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Is Your Management Performing?

Posted on 30th April 201930th April 2019 by The African Talent Company

The term management, according to Management Study HQ, is defined as a set of principles relating to the functions of planning, organizing, directing and controlling, and the application of these principles in harnessing physical, financial, human and informational resources efficiently and effectively to achieve organizational goals.

Management plays a significant role in your organization’s overall well-being, that’s why it should be handled with caution to avoid inefficiency. As management, one of your most important roles is to offer feedback, guidance, and support to your employees. Ineffective management leads to less productivity and low employee retention among other implications.

There are a number of factors that could result in your management style having a negative impact on your employees and the organization as a whole. These factors are, but not limited to: using the same approach on all your team instead of focusing on a customized individual approach, or lacking listening skills, lack of transparency or that you’re a poor communicator and inconsistent.

Effective Management Is An Art

Years of research have indicated that for the most part, people leave managers, not companies.

Effective management is an art – and in many cases, needs to be developed. BUT, what if you already have management in place, and are at a loss as to how to improve your layers of management within your organisation?

How To Avoid Poor Performance From Your Management

If you are struggling with identifying why your management is not performing, at TATC, we look at the critical areas of management and uncover what is missing – to enable you, to clearly articulate the areas of development required. The areas we look at are as follows:

At the management level, are you able to deliver work against a tight deadline through your team?
Are you working to improve the quality of your team’s output?
Are you able to motivate your team effectively?
Can you set a clear direction for your team?
Are you staying customer focused?
Are you able to work with other cross functions in order to achieve company strategy?
Are you able to inspire your team in order to generate relevant innovations that you can support and implement?

Final Thoughts On Management

As mentioned above, effective management is an art that needs to be developed; just like performance reviews for non-management employees, the same should apply to management.

A thorough management development framework should be part of your company’s strategy. It is pivotal to consistently and regularly keep developing and assessing your management staff, as their influence impacts their subordinates and the entire organization’s performance and success.

How has your experience in ensuring high performance among your team been so far? We would like to hear from you.

Why Do Your Team Leads Fail?

Posted on 25th April 201925th April 2019 by The African Talent Company

Team leads are individuals within the team, entrusted with driving team performance while guiding and motivating their teammates to meet shared goals. These individuals echo the team’s tone to management and also they act as a bridge between the team and higher level management.

The role of team leads is to guide and motivate team members to perform while you, the manager focus on developing important ways to move the business forward; but not all team leads fulfill this responsibility.

Team leads are your first level of management, and the transition is often difficult, from that of an individual team member to manager – and the essence of management which is probably the hardest job, is where your team leads most times actually fail.

Not Everyone Is A Manager

Management is a very complex process and not anyone can be a manager. For example, your sales rep may be good at all things selling and still fail to lead the team when assigned a managerial role.

Understanding that not everybody is supposed to be in management is key. There are technical specialists, who are exactly that, specialists in their own field, and do not want the burden of the management of others. Your team lead may be immensely experienced and exceptionally good at their individual tasks and yet lacks management skills to guide others.

How To Avoid Your Team Leads Failing

If you are struggling with identifying why your team leads fail, the first step is to clearly, from the outset, understand who has the potential to be a team lead. These aspects can be identified through TATC’s assessment process. Once you can identify the potential for management, TATC can comprehensively unpack the developmental areas required before the individual takes on the role of the team lead.

With regards to the development of your team leads, particularly staff that is already sitting in the team lead role, TATC also offers tailor-made solutions targeted at specific areas that need to be developed as opposed to a one-size-fits-all approach.

Final Thoughts On Team Leads

It is important to understand that as a manager, you can not do everything yourself. Hence, this is why it is important for you to delegate using team leads.

However, ensure you delegate tasks diligently based on not only skills and experience, but also leadership and managerial capabilities. Ensure that the individual you select as team leader has what it takes to accomplish their tasks and manage others simultaneously.

Do You Know Why Your Sales Team Is Not Performing?

Posted on 18th April 201925th April 2019 by The African Talent Company

Sales is the backbone of a company. Businesses depend on their sales team for growth, survival and sustainability. The sales environment is highly competitive; your team may have some exceptionally qualified sales professionals but still fail to perform because the deciding factor remains behavioural since qualifications do not determine that they can sell. What distinguishes your top sales professionals who stand out from those who don’t is their behaviour. Managing your sales team’s behaviour effectively is fundamental – it helps you to understand the types of salespeople on your team. A consistent structured behavioural management culture that focuses on improving performance, is a great starting point to get the most out of your team.

