Articles for Employers Archives - Star Personnel Recruitment

Embracing Retainer-Based Recruitment: A Paradigm Shift for South Africa

Posted on 19 July 202319 July 2023 by Lloyd

In today’s competitive and fast-paced business landscape, the “war on talent” has become an all-encompassing challenge for companies worldwide. The ability to secure top-tier talent is essential for sustained growth and success. Internationally, the recruitment industry has been adapting to this reality by shifting towards retainer-based recruitment, a practice that offers a myriad of advantages for both clients and recruiters alike. However, in South Africa, this trend is yet to gain the momentum it deserves. In this article, we will explore the benefits of appointing a recruitment firm on a retainer basis, rather than a traditional success fee (contingency) model, and how it can revolutionize the way companies secure top talent in the region.

Advantages of Retainer-Based Recruitment:

Enhanced Commitment and Priority: By engaging a recruitment firm on a retainer basis, companies foster a stronger commitment from the recruiters. Retained roles receive heightened priority, ensuring that the search for talent receives the utmost attention and dedication. Recruiters are incentivized to invest more time and effort in understanding the client’s specific needs and culture, leading to a more tailored approach in identifying the right candidates.
Focused and Selective Assignments: Retained recruiters take on fewer assignments compared to their contingency counterparts. This strategic approach allows them to focus on delivering quality rather than quantity. With the assurance of a steady income, recruiters can be more selective in the roles they take on, enabling them to invest the necessary time and resources in sourcing top-tier candidates effectively.
Professionalism and Transparency: Adopting a retainer-based model adds a level of professionalism to the recruitment process. Recruiters can confidently present themselves as retained partners of the client when approaching potential candidates. This transparency fosters trust and credibility, making the candidate feel valued and respected from the outset.
Improved Collaboration and Feedback: Retainer-based recruitment promotes better collaboration between the client and the recruiter. A consistent feedback loop is established, allowing the hiring manager to stay informed about the progress of the search and the candidates approached. This open communication ensures that the recruitment strategy can be fine-tuned throughout the process, leading to more successful outcomes.
Demonstrated Commitment: By opting for a retainer model, clients display their commitment to the recruitment process. This investment signifies that the client is genuinely interested in securing the best talent for their organization. It showcases a long-term approach to talent acquisition and sends a positive message to potential candidates about the company’s dedication to its workforce.
Shared Risk and Lower Rates: Retainer-based arrangements often involve sharing the risk between the client and the recruiter. This shared responsibility incentivizes the recruiter to work diligently to find the most suitable candidates. Consequently, recruiters may offer their services at a lower rate, making it a cost-effective option for companies seeking top talent.

Disadvantages and Mitigation:

Engaging the Right Recruiter: One potential risk of retainer-based recruitment lies in engaging the wrong recruitment firm, which might lack the capacity or expertise to fulfill the role effectively. To mitigate this, companies should conduct thorough research and due diligence before selecting a recruitment partner. Look for a firm with a proven track record, industry experience, and a solid understanding of your company’s needs.

Conclusion:

As the global marketplace for talent continues to intensify, the recruitment industry must adapt and innovate to meet the challenges of securing top-tier candidates. Embracing retainer-based recruitment offers significant advantages for both clients and recruiters, fostering enhanced commitment, professionalism, collaboration, and shared risk. While South Africa might be lagging behind in this trend, the time has come for companies to explore the benefits of this approach to gain a competitive edge in the “war on talent.” By strategically selecting the right recruitment partner and adopting a retainer-based model, South African businesses can revolutionize their talent acquisition strategies and unlock unprecedented growth and success in an increasingly competitive world.

How important is recruiting to your company?

Posted on 3 December 202120 February 2023 by Lloyd

Ask 100 successful CEOs “what their company’s greatest asset is?” and 99% will tell you that it is their people, and they are right. This TED Talk explains it well.

6 Ideas for Staffing in a Scarce Skills Market

Posted on 12 November 201920 February 2023 by Star Recruitment

In spite of the fact that South Africa’s unemployment rate is expected to average at around 25% in 2012* and the fact that many companies downsized during the last few years due to the global recession, finding top talent especially in areas of scarce skills is more difficult than ever. The reason is two fold. Firstly, traditional methods of advertising a vacancy (whether in the media or online) often attract an avalanche of desperately seeking candidates and filtering these is a long and tedious process. Secondly, the top candidates have their heads down and are so buried in what they are doing that they don’t have time to look at other opportunities. So as a hiring manager, what can you do to make sure that your company has the best staff? Here are 6 ideas.

