I urge you to come back down to reality for a couple of minutes and face the harsh reality of a little thing called CUSTOMER RETENTION & AFTER SALE SERVICE.

Ever hear the saying it costs seven times more to find a new client that it is to retain them?  I can hear a lot of you go – blah, blah, blah – Wake up! This is true.  Dissatisfied clients will tell twice as many people, as satisfied clients about their experience, and do correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t many of us rely on referrals and word-of-mouth?

On a weekly basis I hear of what a war zone it is out there in the recruitment world, how people take swords out of their backs, how the recession has had a devastating impact on their business, this is where I go – blah, blah, blah – no offense, but is it just me, or has poor customer service become increasingly more acceptable to South Africans both from a receiving and handing out point of view.

You would think that all the work we have to put into landing a new client, we would hang onto them for dear life.  Most try and many succeed, but a lot of clients are still lost every day, by Companies who didn’t think too hard and long about what they needed to do to keep them.  One of the biggest challenges facing any business is maintaining a balance.  More often than not, more emphasis is put on getting new business than serving existing clients.

Many of you may think that your clients are loyal and that you have such a great relationship, perhaps even a personal one, again, if you want loyalty, buy a dog.

The only thing that will set you apart from your competitor is good, no, Excellent Customer Service.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Strive for zero defect
• 68% of customers are lost due to the attitude of people, only 9% because of price
• Customers expect a product or service to measure up to their demands, make sure you exceed expectation
• Treat your customer as a person of value every time
• Should anything go wrong, correct it in an open friendly manner – no need to be hostile or shift blame
• Don’t make false promises – behavior breeds behavior –
• Make sure your staff are adequately trained and motivated
• Do unto others, as you would like done unto you
• A customer retention policy, should be driven from the top down with consistency across the board
• Combine high tech with high touch – your customer is NOT a number

Remember this one thing; a commitment to quality and service pays.

You don’t want to find yourself losing your customers quicker than you can say – EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE-!

Written by Cathy Gillmer – Jobs.co.za

SA Recruiters provides a platform where recruiters can network with, and share recruitment best practices and insighs with other industry professionals.

Why join SA Recruiters?
-Publish your own blog posts regularly and be seen as a recruitment expert.
-Get the latest updates on recruitment news from around the world.
-Be notified of recruitment industry events or submit your own events.
-Find jobs or advertise your recruitment and HR positions to be filled.
-Showcase your company to potential clients, candidates – and the world.
-Participate in or create discussions around issues facing the industry.
-Solicit advice from other community members.

Become an industry expert right here on SA Recruiters – South Africa’s Recruiting Community Network. Sign up now!

While the current state of global economies are resulting in even unsatisfied workers being more inclined to hold onto their jobs for the time being, these stats have identified 4 differentiated groups of workers with varying degrees of loyalty, motivation and overall job and company satisfaction.

Stats produced by TNS have segmented employees into four distinguishable groups;

• Workers Committed to both their Job and their Company – Ambassador’s
• Workers Committed to their Company but not their Job – Company Orientated
• Workers Committed to their Job but not their Company – Career Orientated
• Workers Uncommitted to their Job and their Company – Uncommitted

As obvious as it may be, those employees with a greater sense of job and company satisfaction the healthier, productive and balanced their lives are where conversely those who show no commitment to neither their job nor their employer are off ill more frequently, take duvet days more often than others, have lower output or productivity levels, generally suffer from more health issues and tend to experience more severe levels of stress than others.

To further illustrate the extent to which workers are affected by commitment and job satisfaction levels, these are the stats that have been quoted;

Ambassador (48%)

Specialised roles in larger enterprises that strive to create employee centric working environments

Company orientated (4%):

“Brand Loyal” Employee’s (often creative’s and financiers)

Career orientated (18%)

Roles that are established around transferable skills application
Uncommitted (29%)

Sales roles that can be applied to multitude of selling skill or sales industries

While it is encouraging to see that majority of workers are “Ambassadors” with a total of 48% leading the way, the closest following figure points out that 255 people out of 880 are uncommitted to their employers as well as their careers.

Pretty frightening if you consider that we spend more time at work than at home which means there are many unhappy, potentially ill and stressed out people in the world.

I hope that this has provided you with some food for thought and if you feel that you could potentially be of the uncommitted quadrant, that you do something about this and do it quick.