According to the Harvard Business Review (HBR), there are five different types of salespeople namely: Relationship Builders, Hard Workers, Lone Wolves, Reactive Problem Solvers and Challengers. HBR’s research further found that Challengers absolutely dominate as selling gets more complex and, 54% of all star reps in a solution-selling environment are Challengers. Do you know what type of salespeople you have?

Focus On Results Than Sales Behaviour

The main reason why your sales team is not performing is because of the common mistake of prioritising results over sales behaviour. When managing sales, sales managers tend to focus on results and forget about behaviours that influence sales. Technology has presented effective systems such as CRM, and through seamless use, you’re able to observe sales behaviour and measure in real time – that way you know what to address by carefully identifying and focusing on the necessary results you want to monitor, and then determine what behaviours will push those results.

Overall, it is imperative to constantly lookout for obstacles affecting your sales team’s performance by leveraging comprehensive and consistent behavioural management strategies to improve team performance and attaining both personal and organisational goals. Your behavioural management should also focus on producing sales professionals who are Challengers because as per research, they outperform all the other types.

Need Help With You Sales Team’s Performance?

Research available to us at TATC allows us to identify the gaps within your sales teams, providing you insights into developing the skills that Harvard Business Review have identified to take your sales team to the next level. For more information you can contact us here.

How Your Organization Handles Performance Management Matters

Posted on 10th April 201910th April 2019 by The African Talent Company

We recently came across a very insightful article by Forbes on LinkedIn titled, ‘Stop Tracking Employees And Start Inspiring Them’. Interesting? This had us thinking – how are African companies handling performance management?

Organizational culture is an important component of a workplace and is directly linked to factors such as performance management which it can greatly influence, both negatively or positively; hence how organizations conduct performance management matters because it impacts employee engagement, retention, productivity, and the company’s brand reputation as a whole. This is why traditional systems need to be revised and replaced with new customized methods that ensure performance evaluation is conducted in an efficient and effective way.

Traditional Appraisal Systems vs Effective Evaluation Systems

Traditional appraisal systems are rigid and tend to focus on ratings and shortcomings without providing necessary resources for improvement thus undermining personal growth. Yet, effective evaluation systems are learning-oriented, they delve into how to give and receive feedback through mediums such as coaching and mentorship. In turn, these elements create a conducive environment that allows employees to learn and flourish. Even in the current digital age where technology is revolutionising the workplace; the human resource still remains fundamental in achieving organizational success, therefore, effective performance evaluation systems ought to combine employees’ personal growth and organizational mission – because when executed rigorously, both employees and the organizations benefit significantly.

Healthy Regular Feedback Systems

Performance evaluation should be done comprehensively through healthy feedback systems that empower, inspire, lead and motivate staff as opposed to using holistic traditional methods. Inspired staff are more likely to be engaged and productive so how performance evaluation is conducted is pivotal. Secondly, it is important for feedback to be done regularly unlike once or twice a year because having such regular reviews is more effective and engaging. According to Forbes, “An overwhelming number of companies review their people infrequently, usually on an annual basis, and in a way that is not engaging or effective. Yet, engaging employees is crucial, especially with today’s multi-generational, technology driven and app savvy workforce.” Further to this, a study by ROAM Jobs, which comprises of BrighterMonday (East Africa) and Jobberman (West Africa) portals, found that millennials prefer regular frequent feedback as a way to keep them productive.

Final Thoughts on Performance Management

In conclusion, performance management should always be connected to the company’s strategy and treated as an on-going learning opportunity that encompasses a tailor-made approach as opposed to a one shoe size fits all controlled by traditional performance evaluation methods. It is not just about filling blank spaces on an appraisal form and ratings; but more about how evaluation is done; how feedback is conveyed and received, and how knowledge is shared. A more regular and frequent feedback approach is advisable alongside leveraging the technology revolution for effective and constructive performance management.

Welcome to Executive Recruitment, redefined.

Posted on 3rd April 201923rd April 2019 by The African Talent Company

We are The African Talent Company, also known as TATC. As a Pan-African brand, we pride ourselves in building Africa’s businesses with Africa’s own talent and we have carefully redesigned our service offerings to match Africa’s unique HR requirements. We now offer Fit For Purpose solutions, tailored to your bespoke HR needs.

Over the last year, we have grown our team of seasoned HR specialists across our respective geographies who are passionate about Africa’s growth and well-versed in understanding and solving the complex challenges in Africa today. Most importantly, we all at the TATC take pride in delivering the right people for the right job; thereby ensuring our clients’ growth and continued success in Africa.

