When recruitment for employees becomes tricky

As new graduates are unleashed into this market, it becomes even more difficult to find readily available jobs! Whereas many are encouraged to become job creators instead of job seekers, it is at the government offices that many candidates will be dropping their application letters plus curriculum vitae. The recruitment process can be quite cumbersome and indeed could leave many candidates bitter and frustrated.Aggrey and I were once real employers and we once headed straight to a famous joint to carry out a recruitment process for our business. That was during the mid 90s when Aggrey and I were running a bar in Kicuciro! The name of our business was “Tip-Top bar”. Aggrey and I were the shareholders as well as the Board members. In fact, we also were the Managers of this Kicuciro joint, whose main services were to sell frothy products from Bralirwa. This joint was created to answer a couple of questions. One of the questions at hand related to the fact that peoples’ throats were constantly dry and rusty. That is why they needed to have substantial doses of Bralirwa products. In other words, Tip Top was designed to turn well respected persons of society into real drunkards. Those men of society were supposed to enter Tip Top joint in a well composed fashion, but return to their homes staggering and singing praises to their creator. Well, once the idea had now been well conceived and acted upon, we sat down to strategize. How were we going to achieve our goals of changing upright thinking human beings into cabbages? Although it was evident that products from Bralirwa would serve this purpose, it was the “how” and not the “what” that bothered us so much. We had to figure out a way on how to maximize profits by having our clients dip their fingers in their pockets to pull out bundles of white and green crispy dollar notes! There could be one way only. Employ staff wisely. So, Aggrey and I went on for a headhunting spree. During the mid 90s, the night club labor market was in the advanced stage That is why we found ourselves heading towards a night club named Vertigo. Sometimes, we referred to it as La Villa. We had been told about this hot spot, being a favorite joint for foreigners. Most of them were expatriates or heads of NGOs. This is where the real cash was. And this is where the ladies hanged around in hopes of hooking up with an expatriate, who would possibly fulfill her dreams of getting her that most sought for visa for Canada. Since we could not offer visas for Canada or Belgium, we tried to convince some of these ladies to come and work for us at Tip Top Joint in exchange for real dollars. Some of the ladies shunned us. But some desperate ones agreed to consider our offer. So, amid the loud booming disco music and thick cigar smoke, we managed to shortlist four desperate candidates for the job. The conditions for winning were that the candidate had to show the ability to communicate in both English and French. The recruitment process had already begun! After rounds of verbal interviews, in which the candidates rapped in very broken English and “torn” French, we confirmed the candidates and asked them to report to work the next day. It was the following day that we realized how true the following phrase can be; Good from far but far from good. When these candidates arrived at Tip Top Joint, we were shocked to the core. Not only were they very ugly; they were somewhere into their late forties! Indeed, the disco lights of Vertigo had completely fooled our eyes! So, be very careful when you go out recruiting for staff! diaspoman@yahoo.com