THE EMPLOYERS CALL THE SHOTS

Nov 26, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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There is a false assumption in society that being lettered means being qualified. Or in other words being certified translates to being qualified.
A great many persons are being certified. Just last week, the University of Guyana, graduated a few hundred students, some of whom may be on the job market seeking employment. But does the fact that many persons with impeccable qualifications cannot find jobs say something about our economy? It sure does. It says, firstly there is not full employment, but more importantly it reveals some of the attitudes of employers towards hiring staff.
A few months ago, a manager of a city business wrote a letter to the media in which he explained his difficulty in finding suitable staff to fill a vacancy in his company. His problem was not a shortage of certified workers. There were numerous applicants, most of whom had a number of subjects at the Caribbean Examinations Council. Yet the employer complained that he was not satisfied with many of them. Many did not make the grade despite having more than the required number of subjects which the job demanded.
This flies in the face of the notion that the more certified someone is the more skillful they should be. Certificates do not necessarily translate to marketability. In fact, many employers tend to shy away from highly qualified persons. One of the foremost reasons is that there is a fear that the high-flyers are going to eventually fly away, either to another company or to greener pastures overseas as has been the case with thousands of Guyanese.
One of the difficult decisions that an employer faces is what to do with someone who obviously has superior qualifications and all the other things that the employer is looking for. How can the employer be sure that the person, if employed, is going to stay for an extended period to justify the training and other investments the employer has to make in this employee?
One of the things that many job-hunters overlook is the fact that employment comes at a cost to the employer. That employer is taking a chance and has to train an employee and provide benefits to that employee. The employer wants a guarantee that the person is not going to eventually go overseas or to some other company and thus force the employer to have to look for a replacement.
This may explain the reluctance of some employers to employ persons who have done exceptionally well. The employers may not wish to risk employing that person because they know that the possibility of that person staying on the job for an extended period would not be great.
Migration is also a problem. Employers in Guyana are bound to ask those who are being screened for jobs whether their immigration papers are being proceeded. Perhaps close to half of the workforce in Guyana either has sponsorship papers processing or hope someday that they will be able to migrate.
Most employers also are not necessarily looking for the brightest and the smartest. They are looking for the most effective. If you examine, for example, the staff of the Trump Organization, you would be surprised that many of the top people are not necessarily the brightest and more qualified. But they have proven their worth to their employers through getting the job done.
Most employers are not necessarily looking for persons with drive and ambition and special problem-solving abilities, they are seeking instead simpler skills such as following orders, sticking to protocols, counting accurately and being prepared to go the extra mile when the situation arises. Many are also looking for long term loyalty and an understanding of the sector or market that their business deals in. Experience is also an unmistakable quality in demand. The person has been there and may have experienced the same situations in some former employment as he or she is likely to encounter in the job to which he or she is applying, and therefore the hiring firms go for the experience since this makes a difference in performance.
The problem of course is, how is anyone new to the job market ever going to obtain experience if they are not finding a job. If you cannot nail down a job, how can you ever be experienced in anything but trying to nail down a job?
One of the big problems is matching the skills with the demands. There should be in every country a situation where the educational system is able to produce the skills demanded by the labour market.
The problem in Guyana is that there is mismatch between what is being demanded and what is being produced. Part of this has to do with the fact that most job hunters are wage-takers, that is, in the main, they have to take what is offered.
The labour market is not competitive enough to ensure that workers can actually negotiate with their employers. Most new job entrants today are simply told what their wages are and asked whether they accept.
It is an employers’ market.

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