Companies Outline 7 Reasons They Might Delay Hiring Despite Need

Banks and non-bank institutions have expressed an interest in hiring more employees during this holiday season as well as in 2025.

In a report released by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) on Tuesday, 62 per cent of banking institutions reported a need to hire more employees before the year ends while 45 per cent of non-bank institutions reported the same.

However, they foresee a possible delay in the process which they attribute to three key aspects including; the rise in taxation, reduction in consumer purchasing power, and demand uncertainties.

For the banks, the need would address hiring gaps in branch expansions, growth in business, and launch of new products. They are also looking to fill vacant roles and areas critical to business operations. 

Non-bank firms, on the other hand, are looking for contract workers due to heightened business during the festive season.

As for their expectations for 2025, a higher number was recorded as banks recorded a 72% possibility to hire new employees while non-bank firms reported a slight decrease at 43 per cent.

The latter cited the prohibitive cost of running a business, low business out-turns, increased staff costs, taxes, and pending bills as the main impediments to this decision.

They also indicated plans of scaling down due to low business and leveraging ICT and technology which has reduced manual operations.

This new report gives credence to the recent reports by Kenyan companies looking to cut down on costs by firing or reducing the number of employees in their companies.

In November this year, four companies reported plans to fire up to 2500 employees by year-end providing a sobering realisation on the cost of over-taxation in the country.

Procter & Gamble, Base Titanium, G4S, and Tile & Carpet all reported plans to either fire some of the employees or dissolve the businesses completely.  

In a letter addressed to the Ministry of Labour explaining their decision, the private security company G4S indicated the lack of demand for their services as one of the reasons they were scaling down.

“We regret to advise the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the organization’s intentions to declare several positions redundant. This letter therefore serves as a notice of redundancy under the provision of the Employment Act, 2007 Section 40,” read part of the notice.

32 companies also reported plans to dissolve in three months earlier in September.