Less than 50% of entrepreneurs in Kenya feel they have the skills needed to run a company, while 60% of entrepreneurs need additional support in sales and marketing according to the 2014 GSMA report on digital entrepreneurship in Kenya.
Also, challenges with teams, skills, and experience appear to be an underlying problem as many startups lack proper team structure, track records, and skills necessary to run a business. In particular, investors find most business plans are poorly developed, and many teams lack any track record or experience relevant for their business model.
Kenya’s JobHunter.co.ke, a new online job board wants to end this menace by helping connect startup founders to job seekers in fields such as creative design, computer programming, social media and business development among others.
According to the team, employers are having a difficult time hiring staff with the right skill set especially in startups. Job Hunter aims to help startup founders save time by helping them find good and determined talent. Muthuri Kinyamu, one of the co-founders says in a statement that Job Hunter aims to provide unique HR solutions to help employers launch good ideas, grow great start-ups and scale innovative products and services thus create more digital jobs and income generating opportunities.
Firms share their vacancies and the job description and access candidate profiles, and Jobhunter shortlists great people for the positions.
“When you list a job with us, we match it to candidates that fit your criteria on our portal and in our wide network.” says Kinyamu, an experienced Kenyan Social Media Manager. “How do you get to know the person behind the cool portfolio, past brilliant work, glowing recommendations, code sample and much more? To save you the hustle of having to go through a rabble of applications our head hunters work harder to get you the right TALENT to match your requirements, culture and the industry you operate in.”
Mostly focusing on startups, JobHunter says it’s different from other job boards and is not just another recruitment agency. The firm claims it has unique service offering because it does the search and the job seeker only chooses which ones he or she wants to work on. For employers, it also hunts for the best and right batch for them to easily choose from. The employer only submits a JD and they do the rest.
Job Hunter also promises to help this firms with client service, support and administrative functions to boost their productivity and keep them on what they enjoy doing most. Job Hunter also promises co-founder match making especially for foreign founders launching startups in Nairobi or working on a project and need quick designers or developers to join their firms fast.
It also has a House of Code, a multi-talented talent network to assist guys from corporate jobs to launch startups by helping them build products on time and launch on schedule. Though not so direct, competition includes BrighterMonday, the iHub Job board, Careerpoint Kenya and several others.
