The term-time talent pool: are Ghanaian employers designing jobs that exclude talent?

Ghana has a substantial unemployment problem, yet the existence of unemployed workers does not guarantee that employers can recruit the particular skills they need. One possible obstacle receives relatively little attention: jobs may be designed around working patterns that exclude otherwise suitable candidates.

According to the Ghana Statistical Service, unemployment stood at 13 per cent in the third quarter of 2025, while youth unemployment remains a distinct concern. Vulnerable employment also remains widespread. Alongside investment, training and job creation, employers should therefore consider whether existing employment practices are preventing them from making better use of available skills.

Consider an experienced employee in Accra who asks to work during school terms and remain away during school holidays. Performance is strong and the work can largely be planned ahead. The manager refuses because several weeks without the employee would be too difficult to cover. Three months later, the employee resigns.

Was refusing the request really the safer workforce decision?

The year-round assumption

Most permanent jobs assume that employees must be available throughout virtually the whole year. Yet businesses do not operate uniformly across 52 weeks. Demand fluctuates, projects have busy and quiet periods, and administrative functions follow their own rhythms.

Some jobs plainly require continuous or seasonal cover. Hotels, hospitals and retailers may need employees precisely when others want time off. But an accountant's deadlines do not automatically follow the school calendar, nor does an IT specialist's workload necessarily reflect the seasonal demands of hospitality.

The question is not whether the organisation operates all year. It is whether that particular job genuinely requires year-round availability.

A hidden labour pool

Ghana's labour force surveys highlight the importance of own-account work and the limited availability of secure wage employment. But how many capable people work independently because conventional employment cannot accommodate their circumstances?

Parents are obvious candidates, but not the only ones. Grandparents with caring responsibilities, people undertaking substantial study and semi-retired professionals may willingly exchange some earnings for regular periods away from work.

An experienced accountant does not cease to be experienced because she cannot work every school holiday. A software developer does not lose his skills because he wants several known weeks away each year.

Some may already be earning through consultancy, trading or informal work. Others may have withdrawn from employment altogether. The opportunity is to make formal employment accessible to people whose availability does not fit the conventional model.

The potential size of this labour pool remains uncertain. Employers could begin finding out by advertising suitable vacancies with alternative working patterns and measuring the response.

Advertising flexibility from the outset

Flexible working is normally considered only after an existing employee requests it. Why not offer alternative arrangements before a vacancy is filled?

A suitable position could be advertised with conventional, part-time or term-time working options. Ghanaian employers already understand matching labour to periods of demand in agriculture, construction, events and hospitality. The same thinking could be applied to jobs where employees are needed for most, but not all, of the year.

Term-time working is established elsewhere. Britain's NHS formally recognises arrangements under which employees can work around school terms, with earnings potentially spread across the year. This illustrates an employment practice rather than a comparable statutory right in Ghana, where employers would need to establish such arrangements voluntarily.

There is a Ghanaian complication. School calendars are not necessarily uniform. The Ghana Education Service's 2026/27 calendar for basic schools provides for three terms totalling 41 weeks, while senior high schools and private schools may operate different arrangements.

Employers would therefore need to specify working periods rather than assume that one national term-time pattern suits everybody. For some parents, shorter daily hours rather than fewer working weeks may be preferable.

A continuing employment relationship

Term-time working need not mean casual employment. The objective should be to preserve a continuing relationship, with agreed non-working periods, rather than dismissing and rehiring experienced employees each school term.

Ghana's Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651) does not establish a dedicated term-time employment category. Its special provisions governing temporary and casual workers do not automatically govern a continuing employment relationship simply because an employee has recurring periods away from work. The contractual structure must therefore be established carefully.

The Act provides for at least 15 working days of paid annual leave. Section 21 also addresses work not regularly maintained throughout the year, deeming the continuous-service requirement satisfied where an employee works at least 200 days annually. Employers must calculate actual working days carefully, taking account of statutory leave, public holidays and the agreed working week. This provision concerns annual-leave continuity, not pension eligibility.

Written employment terms should establish the working periods, remuneration, statutory leave and treatment of non-working months. Existing employees' working patterns and pay should be changed by agreement.

Pay and benefits require particular attention. Reduced annual earnings might be paid during working periods or spread across the year, subject to minimum-wage requirements and other applicable employment terms. Employers must also establish how statutory pension contributions will be calculated during non-working months, particularly where no salary is paid.

Employees need clarity about the consequences. Fewer working weeks generally mean lower annual earnings, while pension contributions, training and career progression may also be affected. The agreement should establish whether the arrangement is permanent, how it can be changed and what happens if the employer subsequently requires year-round availability.

Such opportunities should be open to all suitable applicants rather than treated primarily as arrangements for mothers. They must also be designed to avoid unnecessarily restricting training, promotion or career development.

The commercial opportunity depends on providing a genuine employment relationship, not simply fewer weeks of work without corresponding security.

Known absence has value

Term-time working offers another advantage: employers know when the employee will be absent.

Businesses routinely cope with sickness, resignations and sudden vacancies. School holidays, by contrast, can be identified months ahead. Projects can be rescheduled, responsibilities shared and temporary support arranged where commercially justified.

Suppose an excellent employee can provide approximately four-fifths of a conventional working year. Management may compare 80 per cent availability with 100 per cent and reject the proposal. But if rejection causes the employee to resign, the relevant comparison may actually be between 80 per cent and zero.

Recruitment costs money. New employees need induction, and valuable knowledge may disappear with the departing worker. An established customer relationship or detailed familiarity with a company's operations cannot necessarily be replaced simply by hiring another qualified person.

There are limits. Colleagues may have to provide cover precisely when they too want leave. In a small business, one such arrangement may be workable while several are not. Flexibility achieves little if it merely transfers the problem to everybody else.

But these difficulties should be tested rather than presumed. Could some work be rescheduled? Could responsibilities be shared? Might consultants, semi-retired professionals or suitably qualified temporary workers provide complementary cover?

In some cases, a professional working during school terms could be complemented by a university student seeking vacation employment. Academic calendars will not always coincide, and students cannot replace experienced specialists, but certain duties may lend themselves to this arrangement.

Not every absence can be covered. Nevertheless, a predictable absence offers more scope for planning than an unexpected resignation.

Designing jobs around people

Ghana will not solve unemployment through term-time employment. It needs more investment, productive enterprises and secure jobs. Many sectors will continue to require year-round staffing.

But creating jobs and designing jobs are different challenges.

An employer can have a vacancy while an experienced professional remains outside conventional employment because its working pattern is incompatible with caring responsibilities or other commitments. Offering a continuing relationship based on agreed working periods could bring those skills within reach.

The principle extends beyond school holidays. Some employees may prefer shorter working weeks, others concentrated periods of work followed by extended breaks. What matters is whether the arrangement is commercially workable, legally compliant and fair to colleagues.

Perhaps the next vacancy should not begin with the assumption that the new employee must resemble the old one.

It should begin with a simpler question: Does this job really need someone for all 52 weeks?

Author: Zhu Li

Zhu Li is a Director at the Federation of International Employers ( FedEE ), where she works closely with multinational employers on international HR, workforce and employment issues. Her work spans cross-border HR policy, labour-market developments and emerging workforce risks, with a particular interest in how organisations adapt job design and people practices to changing labour-market conditions. She has contributed analysis to HR publications on subjects including poly-working, global HR compliance and the challenges of managing one workforce across multiple legal jurisdictions.