The bottom line is; work is something that we should enjoy and love to do day in and day out. Sure we all have bad days in the office and sometimes can’t bear the thought of having to deal with another task on our “to do” list, but life is supposed to be fulfilling and exciting and at best enjoyable.

Try to find what it is that makes your working world spin round and chase it until you’ve got it.

The only person you are doing an injustice to is YOU and by selling yourself and your career short will force you into the “Uncommitted” corner, which if you think about it, is a really sad and unproductive place to put yourself in.

I hope you all have a great evening and will see you all tomorrow.

- Horrah Friday is just one more sleep away!

Peace Out!

Jo Blog

joblog@jobs.co.za

0861 JOBS 101

Piggy-backing off the instability and vulnerability that consumers are currently experiencing as a result of the current state of the global economy, internet fraudsters are becoming more active in stealing the identities of unsuspecting audiences along with increased Phishing practices intended to gain access to sensitive personal information as well as banking or credit information.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures”, with online criminals feeling the heat themselves as well as having identified a window of opportunity in which they are now pursuing in order to take advantage of those susceptible to such online fraud

I thought that perhaps it would be a good idea to discuss such online treats in greater detail for better identification and classification as not many people are savvy to the different types of online fraud that can and does occur every day.

Phishing: This is an attempt at attaining personal, financial (banking login information and credit card details) and other confidential online user details by way of impersonating the identity of a legitimate and authentic online entity. Many banking institutes have fallen prey to such phishing attacks whereby online fraudsters will send an email requesting for client to confirm details such as bank account details, online banking login details or perhaps even credit card details which are then later compromised.

Protect Yourself: Never ever give out username’s or password details to anyone that asks you to do so. Any reputable website will be well aware of such security threats and will not ask you to confirm such information in the first place.

Identity Theft: As the name would suggest, identity theft is where online scammers assume the identity of others and register on websites (generally in bad network neighbourhoods and on dubious websites) under a false alias. What has been known to occur of late given the current financial crunch that all economies are currently experiencing is again, while assuming a false identity, credit applications are being applied for along with evading poor credit ratings and other criminal charges.

Protect Yourself: When registering or logging into a website that you commonly visit be sure to check the URL of the website and that this address is the correct one. Eg: www.jobs.co.za vs. www.jobz.co.za etc.

Spyware: while not as common but still ever present in the technological realm, spyware is the use of suspicious and illegal software onto personal computers that secretly monitors the users behaviour and to a certain extent takes partial control over the user’s interaction with their computer.

Protect Yourself: Install good quality Anti-Spyware software that will run regular checks on your computer to make sure it has not been compromised.

Malware: More commonly known as computer viruses the term malware refers to Malicious Software / coding that infiltrates and damages files and the general operation of a computer, with the user normally being unaware until the damage has already been done. Malware or computer viruses come in the form of Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses and Dishonest Adware and generally incept a user’s machine by way of the internet (visiting bad server networks) or via email.

Protect Yourself: Install a good quality antivirus program. As with the Anti-spyware, this program with run regular checks and ensure that your PC is protected and should it identify any form of the above mentioned viruses, that it isolates these and removes them from your system.

I hope that these explanations have helped you to better understand the types of fraud that occurs online and how better to protect yourself against such criminal behaviour.

It is a sad fact but one we all have to work with and protect ourselves from as we delve deeper into the infinite online universe.

Hope you all have a fantastic evening and I will catch up with you tomorrow.

Namaste’

Jo Blog

joblog@jobs.co.za

I hope you all had a restful weekend and re-fuelled the engines with fast firing, quick burning coal to seam ahead into this new week.

Today I wanted to share with you some awesome news that some of you may already know about regarding a new service upgrade that Jobs.co.za is now offering.

The New Year has brought about an exclusive and elite addition to the Priority Job Ad Upgrade.

When using your Recruiter Credits to upgrade any Standard Job Ad Listing to a Priority Job Advert, aside from the additional exposure and marketing your Priority Job Ad will receive, you will now receive hands on assistance from our in-house Recruitment Professional.

When activating  ”Recruit Assist” with Jobs.co.za you can now expect to receive additional support to aid you in attracting, acquiring and screening top class Job Seeker’s and thereby improving the quantity and quality of your applicants.

