By Angel Jones
March 2, 2023
To mark the evolution of their business model that now offers permanent, part-time and hourly executive talent, HomecomingEX recently launched their inaugural Virtual Brain Gain Report. This has been created by analysing their own talent activities across Africa, plus drawing insights from various global talent conferences they attended last year.
- GLOBAL SCARCITY OF TALENT
While hiring optimism has returned to levels not seen since the start of the pandemic, global talent shortages are at a 15-year-high as both hard and soft skills are more difficult to find than ever before (ManpowerGroup).Another study recently conducted by Everest Group, found that 86% of global organisations believe that talent shortages are a key barrier to achieving business outcomes. In South Africa, 46% of employers are having difficulty filling jobs.
- POWER SHIFT TO THE CANDIDATE
We have seen a shift from “the person must fit the job” to “the job must fit the person,” and employees are no longer at the mercy of their employer.Today’s generation from the social or digital revolution doesn’t care about survival like their grandparents, nor do they need to upgrade their standard of living as their parents took care of that. The only thing they care about is quality of life.
- THE A3 AGE OF WORK
People are now working Anytime – whenever it suits their schedule; Anyplace – in a variety of employment relationships; and Anywhere – in locations around the globe, regardless of where the employer is based.As the work-from-home lifestyle becomes the norm, going back to the office is becoming a deal-breaker. According to Zapier 61% of professionals would quit their current job for a fully remote opportunity.Increasingly , countries are now also offering digital nomad visas to foreigners to attract remote workers to stay and work for a period and bolster local economies.
- ENDLESS REMOTE POSSIBILITIES
At HomecomingEX, has seen the largest demand for remote fractional work in Technology, Consumer Goods and Fintech. For remote hourly work they are seeing the highest appetite in Private Equity & Venture Capital, Manufacturing & Engineering, Consulting and Financial Services.Over and above this, there is a spate of surveys listing many different industries best suited for remote working. Statistica lists Software & IT, Finance, Media & Comms, Public Admin, Entertainment, Travel and Retail. Fortune lists Construction, Customer Services, Digital Marketing as fast growing industries best suited to remote working. Wishup includes Pharmacology, Legal, Banking & Finance, Health & Wellness and Medical Science in their top ten list. Elsewhere we see CyberSecurity, Education, Human Resources, Marketing, Architecture, Strategy, Legal and Social Service gaining significant traction.
- RISE OF THE PORTFOLIO CAREER
A portfolio career is a combination of different roles that make up the equivalent of a full time career. Candidates are their own boss, working with multiple clients, and the work could be large or small projects, part time work, interim management, or board-level roles.By one estimate 53% of American workers will have been involved in the gig economy by 2024. Executives with diverse careers are likely to have a greater range of skills and a wider pool of professional contacts they can call on to get a specific job done. A portfolio worker also offers their clients breadth and depth of experience that are not often found in someone operating in a single job. What’s more, a portfolio career offers candidates more control over skills, income, and identity Time.
- DAWN OF THE FRACTIONAL EXECUTIVE
A fractional executive is hired by a company to fill an executive role for a fraction of the time for a fraction of the cost. Some executives no longer want to work for a company; they want to work with a company and the future of work depends on this partnership mindset. This entails flatter and more networked talent models, fuelled by a more flexible, and for many, a more globally mobile workforce.Whether it’s for a multinational, growing SMME or start-up, fractional executives are good for business. The reasons include: Fresh Eyes, Telling it Like it Is, Efficiency & Flexibility, Deep Experience, Cost-Effectiveness and Culture Fit Testing.
- THE SOLUTION TO FINDING SCARCE TALENT IS SHARING SCARCE TALENT
A key theme of November’s Africa Investment AFSIC conference in London, was the idea of collaboration. With remote fractional work becoming the norm, it is now entirely feasible that skilled expertise can be distributed between non-competing entities at the same time.Multinationals, large corporates, SMMEs and start-ups can reach their full potential by sharing the brains of top professionals who have unique experience in every kind of industry.
- THE VIRTUAL BRAIN GAIN
With their new way of working, HomecomingEX is no longer just concerned with the physical repatriation of skills. This is because they’re now able to easily facilitate the virtual repatriation of talent.Of the nineteen thousand African professionals in our database, 35% of them are based globally. They’re ready to contribute invaluable “glocal knowledge” (global plus local) to growing companies across Africa.This vast network of highly skilled African talent working around the globe has (aside from their skills, experience and potentially cheaper cost) knowledge of their country of origin, their business and people networks and the ease of their cultural acclimatisation, which result in greater effectiveness in transferring skills and strategic implementation.With the HomecomingEX talent platform, each employer gets access to a curated candidate community, specifically vetted according to the brief. This includes unique search capabilities, seamless interview bookings, and automatically generated video links.
SUMMARY
HomecomingEX is delighted to be playing a part in Africa’s prosperity by turning the brain drain into a virtual brain GAIN.
If you’re a SENIOR PROFESSIONAL with expertise to share, please sign up to the HomecomingEX platform HERE.
If you’re an EMPLOYER needing talent, please LET US KNOW how we can help.
If you’d like to book a 15-minute presentation of this Report with Angel Jones (CEO) for your company, please reach out.
Angel Jones will be presenting at the KR HR Director Conference this March to join her and other senior HR leaders at this must-attend conference CLICK HERE or email debbie@knowres.co.za.
