Questions/Answers

The E-Recruitment model ensures a paperless environment, therefore reducing application and operational costs. The model also addresses operational challenges of non-compliance to SLA due to extremely high volumes of job applications. The E-Recruitment system includes an effective communication system aimed at providing job applicants with immediate application acknowledgement. The feedback is sent through automated SMS and email. Challenges-Uncontrollable high volumes of job applications,uncoordinated and fragmented HR planning,inconsistent recruitment advertising practices that result in high recruitment costs and predominantly manual and paper- based processes. Objectives-Standardized advertising and recruitment process,cost reduction through the standardization of the advertising process, ensure a manageable provincial data base of prospective employees, paperless delivery system for processed applications, better selection of qualified and/or suitable candidates, reduces turnaround times, eliminates duplication of efforts and ensures immediate response to job applicants. The system further provides immediate feedback to job seekers via SMS and E-mail. Customer departments are also able to advertise timorously, and also draw reports unlike the manual way. The E-Recruitment system incorporates the recruitment process as a whole in one model i.e. from placement of adverts, automated creation of unique reference numbers for each advert, application with SMS notification and shortlisting criteria, electronic shortlisting capability, and Management reports on advertising expenditure, adverts placed, applications received and shortlisted per department as well as per reference. The E-Recruitment system was conceptualized and developed by application developers at the department of e-government’s Technology Support Services Unit . No work was outsourced only internal skills were used.

The project is aimed at achieving the following objectives: • Standardised advertising and recruitment process. • Cost Reduction through the standardization of the advertising process. • Ensure a manageable provincial data base of prospective employees. • Paperless delivery system for processed applications. • Better selection of qualified and/or suitable candidates. • Cuts down turnaround times, eliminates duplication of efforts • Ensures immediate response to job applicants • Global access to GPG job opportunities • User friendly application system • Immediate response time • Reduction in job application costs • Automated application tracking method • No loss of applications • Fair and non-discriminatory job application process • Real Time Reporting

South Africa's unemployment rate came in at 27.7 percent in the third quarter of 2017, the same as in the previous two quarters and remaining the highest rate in 13 years. The number of unemployed rose by 33 thousand to 6.21 million and the number of employed advanced by 92 thousand to 16.19 million. Unemployment Rate in South Africa averaged 25.50 percent from 2000 until 2017. Heightened political and policy uncertainties have impacted negatively on the overall economy, but particularly where substantial capital outlays are needed. Thus the large decline in employment, inadequate to reduce the country’s high levels of unemployment and inequality. Without the necessary intervention to address growth, high unemployment is likely to persist into the foreseeable future.” The e-recruitment system fills this gap and provides an equal platform for all unemployed South Africans to search and apply for public sector vacancies that can be accessed from anywhere in the country as long as you have internet. The e-recruitment system also hosts a number of special services such as internships, internal vacancies, Nursing Intakes etc. Reduction in advertising costs allow public departments to redirect those funds and are able to create more jobs in all sectors.

The e-recruitment system is accompanied by Walk In Centers that assist job seekers that are unable to access the internet or do not have the computer skills required to apply online and will guide and assist with the application process as well as mobile labs that go out to Rural areas and showcase the online recruitment system and encourages applications, included are schools and tertiary institutions. online by anyone anywhere in the world as long as they have internet access the E-Recruitment system, ensures that applications are processed online therefore saves paper and therefore the environment, job seekers spend less money applying for jobs as compared to the manual way there is less travelling, no photocopying and printing costs involved applications can be tracked using a unique reference number automatically sent to job seekers applications are secure and can be easily accessible and retrieved from the system, therefore there are no losses as compared to manual applications The online recruitment process is fair and non-discriminatory.

