Author name: crawpadm

Disruption to the traditional education methods or are you imagining what the hiring process will look like in the coming years? For me, it’s all of the above. The world is changing and evolving, and so is the world of work and the requirements for getting certain jobs. For instance, what would it profit a young graduate after graduating with an accounting degree but cannot use any accounting software? The world of today is in need of practical solutions and that is why people who can provide these solutions are sort after. This is the reason I encourage young Africans to develop relevant skills that can set them apart and prepare them to compete globally. A university degree is fantastic, get it while you can. It can give you a head start in your chosen career. But you know what they say about hard work beats talent if talent doesn’t work? Now more than ever, the advancement of technology has made it easy for people to get jobs regardless of whether they have a degree or not. The world is getting skilled up, do not be left out! What was your first thought reading this?

Collaboration amongst virtual teams seems to be a daunting task for most organizations. I don’t particularly blame them, this is one of the many challenges we have all dealt with at different stages in our work-from-home or new hybrid work patterns. I find having smart tools to be an effective way we have deployed in my own organization to foster collaboration among our teams. In addition to this, crystal-clear communication will take the lead. There is nothing clearer than having business goals clearly defined, assigned, and communicated to employees. This will block out any uncertainty, and allow employees to direct their own work. Know who, when, and how to collaborate efficiently. Turning on videos: As simple as this sounds, I have found it useful. It is my own simple trick of ensuring I remain in the present and collaborate in real time with my team. What are the mechanisms for collaboration in your own organization? Feel free to share…

I see a lot of you struggling with interviewing. This is why personally when I am recruiting, I just tell the candidates, I am inviting you for a chat 😊 relax and let’s just talk… In this article, I have shared 5 tips that can help you better prepare for interviews… Know yourself. As one of the women I love dearly used to say, “to thyself be true.” Know about the role. Know about the company. Know their industry. Know their competitor: Take them to school about what their competitors are doing and let them go green with envy. 😅 Prepare stories around your strength that will allow you answer any questions no matter the angle. Practice, practice… Switch on your confidence game and go impression them!! I know there are many interviewing tips, please add yours…

The workplace culture is evolving very rapidly. This is partly attributed to the fact that there are 3 active different generations present in today’s workforce. Each generation has a very clear difference in what attracts, motivates and retains them.. Intentionally designing and controlling an organization culture is very paramount to the sustainability of every organization. A toxic workplace culture is enough to shut down the motivation of its employees among other things. Studies have linked a toxic work culture to have a negative effect on the psychological well-being of employees. As HR Professionals and Business Leaders, we must strive to ensure our org culture is: Conducive. Give room for learning and growth. Encourage creativity. Empathetic. Life is already pretty complicated. Let’s not add a toxic work culture to the reasons employees can’t sleep at night. Have an amazing week…

I love that the gig economy is growing. As progressive as this article sounds, for me it doesn’t address the real issue. Women shouldn’t be forced out of the workplace because they have to take the brunt of an unplanned pandemic or for having to be the gender that needs to babysit. I don’t want the gig economy to grow at the expense of women being out of the workplace because organizations failed to be flexible and make effort to retain more women in the workplace. Business Leaders and HR Professionals need to make the workplace more conducive for women to thrive in it, not out of it. Flexibility is good, I live for flexibility but what if women want that in the workplace as full-time employees? I know it’s a bit of a touchy topic, so I am open to reading more diverse views on this.

Dear Professional, Explain the GAP!!! Make it your duty to nicely explain the gaps in your career on your resume. Seeing uncoordinated dates in the most qualified candidates’ resume plays a trick on the mind of recruiters and hiring managers. I will prefer to see: Xx/xx/XX – xx/xx/XX – Toured the coast of southern Africa, feed elephants and watched the sun set. 😊 (Trust me, no further questions on the gaps will be asked) Or Xx/xx/XX – xx/xx/XX – Actively monitored the sleep pattern of my bundles of joy while caring for their day to day activities to ensure optimal early years development. (I will personally be jealous of you) Please add more in the comment section. I am not a copywriter, I just know how to write amazing resumes. Follow @careerready_africa on IG for more workplace productivity tips.

Want a new job? Turn on your LinkedIn job alert notification – Believe me magic happens on LinkedIn. Follow the career trend on Twitter – Twitter is the closest sibling of LinkedIn Want to learn a new skill? Tons of free resources from YouTube to Coursera to EDX to LinkedIn – you can even ask for financial aid on Coursera and earn a certificate for the course you took. You want to be better in your career? Improve your workplace communication and be an all-round productive professional? Follow @careerready_africa on IG for free juicy career content. Link in the comment section. Always rooting for you.

I LOVE it when seemingly ‘hush hush’ topics are brought to the light of day. Last week Tawazoun organized a very important and impactful session on “Innovating Mental Wellness”This is a topic we should all strive to openly talk about more often. There is no balanced health without mental health. There has been so much stigma around mental health which could partly be attributed to our cultural stereotypes and biases. Many wrong messages have caved people in thus barring us all from taking our mental wellness seriously. I strongly believe we can start to change those narratives by: Openly talking about it. Bringing more awareness to the need for everybody to have a balanced health which includes mental wellness. Supporting people struggling with any part of their mental health. This week, I urge you all to genuinely check in on your people, colleagues, friends. Ask them how they truly are, listen carefully and offer support where applicable. I love you Hanane Benkhallouk continue to shine the light on these uncomfortable topics. The Middle East and African region are lucky to have a safe space in Tawazoun. Have an unbiased week all.

The mediocre leadership and unhealthy workplace practices happening within the Nigerian startup/tech space in the last couple of months, further brings me to my theory that: “Building an amazing product while failing to build a great place to work that is humancentric, centred on respect, decency and of course competency, is a grave leadership blunder” that I hope every new founder is planning to avoid. I know they say leading people is one of the toughest jobs, (I agree we humans can be complicated) but I’ll say, being a good leader can be simple, start by striving to be a good human being. The workforce of the present recognizes a genuinely good leader from the ones faking it just to drive performance. If they miss it at the beginning, time always tells. Looking forward to my private chat tomorrow with a budding start-up founder seeking to understand how he can build a great team and lead them right.

I was at an event yesterday where a young lady told me they are still required by their employer to clock in at a certain time. I am still shocked that with all the transformation experienced in the world of work in the last couple of years, some organizations still practice this. Dear business leaders, the future of work does not require clocking in and clocking out. Assess your people based on their results and not by ‘activity’. I am confident this approach brings a better ROI. Are you still required by your employer to clock in? I am curious to know what’s the practice in your organization.