By Philomena Thuranira

When Boris proposed the idea of taking on recruitment responsibilities at Workpay, I thought, "How hard could it be?" Little did I know, working with Edwin would redefine my expectations. His commitment to excellence and exceptionally high recruitment standards have made clear the importance and difficulty of the task ahead. Entering 2024, Workpay had 92 employees in five countries. By the end of this year, our current People Plan projects that headcount to double, with over half of these roles falling under Edwin’s management in eight countries and two continents.

This is a daunting but critical task that is mutually dependent on my own work and the commitment of the Hiring Manager for each role. Fortunately, we are guided by new, clearly articulated Standard Operating Procedures. If you are a Team Lead, please make sure to familiarize yourself with both our Internship and Recruitment SOPs! It is a requirement that you know and follow these guidelines to ensure successful employee and internship recruitment.

The recruitment plan for 2024 is of course dependent on our fundraising efforts, which CEO Paul Kimani has outlined in this month’s CEO Note. Until a new round of funds are secured through a final agreement, few of the new roles can actually be onboarded. But past experience has made clear that recruitment, especially for key positions, can take months. In fact, the People Team’s target timeline from posting a position to the new employee’s first day is 60 days.

So, with a fundraising target for March, the recruitment work has begun in earnest, with 15 positions advertised so far. These roles span full-time employees and interns alike and both new roles and replacements. Edwin is also not the only one planning to grow his department. Other roles in Q1 have already been filled for Finance, with active recruitment being undertaken on behalf of Product Support, Customer Success, Product, and Engineering. 

Challenges So Far

The Workpay recruitment experience has already generated a number of unforeseen hurdles.

1. System Failure: Shortlist, our Applicant Tracking System (ATS) emerging as the first major pain point. With Shortlist no under active maintenance, the number of bugs on the candidate side were untenable. To enhance that candidate experience, we compared a number of new options. We ultimately secured a temporary subscription to Manatal, which thanks to quick work from David Kimani is already hosting our job postings on the Workpay Career Page. In the meantime, did you know that the Workpay Recruitment Product is in the final phases of development? It's quite impressive too, and will be a major help to me when ready.
   
   
2. Shortlisting Falling Short: Shortlisting candidates posed an additional challenge, as I’ve learned to understand the needs and standards of the different hiring managers, some of whom rejected early candidates for quality reasons. Adapting to this, I now collaborate more closely with hiring managers to understand their “non-negotiables” prior to beginning shortlisting. By embracing criticism and practicing patience, I have been able to focus on being more meticulous.
   
   
3. Budget Constraint: Part of pursuing profitability means maintaining budget discipline, which certainly makes the task of recruiting top talent more difficult. This is especially challenging as we aim to hire in new unfamiliar African countries and for the first time ever, in Europe! This is of course to support our EOR ambitions, as we seek to have Workpay people on the ground where our prospective clients are. However, salary ranges in Europe are relatively higher than in Kenya, making this a tricky endeavor. Overall, our commitment to budgetary discipline has taught me the need to emphasize due diligence early in the hiring process, getting clear input from candidates about their salary expectations before reaching the interview stage. 

These are barely the skim of the milk when it comes to the challenges, but these are gateways to improvement. The learning journey has been tough, yet invaluable, and I embrace every lesson. My communication skills have improved significantly, along with my planning and time management. There has been absolutely no room for slacking when it comes to our dedicated hiring managers, as if I did, you can bet my manager heard of it. At the same time, I have dealt with people who were gracious enough to teach and teach and teach some more. I am extremely grateful for the assistance I have gotten along the way.

As a result, we have now made good progress with several roles reaching the first and second round interview stages. We even already have people due to start in March! So, get ready to see a lot of new faces, next month, and every month this year as we continue our growth journey together.