The document discusses the changing role of recruitment agencies in South Africa with the rise of e-recruitment. It notes that while e-recruitment lowers costs and increases reach, recruitment still requires human skills like assessing fit and closing deals. Agencies must embrace e-recruitment tools like LinkedIn while maintaining specialized expertise in their industries. This allows them to efficiently source passive candidates at scale while providing personalized service to clients and candidates. Fully replacing recruiters with algorithms is still not possible as technology cannot assess soft skills.

1. The Changing Role of Recruitment
Agencies in SA
By Vanessa Raath @its_about_peopl

2. How much does E-Recruitment Cost?
No wonder there are so many ‘fly by night’ agencies popping up all the time! All you
need is an Internet connection, a few Social media accounts and you can recruit.
Right?
There are 414 million
LinkedIn Users
- April 2016
LinkedIn can be
found in over
200 Countries
- April 2014
35% of LinkedIn
Users access their
profiles daily
- January 2016
There are 2 new
users every second
on LinkedIn
- December 2015
LinkedIn Profiles with a photo get
14x more views
- September 2015

3. The Key Differences between Traditional &
E-Recruitment
Traditional E-Recruitment
Advertising was mainly done in Print Media like the
newspaper
Advertising is not only on dedicated career portals but on
social media too
There was a more ‘Spray and Pray’ approach This can be a far more targeted approach to headhunt
the most suitable candidates
Audience consisted of newspaper readers Audience is anyone who uses the Internet or social media
Took up to a week to get an up to date CV You can Google and research a candidate in a matter of
minutes
Strong emphasis on the personal touch Automated online applications lack the personal touch and
will not suit more mature candidates
Have the opportunity to sell the non-financial benefits of
the company
Have to offer more than your competitors to create the
initial interest in your role. As well as having an excellent
online Employer Brand

4. The Biggest Threats to South African
Recruitment Agencies are…
• Companies who hire Recruiters to work for them internally in
an in house set up
• Smaller agencies who are willing to work at ridiculously low
margins and push our percentages down
• The war for talent is real and sometimes our clients cannot
compete with the huge packages on offer from other
companies
• NOT e-recruitment as we prefer to embrace this as a positive
for us

5. Can the ‘Human’ in Recruitment ever be Replaced?
• Can an algorithm measure attitude; creativity;
personality; culture fit and how a candidate
presents themselves?
• How Technology can Help:
o Sort through CV data to get to a manageable pool of suitable
candidates very quickly
o Keep in touch with our candidate pool and with our clients
o Use Job Boards & Social Media platforms to obtain contact
details and ‘professionally stalk’ people

6. Why you will always need Specialised Agencies in
South Africa
• Internal Recruiters are not as well networked as specialised
recruiters as they are often required to focus on general
recruitment
• External recruiters have a large passive network of candidates that
they can tap into when the right role presents itself
• External Recruiters who have worked in the same industry for
more than 5 years often get approached by their previous
candidates before their partners even know they are looking
• Even though E-Recruitment platforms are free for all to use,
specialised agencies know where to look for their talent and this
will always give them the edge

7. How South African Recruitment Agencies
can remain Relevant
• I would recommend that all of the following be done via
LinkedIn:
 Stay current and always have your finger on the pulse of your niche
specialist industry – write blogs; comment in forums & LinkedIn
groups and basically make yourself heard
 Build your own personal brand within your niche speciality
 Build trusted relationships across your niche speciality with hiring
managers and candidates. Candidate often become clients and VV.
 Know where the top candidates are working and what sort of roles
they would consider changing jobs for

8. How Agencies must embrace E-Recruitment
to Succeed
• HAVE A SOCIAL RECRUITING STRATEGY
• Explore the latest tools to stand out from
other agencies who may be viewed as
‘too traditional’ in their approach
• Do you add value to your client’s
recruitment process?
• HAVE A FAST, EASY APPLICATION PROCESS
• You need to strive to maximise your
candidate’s experience through the
application process or else they will
choose an easier route to their next job
• ONLY WORK WITH CLIENTS WITH A STRONG
EMPLOYER BRAND
• Is your client proud of their brand and do
they have a desirable social media presence?
• Are you recruiting for a company that
candidates actually want to work for?
• USE E-RECRUITMENT TO MAINTAIN A HEALTHY
PERSONAL & COMPANY PROFILE
• Even if you are a 3 person agency your social
media presence can still be excellent
• Candidates will research you and your company
before deciding to meet with you so use this to
your advantage

9. How E-Recruitment will help all of us in the Future
• More cost effective
• Access to passive candidates
• Increased visibility with a larger reach
• Shorter turn around times
• Access to higher quality candidates
• Competitive edge

10. Recruiting is Different to Sourcing
Recruiters do so much more than just identify Talent. They
also need to consult with Line Managers; conduct interviews;
problem solve; manage offers and many other duties.
E-Recruitment makes the Recruiter’s jobs easier but I firmly
believe we still need the Recruiter to close the deal.
I believe that E-Recruitment will enhance our value as Agency
Recruiters as long as we use the tools efficiently and
effectively.

11. Thank You!
Vanessa Raath
info@itsaboutpeople.co.za
www.facebook.com/itsaboutpeople
www.linkedin.com/vanessaraath
@Its_about_peopl