With the impressive number of 84 millions inhabitants and quickly evolving demographics, Egypt is the most populous country and the 4th largest economy in the whole MENA region.
The existing unemployment rate accounts to the 13% of the population and is exacerbated further by a lack of career training and guidance – which is making skills development and vocational education among the highest priorities of the Egyptian government. Anyway, trade, tourism, finance and insurance represent promising areas for employment growth and inclusiveness, together with an agricultural sector which has long been at the forefront of job creation in the country.
Whilst different elements continue to pose both challenges and opportunities to the local labor market, reaching out to a qualified talent pool in the Egypt is not easy feat. Here 7 ways to recruit outstanding candidates in one of the most controversial yet abounding talent hive of the region.
Today, millions of Egyptians are looking for a job.
No wonder that in the war of talents only a strong army of recruiters can stand out. While prowling about the candidate database, the more generic your search is the more possibilities you have to fall into error and hire an ugly fit. To avoid that, you can sort out the cohort of candidates adopting different parameters – like age, field of interest, location and so on – all of them attuned to your business needs. In pursuing your talent search in the MENA region, you will find a powerful ally in Bayt.com CV Search, a state-of-the-art tool that allows to match candidates’ skills to individual customer’s requirements by harnessing as many as 30 different search criteria.
If you are looking for killer candidates in Egypt, putting efforts in crafting an attractive job description is one of the first thing they will probably come to your mind. And you are quite right. By spelling out duties and responsibilities of a job, employers create one of the most fundamental piece of document they must have when planning the staffing program.
While the title is like a handshake and will certainly grab the attention of your target hires, exciting content and effective call to action will do the rest. Here how to write a job description that stands out of the pack.
As in any other country of the region, a large portion of candidates is passive, meaning that they are not actively looking for a job – either because the have one or they are first-time job-seekers who easily get lost amid the crowd.
To penetrate a massive workforce including proactive and passive candidates, the secret is building a social proof to set yourself apart as ‘the’ place to work. Make sure that, in doing so, your company is telling stories that showcase how it operates and what makes it truly special to work in. Incorporate a unique message so that also passive job-seekers will develop a genuine interest in your corporate objectives. Tools like Premium Company Profile are essential to build up a compelling employer brand and represent the primary way top organizations like yours communicate to the outside world.
Networking events bring together like-minded professionals from different areas and field of expertise and are a unique opportunity to ignite conversations and personal connections. As key findings show, Egyptian job-seekers blame the little access to networking opportunities in the country, seeing in it a real obstacle during the job search process. Bayt.com Job Fair is a newly developed platform designed to interact real-time with top talents around the globe, not matter where they are. The idea comes from the need to evolve the traditional job fair and provide an ultimate level of convenience for today’s busy professionals by exploring new opportunities.
Don’t forget that, being virtual, such initiatives allow to save considerably on advertising and sourcing costs – which isn’t bad at all.
A survey conducted by Bayt.com and YouGov revealed that only 4% Egyptian respondents are actually satisfied with their current remuneration, with eight in 10 believe that the cost of living will continue to increase. The results of the Bayt.com MENA Salary Survey, May 2016, suggest that salaries are not keeping pace with the rising cost of living in Egypt. Also, the labour market of Egypt is dominated by the pervasive feature of informal employment, which neglects access to work contract and social insurance, hence contributing to creating discouraging work conditions and negative feelings toward the workplace.
If a careless environment may dampen your candidates’ enthusiasm, a positive workplace which ensures stable income and delineates legal terms is bound to improve job quality and retain the top talents who will positively shape your business.
If you think that having worked for a big company or pursued postgraduate studies in a well-known university is indicative of what your candidates are effectively able to do, think again.
Instead of scanning for relevant work experience and prestigious title, focus on the achievements, the recognition from others people, the references delivered by a teacher or the involvement in a particularly interesting project/activity pursued at a personal level.
Whether you are recruiting for a entry level or a senior position, you can also test your candidates’ skills and evaluate their potential by using Bayt.com Tests. You can confirm their skills choosing from 500 standardized questionnaire that cover a wide range of topics for professionals in major fields and industries, so that you can’t go wrong.
It is commonly acknowledged that youth have much more difficulties in finding a job than their adult counterparts. One of the biggest hurdles facing most job-seekers in Egypt is how to enter the labour market, and the little relation of vocational training in high school to labor market success is the heart of the problem. According to Bayt.com ‘Fresh Graduates in the Middle East and North Africa‘ survey, June 2014, 75% of respondents claim their college or university did not help them in identifying or applying for suitable job opportunities, while the 73% believe that there is low availability of jobs for fresh graduates in their country of residence.
On the other side, there is plenty of evidence to show that hiring fresh grads is beneficial for various reasons, as they are prone to challenge themselves in a new environment and model to the new culture altogether. In turn, the benefits of hiring fresh graduates over experienced workers include the opportunity to leverage a natural aptitude for innovation, engage with the leaders of tomorrow and welcome new perspectives – a breath of fresh air – within the company. Once you have them onboard, you can cultivate their raw talent with continuous training and on-the-job development opportunities, so that they can thrive and grow with you.
Did you like this blog post? What steps are you taking to find killer candidates in Egypt? Get in touch with our staff and tell us your story!
