Shortlisting professionals is challenging, but that doesn’t stop DevelopmentPeople recruiters

Recruiting someone requires evaluating each candidate's skills and talents alongside the duties they will undertake. This becomes a challenging task when hiring for a crucial position like a CEO or in a niche industry where only a handful of individuals meet the criteria.

Additionally, few candidates are open to working in hazardous environments, which is often the case in most developing or impoverished countries. Consequently, recruiters face immense pressure and must employ excellent strategies to perform their job effectively.

DevelopmentPeople has been dealing with these difficulties for more than 10 years.

Companies usually approach DevelopmentPeople because we do the job faster and can provide higher-quality candidates in a shorter period of time. However, some clients only seek our services after exhausting all other recruitment methods and not succeeding.

Who is most wanted and where?

According to our internal statistics, nearly a quarter of our requests originate from the Human Rights and Democracy sectors. There is also a significant demand for senior and middle-level managers in agriculture and rural development, education, and culture, with companies continually seeking professionals in these areas.

Recruitment by sector (fig. 1):

Source: DevelopmentPeople

Regarding the geography of recruitment, certain areas or continents present greater challenges than others. We have noticed that sub-Saharan and Eastern Africa appear most frequently in our daily contracts, as does Europe, where there are many opportunities, followed by the Middle East and Central Asia regions.

Recruitment by region (fig. 2):

Source: DevelopmentPeople

Many of the challenges recruiters encounter in these areas are linked to the skills and experience our clients require. Our portfolio demonstrates our success in shortlisting candidates and filling roles such as Directors, Presidents, Chief Executive Officers, Managers, Coordinators, Team Leaders, Chiefs of Party, Country Representatives, Consultants, Specialists, and Researchers. All of these positions are complex and significant, which places a substantial responsibility on us. Thus, we meticulously follow all the necessary steps in evaluating and recommending candidates.

Source: DevelopmentPeople

Our database gives us access to over 470,000+ expert CVs with proven experience in the development sector and a reliable record in executing aid projects.

The satisfaction of our clients demonstrates that DevelopmentPeople 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, DevelopmentPeople 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 DevelopmentPeople 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. DevelopmentPeople 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 DevelopmentPeople, our mission extends beyond simply placing the right individual in a role; we also play a part in advancing both 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.

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