I HAVE noticed that most prospective employers advertised their job vacancies in various local newspapers with requirements like ‘Only CVs with attached certified copies of qualifications will be accepted’.
Fair enough to start with, and I don’t have too much of a problem with this requirement considering the risk of forgery etc. I have no relation to the Queen and nor is English my first language, but as far as I know, a CV should include or list all relevant qualifications obtained or gained. It is a known fact people do write their CVs differently, and any CV should tell a lot about the individual in question. What’s really puzzling is, why do job seekers have to submit a CV (qualification listed) and certified copies attached? Isn’t this the same as doing the same task twice at the same time over and over again?
Thinking globally and acting locally simultaneously, I would strongly suggest prospective employers to start requesting CVs only and if they doubt or pin-point anything suspicious, request the candidate to produce originals during interviews or before appointment. The process of making copies and then having to take them to a police station to certify the documents is not only tedious but extremely expensive especially to those unemployed. Have we ever considered the time and money it costs the police alone to certify daily queues of copies at each and every police station nationally? Surely, we could have utilised these police officers on more serious task which are of life-threatening nature, instead of under-utilising them to certify hundreds copies of qualification that will be unsuccessful anyway?
In the same vein, from an environmental perspective, what really happens to these hundred and hundreds of certified copies and CVs submitted to various recruitment and HR departments? If stored, it is scary enough to imagine the space taken up by these copies. Do we recycle these copies or do they go straight to another landfill or dump site on the outskirts of our towns? How much does it cost us? And is that safe for our environment and the future generation? We need to re-address the job application process seriously and perhaps standardise it as it’s a known fact that some employers only advertise vacancies in papers for formality reasons while these vacancies are already fixed, meant or earmarked for someone else (internally).
Full marks should go institutions like the City of Windhoek HR department for having implemented an online job application and CV uploading process, and I hope others will follow suit as this process will benefit the prospective employer, job seekers in terms costs and more importantly the future generation environmentally.
Ellis Tjiueza
Windhoek
