Before registering your CV on a job portal, find out if they offer free trial options to clients. Unless the company signs an agreement with the service provider (portal) to guarantee that they will protect your confidentially, then you should think twice about posting your CV on that database. Even if such an agreement was signed, unless the company or agency is requested to pay for this access it is still at risk, as it is far too easy for anyone (including marketing companies) to gain access to your details via this database. However, if they are required to pay a premium fee and enter into an agreement with the Service provider (portal) to ‘trial’ the site – such as with Jobs.co.za – then you can rest assured that your job portal has the protection of your personal information and confidentially of such in their best interest.

The same applies to bona fide recruitment agencies. If your service provider is currently offering free access to every fly by night ‘agency’, how does that protect your investment? By being forced to pay a premium fee to access the database, your Service Provider is essentially also protecting your investment in their database.

Free trials seem wonderful to companies, but beware of the risks involved as either a job seeker or a recruiter. Choose a recruitment technology provider or job portal that enforces strict policies in order to protect either your personal identity, or your future investment.

So you’re looking for a new job. Time to move on (or up) in your career, but there must be that one special thing that makes it impossible to hate your job. Whether you are in the job market or not, tell us why you love what you do. (After all, if you can’t convince us, how can you convince your future boss that you are passionate about what you do?)

We have had a great response to our Win an iPad Competition on our Facebook page. However, we would like to remind you that if you choose to post your comments on our Wall, and the comments are not in line with the competition (i.e. the comment does not tell us why your job rocks), then it will be deleted.

Please note however that formal entries must be sent to the lovemyjob@jobs.co.za. Please take note of the competition details on http://www.jobs.co.za/lovemyjob.

Entries not meeting these criteria may not be considered.

We have been informed by some Job Seekers that another job website called Jobspace.co.za that publicly displays everyone’s CV’s on their website.  This means that anyone (including your boss) can see your CV and furthermore, that any fraudsters can use your identity or CV for fraud as all your information is available on Google and is not hidden behind a secure login area. Also be sure to read all websites privacy policies. In the case of Jobspace, they do have a privacy policy which states that they can make your information available to anyone on their website (remember though, that because it’s not behind a login, the world has access to your CV directly from Google or any other search engine). So if you don’t want this information public, don’t publish it.  If you want to list your CV on such a website, don’t include your ID number and address unless it is stored behind a secure login area. Provide very limited information – protect your identity always!

Also, be very careful NOT to pay any companies money when applying to a job as this is a scam. We were recently informed of a situation like this where a candidate was scammed out of money from an ad placed on Jobspace (which is a free job listing site). Because advertisers can easily place ads for free,  it is very easy for a scammer to sneak in a scamming job advert. Please be careful when you submit your information and to whom you send money. We are using Jobspace as an example of one instance only, however there are many other free job listing and classified sites as well that allow advertisers to advertise for free – so be cautious at all times. If anyone every asks you to send them money when applying for a job, be very careful.

On Jobs.co.za, your CV is protected behind a secure login. Only companies who have agreed to our terms and conditions to protect your confidentiality may have access to your CV – and even then, only if you have granted permission to make it visible.

In addition, companies are required to pay to advertise on Jobs.co.za. This enables us to control who is advertising and helps us detect any potential scam jobs before they get into the worldwide web.

If you have any questions or concerns about your internet privacy, you are more than welcome to email us at enquiries@jobs.co.za for some guidance.

The Jobs.co.za Team

This is how it goes:
“Job ads” (and I use this term very loosely here as you’ll see from the rest of my post that this is no “job”) wherever there is an opportunity to advertise for free whether online or in print, passing their little scam off as a real job opportunity to poor unsuspecting Job Seekers. The advertisers paint a colorful picture of the “perfect” work from home opportunity.

…Waking up late doing a bit of work and receiving a fat check at the end of the week having free time to live your life and spending time with your loved ones…

You immediately decide to apply to the ‘dream come true’ opportunity.

*Glass shatter*

Little do you know at this point that this is all just a scam and you have sadly been tricked!

