The Re-Invention of Everything – Future of SA Recruitment Industry

I attended a workshop organised by APSO and presented by Greg Savage all the way from Australia and on one of the slides Greg had a topic “The Re-Invention of Everything – Future of SA Recruitment” and that inspired this post. With your permission Greg I will take some snippets of the words you used in this post.

My previous post quotes Greg’s buddy answering the question, When will the market recover by saying “You know, maybe it has recovered. Maybe this is the new-normal. Maybe, the way it is now, is just… as good as it gets.”

Having said that, what is the Future of the Recruitment Industry in SA? Should we really re-invent everything?

Legislation

At the time of going to press these are the laws that are being chopped/changed/added/substracted/withdrawn that affect our industry

1. Basic Conditions of Employment Act
2. Labour Relations Act
3. Employment Equity Act
4. Employment Services Bill
5. UIF Bill
6. COID
7. Immigration Act

Definately our future needs re-invention as some of these are definately going to change the way we do things, perhaps we are going to do the same things but differently.

Reminds me of what my GM said, what did the mice do when the cheese was moved? There is a book by Spence Johnson called Who Moved My Cheese? and there is a character called Hem. Hem denies and resists change as he fears it will lead to something worse? Are you being a Hem? Do you know the changes to the above Laws? or you are like Haw who learns to adapt in time when he sees changing leads to something better.

Whatever parts of us we choose to use, we all share something in common, a need to find our way in the maze and succeed in changing times to get our cheese back! “Who moved my cheese?” “Its not fair!”

Anyway back to Greg Savage

Leadership

“Manager” is what you have on your business card. “Leadership” is how you influence attitude and behavior. Greg encourages leaders to set the tone, always and he refers to a situation where, if a plane is going through some serious turbulence and the pilot say its okay its all normal but in a shaky voice, you can imagine the reaction of the passengers. What’s your tone in times of hardships, tricky situations with your team?

Your future as a leader is to master the art of getting things done through other people by balancing between doing and delegating. Hire people that are more skilled than you and don’t hire someone who is like you! Bottom line – Build A Team that Enhances your Productivity

Social Recruiting

Do you remember Kodak? Do you know Canon? What is Instagram? Is your business still in Kodak days or Canon Days or Instagram days? Are you not a dinosaur that is going bye bye? Is your business a cassette player or walk-man or an iPod or iTunes? Old ways are becoming extinct… oooops YOU TOO! if you don’t wake up and smell the coffee.

What am I saying!

Greg SAYS! Job boards are not the threat to the recruitment industry. LINKEDIN is!

Clients want to replace the recruitment industry with Social Media. That’s where your extinction process commences. South Africa’s Corporate world is far ahead on Social Media than most of the Recruitment Companies. What are you doing about the fact that your client is more advanced on Social Media than you? How relevant will you be to them? Is your value still the same?

Don’t get me wrong, you still need the usual processes such as interviewing but it will be Skype interviews. Are you geared up? What world does your candidate live in? Picture this, candidate walks in with iPad and wants to run a Prezi Viewer presentation of his CV to you. How would you handle that?

How social is your website? Do you have a mobi site or is your website mobile friendly? This is Mobile Recruiting – a topic for another day. @ksgsakyi Tweeted- At least 40% of mobile internet users in South Africa, India and Indonesia, never/infrequently, use a desktop computer to go online. Do you have a presence on the mobile scene for candidates to apply for jobs?

Toby Shapshak wrote:

The youth of today sniggers at using e-mail, for instance; smartphones have effectively replaced desktop computers and are most people’s primary device. We’re all going mobile. Innovation occurs because of necessity. The refinement of existing techniques is all good and well, but where would the world be if Henry Ford devoted himself to making a more comfortable horse-drawn buggy?

RE-INVENT YOUR WHOLE BUSINESS

Call in your whole team for a session and ask them one question “Team we need to re-invent this business, what should we do” Tell them Wesley said I must ask you.