An Employer’s Guide to Recruiting in 2010
Having recently experienced what has been described as the worst economic performance in 25 years, the global economic crisis has given rise to over a million job losses in South Africa during 2009. Despite the fact that many South African companies predicted a subdued hiring climate for 2010; companies are being faced with the challenge of having to fill critical vacancies with quality candidates under limited recruitment budgets.
Making the right hire is critical as there is little room in companies' budgets to pay the cost of having made the wrong hire for the job. Finding the right person first time is becoming increasingly important to most South Africa organisations. In addition, companies have realised the need to explore a number of alternatives to finding talent to ensure that they keep their recruitment costs as low as possible.
Gillian Meier, CEO of South African Job Portal - Jobs.co.za, offers some guidelines on how employers can go about finding candidates in 2010:
RECRUITMENT / PLACEMENT AGENCIES:
Recruitment Agencies typically charge anywhere between 10% and 25% of the candidates annual package as a placement fee. Usually replacement guarantees are offered for three months in the event that the placed individual resigns or is dismissed within the guarantee period. Replacement guarantees are not effective if the candidate is no longer employed due to termination as a result of restructuring, unfair labor practice or a breach of agreement with the employee. Where an agency cannot provide a suitable replacement within a reasonable time frame, they offer their clients a pro-rata rebate which is based on a sliding scale as a percentage of the placement fee.
HEAD-HUNTERS
In some instances a company may retain the services of a professional head-hunter to source rare skills. Most companies have a list of preferred suppliers that they work with, where these suppliers have expertise in the specific industry as well as a thorough understanding of the company's culture and working environment. Head-hunters may charge a retainer fee up-front for the service with or without a guarantee, or alternatively they charge a standard placement fee as that of a recruitment agency.
RECRUITMENT AVERTISING AGENCY
A recruitment advertising agency acts as a media buyer on behalf of the client. They have extensive experience in understanding the correct mediums to attract specific skills. As part of their service they may offer clients copy-writing, designing and placement of the recruitment advertisement. The client is then billed for the cost of the advertisement and any additional services provided. Some recruitment advertising companies also offer a response handling service which is discussed below.
REPONSE HANDLERS
A response handling service is where the agency receives job applications on behalf of the client and provides the client with a short-list of potentially suitable applicants. In addition, some response handlers may offer background and reference checks or assessments as part of the service to the client. The client is usually charged on a sliding scale based on the volume of applications received and screened. Additional services are also charged for separately.
JOB ADVERTISING BOARDS
Most job boards - such as Jobs.co.za, Pnet, CareerJunction, Careerweb, Jobmail and Bestjobs - offer companies the option to advertise jobs on an ad hoc basis, should the company have a once-off requirement. Once-off advertisements can range between R199 to R1,500 per month depending on the service provider. Where companies have an ongoing recruitment requirement, or are looking to hire large volume candidates, they can purchase a package on a subscription based model. A subscription fee can range from between R1,500 to R5,000 per month depending on the service provider. Some services include bulk regret and short-listing as well as screening and filtering options to assist companies in managing their applications.
ONLINE CV DATABASES
Some online job portals, such as Jobs.co.za, offer companies the option of a monthly subscription service whereby they can access the database and search through active CV's of Job Seekers who have given permission for their CV's to be made available to companies in addition to recruitment agencies. Access is usually only granted under a longer term subscription (e.g. 3, 6 or 12 months) and is rarely offered to companies for a lesser period. In some instances, as with BestJobs.co.za, job portals may offer search for free, but have to pay to view the job seekers personal details. In South Africa, many online recruitment service providers still only offer search access to recruitment agencies. It is recommended that you shop around to find out where you might be able to gain access to a talent pool of available CV's. The costs are minimal and can save companies a lot of money.
SOCIAL NETWORK RECRUITMENT
A lot of recruitment agencies and companies are turning to online social and professional networks to gain access to passive candidates. By making use of the candidate targeting and networking tools available on websites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, companies are able to attract and interact with a large pool of potential candidates. LinkedIn also provides a little insight into the candidates credibility via recommendations (i.e. testimonials) posted by former employers and clients. Networking is usually free of charge, however to advertise on these networks there is usually a CPC (cost-per-click) or CPM (Cost-per-thousand impression) cost involved.
SEARCH ENGINE RECRUITMENT
Search Engines such as Google have made it possible for companies and job boards to target candidates through either natural or paid search results on either the search or content network, thereby extending the reach of the job advertisement to a very targeted and niche passive candidates. If a company's recruitment website has been properly optimised for search engines it should rank well on search engines - naturally and at no cost - for the desired search term. Companies can pay to advertise their ads via Google AdWords (again on a CPC or CPM model) to have their job ads appear on the sponsored results. With both Social Network & Search Engine Recruitment the company has full control over the budget and can decide how much they wish to spend to reach their target candidates.
There are so many opportunities available to companies to assist them in finding good talent. Employer's need to explore all possible options - both traditional and modern - to see which option attracts the most suitable candidates within the given budget.
Written by Gillian Meier, CEO of Jobs.co.za (South Africa's Job Portal) for People Dynamics, January 2010 feature.