After “applying to the job” you receive an email informing you that you have been successful (even though you have not been for a job interview or spoken to anyone about the job). You – and many others – are informed in a standard letter that you are perfect for this position, and blah-blah … Such rubbish! In the very same letter they ask you (oh so matter of factly) to deposit X amount into the banking details provided. This amount can range from R10-R300 (depending on how greedy these people are) this amount is for a “Training Manual”. “Training Manual” my… cat’s toes!!!

In this “Training Manual” they tell you the following: And I quote “This training manual will teach you how to have your own successful business via the internet. Read your manual thoroughly. It’s as easy as 1,2,3”

1. Create a new email address
2. Placing Ads
3. Response Letters

In this “Training Manual” they teach and “advise” you on how to cheat the next innocent Job Seeker out of X amount by doing exactly what they’ve just done to you: Luring innocent Job Seekers into believing that they are applying to a “real” job opportunity that does in fact not really exist!

With this warning I leave you: If you’ve applied for a “Work from home data entry” or similar position and you received and email that asks you to deposit money in a bank account for whatever reason, please do not do so unless you are sure that this is not a scam, some positions are legit but you never know if the next person is trying to cheat you out of your hard earned cash!!!

We here at Jobs.co.za will do our utmost best to prevent these people from advertising on our website.

If you are aware of any suspicious behaviour or are unsure about anything that appears unusual then please let us know at support@jobs.co.za

With so much uncertainty regarding in the employment market, employers are reluctant to hire new employees on a permanent basis and are leaning more towards hiring staff on a casual or temporary basis to fill those roles that previously might have been considered a permanent post. Employers are more comfortable taking short-term risks under the current situation.

Gillian Meier, CEO of Jobs.co.za says: “In recent discussions with a number of recruitment agencies we have discovered that many employment agencies who previously only placed permanent staff are now forced into having to do temporary placements to ensure that they continue to drive revenue in their businesses, while maintaining an existing relationship with their clients by being flexible towards their current needs, whether that be to fill permanent or temporary posts”.

The term ‘flexible staffing’ therefore holds true to recruiters, employers and Job Seekers in that everyone has to become more flexible under the current times.

For those who might be new to the world of Temporary Employment, here are some basic guidelines to Temporary Employment in South Africa:

The Skills Development Act stipulates that temporary employment agencies must be registered with the Department of Labour. Basic Guide to Private Employment Agencies.

Workers whose services are provided to a client by an employment agency are employed by the agency. The agency is the employer of the worker. The employee is then under a Temporary Contract of Employment with the employment agency (who is the temporary employer) and the Client, who is a third party, will typically enter into a ‘Contract of Work’ with the agency.

The employment agency hires out the services of the temporary employee to the client. The client pays the employment agency and the agency is therefore responsible for paying the temporary employee the agreed upon salary. The employment agency charges a far higher rate (salary) to the client than hat it has to pay the temporary employee, this being how the employment agency makes its money.

Upon completion of the assignment the Temporary Contract of Employment is automatically terminated and the Employment agency and Temporary employee then enter into a new Temporary Contract of Employment for each new assignment.

Although there is no direct employment relationship between the employee and the client, except for the ‘implied’ contract of work, both the employment agency and client (Company) are jointly responsible to stick to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act.

Occasionally a temporary employee may be employed directly by the Company thereby bypassing an employment agency entirely.

Whether employed through an employment agency (or labour broker) or by the Company directly, under the Basic Conditions of Employment Act a temporary employee must receive annual paid leave, sick leave and so on and is entitled to family responsibility leave, sick leave and overtime as with any other employee.  Furthermore, temporary employees are also entitled to be paid for public holidays that arise during the tenure of employment.

The termination of a Temporary Contract of Employment does not necessarily specify a terminate date, it usually details the termination of the contract being upon the occurrence of a particular event. For instance, the contract will terminate when the employee who is being filled in for returns from maternity leave, or sick leave etc. Or the contract is terminated upon completion of a particular task.

