Recruiting and hiring the right employees in Sierra Leone is key to helping your business succeed. You need talented candidates to fill your open positions and the time to recruit those candidates in a new country can be challenging.
That’s where G-P comes in. As a global Employer of Record (EOR), we’re uniquely positioned to help you expand without the hassle of setting up a subsidiary. When you work with us, we’ll handle payroll, hiring, compensation, benefits, and compliance, so you’ll only need to worry about growing your company.
Recruiting in Sierra Leone
With a small population of working-age individuals, Sierra Leone is a country where staffing a business can be a challenge. However, some best practices can help you find top talent. For example, in rural areas, word of mouth and referrals are the most common recruitment channels. Building a relationship-based work culture can help you look to your existing team members for referrals.
Other common channels include:
- Local newspaper advertisements
- Local employment office postings
- Temporary employment agencies or third parties
- Street advertisements
- Job boards
- Company website
- Social media
- Job fairs
Laws against discrimination in Sierra Leone
While Sierra Leone’s laws allow for the same status and rights for all individuals, companies must ensure equal pay regardless of gender. As of 2023, the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act (GEWE) requires that 30% of all public and private jobs must be held by women.
The country’s laws also prohibit discrimination against individuals with physical, sensory, intellectual, or mental disabilities. However, the government has not effectively implemented these laws, and people often lack access to buildings, information, and communications.
To avoid any biases, make sure you follow a blind employment application process to remain compliant and ensure a fair hiring process.
How to hire employees in Sierra Leone
Recruitment can be a difficult task for employers in Sierra Leone since the country’s population is quite small and many are already employed in the agricultural sector. Some of the best ways to hire employees in Sierra Leone include:
- Relying on word of mouth or referrals.
- Advertising in a local newspaper.
- Posting at the local employment office.
- Using temporary employment agencies.
- Employing street advertising.
- Using employment websites or job boards.
- Advertising on social media.
- Attending a job fair.
- Using a recruitment agency.
Sierra Leone employment laws
Although Sierra Leone’s employment compliance laws do not mandate a written employment contract, verbal contracts are only valid for up to 6 months. The country allows fixed-term contracts of up to 12 months with the option to renew. Whether you hire an employee under a fixed-term contract or an indefinite contract, it’s best practice to include everything from compensation to benefits to termination requirements in a written employment contract. All salary and compensation amounts should be in Sierra Leonean leone (SLE) instead of another currency.
It’s important to note that the standard work week is generally 40 hours. Any work over 40 hours should get paid at an additional 50%, and work on rest days is an additional 100%.
Onboarding in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone employment compliance laws do not include any specific information about onboarding employees. However, you should take steps to make the onboarding experience comfortable and fast for everyone involved.
Plan new employee’s schedule for their first week, and make sure you include any training that could help them on the job. You should also review the employment contract with new employees on their first day to make sure all the terms and conditions are acceptable to both parties.
Grow globally with G-P.
G-P never forgets that behind every hire is a human being. That’s why we’ve backed our fully customizable suite of global employment products with our robust team of HR and legal experts, so we can remain at your side, ready to support you as you build your global teams. With the #1 Global Growth Platform, you have the recruitment tools and services you need to find your perfect full-time or contract match.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you recruit, hire, and onboard anyone, anywhere.