Recruiters can now simply upgrade a Standard Job Ad listing by using 250 Recruiter Credits (equivalent to R250) to a Priority Job and receive “Recruit Assist” from our Recruitment Professional. This support equates to assistance with job ad writing effective job advertisements, Job Seeker application screening and filtering along with headhunting as and when it is required.

Priority Job Ads are also differentiated by a yellow priority star which means they are easier to identify and stand out more than other job listing when Job Seekers are running searches. Priority Job Ad listings are also automatically filtered to the top of all Standard Job Ad listings, feature on all key Job Seeker pages in an isolated side bar as well as are further promoted in the Monthly Job Seeker newsletter.

Jobs.co.za will be hosting a launch event for this new upgrade and all subscribing Recruiters are most welcome to attend to find out how they can further benefit from this addition to the services that Jobs.co.za currently offers.

Join us on the 29^th of January ‘09 from 9:30 am to 11:30 am for an update on the latest enhancements to our search, screening and filtering tools, as well as an introduction to “Recruit Assist”. To receive an exclusive invitation or to RSVP please contact Kerry@jobs.co.za by the 22^nd of January ‘09.

Please note that seats are limited and RSVP’s will be accepted on a first come first serve basis.

What’s more left to say?

We would be thrilled if you would like to join us next week and look forward to your response.

I hope that you all have a terrific afternoon and I will catch up with you again in the next couple of days.

All the Best.

Jo Blog

Joblog@jobs.co.za

I hope you are all well and had a fantastic weekend – I certainly did; definitely one for the books and what’s more, we are one more week closer to the New Year

Fresh starts, new beginnings, clean slates and 365 days injected with sunny potential and boundless possibilities.

How exciting!

So as you may well be able to tell I have been bitten by the Happy Holiday Bug and am feeling the positivity all around.

(Which might I add, is quite out of character for someone dubbed the “Grinch” in previous years)

For some however, the Festive Season is a difficult time and sometimes challenging to get through.

Traffic, pressure, gifting, shopping, wrapping, meeting, greeting, being alone or being overwhelmed with guests – Each of us have our own quibble, not to mention energy supplies are on an all time low and some of us still have to work through until the New Year.

Every year the festive season seems to come around a lot sooner than it did the year before (provided you are over the age of 21) which adds to the pressure and leaves some almost with a sense of panic and disorder.

This year I have decided to tap into a resource that we all have and we can all make use of provided we choose to do so.

The resource; the choice itself.

We all have a choice in life which means; believe it or not you and I get to purposefully choose how we move through each moment that we encounter, the festive season included.

And without being to gaudy and nauseatingly positive but I wanted to share with you this gift that I have been given early this year that may just make the holidays that much more enjoyable.

My gift to you this year is to remind you of the awesome choice that you have at your fingertips just waiting to be pinched and hope that you too will try to tap into the positive energy that others may be exuding right now (even if you fail to do so yourself).

I hope that the choice comes easy to each of you and at best you find even just a moment of joy during this very busy time.

In sticking with the festive season theme, I thought it would also be worth mentioning to you that the Jobs.co.za offices will be closed over the 2008 Festive Season and more specifically

from the 24^th of December ‘08 until the 5^th of January ‘09.

You may have noticed the mention of this on the home page of Jobs.co.za that went up today but I thought I should mention it in the blog pages as well just in case.

Should you encounter any technical issues or problems during this time please do contact us on

0861 Jobs 101 and your call will be diverted to the necessary means of recourse according to the nature of your query.

I hope that I haven’t been too gushy today and if so I do apologise, I just had to share with you what I feel it to be my duty to pay forward (True Guru Style)

I hope the rest of your day is how you choose it to be.

Namaste’

Peace Out

Jo Blog

joblog@jobs.co.za

0861 JOBS 101

Turning to the internet as a feasible staffing application has been one that has displayed continuous momentum and gusto in the South African Employment market.

But if you are still not convinced here’s why… (taken from my article)

Greater Geographical Reach on Skilled workers.

All South African Recruiters are well aware that currently the South African Job market is lacking in the area of skilled workers in a very big way. With a high demand for skilled workers but unsatisfied by a poor supply, Recruiters need to find ways to locate the skilled workers remaining in the country, as few and far between that they may be. By advertising job adverts and searching online Job Seekers databases for such candidates’, employers are able to tap into pools of candidates that ordinarily may not have been easy to locate. Not only do online Recruiters manage to locate actively skilled workers but through means of optimised job advertising and employer marketing, Recruiters are equipped to entice the passive job market to participate as well.  In utilising online portals to seek and find skilled workers, international skills (global coverage) are too attracted to the South African market, thus injecting what could possibly be stale industry, with new talent and skills. With a greater reach on skilled workers, encompassing local and international geographical Job Seekers, Recruiters are soon able to locate relevant Job Seekers to fill job vacancies in niche industries where required.