A worker who is an independent contractor is not an employee of a temporary employment service.  Visit the South African Labour Guide for more information on the understanding the differences between a contractor and a temporary employee in regards to the Employee’s Status.

Related Links

The department of labour provides specific Temporary Employment conditions in the following areas:

• Basic Guide to Temporary Employment Services (Wholesale and Retail);
• Basic Guide to Temporary Employment Services (Domestic Workers)
• Basic Guide to Temporary Employment Services (Farm Workers)

So what are these “in demand” qualifications, trades and skills?
According to the article (and subsequent articles carried throughout the same publication), the most in-demand careers for South Africa are:

1. Those holding specific trades such as artisans, plumbers and electricians.
2. Engineers; Specifically mechanical, civil and then electrical engineers.
3. Information Technology skills such as software engineers, developers, network engineers & administrators as well as those IT Managers who can demonstrate that they are able to align IT strategies with strategic business objectives.
4. Sharp managers! Meaning those managers that are able to communicate, motivate and build high-performance organisations through strong leadership.
5. Academics, teachers, nurses and doctors will always be in demand in South Africa as a result of the former brain drain that literally ‘drained’ South Africa of these most needed (but often underpaid) skills.

What do the job advertisements say?
After reading the predictions of two articles for two consecutive weeks regarding who will survive the recession and who should be concerned, I decided to flip through the rest of the Careers section. Pen in hand, I circled those jobs and qualifications or trades that appeared most frequently under this week’s vacancies. On page 1, just slightly below the ‘Recession Busters’ article was a fairly large ad for a mining giant promoting bursaries offering hope to Matriculants holding a 60% average in maths and science for a future in Mining, Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering as well as other promising careers in the mining industry. This being an industry identified in last week’s publication as one of those who are most likely to lay-off employees during the coming Recession. Alongside the mining advertisement was another large advertisement recruiting for an Information Services Architect in the Petroleum industry, who should hold a degree or 3-year diploma in Computer Science or Information Technology accompanied with no less than 7 years technology architecture experience.

So that’s what the front page of the Careers section said, but what about the rest of the publication? A number of positions popped up frequently for Financial Managers – qualified CA’s – with between 5 to 7 years experience. This was not identified as one of the ‘in-demand’ skills, however judging by the number of job advertisements for Financial Managers; this too might be a promising career. I also spotted at least five job advertisements hiring CEO’s of medium to large size organisations with most of these vacancies requiring no less than a post-graduate qualification in business administration, or more specifically and MBA with 10 years plus experience.

What about all those Government Positions? Over the last few months or even years I have grown quite accustomed to seeing the majority of job advertisements in the Sunday Times Careers being for Government positions. I was surprised to see that the number of vacancies being advertised for the Government had reduced significantly – and as a result, so had the number of pages of the Career’s section. What did stand out is that the Department of Health is still advertising a large number of health jobs in the publication. Positions for Academics and teachers are also still featured rather prominently throughout the publication.

In support of last week’s predictions that the pharmaceutical and medical industries will not be retrenching, I noticed quite a few job advertisements in these industries. I also noticed that throughout the Careers section there was definitely an increase in the demand for Engineers holding BSc degrees with between 5 to 15 years experience, therefore supporting the comments in the headline article stating that those engineers with qualifications and skills will be more likely to survive the recession.

Looking at the content of the job advertisements throughout the publication it clearly demonstrated that those ‘in-demand’ careers mentioned above are, well … clearly in demand.

Although the job advertisement may seem rather legitimate, this is indeed a scam. The official Climax Oil company has posted a Scam Warning on their own website. Please read it to find out more details regarding the nature of the scam.

The nature of the scam is where a phony job advertisement is placed on job web sites, promising positions at Climax Oil. The applicant receives an email with a job offer and requests that the applicant pays an up-front fee to a travel & tour company for assistance in getting a working Visa and to make arrangements for the applicant to get to the foreign country (i.e. Nigeria).

Please note that this is indeed a scam and Climax Oil dissociate themselves entirely from any of these emails or job advertisements as they believe it is an attempt to perpetrate Advance Fee Fraud (popularly known as “419”) on unsuspecting members of the public. In the event that you have received any emails from the company described above, please visit the official website for contact details to take further action.