Look after your current staff.
Don’t wait until your key person resigns before you wake up to their needs and then scramble to buy them back. Statistics show that 75% – 90% of employees who accept counter offers are looking again within 6 months**. So if you do buy back an employee with a counter offer, the chances are you are just buying some time. Better to put in the effort to keep them happy before they start looking around. Find out what motivates your staff – you’d be surprised at how often it isn’t just money.
When recruiting, look for the passive candidates.
In a scarce skills environment, if a candidate is actively looking and has placed his or her CV on job boards, they are likely to be swamped by calls from recruiters and companies, usually for positions they aren’t qualified for or interested in. These candidates are often the ones who take a job, and move again a few months later. Passive talent, on the other hand, are likely to be buried in their work. They aren’t actively looking for other opportunities, but when the right opportunity arrives, they will move. Knowing where the best passive talent is camped out, and approaching them, often takes extra skill and a unique selling point, but more often leads to a better, more stable appointment. Finding passive candidates requires skill and time. Use a good 3rd party (eg. Search agent) if need be. The fee is negligible when compared to the value your dream candidate adds to your company.
Sell the job in the Interview.
So many times the interviewer forgets that the interview is a two way street. The candidate is also deciding whether he or she would like to work for your company. Show them what makes your company special. You will regret it if after all your recruiting you identify the perfect candidate only to find they don’t want to work for you. Even if the candidate isn’t suitable and you decide not to hire them, they may end up working for your competitor – make them wish they were working for you.
Be Flexible.
In a skills short market, you should be looking for potential. Gone are the days when you went through a pile of CVs and systematically threw out all those who didn’t match each and every skill you have listed on your job specification. Today, the right attitude and the ability to learn far outweigh the skill. Knowing how to find out how to do something, and having the willingness to do it, is much more important than knowing how to do it. So look past the skills and look at the potential.
Hurry up the Hire.
Nothing kills a deal more often than time. In a skills scarce market, candidates don’t have the time or patience to sit through hours and hours of one interview after another. Streamline this process. If at all possible, get all the decision makers together in one interview. If this isn’t possible, at least consider other options like Skype or Telephonic interviews to make it easier on the candidate. Once you have identified the right candidate be decisive and make them an offer.
Make an offer that is fair & Collaborative.
We are no longer in an employment age where the offer is negotiable after it has been made. Any salary negotiation needs to be done at the start of the process. Often perceived benefits for the employer are not for the potential employee. A good candidate will not move for less money than what they are earning. Regardless of where the job is located or who the company is. Top candidates need to know what the bottom line on their payslip is going to be. Reflect this in the offer. Know beyond a shadow of doubt the offer is going to be accepted. This, to an extent, negates the threat of the counter offer. The days of making an offer below what has been agreed upon in the hope that, based on fear of loss, the candidate will accept are gone. Even if it is accepted, the trust has flown out the window before the person has even started. There is only one offer and it needs to be fair to both parties.

Sources:
* www.tradingecconomics.com
** http://www.thewisdomjournal.com/Blog/10-reasons-i-wont-accept-a-job-counter-offer/

Recruiting IT Developers

Posted on 12 November 201920 February 2023 by Star Recruitment

Are you battling to recruit IT developers? These chaps are difficult to find, and even more difficult to appoint. Do you want to know why?

The reason is that they are getting calls, often a few calls each week from people trying to recruit them. So they have the luxury of being extremely picky on the jobs they apply for.

The mistake most companies are making is that they are asking these candidates to spend hours doing tests and assessments before the candidate even knows if he or she wants the job. These candidates don’t mind doing these assessments – actually often times they enjoy it, but they are not prepared to spend 3 hours working on a project for free, especially for someone they don’t even know.

So what can you do?
Firstly, make sure that the person representing your company to these candidates knows what they are talking about. With all due respect to HR Managers throughout the country – unless they specialise in IT recruitment or come from an IT background they are usually not the right people to make the first approach to these candidates. Developers want to know about the project and technology used from other developers. So if at all possible, let your Snr Developer, IT manager or IT Recruiter make the first approach. By all means, bring HR in at the second interview stage.

Secondly, make the fist interview logistically as easy as possible. Consider meeting the candidate in a coffee shop – during lunch or after work. Maybe offer to do a skype or facetime interview to save them having to travel to the venue. Think out of the box. This isn’t going to be the one and only interview – so it doesn’t have to be too formal, but it will allow you to find out if you have a possible candidate.

Thirdly – sell them on the job, your company and the technologies used in this first interview. The old days of making a candidate answer 100 questions is long gone. This first interview should be a conversation. Check that the personality is a fit, and find out if you can work with this person, but most importantly, tell them about the company and the job and get them excited to work with you. Remember that you are going to check their skills at a later time. This first interview is a chance to get them wanting to spend the time to do that assessment.

Finally be quick. If you find a good candidate, don’t mess about. Check them thoroughly, ask them to do an assessment, do what you need to do to make sure you have the right person – but as soon as you know, make them an offer. These candidates want to work for companies who are decisive and willing to cut through corporate red tape. Show them that you can do this if you need to.

There are some fantastic development candidates out there at the moment. Many are returning to South Africa having gained experience overseas. You just need to work a little differently to appoint them.

Happy recruiting.

Category: Articles for Employers