Dear Wazuans,

As a graduate who keeps getting very low salary offers from companies who have indicated specifically the want a graduate, I have decided to create a website to NAME and SHAME all those companies who are paying graduates less than Kes 50,000 gross salary.

I will make an open forum where one sends a scanned payslip, we verify and publish (Withholding the name, of course)

I believe this forum will make Kenyans realise how companies are exploiting both ways, (Charging high prices for their products/ services and paying very low salaries)

Keeping in mind that most of these graduates have to pay rent, transport and HELB loans, you are left wondering how they can even feed themselves leave alone spouses or children.

I need input from you fellow wazuans on how this might work. Thanks for your contribution.

@ new investor,

It is Oligopsony market so you can waste your enegry posting it but at the end of the day, who call the shots?

I recall that several times on this board, and when speaking to people when conducting my own research, that there is a myth that the reason that business process outsourcing will "never work" in Kenya is because "salaries are too high; higher than India", which I always thought to be pure nonsense, because salaries for BPO in India are about a third to a half what they are in the US... and US companies are paying a LOT more than 50,000 KES a month per head. More like 250,000 KES per month.

At these wages, BPO to Kenya will most certainly work. The business case is strong.

Best,

Hill

I think @ new investor has a point. Kenya has great brains and hard working people so I think it is wrong to exploit this resource the way it's being done while we sit back and cry about capital flight and exporting labour. We don't have enough doctor's, nurses, engineers etc. Why do we allow multi-nationals to come and exploit this great resource we possess? I especially applaud the Govt. as the largest employer for increasing wages of qualified civil servants and now they are giving private businesses a run for their money and shaming them at the same time.
Go ahead and start the website although I doubt anyone will send you their pay slip because it's very easy for a co. to trace it back to the owner.

In my small sphere of work, I get better value from technicians out of polytechnics, better accounts staff from CPA graduates. I have been hugely disappointed by the so called graduates seconded to me.

@alma, offer the 10k then see if he will be around for long. Soon you will find yourself back to the first step or recruiting and in the end spend more on recruitment in terms of money and time that it wont be worth it. Yes they dont have value but you are forgetting that once trained they are something else. A good employer is one who looks after the employee, pay him enough to be able to live comfortably such as afford to rent in a good place, dress well etc because at the end of the day they carry the name of the company.
@2012, these guys in fact exploit the internship system. They get cheap labour and are ever taking interns not to teach them but as an extra pair of hands to work.

I think there is a confusion about what to expect from University graduates.

There is such a thing as pure book keeping for which you require a technician (KATC) rather than a professional (CPA) or a draftsman rather than an architect. A B.com accounting graduate can only be referred to as an accountant after passing a professional accounting exam and practising for not less than 2 years.

Once you move away from book keeping and start considering financial management or management accounting, try the technician and you get into trouble instantly. At the grad/CPA/ACCA/CFA level, you have to understand that you are training someone to become a manager/key decision maker in 3 - 5 yrs. If your CPA candidate started at KATC level because (s)he did not qualify to directly sit the CPA exam, chances are that all you can train them to become is junior level management- can never see the big picture and is always caught in the nitty gritty of every day life.

I think we all need to (i)define what we expect from graduates (ii) improve recruitment practices - most of the time this is where Company's, recruiters fail (iii) Be willing to train and not expect instant solutions - this is called investing

The kind of graduate we end up with says a lot about who we are as recruiters. May be, we should start by looking at ourselves and laying the blame squarely at our door steps.

The business world does not pay for knowledge or academic papers. But it pays for what a person does with what he knows - That is productivity.

If an employee can prove good productivity, s/he will certainly get a raise and praise.

I think there is a confusion about what to expect from University graduates.

There is such a thing as pure book keeping for which you require a technician (KATC) rather than a professional (CPA) or a draftsman rather than an architect. A B.com accounting graduate can only be referred to as an accountant after passing a professional accounting exam and practising for not less than 2 years.

Once you move away from book keeping and start considering financial management or management accounting, try the technician and you get into trouble instantly. At the grad/CPA/ACCA/CFA level, you have to understand that you are training someone to become a manager/key decision maker in 3 - 5 yrs. If your CPA candidate started at KATC level because (s)he did not qualify to directly sit the CPA exam, chances are that all you can train them to become is junior level management- can never see the big picture and is always caught in the nitty gritty of every day life.

I think we all need to (i)define what we expect from graduates (ii) improve recruitment practices - most of the time this is where Company's, recruiters fail (iii) Be willing to train and not expect instant solutions - this is called investing

The kind of graduate we end up with says a lot about who we are as recruiters. May be, we should start by looking at ourselves and laying the blame squarely at our door steps.

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well said

EXACTLY!!