Expat or local contract for international candidates in Africa?
Inez Willeboordse ?
Helping your business in Africa ?? gain profit and time by finding you top 5% management candidates IN, not ON, the market | Executive Search
We notice recruiting all over Africa that more and more companies, especially 'for profit' companies, offer their new international employees local contracts instead of 'full package expat contracts'.
Do you feel this is a good trend? This was a question I asked in the form of a poll on Linkedin about a week ago. The poll had hundreds of votes and to be honest, the result kind of surprised me. We had some great discussions going on in the comments and about 50% of the voters thought it was a good trend and 50% thought it wasn’t.
An argument that was mentioned by the people that felt expats should get expat contracts, is that expats come in because their specific skillset is not available in country and they are there to transfer skills and in the end hand over to local successors. When offered a local contract, you will attract a different kind of international candidate, who might not be so interested in transferring skills or who has skills that might also be found in country. Definitely an interesting take on this development.
You can have a look at the poll on my and JobnetAfrica’s linked profile to see the full discussion and of course don’t hesitate to join in on the discussion.
If you would like to learn more about what kind of contract to offer your new manager, director etc., send me a message on [email protected] and I will be happy to jump on a call.
Agronomist - Agribusiness management with P&L responsability - Almost 10 years in Kenya in leadership roles - Fresh produce - Generating returns for the investors always in a sustainable way
2 年Dear Inez,?I think it is time to finally drop the expressions “expat” and “local”.??They trigger sentiment of hate from Africans toward “the whites” that works in Africa,?as they only see these “whites” in Africa as a bunch of privileged people with stellar salaries and colonial attitude. I have worked in Kenya for almost 10 years,?I have been naturally blending with Kenyans since the first week,?I have a Kenyan wife, deep knowledge of territory and people, and,?in the process,?I have saved 3 companies on the verge of closing.??Your costumers just need someone like me. For the record,?in Kenya many of my collegues in my industry, with similar experience and competence (in some cases much less actually… and in some cases very bad example of leadership), ?enjoy “expat” contract with “expat” salaries,?without being “expats” and without being “whites”. ?Another reason to drop this obsolete distinction.
WINNING BUSINESS FOR CLIENTS......... I show companies how to successfully grow SALES & PROFITS ……… Department of Business & Trade Export Champion. Creating bespoke trade missions to East Africa.
2 年I learned at an early age that good management was to create the condition to make yourself dispensible! Sounds crazy, but the best managers mentor, coach and generally educate their team in an informal way to carry out their various duties, making the role of the manager to be an 'orchestrator' rather than a 'doer'. It can be sales, marketing, operations, accounts, manufacturing, compliance etc etc. Of course no manager will be specialist in all aspects, but the principle determines a good manager. How to spot a BAD manager - 'he/she never has time for anything/anyone'!
Agronomy & Environment Manager
2 年Transferring skills is about management style and ethics of each individual manager, that's nothing about expatriate or local contract...
Finance Strategist | Globe Trotter | VC | CFO Alliance | HEC Ambassador | MBA | CFO (SA) | ACMA | CGMA
2 年I strongly believe that the equation is much simpler: whatever the skills need to be find locally or internationally, just allocate the right package to attract the right talent you need for your business. If that means including benefits, just do it. I think that comparing local VS expat and whatsoever is very "patronizing", even if it looks that it has some rational grounds. Let's just put that aside and look at skills only, and each company needs to be ready to pay for the skills they need, whatever it's local or not, expat or not, benefits or not.