Streamlining Public Sector Human Resource Recruitment and Selection Processes Through Digitalisation: Prospects and Challenges for African Bureaucracies

Abstract

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has had a profound impact on technological advancements in different development sectors around the world through digitalisation. In public sector human resource management, particularly in the areas of recruitment and selection of employees, the deployment of technology has enabled human resource managers to eliminate physical interactions in the processes of hiring employees through the digitalisation of the human resource management function. Through a desktop review methodology, which is anchored on the conceptual content analysis technique, this chapter argues that the digitalisation of recruitment and selection processes has created opportunities to curb challenges such as bureaucratic delays, nepotism and corruption which undermine fairness in the hiring processes. However, as the chapter reveals, challenges such as underdeveloped technological infrastructure, resistance to change, lack of digital literacy skills and the digital divide continue to plague the efforts to digitalise recruitment and selection processes in public sector institutions in African bureaucracies.