Since you wouldn’t use an in-house team to clear a blocked drain if you were not a plumbing company, why would you use an in-house team in a plumbing company to hire a new recruit? The answer is you wouldn’t! Specialised skills are those for a reason.
The very basis of recruitment is to find the right person to fit into the right slot at the right time. Failing to use the expertise of a professional recruitment expert, you may be heading for possible disaster.
A recruitment agency serves as the specialised bridge between the employer and the massive pool of potential candidates, all of whom are armed with pages and pages of application forms and copies of qualifications. Imagine having 150 applications for a position. This translates to 150 cover letters, 150 matric certificates, 150 CVs of probably two pages each, in a variety of formats and any number of other addendums the applicant feels is necessary! Generally, the job of sorting through this veritable tome of documents is left to a secretary, receptionist or the recruiting line manager, all of whom have been hired to perform a specialised function for which they are in fact more experienced and qualified. Thus valuable employee time that could be better spent on your product or service is redirected to screening CVs and shortlisting candidates.
Does this scenario sound familiar? You identify a staff member who would be perfect to spend the day sorting through the mound of paperwork and eliminating those who do not qualify. This person, working from a list of job criteria, must determine who makes the short list, use more working hours to set up appointments and present them to the interviewer (who now has to spend time before each interview reviewing the CVs, which are still in a variety of formats). The interviewer schedules time in the calendar for the interviews, some of whom do not arrive, or arrive late, wasting more productive time. The interviewer now creates a short list for a second interview that the manager needs to sit in on. Two people have looked at the paperwork and checked for certified copies of IDs and qualifications so all should be above board, right? WRONG! What happens if, horror upon horror, they turn out to be false and the hire is already official? Unfortunately, this is an all too common occurrence.
A recruitment agency provides significant protection against the risks associated with hiring the incorrect individual. Recruitment agencies also have a broad network from which to source candidates and are able to target advertising which limits the unqualified applications. Recruitment agencies provide a full background check service, including criminal, identity and credit check. By virtue of their expertise, they have the skills necessary to accurately screen candidates before presenting them to you. You can be rest assured that by the time the candidate arrives, you are set to receive the applicant with exactly what they put on paper. The agency will have saved you time spent on perusing the applications, time spent setting up the interviews, time spent in the interviews and the headache that can occur with a bad hire. An incorrect hire can have far-reaching consequences for team morale, productivity and direct financial costs in the case of employee fraud or theft perpetuated by an employee. South African Labour Law has stringent requirements for terminating an employee, and “we made a mistake” is not considered acceptable so you may be saddled with a less-than-ideal employee indefinitely.
crAzy™ always wins pty ltd is meeting the needs of its clients and has recently engaged a recruitment specialist, Melinda Queck, who will not only take the stress (and who doesn’t need less of that) of finding the right person off your shoulders, as she professionally, quickly and accurately sources the right candidates for you. Melinda has more than 13 years of experience in finding the right fit for your company, and impressively 10 years of this were in running her own company. She holds a Prestige Diploma in Professional Journalism and her IPCS certification was completed through APSO (Federation of African Professional Staffing Organisations). Fully capable of working with any level, Melinda has proven herself with internship assignments to exco board level and can provide anything from a short-term contract to permanent positions and freelance candidates.
So with all that could go wrong in trusting your in-house team to hire someone to fill that vital position, can you afford not to engage Melinda & the crAzy crew to find your next employee? Contact Melinda on Melinda@crazyalwayswins.com
