What is impact hiring?

Impact hiring is an innovative way to recruit talented people who, for varying reasons often outside their control, face barriers to entering the job market or finding meaningful work.

Concepts like social procurement seek to ensure the purchase of goods and services are as ethical, sustainable and socially responsible as possible. Along a similar line, impact hiring seeks to ensure that recruitment processes deliberately include people who might be a great fit for a role, but who would not traditionally see or apply for it.

Impact hiring consists of two parties: a) underprivileged ‘impact employees’ who are hired and b) the companies that hire them.

Let's explore how impact hiring works for each of these parties:

The impact employees: underprivileged people that receive an opportunity to upskill and work

In many places around the world, having a brilliant mind or the determination to work hard doesn’t mean people are able to reach their potential.

Factors like low income, not enough jobs, or a lack of access to education are just some of the reasons why some people aren’t able to seize opportunities for challenging and fulfilling careers, despite how much they want to work.

Our students at Onja are a great example. All 19 of the first wave of students scored in the top 1% of their peers at school in Madagascar, however, because of their underprivileged backgrounds they had only a few paths available to them after school. Many would likely have followed the footsteps of their parents and worked as subsistence farmers, or ended up in other positions that do not do justice to their potential.

After being selected for Onja, students trained for 2.5 years to speak English and learn software development and are now all working in challenging and rewarding jobs as remote developers for international companies. They have all the talent in the world; all they needed was an opportunity to upskill and utilise that talent.

Impact hirers: the companies who hire impact employees

A company can specifically focus on hiring for impact within their recruitment practices, making sure they have strategies in place to find the people who slip through the gaps. Or, impact employee providers, like Onja, can train and support disadvantaged people and link them with career opportunities.

‘Impact hiring’ is not a well known phrase or concept. So much so that many companies who engage in hiring an impact employee will not even be consciously aware that they are impact hirers! Onja’s Partner companies (the clients that work with our developers), are a great example of this. Very few, if any, would see themselves as impact hirers, however they are in every sense of the word.

Let's get something out of the way: impact hiring is not charity. To the right company it's a smart way to best meet a business need, with a ‘side effect’ of doing extraordinary good. Software developers are in record demand, and our partner companies are simply looking to hire the right people for their teams. When they come across Onja they see a unique way to meet this need, while also being inspired by the idea of doing good. And they tend to be pleasantly surprised with the outcome. This feedback came from one of our partners (businesses that hire our developers) after working with Sandy:

“Sandy has been diving into the challenges that we have given her. She is not afraid to do new things, to learn or to reach out to new people to get the job done. She asks questions when needed, works well with the wider team and just gets the job done.” Phillip, CTO Ecogy Energy

Finding the right people

Probably the most important thing for most companies is attracting and retaining the right people. If you have the right people, everything else tends to follow.

Impact employees have a few distinct advantages that they bring to the table. First and foremost they have incredible attitudes. Your average run-of-the-mill employee may have gone to university, did enough to pass, then jumped around in a few different positions. They know they need to work decently hard, but they are not surprised to be where they are, and have little reason to feel a strong sense of loyalty to their company.

To contrast with impact employees like Onja’s developers - they never dreamed they would be software developers, but now that's what they really are. They come to work every day ready to give their all, with a smile and appreciation. They are supportive colleagues, and a true joy to manage. They also tend to have a much longer-term view of work, with ambition to stick around and grow with a team. The team at Sharescoops had an exceptional experience with one of our developers, Jerome. They were so happy with his work they also hired Sarah, another of Onja’s developers.

The impact of impact hiring

Charity can be a great thing, but it doesn’t do much to develop nations economically. Businesses are what develop nations and give more opportunities for employment and economic empowerment.

A stable income and reliable work means that people can improve their living conditions and better provide for themselves and their families. At a local level, this can look like whole families having better access to health and education, and having greater financial freedom and security. On an individual level good employment can mean dignity, a sense of accomplishment, and hope for the future.

Through training impact employees at Onja, we’re seeing what this impact looks like in practice. Our developers are paid 7x times more than they otherwise would be in the jobs that were available to them, and will go on to earn more as they gain more experience. This not only changes their lives but the lives of their families too. Now they often have the capacity to support the education of their siblings, even through university.

The impact of impact hiring can also have wider ripples. At Onja, our Non-Developer staff also receive great opportunities that they otherwise would not have had. For many, it’s the chance to work for a cause they care about, while gaining invaluable skills, growing their careers, and working with a great team.

Join the impact hiring movement

When done well, impact hiring has the potential to create incredible change, bringing companies top performers while giving untapped talent an opportunity to spread their wings and fly higher than they ever thought they could.

If more companies hired with impact in mind, it could truly transform the future of work around the world. If you’re interested in hiring a front-end developer with Onja, we encourage you to submit an expression of interest through our website at onja.org.