New recruitment offerings widen placement opportunities

Will the announcement of the merger between Quest Staffing Solutions and emmanuels to create one of the largest white collar staffing company in the industry and the launch of an IT dedicated recruitment company, Techboard.co.za, offer candidates superior placement opportunities?

Merging temporary and permanent recruitment skills

Quest Staffing Solutions, as one of South Africa's leading and largest recruitment companies and emmanuels, one of the longest established, national staffing company in the country are both part of Adcorp. The two companies will be consolidated under the Quest brand and leadership of CEO, Kay Vittee.

Vittee says, "The economic downturn prompted the leadership of both companies to review our business models in the context of our client offerings. Through this process, we established the benefits of integrating non-value added functions, such as back office support, that would allow for more efficient and effective support structures. Further to this, we wanted to provide our clients with an offering that would enable them to leverage their procurement spend with a consolidated entity.

"We are undergoing a focused and structured change process to define a unique identity and cultivate a tangible culture by incorporating teams from both organisations. This exercise will define a key set of values aligned to associated behaviours that will define the 'new' organisation.

"By harnessing the synergies of two brands and their combined industry experience, which spans more than 68 years, we have formed a compelling market offering with benefits for clients, candidates and staff. Not only has our pool of available talent doubled but, due to the amalgamation of our innovative technologies and location strategies, clients will have access to the best candidates available."

"Through the merging of Quest's strengths in the temporary staffing arena with those of emmanuels in permanent staffing, the 'new company' will be able to offer a broad range of employment options," she concludes.

Accepting jobs from employers only

Michael Erasmus, founder of Techboard, a job site focused squarely at IT professionals in the local industry, argues that IT job advertising model in South Africa is due for a major restructuring in line with international practice.

There has been a recent worldwide trend in the IT industry to cut out recruitment agents, with big name sites such as careers.stackoverflow.com and coderstack.co.uk banning all ads from recruiters.

The South African site aims to attract only the best tech employers and IT talent as, unlike many other recruitment sites, it is a place where employers and employees can connect directly, with no intrusive ads from employment agents.

"As an IT professional myself, I have had some very unpleasant experiences with recruitment agents. Most of my friends and colleagues in the industry share a universal loathing for dealing with recruiters, both when looking for work as well as when hiring. Yet, it is seen as a necessary evil, since they have such a stronghold on the market," explains Erasmus.

"If you look at the current crop of popular job sites in South Africa, you'll see that most ads are from recruiters. Most of these job ads do not contain any information on the employers. On our site, all ads must be from employers and must contain details of the company itself, such as a public url and email to respond to job ads. Job ads must also follow certain quality guidelines such good spelling and grammar, only one position per ad, etc. When a job is posted, it is moderated manually to make sure it follows these guidelines."

With the tech industry in South Africa ripe for the same type of disruption, techboard.co.za is looking to be at the forefront of the trend.

Walk with Metro FM on Youth Day

In commemoration of 16 June 1976 (Soweto Uprising) and 25 years in broadcasting, Metro FM will stage a Walk for Freedom from 6am at the Morris Isaackson High School to Phefeni Junior Secondary School in Vilakazi Street, Soweto, where the march will end.

The public, especially in Soweto, are invited to come and be part of this day, as special guests and delegates will participate in this march with poetry, speeches and entertainment to honour all the young people who lost their lives in the struggle against apartheid and Bantu education.

The walk will give listeners an opportunity to retrace the steps of those heroes who resuscitated the fight for democracy and give today's youth an opportunity to experience what their predecessors went through.

To participate in the walk, register your name by sending a SMS to 34764 (standard VAS rates apply). SMS costs R1.50.

Shoe City ad: Lowe Bull "regrets any distress caused", apologises

In a statement late afternoon on Wednesday, 8 June 2011, Lowe Bull CEO Wayne Naidoo regretted any distress caused by the Shoe City ad, saying it was never the agency's aim to encourage cruelty towards animals. "The 'cat' ad was never intended to cause offence at any point," he said. "However, we acknowledge that it is possible to interpret the ad in such a way that it looks to be in poor taste. For this we apologise. No harm was meant."

Wayne Naidoo, CEO of Lowe Bull.

According to Naidoo, the ad is one execution in an extended campaign: "To put the ad into context, the campaign looks at hypothetical situations where something has gone wrong in a person's day, with varying degrees of disaster. For example: spilling coffee on your lap, spilling coffee on your laptop or spilling coffee on your boss's laptop.

"The solution is some retail therapy to help cheer you up - a new pair of shoes from Shoe City. The tone of the campaign is light-hearted and not malevolent."

Shoe City: Coffee.click to enlarge

Shoe City: Ex-husband.click to enlarge

Shoe City: Petrol.click to enlarge

Shoe City: Cat.click to enlarge

Naidoo further pointed out that the agency does have a proven track record with animal anti-cruelty organisations, evident in its pro bono campaigns for Animal Anti Cruelty (with which it's been involved for over eight years), Stop Rhino Poaching, SASSI (for endangered fish) and DAWG. "And we will continue to do work for these worthy causes," he added.

"Once again we sincerely apologise for any distress caused."