Are you an employer? Have a look at our services, then connect with us today and we will help analyse your requirements, provide you with bespoke HR solutions and unlock the potential of your team.

Are you a highly qualified candidate? Make sure you follow our Jobs page, or visit our LinkedIn page, to get updated on exclusive high level jobs from premium employers.

3 elements to include in your talent sourcing strategy right now

Posted on 1st March 201919th March 2019 by The African Talent Company

Recruitment used to be painless.

HR managers simply drafted job descriptions with an application deadline and slapped it on a few job boards. Pronto, top candidates trooped in.

But now, let’s just say HR managers are feeling a little stressed.

The quantity of applicants hasn’t seen much drop, but the quality has taken an immense dive. Worldwide, 47% of companies say that very few qualified applicants indicate interest for the positions they have open. If you are an HR professional in Africa, that data point is nothing new.

In South Africa, 55% of surveyed recruiters indicated that high-quality candidates in limited talent pools is a major obstacle for their company.

Quality talent won’t be dropping into your laps.

That’s why your candidate sourcing strategy needs an upgrade. Like the halcyon days of posting simple job descriptions on job boards, the effectiveness of deploying run-of-the-mill strategies (like social sourcing, employee networks or outreach messages on LinkedIn) have declined.

To build a robust pipeline of quality talent for your company in 2017, use these often-ignored elements in your sourcing strategy:

Be on the same page with the hiring manager

Have a long conversation about your company culture, needs, what a strong candidate looks like and how those candidates will fit in at the company. If you are a hiring manager, then you should be having this conversation with your recruiter.

When any party in the recruitment process isn’t clear about the details, it’s easy for the resulting candidate pipeline to be anemic. All parties (CEO, hiring manager, and recruiter) should run some sample searches together to know why some candidates may or may not be a good fit for your company or the roles. Also, review existing talent pool to understand if perhaps the job requirements need to be eased or tightened.

As an extension of this strategy, ensure there is a full understanding of the company such that you can source for roles you don’t yet have open. This proactive approach to recruitment lets your company get ahead on roles you’ll need to hire for in the future.

Combine sourcing across offline, online and niche channels

It’s not unusual for companies to limit their talent sourcing exclusively to online channels or offline activities. Fifty-percent of recruiters submits that their first port of call to new talent is their professional network and another 28% say they turn to LinkedIn. But those are already overfished waters, talent wise.

If you want to reach the widest amount of quality candidates, deploy a blended approach. Look at less explored sources like specialized online gatherings like GitHub for developers or Dribble for design candidates. Those sort of industry-specific gatherings also exist offline in form of meet-ups. Attend those meetings and seed your business cards. If you don’t know where those meet-ups happen, rely on your existing talent by asking them where people with their skills set congregate.

Also, consider working with a recruiting outfit who already combine offline and online channels with tested HR technology trends.

Fix your retention strategy

When retention is on lock, then you won’t need to hire a lot and often. A hack to fixing retention is to, ab initio, hire professionals who will stay.

Only 37% of employees globally see themselves staying long-term at a company, for three or more years, according to LinkedIn’s 2016 Talent Trends report.

As LinkedIn questioned the data point, they discovered that there was one major difference between the 37% percent who will stay long term and the 63% who won’t. The professionals who stayed were purpose-oriented.

“Their primary motivation is using their work to advance a greater good, a higher cause, a mission they deemed worthy of working toward. In contrast, other professionals are motivated mainly by status — career advancement, prestige, and working for a hot brand [and money].” – LinkedIn.

In addition to sticking around for longer, these purpose-minded professionals are happier with their jobs.

As part of the sourcing process, therefore, bring on board only talent that are willing to play the long game. That way, you are not back on the recruitment mill after a few months.

Other ideas exist that your company can explore in sourcing talent, but these ideas should form the foundation of your sourcing strategy. If you go looking for talent without a clear idea of your company needs, it would only amount to a major time wasted. Also, combine online and offline sourcing platforms to maximize your reach, and finally, look out for talent that will stay for the long haul.

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The African Talent Company combines tested online and offline sourcing strategies with the latest HR technology trends and the understanding of the client’s needs to handpick the best professional talent for the best companies across Africa. We can help your company. Call or leave us a message to start.

