Let’s talk about an element of business, which we all understand is crucial, but very seldomly is part of our business plans ; human resources. Often, we factor in the financial part of human resources, focusing on the technical ; cost elements, salary levels and compliance. While setting-up your business in a foreign land, it is essential to understand the various ‘human’ elements involved in recruiting and employing locals. There are many parameters that need attention, covering aspects like demographics, cultural and ethnic specifics, behavioral patterns, education system and socioeconomic context. 

The idea of this article is to briefly, and unpretentiously, provide a different perspective on the Mauritian Labor Market, edging more towards the human side.

If you have white skin (I have no other words to put it) and yelling at a brown skin, mind your words.

Understanding the cultural DNA of a nation is essential when choosing a country as your new home. There has been, for quite a long time, the sequel of colonization floating around. The island was ‘built’ by people of European origins, holding the descendants of slaves and indentured laborers under their economic and educational superiority.  Over generations, the complex of inferiority reigned amongst future generations. With free access to education and the evolution of socio-economic environment, some sort of parity is now installed. However, the cultural DNA still has markings of the past. This should not be assimilated to racism of any sort, but at any time anything can be misinterpreted and thrown into a dangerous spiral.

Never address the cultural background, belief or faith of your team members. The cultural diversity of people is our treasure ; and everyone has a privilege attached to his / her beliefs. Beyond the public holidays which cater for at least one festival per religion / ethnicity per year, there are also many other little fringe benefits attached. Forcing a Muslim to shave off his beard, disapproving a Hindu’s traditional dress (on a festival day), or disallowing special leaves ; these are things that should be carefully addressed. You might find yourself facing a socio-cultural group protesting on your worksite, and the press in their shadow.

In case of doubt, seek assistance and advice from locals (professionals or not). Do not apply your own judgement and practice on cultural issues.

Baby boomers (oh, I used one of those words) were more conscientious, and that’s not different to humans in general. Their satisfaction lied in finding a good job, with good reward and recognition. Enough for them to declare, many a times, life-long loyalty to an organization. Newer generations have thrown loyalty to a low or no concern area. Mauritius is no exception. The same need for ‘purpose and meaning’, ‘work-life balance’, ‘flexibility and autonomy’ and other trendy ‘needs’ apply. My personal observation : youngsters have dehumanized themselves through technology, shaking off human values in their inner circle, and are now looking for same in their work environment. Whatever it is, the fact is that the aspirations are different from generations to generations.

No show – No problem

There’s something that you probably won’t encounter in other countries : ‘withdrawal without notice’. Mauritians have not learned to say no. So every of your requests might meet a approval nod, but at the time of delivery a no-show is not a rare event. You might be frustrated, but have to take this into serious consideration. You might fix an appointment to interview an interesting (and needy) candidate, fix and confirm the schedule. The person might simply not turn in …. And turn off his phone. In many cases, even contract were signed, but the employee never reports to work. You might find the reason on their social media accounts, most probably.

 Same might happen anytime during the employment itself. There is absolutely no guilt feeling from the defaulting party. Worse, you might be convened by the Ministry of Labor inspectorate out of complaint from the deserting employee. By default, the employer is the culprit and is the one who needs a defense. Be ready for this anytime. How? By keeping an absolute check on your HR compliance, including maintenance of proper records, and a strict observance of laws, rules and regulations. It is also recommended to hire the services of established professionals, whether inhouse or outsourced.  At times, outsourcing is more convenient as it removes any possibility of connivance among staff. A sort of organization mutiny can happen, and you cannot be surprised if your HR team is involved.  

Disparity between offer and demand

Many professionals reckon the disparity that seemingly exist between job offers and locally available skills. I would say that half of this theory is a myth. Younger Mauritian generations have the ‘almost’ eternal sponsorship of their parents. They are accommodated at the family house for as long as they want, even after marriage. They are fed, washed and financed. There is no urgency to find a job or have a financial independency. Many would stay at home, idle, waiting for the ideal job. Career guidance people have a role to play here. University lecturers sometimes lure students into believing that a wonderful job opportunity is in the waiting, the next day they have their qualifications in hand. With that distorted idea well anchored, fresh graduates set sail on an illusionary mission, rejecting offers that are actually the first step to a brilliant future. Immediate reward becomes the mentality and pretentions prevail.

The disparity, if I may say, comes not from the offer and demand, but rather from the offer and expectations. Starting at any point is a start.

Trade Unions are completely outdated but still force themselves to play a role. They need a raison-d’être which translates into constant demands, justified or not. Still waving the Marxist flag, wearing Che Guevara t-shirts or Batik colored pajamas-like dresses, or sporting an embarrassing (and dying) ponytail over an otherwise bald head, these ‘easy riders’ of the employment environment often stir mud… very unnecessarily. They have been the one constantly hammering that Employers and Employees are two different teams. Still deeply nostalgic about the industrial era, Trade Unionists come up with hallucinating ideas which do not have any relevance in today’s work environment. Anti-capitalism, such a beautiful concept.

Foreign labor

In any country where economic development meets a labor shortage, decision makers open the door to Foreign Labor. Mauritius has implemented a selective immigration policy, based on what I call the two ‘C’s : Capital (money / investment) and Competence. Through the Economic Development Board (EDB), there is quite a flux of expatriate employees on the island. The major schemes have not changed as we are still targeting specific competencies ; qualified employees within sectors such as engineering, IT, communications, finance, legal and white-collar segments. The shortage lies not within those areas, but on the operational side of businesses, which are basically middle to low hierarchical brackets. These do not fit the actual scheme implemented by the EDB, but are rather governed through the old (but existing) Work and Residence permit schemes.

This scheme caters for salaries of less than Rs60,000 / month (Rs30,000 if in IT sector). That is why you can see a lot of Bangladeshis, Nepalis and Chinese workers around. They fall into low or no skill category.

Being a very old scheme, it still relies on an outdated system not really catering for the realities of today. The whole system requires an urgent updating. I am not referring to documentation only but also to the general principles underlying decisions to grant or refuse permit. In fact, the whole strategy behind foreign labor has to be reviewed. A daring move, maybe, as it might cause frustrations among the locals which is composed of those unemployed and others not willing to be employed.

There could be an intelligent ‘sales-mix’. Unfortunately, everything for now has been classified either white or black. In a binary world, it is one (1) or zero (0). That does not work.  A sound strategy would first need to acknowledge the issues around local labor. If people are no longer willing to work as waiters, then we need to import waiters. To illustrate the problematic here : people prefer to work as waiters on cruise ships rather than in a local hotel or restaurant. So, we have waiters, but they do not want to work on the island. So be it. Fill the empty spaces through an appropriate labor import mechanism. Same situation in hotels. What is mind-boggling, is that some cruise ships companies benefit from the marketing of local authorities to hire Mauritians.

The disparity is here.

This is a typical scenario. Before embarking on your Mauritian project, make sure to consult with recruitment and HR professionals to get an overview of available skills for your future business. You might also want to extend that consultation over the possibilities of importing foreign labor. The most complicated businesses are those that are labor-intensive.

Glossy pitch

You will often come across the following pitch lines :

• Qualified workforce
• Highly educated population
• Bilingual (minimum)

We will be happy to elaborate on this article and answer any question that you might have. Drop us a comment or an email on [email protected]

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