The exodus of Nigerians to other countries is forcing employers to embrace what it called ‘i-deals’, a non-standard work model, to combat the difficulties of attracting and retaining talent, a new research paper shows.
Many Nigerians have relocated to the United Kingdom, Canada and United States, among others, in recent years in search of greener pastures, a development that is popularly called ‘japa’ (a Yoruba word for “run quickly”).
The research paper, titled, ‘Temporal contexts and actors vis-a-vis i-deals’ timing and creation: Evidence from Nigeria’, is authored by Dotun Ayeni, a doctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh Business School, in collaboration with Sara Chaudhry, a senior lecturer at the Birkbeck University of London; and Maryam Aldosari, senior lecturer at Aston Business School.
“Our multicase research shows that i-deals offer employers a platform to design more innovative policies to enhance their value proposition,” Ayeni said.
However, she said only employers who give a chance to i-deals will reap the benefits.
I-deals, a short word for idiosyncratic deals, are personalised and non-standard employment arrangements negotiated between employees and their employers that arise at different stages of the employment lifecycle. They can vary by timing, such as those created before hire versus after hire.
The onus is on employers to create a culture where employees understand the organisation’s position on non-standard employment arrangements such as special flexibility arrangements (including time and place flexibility), personal training opportunities, non-standard pay, unique employee benefits and others, said Aldossari.
The research also revealed that from an interview with 62 employees from three industries (capital market, medical and advertising industry) employing over 375 people, more than 97 percent indicated awareness of an increase in employees negotiating idiosyncratic deals, a concept hitherto rare.
“It started from 2016, when we began to experience as an organisation, and as a country, a lot of employees leaving organisations and going abroad,” said an i-dealer and manager at a capital market firm.
“So obviously, we had to look inwards and change how we were going about things. We have tried as much as possible to be more accommodating in terms of people coming in and the requests they are making’,” she said.
A senior medical practitioner at a dental clinic said: “When you get like five people saying, ‘I want a letter of reference to Canada’; you (should) know that you need to do something.”
BusinessDay had earlier reported that employers were adopting several attraction and retention strategies in order to ensure the stability and sustainability of their businesses.
Some of the strategies are job shadowing (on-the-job training from a more experienced colleague), reward systems and second work arrangements (employees work for half salary when a replacement is found).
“Companies have realised that people are leaving at a very frequent rate, which is causing gaps in their organisational structure,” said Jennifer Oyelade, director of Transquisite Consulting, a UK and Nigerian registered recruitment and training consultancy.
“They need to find ways to fill that gap in order to maintain the stability of the businesses.”
The economic hardship in Africa’s biggest economy is forcing many Nigerians, especially the youths, to leave the country in droves.
And one of the ways they are leaving is through study visas in countries like Canada and the United Kingdom. These countries, especially the UK, have been aggressive in attracting talent to fill their vacant job roles.
In June 2022, a total of 65,929 sponsored study visas (scholarships) were granted to Nigerians by the UK, a 686 percent increase from 8,384 in 2019.
The number of study permits granted by Canada to Nigerians increased by 30.3 percent to 13,745 in 2021 from 10,550 in 2020.
Data from the Africa Polling Institute also shows that 73 percent of Nigerians were looking to emigrate with their families in 2021, a 41 percent increase compared to 2019.
“As highly skilled Nigerians move abroad to seek education, job opportunities and better living standards, the competition for employers is not only giant multinational corporations entering the market, but wealthy nations looking to entice Nigeria’s best and brightest,” Ayeni said.
She said Nigerian employers have a chance to revisit their policies and practices by listening more closely and learning from what employees are requesting.