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Give feedback to rejected candidates. Most companies don’t

Posted on 16th February 201919th March 2019 by The African Talent Company

Explore leadership options, increase employee engagement and increase your organization’s earnings with our HR Data Analytics insights. The African Talent Company works with top African brands to consult and place executive talent. Call or send us an email; hello@tatcafrica.com

Telling candidates they didn’t get the job they’ve worked so hard to get is a thankless job. So it’s understandable why hiring managers don’t send post-interview feedback to rejected candidates. It’s not as rewarding as say, calling a successful candidate over the phone and telling them how they aced the interview and can start at their earliest convenience.

But holding back feedback from unsuccessful candidates will send the wrong signals. It is harmful the candidate and your company, even more so with executive recruitment.

Think back to the time you tried applying to a company. Imagine the hard work and grueling preparation for the interviews and tests. And to do all that with no feedback in whatever form or shade?

Crushing!

In the hypothetical case that involves you as the candidate, it would have helped your continued search if you got feedback from the company on how you performed and where to improve.

The idea of giving feedback is not simply for the candidate’s morale, however.

As the saying goes: “hurt people hurt people.”

It’s likely that a candidate who did not receive any feedback from your company will be inclined to speak ill of it, affecting your employer brand negatively.

A Twitter rage about your company framing you as an unresponsive and unprofessional employer could effectively repel top candidate from your brand.

Plus, a fair percentage of your rejected candidates will be near-misses; dropped because another candidate marginally bettered them. To have a positive interaction with these near-misses is to populate a robust pipeline of talent you can reach out to hire in the future.

Where you have soured that relationship from the beginning, it will be harder to restart those conversations.

Rather than risk creating a firestorm of criticism for your company, provide honest feedback to candidates that will turn them into your ambassadors.

How to give post-interview feedback

Get on the phone. This is the first and most important guide to giving helpful feedback. A generic email or text message won’t cut it.

Most employers don’t give feedback because they suspect they only have negative commentaries to dispense. They are only partly right. There are highlights from the interviews and specific skills that the HR can point to. That is usually a good place to start the feedback conversation.

When you get on the phone to speak with them, start with these constructive insights about their skills, knowledge and slowly work your way into letting them what they need to improve.

Also, be specific in your feedback. Rather than saying “You were brilliant,” say “We liked how you analyzed our strategy document for 2017 and pointed out those leakages.”

Overall, treat the candidate with respect. This involves being genuine and appreciative.

Conclusion

The recommendation above is intensive and will consume valuable man hours. That is why I will recommend you only go in this direction for candidates that came second, third or fourth place. For other rejected candidates you may not be able to call, send, at least, a gently worded and concise feedback that will help them retain goodwill for your company.

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The African Talent Company works with top African brands to source and recruit executive talent. Call or send us an email; hello@tatcafrica.com

Confronted with an automated future, African companies need to get creative

Posted on 7th February 201919th March 2019 by The African Talent Company

Different strokes. The risk of jobs being taken over by technology / automation varies by country. It’s different strokes for different folks. In Africa, the range varies from 65% in Nigeria to 85% in Ethiopia and it is reasonable that as much as 64% of a Citi Research respondents [PDF] believe automation will lead to major challenges – especially with respect to labour and wealth distribution.

The scope of automation is widening and adoption is speeding up. Mainly because of the advancements in Machine Learning technology, including Data Mining, Machine Vision, Computational Statistics and other subfields of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Computer and automation rigs are able to process larger data sets with more speed and accuracy and in turn, are making an economic case for more companies to deploy them.

Despite previous conclusions that non-routine jobs are not at risk of automation, these trends in data processing render such assurances shaky at best.

Work Fusion, for instance, a US-based software company, sells software to automate non-routine tasks which were previously cocooned from the reach of automation.

What the software does is simple, yet it puts all jobs at risk of future automation. The software divides specific non-routine jobs into smaller routine tasks, automates the routine aspects of the job and then recruits freelance workers for the non-routine aspects. As the freelancers work, the software monitors and learn from them, meaning that as time progresses, the machine will automate more of the non-routine tasks. The freelancers, essentially, are working themselves out of the system.

Careers are wont to be more disrupted than at any other point in the past and confronted with this reality, individuals and companies have some choices to make if they are to stay relevant in the rising dispensation.

In the movie, Hidden Figures; that paean to black ingenuity and specifically the uncelebrated strength of three African American female mathematicians at the mid-60s’ NASA, Dorothy Vaughan (played by Octavia Spencer) started a guerrilla FORTRAN training for the 30-odd colored ladies who previously were only adept at typewriting. Dorothy started this training regimen after she learned of the impending installation of an IBM 7090 electronic computer that could replace her co-workers at the NASA complex, with an understanding that though the IBM is faster, it would need humans to code it. When the time came for the machine to start firing on all cylinders, the colored ladies were ready to colonize the punch cards.

