South Africa and Africa

Expanding in Africa: HR Plan

An organization expanding its offices into sub-Sahara Africa will want to utilize a solid human resources plan in order to strategically facilitate its expansion and sustainability efforts. In this scenario, the business will be ECIG, an e-cigarette company that manufactures and sells vaporizers, e-cigs, and e-liquids. Expansion is occurring rapidly throughout sub-Saharan Africa and the countries that are prime targets are Nigeria and South Africa.

The expansion is taking place by leasing headquarter bases that will be used for receiving shipping and for stocking of retail kiosks that will be established in the countries' major cities. The kiosks will be managed by the ECIG employee transfers and they will be tasked with hiring locals for the staffing of the kiosks. The headquarters in each of the two countries will also be managed by the transfers, who will also be responsible for hiring local talent for employment in the bases for daily operations and marketing.

Investment in Nigeria and South Africa by ECIG will require transferring a number of employees from the company's base in the U.S. to Africa. The total number of employees needed for the expansion effort will be 24, with 12 employees stationed in each country. The company will be able to support this number of employees abroad without taxing too much of its internal strength. Because of the relatively small number of relocating employees, there will not be a need for a commissary. Instead, the company will utilize local urgent-care stations, currency exchange and banking institutions and markets for all necessities. Employees will be provided with all the necessary compensation for acquiring these services in order to help maintain a positive workplace culture, which will support the kind of transformational leadership initiatives promoted by the company (Singh, Krishnan, 2008; Kissack, Callahan, 2010).

A small organization of this size will not set assignment lengths of one year or two with families, as the company will pay for individuals with families to relocate with them. However, it will also look to not move individuals with large families or with families who want to stay. In the cases where the position cannot be filled because the move would be too costly or too burdensome for the families, a temporary transfer will be conducted and a new native African hired and trained by the temporary transfer who can then fill the role locally. The company will follow traditional labor market regulations in staffing, as this helps to maintain cultural imperatives and support sustainability (Alesina, Algan, Cahuc, Giulaiano, 2015).

For the few families who will move, the children's school arrangements will be to utilize private tutors until more accommodating arrangements can be made. Private tutors will be employed at company expense and will cover the basic classes for the respective ages of the children. It is not expected that more than one or two families will need to be relocated as most of the individuals employed by ECIG who will be instrumental in the expansion are young and single, fresh from the university and new to the workforce. When the company really begins to expand its presence in these countries later on after establishing a foothold, a broader program can be introduced in which families with children are accommodated. The American International School of Johannesburg will be used in South Africa. It is a Prek through 12 American international school system and will be within reasonable distance of the company's base in South Africa. Similarly, the American International School of Lagos in Nigeria will also be utilized. If families prefer to use these schools instead of private tutors, they will be enabled to do so as the company will pay for the expenditure.

Employees will be housed in neighboring apartments and/or houses: housing will be obtained through local intermediaries/agents who will show transferees the available selection. The company will cover the cost of living for employees who choose to rent homes or apartments within a specific radius and region relative to the headquarters. Safety will be the number one priority for housing and the housing agent utilized by the company will be directed to provide housing options in areas that are conducive to Western needs and characteristics: shopping should be relatively easy, crime should be low, and neighborhoods should be ones where Westerners are commonly housed by companies.