Hiring your first employee in Algeria: job ad, CV screening and a candidate pipeline on a board

Your first hire is the moment your business stops depending only on you. It is also the hire with the least room for error: one wrong person in a team of two is half the team. You do not need HR software for it. You need a clear job, a fair way to compare candidates, and a board so nobody is forgotten. Then the paperwork with CNAS, which has short deadlines.

Disclosure: bizalgeria.com, NEKST DIGITAL and dzcollab share the same owner.

Step 1: define the job before writing the ad

Write half a page:

• The three main tasks, in verbs: “confirm orders by phone”, “prepare parcels”, “answer customers on Messenger”.
• What success looks like after three months.
• Must-haves (for example: speaks darija and French, available Saturday) and nice-to-haves.
• Contract, hours, place, salary range. The salary cannot be below the SNMG (24,000 DA a month since 1 January 2026), and contributions add to it: the net salary, IRG and CNAS calculator shows the real cost.

Step 2: write a short, honest ad

• Job title people actually search for.
• The three tasks, the must-haves, the hours and place, the salary range if you can.
• How to apply and by when.
• One line on how you will use their CV (see the data section below).

Describe the job, not the person: ask for skills and availability, not age, gender or marital status. Post it where your candidates are: your page, local groups, the wilaya employment agency. Whether you must notify the vacancy to ANEM is something to check with your local agency.

Step 3: screen CVs with a scorecard

Before reading the first CV, write 4 or 5 criteria from your must-haves and score each from 0 to 2. Read every CV against the same grid. It is faster, and fairer, than “I have a good feeling”. Candidates who need a clean CV can use the CV maker.

Step 4: track every candidate on a board

Every card has a next step and a date. Every candidate gets an answer, including “no”: it costs one message and protects your reputation. A board also makes sure two people in the team do not call the same candidate.

Tools: a paper list, a spreadsheet, Trello or Notion, or dzcollab, a kanban tool with an Arabic, French and English interface whose Solo plan is free for one user (Pro, for up to 3 members, was 1 242 DZD a month billed annually on 29 October 2026). You can set up the columns above on a dzcollab board for the hiring round. Larger companies that receive many applications sometimes build a careers portal instead; NEKST DIGITAL describes such a recruitment portal project on its work page (careers.sarlgms.dz, with an applicant tracking system and interview scheduling), noting that project details are representative.

CVs are personal data

A CV is personal data under law 18-07: people must know who processes it and why (art. 32), processing needs consent with listed exceptions (art. 7), and you must keep it secure (art. 38). In practice: say in the ad what you do with CVs, keep them in one place with limited access, do not forward them in group chats, and delete those you do not keep after the round. More on the law in cold outreach and law 18-07.

Step 5: after the “yes”, the CNAS clock starts

• Within 10 days of recruiting your first employee, declare your activity as an employer at the CNAS agency of your place of business.
• Within 10 days of the recruitment, send the employee’s affiliation request.
• Then declare and pay contributions (general rate 34.5%) on the schedule that applies to you.

The full list of documents and deadlines is in declaring your first employee to CNAS. If you are an auto-entrepreneur, check first whether your status allows you to hire: see AE, EURL or SARL.

What we could not confirm

• Whether and when a vacancy must be notified to ANEM.
• Whether an auto-entrepreneur may hire an employee.

Related: organise your team without WhatsApp or Excel.