Nigeria’s economy is bleeding and leaving little opportunities for millions of job seekers to earn a living.
The country’s unemployment rate was reported at 23.132 percent as of September 2018 and is projected to hit 33.5 percent by 2020. Analysts have said the only way forward is to create an enabling environment that unlocks private investment.
Apart from economy induced insufficiency, unemployment is also driven by tedious access to available job offers. Prior to the digital era, individual companies handled their recruitment 100 percent mainly through manual processes. Human errors and bureaucracy made it difficult for the best talents to be employed and therefore alienated thousands of potential best recruits.
Nigeria produces about 500,000 graduates come out of Nigerian universities every year. By 2050, the country’s population is expected to reach 400 million, meaning that many more graduates will join the labour market jostling for the limited spaces.
The age of digital technology is likely to be the best buffer against what looks like a looming epidemic. Besides helping budding entrepreneurs set up new businesses, digital technology through online recruitment has democratized job search and helped employers find suitable fits for their companies. Online recruitment has become the easiest route to locate potential job opportunities for millions of people who have tapped into the mobile phone revolution.
Recruitment allows for immediate real-time interaction and 24/7 hiring and job search activity. Employers can post a job in as little as 20 minutes on a career site with no limits to ad size and start receiving CVS in response immediately. They also do much more than that.
Getajobng. com was recently launched by C&I Leasing as a specialised talent marketplace, connecting companies – big and small – to the best talent available. Described as the ‘Airbnb’ for human capital development, getajobng is employee centric. Job seekers on the platform are not only provided access to positions they are best suited for, but they are also prepared ahead for the positions as well.
“More than ever before, recruiters want to fill positions easily, quickly and cost-effectively, shortlist great talents and test out their compatibility with the job,” Andrew Otike- Odibi, managing director and chief executive officer, C&I Leasing Plc. “They don’t want to spend time sorting heaps of applications for candidates who are not the right fit for their vacancies.”
“Candidates, on the other hand, need a platform that provides them with current, direct and authentic job vacancies. They are looking for an online platform that delivers a quick response on applications, easy, short application processes and alert notifications on relevant jobs. A career fair targeted mainly at job seekers is therefore in the works, as we seek to open new employment opportunities for thousands across the country and continent.”
Beyond job seekers, getajobng is also targeted at professionals who are not actively looking for a job but would move if the opportunity being offered is challenging enough.
Otike- Odibi whose company C& I Leasing has been in the HR space for 20 years, said finding professionals with suitable skills can be very difficult for most organisations. Thus, many of them spend enormous resources trying to train new recruits only to have them leave after a very short stint. Millennials are the most mobile workforce any organisation can manage, hence learning how to get the best out of them because very imperative.
Amina Oyagbola, founder of Women in Successful Careers, said the key to keeping millennials is for recruiters to merge talent acquisition with business goals.
“Define the business need; for the role and objectives of the recruitment,” Oyagbola said. “Develop and agree on a job description outlining the skills and attributes. Adopt a structured and faster-hiring process.”