Please be aware that this is becoming a common scam and Jobs.co.za advises that you never pay any monies over to anyone unless you have met face-to-face and have thoroughly done your research on the company to whom you are paying monies (telephonically or in person) to be assured that the company that you are dealing with has a legitimate job offer on hand.

Wouter has since returned from his vacation and has written to us telling us all about his holiday away with his wife.

Once again Congratulations Wouter and thank you for taking the time out to attend out launch event back in July.

Jobs.co.za Prize: 2 Nights stay at Tau Game Lodge

What a prize to win! When I accepted Jobs.co.za’s invitation to attend the launch of their new website, I had no idea that it might hold such a fantastic surprise for me. And I have to say the weekend at Tau Game Lodge was as overwhelming as the well-organised launch of the jobs.co.za website at Helderfontein Estate on 25 July.

The lodge phoned and obtained to get all our personal details before the scheduled weekend of 19-21 September. We only understood why when we arrived on Friday evening to a personal welcome. Our luggage was swiftly taken to our chalet, and our car simply disappeared for the duration of the weekend. Even when we remembered that we had left our sunglasses in the car, our personal guide quickly went and fetched it for us early on Saturday morning!

The venue, right on the border with Botswana, enjoys an exquisite setting with the main building and chalets all looking out on a river bend. We were welcomed to our chalet with a personalised letter and special gift pack, and natural flowers spelling a welcome message on the pure white, mosquito-netted bed.

We woke up to the sounds of birds even before we received our wake-up call. The view from the chalet was stunning, and on Saturday we saw non-stop waves of animals drifting towards the water. A fisheagle sat perched on a dead tree just across the stream all day, watching (as we did) the fish in the clear water. We saw it swoop down, catch a fish, and eat it about 20 metres from us! And then there were the herds of elephant that came by to drink and play in the mud right in front of our stoep!

The game drives were just as brilliant. We saw such a variety of animals, and we had the privilege of being in the same group as a surgeon from Cape Town who is a real bird fundi – he would only catch a glimpse of a bird, and immediately identify it! Our guide, Dave, was himself very knowledgeable (with an Honours in Zoology, mind you!), in addition to simply being good company. On Sunday morning the cold wind caused us not to see as many animals as the previous day. But then we had the best sight I’ve had in a decade: a leopard on the left of the dirt road stalking impala on the right of the road! We had a prime view for almost an hour!

Finally we have to mention the friendly hostess, Claudia (from Berlin!), and the excellent food. Our weekend away was a real treat, and we can only thank Jobs.co.za and the management and staff of Tau Game Lodge from the bottom of our hearts for an unforgettable weekend!

[View with PicLens]

Greeting’s and salutations everyone,

Today’s blog is specifically for Recruiters and I plan on discussing the difference between Match Maker and CV / Candidate Search. I wanted to clear a few things up regarding these smart Recruiter Tools as it can get a little confusing if you don’t know the difference between these two.

Upon launch, Jobs.co.za introduced a new element to the Recruitment mix called Match Maker.

This innovation was initiated with the intention of providing as much Job Seeker information to recruiters as possible before having to sieve through their CV’s.

All Recruiters’ know that while Job Seekers are encouraged to create or upload a complete CV, not all Job Seekers do. Instead, although actively seeking new employment, Job Seekers use Online Job Portals to browse for jobs and apply to them when they are ready to. Some Job Seekers only upload or create a CV when they find a relevant Job vacancy they wish to apply to. While this flexibility allows the Job Seekers to control their Job Seeking Portfolio at will, Jobs.co.za Match Maker allows Recruiters’ to gauge the relevancy of a potential Job Seeker that is registered on the website, without having had the opportunity to view their complete CV. In turn should the Match Maker display results of a close match to a Job Seeker’s Profile (not their CV), Recruiters’ can then contact the Job Seeker and invite them to apply to the Job Advert they have created.

