Susan Smith, Staff Reporter
SEMAJ
LOCAL HEADHUNTERS or recruitment agencies have seen a marked shift in the demand for their services from clients. Not only has their clientele fallen but employers are now making greater demands on them in the screening process to recruit personnel.
"After the crash of the financial sector the number of companies going through advertising agencies decreased but the level of the personnel requested increased," explained managing director for Hamilton Knight and Associates Limited and veteran in the career placement business, Gillian Rowlands.
She said the number of companies involved in large scale recruiting is still reducing as many of the larger companies are still downswing.
"Employers are becoming far more strategic in terms of the quality of the recruitment than they are about the numbers of persons being recruited," she added explaining that small companies want people who can think on their feet.
BASIC SKILL
Mrs. Rowlands shared that entry level recruitment is at a slump and that a lot of jobs are demanding that people possess the basic skill in computer proficiency.
With a greater demand for a skilled level of personnel, chief executive officer for The JobBank, Leachim Semaj told the Financial Gleaner that recruitment agencies are meeting up on a different kind of challenge.
"The hardest part for the recruiters is finding the match of education, training plus attitude", said Dr. Semaj. "There's no absence of position," he emphasised referring to the current unemployment rate, which is at 10.7 per cent based on the latest report posted by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica.
He said it is still difficult recruiting persons for senior or middle management positions even with the growing abundance of EMBAs in the job market place. " If I don't see good CXC passes I am not impressed, anybody can buy EMBA'S, " he added.
EMPLOYERS' STRATEGY
The recruiters say the more established companies are going the route of taking in the young graduates with the education, train them and then assess their attitude because of the challenge they encounter finding persons who are educated, trainable and with good work attitude.
CHANGES BENEFIT BUSINESS
The shift in business for local head-hunters or 'talent scouts' as Mrs. Rowlands prefers to say, has only served to boost this service nonetheless. Mrs. Rowland explained that a higher standard of personnel means a higher commission for the recruitment agencies.
She said there has been an increased interest in Human Resource which was downsized to administrative functions in the 1990's financial sector collapse.
"Companies now understand that HR is an investment and an integral part of the strategic plan," she said. "Poor recruitment will impede growth of the small organisation,"
Notwithstanding, local head-hunters are still much in demand by many organisations as most companies still do not have the capacity to hire 20 persons all at once. To a great extent they still save companies time and money and the ill consequences of bad recruitment choices.
