Rouxna Hough, who joined Khulisa in 2007 as Human Resources (HR) Manager and has overseen all of Khulisa’s hiring and HR functions ever since, has 29 years of experience in the HR industry. For this week’s #EvalTuesdayTip, we asked Rouxna to provide her best advice to other HR professionals in the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) field..
While Rouxna emphasizes that the main principles of HR and recruitment processes are the same across all industries (more on that in a future tip), some specific aspects of the job are particularly important for M&E recruitment. Using the right language in your job posting ad is one of those aspects.
“There’s often a disconnect in what we want, and what our advert is asking for, and the CVs that we get” for a job posting, says Rouxna. “So I say [to Khulisa staff], ‘We’re not attracting the right candidates and we need to change language.’ Using the right language in your advert can attract a very different candidate – a research associate, versus an evaluator, versus a senior evaluator, versus an expert or chief of party.”
Working in the M&E field requires very specific experience and skill sets. To attract the right candidate, in line with the clients’ requirements and considering budget constraints, it’s important to be equally specific in the language of a job posting ad. Including specific language, such as seniority, years of experience required, sector experience, and language preference, including country, will help weed out candidates who don’t have the right experience and skills. If the right candidates don’t come through right away, review your advert language.
Stay tuned for another HR tip from Rouxna next week. And if you’d like to keep up with Khulisa’s job postings, follow us on LinkedIn.
