Attracting talent from the 'global south': Are you doing enough?

Contextual understanding, successful partnerships and experience are the currency of international development work, so it’s no wonder development organizations are looking to move their headquarters to the “global south” and increasingly seeking to hire professionals from the regions where work is being carried out. Interestingly, an increasing number of professionals from developing countries are expressing interest in working for international development organizations. This trend was confirmed by the findings of an online Devex survey, “Attracting Talent from the Global South,” in which respondents from the global south were asked about their interest in working for an international development organization. An overwhelming majority of survey participants — 93 percent — responded positively, with 80 percent saying to have acted on their interest by applying to a position abroad. Beyond these broad positive trends, however, is a more nuanced picture: Despite their strong interest, 20 percent of skilled professionals from the global south have never applied to an international staffing position. So what are the obstacles still undermining the confidence of one-fifth of global south professionals surveyed, and how can international development organizations give them the nudge they need to try their luck at an international career? Here are a few things every organization should consider doing to attract more talent from developing countries. Promote equal opportunity for all The survey uncovered that professionals from the global south are more likely to apply for an international position if they believe that there is equal opportunity for all applicants through a merit-based selection process. Creating and promoting equal opportunity for all is a multidimensional process. It requires organizations to initiate a wide variety of regulations and behaviors aimed at ensuring that every individual is given scrupulously fair consideration for any job for which they are qualified. But one essential way to achieve this goal is to enhance workplace diversity. When organizations demonstrate proactive recruitment efforts that focus on increasing diversity, the foundations for a wider and more equitable distribution of opportunities are laid down. And the principle of diversity should not only be affirmed in organizational structure, staff regulations and recruitment policies — it should especially be solidly embedded in hiring practices. “A good understanding by hiring managers of the advantages of having a diverse team is the most effective measure to ensure an enabling work environment in which everyone can deploy and develop his or her competencies,” Rolf Schaller, chief of mobility and staffing at UNICEF headquarters, explained to Devex. “This in turn will attract and encourage talent, including talent from the South, to apply.” Streamline the application process First impressions truly make a difference. What happens during the application and recruitment processes will determine how applicants view an organization on the short and medium terms. Fifty-one percent of surveyed global south professionals pinpointed long, tedious and confusing application processes as deterrents to applying to international staffing positions. This damages the potential of international development organizations to attract more staff from the global south. “A lot of international development organizations have very complicated application processes, which are all so automated and impersonal. This can be particularly discouraging,” Samuel Gichuki, international staffing specialist at World Vision International, told Devex. “Also, feedback can be hard to get, or too technical to be helpful.” There is no one-size-fits-all approach organizations can use to fine-tune and streamline their recruitment procedures. But the absence of any quick fix also means organizations can look into endless possibilities to tweak, refine and simplify their application processes. For instance, monitoring recruitment practices and engagement trends in other sectors can be a good source of inspiration for international development organizations. As Jenny Brady, resource manager at Crown Agents, noted, “private sector practices are often finely honed and highly streamlined. They can be extremely valuable [to international development organizations] for their efficiency lessons.” Demonstrate flexibility in staffing criteria To avoid an overflow of unqualified or underqualified candidates, organizations often impose tight and intricate eligibility requirements. This is confirmed by the Devex survey, in which 46 percent of respondents flagged steep eligibility requirements — related to skills, past experience and education — as a major hindrance to applying for global vacancies. Strict qualifications are a necessary evil to attract the most suitable profiles for a position. But organizations must pay attention not to create hidden biases in the application and recruitment processes that could mislead qualified professionals from the global south into systematically thinking that they don’t fulfill the selection criteria. Creating barrier-free job descriptions is thus key in prompting more talent from developing countries to apply, one recruitment specialist noted. Some simple yet effective solutions that organizations can adopt is to separate essential and nonessential qualifications, focus on a need instead of how it will be achieved, and ask for qualities in lieu of a specific credential. When necessary, organizations should also consider acknowledging local and regional realities, and the potential capabilities or limitations they generate for professionals from the global south. A large proportion of the vacancies organizations seek to fill are high-level positions that require longer lengths of experience, Brady noted. This can be a serious disadvantage for candidates from developing countries, because opportunities for young development professionals from the global south to get their feet in the door and start building up experience can be rare and challenging to find. “A hard line of 10 years’ experience may be reasonable when recruiting U.K. candidates. But I think that informed judgment is vital when trying to attract more applicants from the developing world,” Brady told Devex. But exercising flexibility is only a short-term solution. In the long run, organizations should help shape and develop the seasoned global south professionals of tomorrow. “Donor agencies and international development organizations do need to look at how they can help build the high-level professionals of tomorrow through lower and midlevel opportunities today,” Brady stressed. Address negative opinions The various international development organizations we interviewed underscored the importance of global south professionals for their capabilities, and expressed a desire to recruit more talent from developing countries. In fact, every aid group noted that they were already carrying out diversity and inclusion efforts. In the survey, however, 52 percent of professionals from developing countries conveyed their impression that they needed to know the right people to even be considered for an international position. That organizations favor professionals from the “global north,” choose candidates in a nontransparent way and hire through closed connections are just some of the opinions respondents noted to express their belief that organizations do not practice what they preach. One obvious way organizations can avoid and address reputational problems is by making sure that the reality of their workplace is aligned with the values they promote. Workplace transparency exists whether organizations embrace it or not, and potential candidates are highly likely to use their networks to gain insight into the real picture of the workplace. “If your organization promotes diversity, it’s not enough for you to say ‘we encourage people of all ages, genders and nationalities to apply.’ What is most important is if people will actually see diversity when walking into your office,” Gichuki observed. Motivating and engaging existing workforce from the global south is essential to dispel myths. Through positive testimonials, employees from developing countries can be a powerful voice and source of motivation for other potential candidates. And organizations shouldn’t underestimate the value of conducting “traditional” reach-out activities. By enabling organizations to meet candidates and directly address their concerns, career fairs and networking events are extremely helpful in assessing and rebutting misperceptions circulating around. “For a lot of people in the global south, the one-on-one connection beats anything that can be said on the Internet,” Gichuki explained. “We leave a lot of things to the Internet and automation, and immediately think that everybody, at a click of a button, will get the right information and idea. That is simply not true. You can spend millions of dollars building a brand and an image of equal opportunity for all, but as long as people don’t feel you are connecting with them, they are not going to believe you.” Recognizing the importance of face-to-face interaction, Devex has hosted more than a dozen career fairs and partnerships forums in cities across the globe, such as New York, Washington, D.C., London, Brussels, Nairobi and soon, Manila — which is still open for registration. Improve dissemination of information Some respondents to the survey mentioned lack of awareness and information as a major hurdle in their ability to apply to international vacancies. Organizations could benefit from increased effort in making vacancies known to potential candidates from the global south. Today, international development organizations focus the bulk of their information dissemination activities online — and rightly so. Qualified professionals from the global south strongly depend on the Internet to search for jobs, and open positions can be pushed forward to a wide range of audiences. “When we advertise announcements, we like using international websites to have a global reach,” a recruiter at World Food Program explained. “But the Internet also enables us to target candidates from specific regions through the use of regional or local channels.” Specialized websites and job boards, which aim to provide a comprehensive overview of vacancies available in a certain work field, should be organizations’ communication channel of choice to attract more talent from the global south. As a matter of fact, 85 percent of surveyed professionals said the Devex job board is their go-to platform when on the look-out for career opportunities in global development. Interestingly, the survey found that social media was a tool less frequently used by global south professionals, with only 25 percent of survey participants employing it to search jobs. But as its importance grows, social media is extremely useful for international development organizations to raise awareness about the work they do, the sectors they are active in or the type of jobs they offer. “We are making the most of social media — we are on Facebook, Twitter [and] LinkedIn. And this has clearly had a positive impact on our branding image and recruitment activities,” Roberto Amorosino, senior recruitment officer at the World Bank, emphasized. Finally, organizations should extend efforts beyond standard online presence. The value of getting the word out through more traditional means — such as personal and professional networks and events — should not be underestimated, as it plays a unique and compelling role in sharing opportunities and building candidates’ confidence to apply. Leveraging our extensive network of over 600,000 development professionals, Devex distributed the survey to highly qualified development practitioners from the Global South. Of the over 900 respondents 47 percent were from Sub-Saharan Africa and were highly qualified, 84 percent holding a master’s degree or higher and 48 percent indicating that they are speaking three or more languages fluently. Interested in development in the Asia-Pacific region? Join some of the biggest movers and shakers in the region at the first-ever Devex Partnerships & Career Forum in Manila. Here’s how you can participate.