Recruitment agencies are under increasing pressure amidst ongoing company retrenchments and downsizing in the country. Recruitment specialist Terri Smith of Tiger Recruitment told FTW that many companies were not hiring at present. “This means that companies try to do their own recruitment before coming to us.” She said opting to hire in-house recruitment teams to source talent was part of company attempts to cut costs. “When companies, however, require a very particular skill set and are looking for more specialised candidates than just general everyday controllers or administration positions, they are realising the value of a recruitment agency.” According to Tiger’s Tammy Mattig, the benefits of a recruitment agency are the intimate and experienced knowledge that they have about a specific industry. “Human resource (HR) departments tend to play a very big role when recruiting is done in-house,” she said. “Often there is very little to no knowledge of the industry they are recruiting for and excellent candidates are dismissed as their CVs are not being read correctly.” “It is 100% necessary for all HR to not only be affiliated to the Federation of African Professional Staffing Organisations (Apso), but also Apso trained in order to remain neutral and ethical when it comes to the recruitment process,” she said. According to Smith, using an agency can mitigate many of these challenges. “I do feel that agencies will continue to be a part of recruitment and have a valuable role to play,” she said, providing industry sector expertise and finding the right candidates. “One of the big obstacles in this tight economic environment is salaries,” said Tiger’s Shari Graham. “Companies are increasingly looking for candidates who can do more, but do not want to adjust salaries accordingly. At the end of the day, you get what you pay for.”
INSERT: Companies are cutting costs by using in-house recruitment teams to source talent. – Terri Smith