By Pierre Bekker, Director at Quyn International Outsourcing

For industries and organisations that do not specialise in recruitment, finding the right skills for a specific business or project can be extremely challenging and time-consuming. This is exacerbated when the skills sought are highly specialised and globally scarce. Once found, it is essential for the employing company to double-check the veracity of the candidates’ qualifications and skills. 

Often, businesses need to look abroad for skills that are in short supply, such as underwater welding, with no reliable means of knowing whether references and recent work experience is legitimate. This means that bringing in such individuals is done at high risk to the business, with the added strain of the employer having to bring in such workers, sponsor their visa applications and travel while still providing accommodation and covering other costs. Here, partnering with a Temporary Employment Services (TES) provider can turn the needle-in-a-haystack search into a seamless process, making it easier to recruit specialist skills from all over the globe safely and reliably. 

The skills search is on

With so many renewable energy projects urgently due to start all over South Africa, and a growing shortage of skills in other established industries such as construction, engineering, mining, and manufacturing, companies are having to search farther and wider to locate the skills they need to get the job done. This can be a huge burden, both from a time and administrative perspective, not to mention highly risky for the business if they bring in resources from overseas only to discover that their skills are inadequate or lacking, or the candidate isn’t the right fit for the job. Making such a discovery after a project has already begun will cause huge, costly delays and the recruitment process will have to start all over again. 

Partnering with the professionals

To avoid being put in such a situation where budgets are already tight and deadlines are beyond urgent, businesses seeking skills in short supply should partner with a TES provider. Specialising in the recruitment of scarce skills, TES providers have extensive databases of industry-relevant skills for candidates all over the world. These databases have already been checked and vetted, and TES providers have a wealth of experience in assisting businesses to get the exact resources they need, without undue delay. A TES partner will prove invaluable in assisting businesses through the entire process of bringing in the necessary resources, right from recruitment, through to the end of their contract when the workers must be repatriated. 

Mitigating risk and streamlining the search

With a TES provider by your side, the risk and stress of hiring specialist skills is eliminated. The recruitment process becomes seamless, and the TES partner handles every aspect of sourcing, attracting, short listing, screening, interviewing and the assessment of suitable candidates. A reputable TES provider will have developed their recruitment brand to such an extent that it is easier for them to attract candidates, both nationally and internationally. TES providers also augment already-significant databases using tactics such as meta-search engines, social recruiting, print media and radio recruitment campaigns to ensure that both active and passive job seekers are targeted. 

Holistic employment management

In addition to handling all aspects of finding and verifying the right skills, a TES provider also manages all aspects of employment. This is one less thing for the organisation to worry about, and they benefit from having access to the skills they need, while their TES provider oversees all Human Resources (HR) processes associated with these resources such as payroll, Industrial Relations management, health, and safety compliance, Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE), and so forth. By partnering with a TES provider, businesses can get skilled, reliable resources that are entirely managed on their behalf, on demand. This means that projects are less likely to be delayed due to human resource issues, which further translates to time and cost savings that far outweigh the fixed costs involved in partnering with a TES provider.