Background
Present in 14 countries across Africa, with over 100 million subscribers and ranked as the second largest telecoms operator on the African continent, Airtel continues to drive connectivity across the region bringing world class technology to some of the most remote communities on the African continent.
First Point Group (FPG) have been working with Airtel Africa since October 2012, providing search and selection for permanent roles across all African countries where Airtel have a presence and successfully recruiting within Sales, Marketing, Finance and Technical disciplines at all levels.
The Challenge
Airtel had been working with a large range of recruiters and this often meant that sourcing suitable candidates for their large volume of roles resulted in recruitment being a very time consuming process.
This process was exacerbated as Airtel’s strategy was to source suitably skilled candidates with sufficient experience within the region, often within the country, rather than recruiting expatriates. The main challenge was to focus on hiring local talent whilst not compromising on the skills range of new recruits.
The Solution
Airtel Africa took a decision to reduce the number of recruitment suppliers retained to support their talent acquisition. FPG were successfully chosen as one of these as they had local knowledge and proven experience in 42 African countries. This combination ensured FPG had consistently proved their ability to meet tight deadlines and source candidates for both local and expatriate roles across the region.
An FPG account manager was assigned to support Airtel’s recruitment campaigns and a partnership approach was quickly adopted that allowed Airtel to tap into FPG’s African candidate networks. In turn, FPG were able to gain a thorough understanding of Airtel’s business, culture, aims and goals. This ensured that recruitment lead times were reduced as only suitably qualified candidates were being submitted to Airtel.
The Results
This in-depth knowledge of Airtel and dedicated service approach ensured that FPG have been successful in placing candidates within multiple operations throughout Africa. They were easily able to rise to the challenge of a particularly comprehensive recruitment campaign for a new set-up in Rwanda, where Airtel’s brief was to source a complete team covering a very diverse range of Technical, HR, Finance and Marketing skills.
Using their comprehensive candidate attraction methods, leading edge search technology and established regional network of Telecoms professionals, FPG were able to provide significant support with Airtel’s campaign in Rwanda. The structure, market presence and thorough focus on attracting suitable individuals proved invaluable in meeting the fulfilment deadlines. FPG’s campaign resulted in 13 placements in 2 months, with all the successful candidates located in Rwanda except one who was a regional expatriate from Kenya.