There was a smooth transition.

Like in the 60s with the introduction of faster, more capable computers, a talent mismatch already exists. Automation and robotics need specific human effort to work. This shortage of skills is one of the barriers to widespread adoption of automation and robotics.

As more skilled workers lose their job to automation across Africa, they will take up lower-skilled jobs that might lead to lower living standards. Early retraining, on the other hand, will prepare humans for a future powered by machines – which will increase the value of human effort and drive rapid economic progress.

A 2014 study by UK charity Nesta [PDF] found that for both UK and the US, almost 90% of creative jobs are at low or no risk of automation. This is mostly because creative jobs need a high level of perception, manipulation, creative intelligence, and social intelligence to carry out. These also happen to be the most profound bottlenecks to automation.

While the advancement of automation and robotics may be slower in Africa, the adoption is inevitable. Companies and individuals that have up-skilled in the creative aspects of their industry are more likely to be insulated from the effects of automation.

Not unlike Dorothy Vaughan, African companies from Yaba in Nigeria, to Ngong Road in Nairobi, need to acquire growth models that make them relevant in the future by training its existing workforce for this future.

HR professionals need to stop asking these questions

Posted on 7th January 201919th March 2019 by The African Talent Company

When HR professionals sit to discuss ideas on streamlining our hiring process, one of the conversations that inevitably crops up is on new questions that can help us get a better look at the inner workings of our candidates.

But HR professionals in our clime rarely discuss the questions not to ask at interviews.

Primal decency demands some questions are out of line during interviews. “What’s your tribe?” for instance. The answer to this question has no bearing on whether or not an individual can deliver on tasks and work in teams. For the purpose of this article, I won’t be going over the clearly offensive and discriminatory questions such as the example above, but only debunking some that are more popular in interview halls.

You may wonder, “why should I bother about the question I ask? Whether it’s biased or otherwise? I’m the one giving out the job, am I not?” It’s very well to think that, but the last thing you want as a recruiter is having top talent walk away from your company because they felt uncomfortable, discriminated against or even worse, because they surmised the company has the wrong priorities as illustrated by the sort of question the HR asked.

Even when your intentions are harmless, mark these questions off your interview list if you are serious about funneling in top talent into your company.

1: What did you hate most about your last job?

Your intention might be to learn what they value in a job or perhaps learn things that might inform your future interactions with them. The unwitting consequence is that for candidates who lack good sense, they will rattle on about the many negatives in their old company. For those are more prudent, they may simply refuse to say anything they hate about that company. In the final analyses, chances are, you won’t be learning anything useful from asking this questions.

A better alternative question might be: “What do you most enjoy about working on projects or in teams?”

2: Do you have kids or plan to have kids?

This question and others in its general vicinity like; “are you married?” are not just personal but discriminatory. The reasons why HR professionals ask them are not hard to tease out. Most of us have had experiences with employees with kids who arrive work late, take a lot of off days, close early, not deliver on time etc. Fundamentally, though, not all employees with kids make these demands. This question doesn’t put the candidate at ease, and might lead them to think you would overlook them because you believe they will be distracted by family. In that case, they might simply leave your interview hall and straight to the corner office at an employer who knew not to ask that question.

A better alternative question might be: “You may be required to work overtime sometimes, will this be a challenge?”

3: What is your greatest weakness?

This one has been around forever. The question had validity for its first few seasons in the interview hall. People answered genuinely and unbarred the contents of their workplace weakness. But candidates have gotten smarter, thanks to Google. Most candidates now simply pick a strength they are averagely good at and claim to be working on it. In the long run, you at the other side of the table will not learn anything from asking this question.

A better alternative question might be: “What leadership skill have you tried to improve over the past few years?”

4: Do you drink or smoke?

I have had recruiters argue over this. For one recruiter, her reason for asking this question was because it’s a culture element where they needed people who could fit in and have good fun. In their line of business, networking was key and there is a lot of Friday night hanging out involved. However, asking such straitjacket question at this ignores the possibility that while the candidate might not smoke, she might be comfortable around such an event and might even help clients explore other ways to have fun.

Even when the organization has a no-smoking policy, company culture documents are made to let employees know what’s permissible and what’s not. To ask a discriminatory question such as this at the interviews is to possibly deny your company of top talent.

