Hi-tech war on Talent
Used
with permission of the author:
Author: Robert Ridout
CEO
The Ridout Group www.ridout.co.za
15 November 2007
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The message
that South Africa’s talent scarcity has unique challenges
in the market place, seems not to have hit home yet.
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The ongoing shortage
of talent and skills in South Africa remains a hot topic in our
press.
Not a week goes by
where either a top government official or business executive
reinforces this highly debated topic. What is the solution and can
technology help to solve this problem?
The external recruiter
and company human resources manager, with the legislator, now
faces more pressure to innovate and ensure that talent is located
through whatever means necessary. The solution is no longer to
apply more pressure on the recruiter to find scarce talent.
Technology seems to possibly hold the key to this problem.
Are these recruiters
and human resource managers however thinking creatively enough to
ensure technology has a place in this toolbox of solutions?
The stakeholders that
come face to face with these possible hi-tech solutions seem to
struggle to come to terms with the responsibility placed on them
to work together to identify new avenues of successful technology
development.
The message that South
Africa’s talent scarcity has unique challenges in the market
place, seems not to have hit home yet.
Can business afford to
wait for government to solve this problem? I think not.
By far the largest
impact felt on the war for talent in South Africa, besides the
introduction of affirmative action, has been the advent of
e-recruitment. How many of us today have our details floating
around on the World Wide Web promoting our availability to
companies and recruiters. E-recruitment technology has already
started to shape our lives.
With the introduction
of improved communications infrastructure in South Africa,
candidate’s details have become more accessible to the
recruiter. But are we working to improve this technology on an
ongoing basis?
Most stakeholders
remain obstinate in sticking to traditional sourcing techniques,
rather pushing the responsibility onto somebody else instead of
think out the box.
A more pragmatic
business approach is needed by both parties to ensure long term
technology successes.
The talent industry
has become an industry within itself, with participants that are
reluctant stakeholders.
I recently read a
letter from an owner of a leading e-recruitment technology company
in which he slated an emerging competitor for trying to introduce
a similar product. This type of negative PR only does disservice
to companies trying to produce new technology into the market and
is a good example of how participants still fail to work together
to a common cause.
To understand the
emergence of these hi-tech tools I have sub-divided the technology
into two main areas:
The greatest and most
prominent technology tool in use at the moment is by far the e-recruitment
website.
These online
recruitment products focus on attracting large amounts of general
candidates to a central point where numerous roles are advertised
on behalf of recruiters. The immediate benefit is therefore
carried over to the recruiter and not companies themselves.
Positions displayed are also focused on lower level generalist
roles, thereby not providing specific opportunities for more
senior executives and specialists.
This market remains
dominated by one or two major players and is a very difficult
segment to penetrate as the marketing and branding of these
offerings is an expensive affair. The downside of this is that a
lot of web based products are not being vetted by the people who
will make the most use of them – recruiters.
The positive side to
this hi-tech tool is that candidates are starting to make use of
these web sites with a greater proficiency when applying for jobs,
and therefore becoming better at managing their details,
recruiters and applications.
The outsourced
internal database tool for both recruiter and company is the
second type of hi-tech tool in use and is a new entity in South
Africa.
Over the past year or
so several businesses within our borders have started emerging as
strong players in this market.
There are however
several variations of this kind of technology offering. The main
two being:
-
companies that
specialize in designing databases for recruitment companies,
and
-
larger companies
that require an outsourced database and workflow tool to
manage internal recruitment processes, candidates’
applications with the aim of saving money for the business.
Companies that
specialize in designing databases for recruitment companies normally
offer online type databases and serve mainly to increase the
recruiters’ billings through faster accessibility to
information. The format is normally that of a CRM (Centralised
Resource Management) type of package.
The second variation
is being offered to larger companies that require an outsourced
database and workflow tool to manage internal recruitment
processes, candidates’ applications with the aim of saving money
for the business.
The later solution is
by far the technology that is worldwide showing greater
opportunity right now for businesses and candidates alike. In the
United Kingdom and USA this market is at a very advanced stage and
stakeholders have access to variety of differing products with
competitive pricing which makes the solution more available and
affordable.
This is in partly due
to the advanced stage of communications infrastructure in those
countries and also the willingness of participants in the market
to think out the box.
This type of software
is integrated and designed around a single technology platform
into businesses, usually introduced through a project type
methodology applied by a project manager. These solutions normally
have built-in automated functionalities that aid the recruiter and
job seeker alike, ultimately saving time and energy.
The overall goal is
often to attract as many candidates to roles within the company
and coordinate their candidacy in a way that is cost effective for
the organization. The aim being to replace in some way or form the
cost of an external recruiter.
Unfortunately not
enough South African products have yet been developed by
recruiters to ensure that the South African marketing keeps up
with the international technology mainstream, creating gaps
between what companies need and the practical elements of the
talent acquisition problem.
These hi-tech weapons
will need to ensure that the recruiter’s relationship with
companies remains one of co-dependency, not one of complete
outsourcing, as the recruiter is and will always be a necessary
business partner.
So how do we ensure
that these forms of hi-tech tools become more widely used and grow
from strength to strength? CO-OPERATION I say….
Unfortunately
recruiters, HR practitioners and technology vendors still see each
other as direct competition. The recruiter will always see the
technology vendor taking business away from them whilst the HR
manager is always after the most cost effective manner to achieve
goals, and that is with little or no placement costs.
These stakeholders
need to put their strategic differences aside and start
coordinating their efforts in a more strategic fashion.
The only way that the
candidate will ultimately benefit from this increased technology
will be if these parties work together to understand the successes
and failures of using these hi-tech tools in the practical work
place. Thereby developing a greater understanding of the overall
requirement that is needed to arm the man in street with the best
technology available.
South Africa has a
unique set of challenges that require a unique set of solutions
and this is once again where the opportunity is to be found – COMPETITIVE
CO-OPERATION.
Born in Cape Town
1972, Robert Ridout began his recruitment career in the
fast paced medical recruitment industry in London after study a diploma in Marketing Management. After
returning to South Africa Robert joined Don Gray in Cape Town as search consultant. Thereafter Renwick International approached
him to start a Search Business called Speedsearch and after
relocating to Johannesburg Robert grew the business to a
competitive force in Johannesburg. Whilst with Renwick
Robert was involved on various projects in web recruitment and
recruitment software. Robert then joined Paracon and managed a
team of project mangers before returning to Cape Town to start a search business for the Laser Group. In 2001 Robert
finally decided to start Ridout and Associates his own search
consultancy. Working from home the business grew into offices in Claremont
to eventually open its doors in Johannesburg in 2005. With over twenty staff strong at the moment Robert
continues to lead the business as CEO with his capable team of
executives. Robert has dedicated his career to the advancement of
Search in South Africa promoting this specialist form of recruitment as the preferred
form of talent acquisition. The Ridout Group is testament to the
passion that he has for his trade.
Short summary
Cooperation and competitive cooperation between recruiters, HR
management and hi-tech vendors would enable the South African
recruitment scene to find fast and effective solutions to the
skills shortage.
Keywords and relevant phrases
Advertising, candidates, competition, cooperation, e-recruitment,
e-recruitment websites, hi-tech vendors, HR manager, innovation,
recruit, recruiters, recruitment, skills, skills shortage,
sourcing technique, talent management, technology.
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