Automated Recruitment Processes

Traditional recruiting is intrinsically labour intensive. From composing no more than a 30 word newspaper job advert, anticipating the responses, physically sifting through applications and requesting one on one interview’s is doesn’t get more tiring than this. These few steps are in fact only the very surface of what conventional recruitment entails and traditionally there are quite a few more steps involved in placing a relevant candidate in the right role. When recruiting online and utilising the extensive tools available to e-cruiters (online Recruiters) the overall recruitment process is simplified in significant ways. Recruiting online allows for pre-screening questions to be posed to prospecting Job seekers, bulk short listing and regretting and ultimately quickens the time to hire. Online recruitment transforms what was previously a manual process into one that is automated, streamlined and proficient.

Improved Time to Hire

Working hand in hand with implementing automated processes to that of a manual recruitment function, from beginning to end is also improved on. Placing ideal candidates in relevant roles is something that takes time and patience, as with making any perfect match in life. While this is true, time is also money in the South African employment market and should Recruiters hesitate in making accurate decisions, skilled candidates can be snatched up from right beneath their nose if not equipped to make such decisions. When recruiting on the internet, due to many processes having been simplified and enhanced, Recruiters are able to shortlist relevant candidates in half the time as what traditional recruitment allows for. Once shortlisted, the interview process commences faster and ultimately makes a final employment decision that much swifter than it ordinarily would be.

Cost Effective

Some may argue that bandwidth costs and internet usage in South Africa is expensive and by no means a cost effective solution to streamlining a labour intensive business. While this may have been an accurate assessment  to make a few years ago, as South Africa continues to convert to utilising web based applications, so bandwidth costs have become more affordable, internet access easier to tap into and a greater variety of options available for companies, small and large to exercise. By assessing the extent of your recruitment agencies needs, and facilitating internet resources in the most economically viable way, Recruiters that convert to facilitating the sourcing and placement of staff by making use of the internet will notice a cost effective kick back in more ways than one. Not only are internet expenses becoming more affordable, Recruiters need also remember that with the improved time to hire and prompt and efficient delivery on service level agreements, clients will convert to return customers, staffing tenders will become more frequent and “customer loyalty” will display more sustainable guarantees for the future.

Online Recruitment has brought about exponential growth to the South African employment market like no other. Those open to converting to the solutions that online recruiting offers are able to transparently track its multiple benefits and convert manual, labour intensive functions into a simplified, automated staffing function.

Well that’s me for now.

To read the full article visit the recruiter pages on Jobs.co.za or alternatively hit click on the title here and the world of recruitment is your Oyster.

“The Advantages of Online Recruitment”

Take care and I’ll see you all tomorrow

Peace Out

Jo Blog

joblog@jobs.co.za

I wanted to talk to you about internet browser settings and share some interesting insight you may not have known before.

When Internet users surf the web, essentially the platform in which they access websites is by means of an internet / web browser. The most commonly know browser setting would be Internet Explorer (IE) despite that this internet browser is now a pretty outdated in terms of application and facilitation of internet surfing.

Since the launch of IE (about a thousand years AD – that’s how old it is), a handful of other internet / web browsers have been released, all completely free to download and to be utilise by any internet user.

By digging a little deeper into the world of internet surfing and browser settings, I think you will all be greatly surprised in discovering that despite it being the more commonly used browser setting, there are other browsers that deliver safer and faster surfing than this common application.

Now don’t get me wrong, each to his/ her own and each internet user has their own surfing preferences and you don’t need to tell me about teaching old dogs new tricks (just take another look at my picture and you will be reminded that you are talking to a Geeeyser).

My point is, is that as internet users, we innately have a continuous requirement for the fastest delivery of safe and accurate web access and in this day and age there simply is no reason for second best. With the multitude of browser settings available it just makes sense to tap in to the one that delivers on our advanced requirements for precision, speed and unfaltering security.

