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. In last week’s #EvalTuesdayTip, Rouxna spoke about the importance of using the right language in monitoring and evaluation (M&E) job postings. This week’s tip is about the importance of networking on LinkedIn.
“People are people,” says Rouxna. “The ability to work in a team, fit in, being flexible and adaptable are just as important as skills and experience.” But while the hiring process is often much the same across industries, Khulisa’s project work involves recruiting M&E professionals with very specific experience and skills; for example, Khulisa recently had to recruit for lithium mining and fisheries experts in South America. These sectors were outside Khulisa’s normal reach and had very specific requirements in skill, experience, language, and country experience. Recruiters need to be able to navigate these unfamiliar territories. Hence, it’s important to have a wide network and a consultant database with a variety of CVs.
Khulisa relies heavily on our recruitment account on LinkedIn, which allows Rouxna to cast a wide net beyond her Premium LinkedIn network with close to 5,500 connections. Khulisa currently has 10,200 LinkedIn followers.
Using the recruitment account, “I can email people up to the third connection, meaning if I’m not connected with that person, I can still reach out with a personal message,” says Rouxna. “So that service gives us the ability and the advantage of being able to search wider and contact people beyond our normal reach.” Rouxna normally approaches candidates with a personal message, explaining the purpose of the email and then providing more information on the opportunity. She provides a short two-liner on Khulisa, along with our website link, for those who may be unfamiliar with our work.
If you’d like to keep up with Khulisa’s job postings, follow us on LinkedIn.