‘Serious consultants don’t need to see 4,000 applicants physically’

Any justification for charging job seekers money for application forms?

It is not proper to collect money from candidates seeking employment. In recruitment process, you should not allow this kind of number as was witnessed in the recent immigration exercise. Well, that is what happens when you make people pay for something. They will see it as their right, even if means going beyond the limit. When you make them to pay, then you have a duty as a consultant to make space for the people that you have collected money from. Things are not done this shoddy way.

 We’re told they employed the services of consultants. But the issue now is the quality of such consultants?

You know part of the problem in human resource consulting is that there are no barriers to entry for supposed practitioners like they have in institutions like ICAN where you have to take an examination and all that. The bias to entry is a bit low in the consulting sector.

I am even apportioning some blame to the consultant that handled the immigration exercise. The consultant should have known better and used technology couple with proper planning to be able to shortlist candidates, thereby avoiding the incident that just happened.

I don’t know why the racketeering of employment is prevalent in Nigeria, but it is wrong, it’s not proper and I am very glad that the Federal Government has come out to cancel that exercise out rightly. I believe this is a signal to other government parastatals to avoid this kind of situation. In the light of what just happened, I don’t think this trend would continue.

I want to reiterate that going forward, government should throw open the process, let consultants bid and pay for it in the normal government procurement process. Let the consultant bid for it and demonstrate their competence to be able to handle the numbers, show how they are going to do the job without needing to collect money from candidates.

Best method government agencies and parastatals should adopt in conducting recruitment exercise

When government needs to fill more senior positions in its parastatals, it uses reputable consultants to achieve such.

I am saying that when they want to fill positions in more junior levels, they should do the same thing by working hand in hand with consultants. Reputable consultants have proprietary tools with which they use to shortlist. A serious consultant worth its salt does not need to see thousands of people physically. If there are 4,000 positions, it is the duty of the consultant to shortlist those needed to be invited for interview in a manageable number. Even if there are one million applications, there is a way to reduce it through technology.

 What is the trend abroad?

In developed countries, the trend of recruitment is very smooth. This is so because government recognises that there are professionals who are experts in the area of recruitment so they ultilise them in situation like this.

This shoddy recruitment process is a Nigeria thing, and I say it is wrong. I read in the newspapers the amount of money that the immigration people collected for that exercise. This is huge money. I would be very interested to know who collected the money and what the money is being used for. I think government should be very interested to know where that money is.

KELECHI EWUZIE