Shortlisting professionals is not easy but that doesn’t stop DRS recruiters

ByNatalia Turcan

Shortlisting professionals is not easy but that doesn’t stop DRS recruiters

Hiring someone involves considering each candidate’s abilities and talents as well as the responsibilities they will be given. This is a difficult task when engaging a person for a key role like a CEO or when the sector in which the company works is so narrow, there are barely a few dozen people who match the stated requirements. Another limiting factor is that only a few candidates are willing to work in a dangerous environment, such as is the situation in the majority of the developing or poor countries. The pressure on recruiters is therefore massive and excellent strategies are needed to do the job well.

DevelopmentAid’s Recruitment Solutions (DRS) has been dealing with these difficulties for more than 10 years.

Companies usually approach DRS because we do the job faster and can provide higher-quality candidates in a shorter period of time. Nevertheless, some of our clients only ask for our services after having tried every other recruitment method they could and failing.

Who is most wanted and where?

Looking at our internal statistics, most of the requests we get, almost a quarter, come from the Human Rights and Democracy sector. Senior and middle-level managers in agriculture and rural development, education, and culture are also in high demand with companies constantly looking for professionals.

Fig.1. Recruitment by sector

Source: DRS

In terms of the geography of recruitment, there are specific areas or continents that are far more challenging than others. We have observed that sub-Saharan and Eastern Africa feature the most in our daily contracts as well as Europe, where the opportunities are numerous, followed by the Middle East and Central Asia regions.

Fig.2. Recruitment by region

Source: DRS

Most of the difficulties recruiters face with regard to these regions are related to the abilities and the experience sought by our clients. In our portfolio, we can be seen to have successfully shortlisted candidates and filled the positions of Directors, Presidents, Chief Executive Officers, Managers, Coordinators, Team Leaders, Chiefs of Party, Country Representatives, Consultants, Specialists, and Researchers. None of these jobs are easy, nor insignificant, so we are given a great deal of responsibility and therefore pay careful attention to all the necessary steps during the process of assessing and proposing candidates.

Source: DRS

Our database allows us to choose from the CVs of 87,000 experts with experience in the development sector who have a reliable record in implementing aid projects.

Our satisfied clients are a good indicator that DevelopmentAid Recruitment Solutions knows how to handle difficult tasks.

Here are some testimonies related to these success stories.

Associate Director – Education and Adolescent Empowerment

To lead its Education, Youth and Early Childhood Development (ECD) initiatives, BRAC needed to recruit a visionary leader who could manage the team, develop transformative technical approaches to education and adolescent empowerment and promote innovation for learning. For this role, DRS sourced a long list of 48 candidates with over 10 years of experience in the development, implementation, and management of education and skill development programs, particularly working with children, youth, and marginalized groups in developing countries in South Asia, East and West Africa or sub-Saharan Africa. The final shortlist was made up of four highly qualified professionals including three women.

Country Director – South Sudan

GOAL contacted DRS to engage the recruitment team to work on sourcing CVs for the Country Director in South Sudan role. A strong leader was sought, one with considerable experience in the humanitarian and development sectors, to develop and implement country strategy plans, to be responsible for securing funds and developing people and for the overall management of the country program. DRS drew applications from various sources, including databases, social media and job boards and subsequently compiled a list of 41 CVs that matched the requirements put forward by the client. After screening these applications, we shortlisted eight professionals who had previously worked as Country Directors in a humanitarian and development environment at an international level including in difficult and conflict-ridden settings.

At DRS, we don’t just find a suitable person for a job, we also contribute to the development of the company and the country. We understand each company’s needs and have a solution for dilemmas that may seem unsolvable. People make the difference and our role is to provide support for talent recruitment for roles in the international development sector.