International recruiting might be strange to some of us and will definitely excite those who want to migrate. It is an arrangement that falls into the dictates of globalisation and the need to share resources for uniform growth.

It aids the transfer of talents from where they are to where they are most needed. Imagine we had a workable relationship with Cuba to get some of their doctors. And these things happen with people behind the scenes. One of them is Jennifer Oyelade, Founder of Transquisite Consulting Talent Hub.

We caught up with her to ‘steal’ some of her vast experience for Share of Voice. You like to know what she said. We know right!?

See how the conversation went:

Hi Jennifer! We see the great work you are doing connecting recruiters and prospects both at home and abroad. Your profile says a lot about your experience in this. Tell us how it has been for you.  

It has been quite a journey and a great learning curve at the same time. In this industry, you meet a lot of amazing people, work with organisations that have adopted various working cultures and also regions such as Europe, Middle East and Africa that have very different ways of operating. So, being able to differentiate talent acquisition methodologies and strategies to fit a diverse client and candidate pool has kept my role interesting.  

Jennifer talked about her challenges and successes and gender imbalance some companies intentionally project?  She said: 

I will say that the employment market indeed faces a lot of discrimination and I will try to correct the misconceptions. Either they have the experience but too young, or they are over-experienced because he/she is caught up in old terminologies means he or she is too old, or she just got married so she will be going on maternity leave soon, or he’s single which means he’s irresponsible. These are all examples of various types of discrimination that I have come across.

However, unless you specifically, as a client, require some personal information I omit anything from the CV that could be used as a biased method to judge (such as date of birth, or year of graduation, etc.) and allow my clients to focus solely on the experience the candidate brings. I also stretch the candidate specification as much as possible by asking clients “why do you have that certain preference?”

Usually, after exploring their minds and presenting a plausible contradiction to their thought processes, they open their viewpoint. 

We are at a time in the world where more people are losing their jobs and employers are saying no to recruiting more. This is definitely changing the landscape of the recruitment space. How is this affecting Transquisite Recruiting? 

Well, we have always worked with our clients as an extension of their HR department. Which means we work with them individually to understand what strategic hires they need to make now and in the near future, taking into account their industry, business trends, the economy and what diversified skill set these strategic hires need to demonstrate in order for the hire to be not just of choice but as a necessity to thrive in an economy that is trying to find stability. 

When the pandemic started hitting hard, how did you respond? If you were to do a list of things you do when you meet big challenges like a pandemic, what will be on that list?  

First of all, I panicked. There was this wave of uncertainty because we didn’t really know exactly what we were facing and its enormity. However, as a people-focused business, we engaged our clients with what was affecting their business to see if we could cross-sell our other products, such as our in-house range of psychometric personality assessments called the Transquisite Talent Hub.

The Talent Hub range has different assessments that help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your staff and where to fill in the skill gaps for professional development or recruitment. We also liaise with candidates to see how the pandemic has affected their current employment and offer consultancy services to see how they can upskill to remain relevant during these trying times. 

So how I handle challenges is to look for the opportunities in them and ask myself: How will this affect me in the short term or long term? What is my contingency plan? i.e. Do we have other services or products that aid our business objective which is to identify, develop, and empower talent can we offer to the market?  Who? Either current employees or the market as a whole would be most affected and how can we help that demographic?  

Once I have truthfully weighed the pros and mitigated the risks we build our survival strategy around these key points. 

Specifically, what is Transquisite Consulting doing differently this period?  

We are not doing anything different other than what we generally do already, which is to keep our services personable and keep our clients and candidates updated on what is going on in the market so they can prepare themselves for post-COVID, from a business and professional development perspective. In this crisis, the uncertainty of job security is more apparent than ever. While companies are downsizing, companies are also hiring but they are becoming more strategic than ever to ensure that their next hire is someone who has a diverse skill set. So, we intend to keep our consumers motivated about the positives that will emerge from the new world order.

Firstly, people will become more health-conscious and aware of their surroundings, Secondly, as economies rebuild, new opportunities will emerge, so this is the time to diversify your skillset using the various online platforms. Thirdly, Flexi-working will have a heavier influence on the workforce, and business operations as a whole now have been made a necessity through this trying time. This result will argue the case that work-life balance is actually achievable. 

New initiatives will be implemented through legislation that will be more people-focused and entrepreneurship will increase with more people providing a service-based need after which solutions will be provided through tangible products. 

How do you solve the problem of gender imbalance in recruitment, marrying this with demands from employers who care less about such topics?  

I don’t just accept the request as gospel, I always explore their thought process and try to marry a compromise. They have brought you in to demonstrate your expertise as consultants so you should provide that service by understanding their thought processes and provide them with solutions that don’t take away from their bottom line, which is to identify a competent professional with leadership qualities who aligns with their business ethos and demonstrates culture adaptation to their workforce. 

Most times if you dig deeper employers have an ideology of what they want but when dissecting this, you will find out it’s not so similar to what they actually need. 

How will it be for you, post-pandemic? One word only.  

Interesting!  

What is that one question you have never been asked?  

What drives me to do Recruitment and Talent Acquisition.   

Let’s assume you already predicted a future for yourself. When you look at five years from now and when you consider COVID-19, do you think that future is attainable?  

I believe anything is attainable especially with technology being at the forefront.  Diversifying your skillset during this time is more apparent than ever, the new world order is coming and there is so much uncertainty as to what the new ‘norm’ will be. 

One thing that is certain is that the world will continue to have technology at its core. The demand for a skill set surrounding it will become more of a necessity as opposed to being an advantage. Whether you’re in HR or Hospitality there will be an element of technology that will enhance your skillset. The only thing constant is change so as long as you keep evolving, you can be whatever you want it to be.