Match Maker should not be confused with that of the Job Seeker Search. While both entail the element of candidate search, CV Search and Match Maker are in fact very different. While Match Maker will match your Job Advert to Job Seekers with or without CV’s, the CV / Candidate search will only deliver results of those Job Seekers with a completed CV, uploaded or created to their Profile.

When using the Jobs.co.za website optimally, it is recommended that Recruiters make use of both forms of candidate search but to understand that these essentially deliver different results.

CV Search delivers results based on a Job Seekers CV and Match Maker delivers results based on the Job Seekers employment desires as stated in their Profile.

A Job Seeker search will deliver candidates actively looking for alternative employment and who have a completed CV that may be viewed online.

Match Maker will deliver results illustrating the percentage of relevant Job Seekers that have registered on the Jobs Website and who fall within the corresponding industry and/ or Job Function but have not created or uploaded a CV.

These Job Seekers can then be invited to apply and in turn Recruiters’ expand their reach and exhaust each opportunity to recruit relevant, quality candidates.

And that, in essence, is the difference between Match Maker and CV Search.

I hope that this has helped to clear up any questions you have regarding these Recruiter Tools, but as always, please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any other topics that may be eluding you.

Drop me a line to say hello or voice your opinions or even raise questions that have been bothering you;

Whatever it is, I’d love to hear from you all.

Take care Y’all

Jo Blog

joblog@jobs.co.za

0861 JOBS 101

Ola’ Everyone!

Happy Halfway weekday! I know I say this all the time but hey, if we have nothing to look forward to, we don’t have much to live for.

So it’s my Wednesday Workplace Blog post that’s got me all excited because it’s actually us, Jobs.co.za that’s in the headlines this week and for a very exciting reason.

South African Job Portal (www.jobs.co.za) and Gauteng newspaper (JOZI Weekly), announce the exciting new partnership that will increase Job Seeker reach and market presence for both brands by bringing the online advertising strength together with the focus of a provincial newspaper brand.

This was the opening statement to a Press Release sent out by Jobs.co.za, on the 1^st of September 2008. The mentioned press release was sent to journalists and publishers across South Africa and abroad, announcing the coming together of print and online power.

Jobs.co.za and JOZI Weekly have officially partnered to launch “JOZI Jobs”, the new JOZI Weekly Jobs feature. In doing so, the new “JOZI Jobs” feature will enable Job Advertisers to reach thousands of Job Seekers on a weekly basis.

JOZI Weekly circulates each Friday and delivers local news and views on Business, Politics, Sports, Arts and Entertainment, Fashion and Trends, local Celebrity News, Hospitality and Tourism and now finally “JOZI Jobs”.

This partnership further offers “JOZI Job” Advertisers access to Jobs.co.za’s sophisticated Job Application Management suite, raising the profile of the job adverts and thereby increasing the number of quality job applications received.

Jobs.co.za Recruiters will also benefit from this partnership, as their Priority Job vacancies will now automatically be distributed to the thousands of JOZI Weekly print readers to significantly increase relevant active and passive job seeker audience reached.

Jobs.co.za understands that different Job Seekers look for jobs using different mediums of advertising. By teaming up with JOZI Weekly, the new “JOZI Jobs” feature can now offer Advertisers access to more Job Seekers than before, whilst also offering our Job Seekers a wider selection of job vacancies within close proximity to their homes.

Loyal readers of JOZI Weekly will now be spoilt for choice in that they now have a “JOZI Jobs” section to browse through Jobs and locate relevant job vacancies within the printed publication and apply to these, online, using Jobs.co.za, South Africa’s Online Jobs Portal.

For more information about “JOZI Jobs” and how you can take advantage of additional job advertising exposure please email jozijobs@jobs.co.za.

Take a read through the original press release that was sent on the 1^st of September ‘08, detailing this awesome partnership and be sure to keep your eyes peeled on newsstands on Friday and ever Friday to follow, to pick up your edition of JOZI Weekly.

Happy Job Hunting and Job Advertising everyone!

Peace out!

Jo Blog

joblog@jobs.co.za