North Africa,28 May2018: The Bayt.com ‘Middle East and North Africa Hiring Practices’ survey, conducted amongst recruiters and employed professionals in the MENA, revealed a variety of insights about the evolving hiring landscape and how recruitment practices have changed in the digital era. According to the survey, online job sites emerged as the most common resource used for recruiting candidates for both managerial and non-managerial positions in organizations across the North Africa region. In fact, around four in five North Africa recruiters agree that online recruitment has facilitated the hiring process at their companies.
The survey, administered by Bayt.com, the Middle East’s #1 job site, and YouGov, a global pioneer in online market research, aims to gather opinions on the hiring trends and practices in the MENA region to help employers and jobseekers better understand today’s hiring mechanisms and strategies, measure preferences, and identify trends in hiring and job hunting.
Recruitment in the Internet Era
Survey results indicated growing trends in online resource usage for recruiters across the MENA. According to the survey, respondents in North Africa consider online job sites (39%) to be the most effective source of recruitment for managerial roles in the region, followed by outside referrals (35%), recruitment agencies (23%), and their own company websites (35%). For non-managerial roles, online job sites (46%) remain the most popular, with employee referrals (43%) and company websites (32%) emerging as the next most effective sources of recruitment. In addition to that, applicant tracking systems are used by around a fifth (18%) of North Africa employers for both managerial and non-managerial positions.
Four in five (80%) respondents in North Africa agree that online recruitment has facilitated the hiring process for managerial employees, including nearly half (47%) who believe it has ‘greatly’ facilitated the hiring process. The same can be said for non-managerial employees (83%), with two in five (37%) respondents claiming it has ‘greatly’ facilitated the hiring process.
“With over10,000 jobs available on Bayt.com on any given day, it comes as no surprise that the top method for recruiting candidates in the MENA is job sites,” said Suhail Masri, Vice President Employer Solutions, Bayt.com. “At Bayt.com, we have been working with organizations in the MENA large and small for almost20 years, helping them recruit top talent. We have been listening to client feedback and improving our offering to improve recruitment efficiency. For example, many employers complement their Bayt.com CV Search tool with employment tests that verify the candidates’ skills. Likewise, online job sites have evidently helped prepare jobseekers to better execute the job hunt. In line with this, we at Bayt.com work with over32,000,000 job seekers and40,000 companies using advanced hiring technology to make the process smoother, less time consuming, and much more rewarding.”
The Job Interview
For managerial and non-managerial candidates in North Africa, interviews (71% and65% respectively) are considered to be the most popular method in the hiring process, followed by background screening (51% and43%), academic certificates (47% and49%), pre-employment tests (38% and43%), and second interviews (42% and39%).
For a large majority of North Africa companies, a typical job interview for both managerial candidates (86%) and non-managerial candidates (84%) lasts up to30 minutes; and at around three quarters of North Africa organizations, potential candidates for both managerial roles (78%) and non-managerial roles (72%) will be interviewed by two or three different people throughout the hiring process.
The survey found that first impressions make a sizable difference in a job interview across the region. In North Africa, more than half of respondents believe that first impressions matter ‘greatly’ in a job interview for both managerial (59%) and non-managerial (58%) candidates, one third (30% and31% respectively) said it matters ‘moderately’, while around one in10 (both11%) think that first impressions don’t matter.
The Hiring Decision
After interviews have been conducted, almost all surveyed North Africa recruiters claim their companies need less than four weeks to make the hiring decision for both managerial (92%) and non-managerial (94%) roles – and almost three quarters (71% and73% respectively) need less than two weeks. Additionally, nearly nine in10 North Africa respondents claim that the hiring process for both managerial employees (85%) and non-managerial employees (87%) can last up to two months at their company, while around half (54% and54% respectively) claim that it typically lasts less than one month.
According to the survey, the most popular way to inform a candidate that they have been selected for either a managerial position or a non-managerial position in North Africa is via phone call (77% and71% respectively), while email (39% and41% respectively) and phone call (50% and52% respectively) are the most common ways to inform a candidate if they have not been selected for the job.
In terms of improving the recruitment process in North Africa, respondents looking for managerial candidates most commonly believe they would need added help from specialists for comparing and benchmarking salaries (42%), interviewing talent face-to-face (41%), screening and filtering CVs/profiles (39%), and sourcing top talent CVs/profiles (37%). For non-managerial candidates, respondents most commonly believe they would need added help from specialists for interviewing talent face-to-face (44%), comparing and benchmarking salaries (43%), and sourcing top talent CVs/profiles (37%).
The Jobseeker Perspective
The survey also gauged insights on the hiring process from the jobseeker perspective. It found that currently employed professionals in North Africa were keen on using digital tools to find employment, as three in five (60%) respondents created online CVs/public profiles on top job sites during their most recent job hunt, two in five (44%) used a cover letter and one quarter (29%) used a professional CV writing service.
As for the journey from recruitment to hiring, two thirds (66%) of North Africa respondents had up to three different interviews before finding their current job and31% had four or more interviews.
More than half (54%) of North Africa respondents found their current job within three months, including one quarter (26%) who found their job in less than one month. Nearly half (46%) found their current job after more than three months of searching.
“The hiring practices survey is an important depiction of the region’s current techniques and tools that are used to facilitate hiring,” said, Nehal Jibouri, Head of Custom Research MENA, YouGov . “With a comprehensive overview of the hiring process, companies can better understand what works and how the process can be improved. Likewise job seekers can gain a comprehension of what their job hunt journey could look like and what tools are available for them.”
Data for the2018 Middle East and North Africa Hiring Practices survey was collected online from14 March2018 to26 April2018. Results are based on a sample of2,491 respondents from the following countries: UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, and Pakistan.