practice lead ISG, the market intelligence and advisory firm ISG formerly known as TPI. ISG's research suggests that Africa still accounts for a very small percentage of the global HRO market. It found that spending on outsourcing activity overall (including but not limited to HRO) in the Middle East and Africa grew from $166 million in 2007 to roughly $1 billion in 2010; growth in 2011 was flat, due to the impact of the Arab Spring. The bulk of that spending was in the Middle East, rather than Africa: ISG estimates contract values in Africa at roughly $130 million, with just six of the 26 Forbes G2000 headquartered in the region known to be outsourcing. HRO's share of that spending remains relatively insignificant. However, HRO activity is beginning to develop. ISG has identified a small number of global solutions providers—including SPRING 2012 | www.hroglobal.com [35]