Which brings me to my next and most important point…

In order to maximise speed and performance when recruiting on Jobs.co.za, The Jobs Team would like to recommend that Recruiters as well as Job Seekers employ the Firefox internet browser for best results. An Internet /Web Browser is defined as being a software application used to interpret and assimilate information on all websites. The Firefox web browser has been found to deliver optimum security as well as maximum speed when browsing the net. Jobs recommend the use of this web browser for an enhanced online experience. For assured security and uninterrupted speed and navigation, download the Firefox web browser for free and experience South Africa’s Online Job Portal with unsurpassed results and simple integration.

If you would like to find out more information about the top of the rage (Free to download), Browser applications available, visit a website called http://www.browsehappy.com/ Here you will find information guiding you through the browser choices available to you and step out of the primitive age of old-school web browsing and into an internet experience you won’t be able to get enough of.

With that, I’m on my way.

I hope that you all have a terrific Monday evening and I will catch you all on the flip side of the moon.

Take care!

Peace Out!

Jo Blog

joblog@jobs.co.za

I hope that you have been having a good week so far and so sorry I didn’t make it in yesterday was blessed with a crazy day from above and as much as I tried I just couldn’t get to chatting with you all.

But…I’m back today and here to stay (Apologies, I’m still sucking gas so bear with me, I’m digging deep just for you today so pardon a few cheesy lines here and there)

Today I wanted to talk to Recruiters about job interview techniques and more specifically looking for the   deeper meaning behind the answers that Job Seekers produce in response to job interview questions.

Just as Job Seekers are advised to prepare ahead of an important job interview, Recruiters are required to do the same and if not in more depth and elaboration to that of Job Seekers.

Job interviews are intensely in-depth functions moderated by any recruiter. The better a recruiter has prepared and the more insight gained based on a Job Seekers response to specific job interview questions, the more targeted your skill is on homing in on the best possible candidate to satisfy your client’s needs will be. Recently a colleague of mine at Jobs.co.za, Camilla, uploaded another one of her Recruiter advice articles to the site explaining ways in which to read between the lines of Job Seeker interview responses.

She shares some interesting ways in which subtle messages are communicated during responses given by candidates during a job interview and how to use these when placing the most fitting candidate in your client’s role.

Read through the full article look under Recruitment Interviewing Techniques in the Recruiter Advise Section, entitled “Job Interview Questions for Better Job Seeker Assessment”

I’m sure that you will find great value in this article and if anything, it will assist you in identifying the deeper meaning behind candidate rehearsed responses to common job interview questions and filter the gems form the pebbles.

I hope you enjoy the article.

Take care and Peace Out

Jo Blog

joblog@jobs.co.za

I hope you are all well and looking forward to your recruiting day ahead.

I have an interesting and very relevant topic to discuss with you today that will ultimately benefit your success in finding the ideal pool of candidates to select and recruit from.

Today I’d like to have a conversation with you about making use of both job advertising as well as candidate search.

In a recent article that was published on the website entitled “Job Advertising Versus Candidate Search“, Recruiters are encouraged to tap into both means of uncovering skilled candidates.

As discussed in the article, making use of Job Seeker search as well as job advertising should be seen as complimentary recruiting resources and in all fairness it does make sense to exploit each of these recruiting tools in order to maximise your consortium of skilled Job Seekers to select from.

While each element in locating ideal candidates plays an individual part in the recruitment process, it is the sum of these individual parts that ultimately boost the total of relevant Job Seekers available.

Job advertising acts as a pull on Job Seekers and draws them in with a call to action to apply to the job.

Job Seeker search, on the other hand, serves the role of the push in that after locating an appealing Job Seeker CV, the candidate is invited to apply.

Both of these recruiter tools have a place and procedure to follow but both result in a greater pool of candidates to select from. While using each in isolation continues to serve their individual purpose and should never be frowned upon in isolation to reach the ceiling of in your Job Seekers quest, it is best advised to welcome both factors to your recruitment strategy.

In order to maximise and expand on your recruiting realm Recruiters are encouraged to embrace both facets of candidate location and use both in a complimentary and all encompassing effort.

Take a read through the article published on the website for greater insight into making use of both Job Seeker searches as well as job advertising and let me know your thoughts.

With that I wish you all a wonderful day and I hope that all efforts made to reach your goals are fruitful and you get to where exactly it is that you want to be.

Namaste

(I bow to the divine in you)

Jo Blog

joblog@jobs.co.za