A better alternative question could be simply: “how do you have fun?”

For most HR professionals reading this, alarm bells going off would be “how then do we know they are a culture fit. If we recruited someone only to fire them few months in because they couldn’t fit culturally, what then?” It’s understandable that we don’t want to go through the recruitment process endlessly for the same role, but coming right out and asking these questions is not good sense. One of the more wholesome ways to learn some of the things we can’t learn from interviews is through background checks. The background lookup on top executive talent is one of our fortes at The African Talent Company. In our experience working for brands across Africa, these background lookups are better poised to provide a more objective outlook on the person of the candidate. Sometimes, they even throw up pleasant surprises.

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The power to pinpoint talents, explore leadership options, increase employee engagement and increase your organization’s earnings reside in HR Data analytics. Know your human resource and know how to make the best of them. The African Talent Company can help. Call or drop us an email.

90% of companies don’t have a Staff Demand Planning Plan. Here’s why it’s important for you

Posted on 2nd January 201919th March 2019 by The African Talent Company

Efficient companies are an operational marvel. A cluster of independent-minded people, trained in different contexts, with diverging personal goals and deep-seated fears – yet united in the mission presented by a business.

The harmonious function of this body of individuals ensures that sales targets are being met, shareholders are getting their dividends, the government is happy with company adherence to industry code and the world is generally made better because the company’s product is always on the shelf.

But this immaculate state of affairs could fly down the tube very quickly – and often does – when one screw comes loose in the delicate compilation of levers that drive this operational contraption.

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The African Talent Company works with top African brands to source and recruit executive talent. Call or send us an email; hello@tatcafrica.com

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Before a lot of things that immediately come to mind, the most potent danger to the smooth functioning of a workforce is a mismatch in business needs and the staffing situation.

Let’s take a quick stroll to Hygiene Company X (HCX for short). Every week, HCX sees a spike in store visits from Thursday through to Sunday. People love to buy their hygiene supplies on the weekend. However, the management at HCX never sees it fit to increase the staffing capacity on the peak days – leading to long queues, burnt-out store attendants, irritable customers and don’t forget “poor staff performance” that might lead the HR to suspend some staffers and fire some more.

“Poor staff performance” – in quotations because the staffers are not performing poorly but have only been stretched beyond their limit.

The scenario that has played out in the case of HCX (suffice to say, one of the more obvious and simplistic version of this) is the sad fallout of the lack of a manning plan.

A manning plan is an element of workforce planning that outlines procedures that aligns the business objectives with the talent capacity needed to achieve those objectives.

The manning process outlines the different phases of talent acquisition, deployment, and management. For how long the staff needs to train before he starts generating profit for the company. What quality of work the company should expect from a new talent after a certain timeline.

A manning plan is important because …

This is important to ensure the long-term success of your company (i.e: profitability).

Were HCX to have a proper manning process, they would have known to have a pipeline of contract employees that will check-in from Thursday through to Sunday and check out for the rest of the week. With this arrangement, odds are good that everyone will be happy. The systematic unpleasantness of the store staff will be stemmed, the HR won’t have to fire anyone for “poor performance” and the fine people who have come to pick hygiene supplies will leave happier ready to give a good review on Twitter.

In most cases, the development, deployment, and impact of a manning plan are more nuanced unlike I have painted above.

Perhaps our hygiene company wants to start providing artisanal hygiene services for pets – a new service very different from their existing one which focuses on humans. Evidently, there is a new set of skillsets involved here. There are new objectives the business will set for customer satisfaction, work quality and profitability.

HCX would do well to outline a fresh list of talent to bring on board. Alternatively, HCX would create a process to build animal care capacity within its existing workforce and transition them into the new business.

In a universe where the alternative is being considered, who would take care of the work left behind by the workforce transitioned into the animal arm of the business?

A manning plan answers these questions. If no answers exist, the business will crash, burn and its flimsy ash will be lost in nothingness.

Businesses that last are scientific about how they bring on talent, when they bring on talent and when the talent begins to pull their own weight. Driven by a business plan, businesses should outline talent needs and set a plan in motion to recruit per their growth projections with allowance for training and immersion.

A manning plan illustrates a business with a vision.

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Your business survival is riding on the right manning process. Don’t leave your business growth to wild guesses, untested assumptions and the mood in which you wake up. Draw up a manning plan that puts your business growth front, center and provides talent recommendations that sync with your goals. We can help. The African Talent Company works with top African brands to source and recruit executive talent. Call or send us an email; hello@tatcafrica.com