The e-recruitment system aims at reducing unemployment within all sectors. Vacancies are open to all that qualify and that meet the specific criteria. Included in the e-recruitment system is a portal for "People with Disabilities" the portal will offer the following solutions: Uploading of job adverts targeting Persons with Disabilities; Online application of posts designated for Persons with Disabilities; establishment of a single window of online placement and application of job adverts designated for persons with disabilities Creation of a single database for persons with disabilities; creation of an easy access to a pool of suitably qualified Persons with disabilities targeted for employment in line Departments; accelerated recruitment of persons with disabilities aimed at meeting employment equity targets. Internships and Leaderships are featured on the system as well targeting the unemployed youth. Nursing Intake is an annual intake that supplements the Department of Health and attracts more then twenty thousand applications alone. The e-recruitment system has addressed and improved service delivery significantly and continues to upgrade to reach a bigger audience to better fight poverty within Gauteng.

All South Africans are well aware that currently in the South African job market there is a huge gap in the area of skilled workers. With a high demand for skilled workers but unsatisfied by a poor supply, recruiters need to find ways to locate the skilled workers remaining in the country, as few and far between that they may be. By advertising job adverts and searching online Job Seekers databases for such candidates', employers are able to tap into pools of candidates that ordinarily may not have been easy to locate. Not only does e-recruitment manage to locate actively skilled workers in utilizing online portals to seek and find skilled workers, international skills (global coverage) are too attracted to the South African market, thus injecting what could possibly be stale industry, with new talent and skills. With a greater reach on skilled workers, encompassing local and international geographical job seekers, e-recruitment is soon able to locate relevant job seekers to fill job vacancies in niche industries where required.

The continuous increase and exceptionally high volumes of job applications within the Gauteng region, especially for lower level posts, are increasingly undermining the response handling capacity, one of the major causes is due to the Government departments advertising of all vacant posts individually, at any given time, often in multiple media. This together with the manual submission process which was the only option available to apply for Government department vacancies has been the main cause of job application backlogs. Manual and paper based submissions are cumbersome, tedious and time consuming. There was no seamless automated end to end process between government departments and job seekers. To address the operational and strategic challenges experienced by service a sustainable and improved E-recruitment model is the solution required. The E-recruitment model enabled an online recruitment service to provide professional services and also able to meet client’s expectations. The project seeked to improve recruitment service across Government departments.

The e-recruitment model is the first of its kind within the Government sector in South Africa that was built in house and has been approved by all departments, additionally it is the only system to include back office functionality which means that departments can now create their own adverts, short listing criteria questions, advertise online and short list their own candidates, without e-recruitment non of this was possible and required a panel of high level employees to facilitate the process. Above standard online registration, e-recruitment offers • Adverts library • Creation of database • Short listing criteria • SMS function • Management Reports Further enhancements such as a mobile App, digital kiosk, and live interviews will assist in making e-recruitment a bench mark in online recruitment.

The e-recruitment system was designed, built, tested and rolled out all with in house resources, services providers proved not to have the sufficient knowledge of how Government departments worked or were just to costly for of the self plug in options. Internal capacity had to increase and various projects were put together in order for the system to be successful. Change management with all departments were included, inputs and suggestions were considered and buy in was necessary for implementation. Walk in Centers were created for the transition from paper to online these walk in centers provide a ground floor for dept and job seekers alike as it caters for both, the walk in centers are subsidized by government and amount to most of the costing year on year. Departments were provided with training and online support it was a cost effective project that saved the government millions in advertising expenditure but costed almost nothing but ingenuity and dedication to complete and continues to provide a cost effective way to recruit talent.

Yes

Other regions and cities have seen the e-recruitment system through out reach programmes such as the mobile labs, government conferences, word of mouth and have approached the department of E-gov for the implementation of the system, we are currently in the process to working out logistics of a sharing platform with the possibility of rolling out within this financial year.

Sustainability and recruitment together can yield several business benefits,sustainability recruiting can have a long-term impact on profitability, productivity and employee happiness. Sustainability recruiting includes hiring professionals applying key performance metrics to hiring aligning with values using sustainability as a recruiting tool such as ensuring well-matched employees and employers stay together longer. It is important to assure placements are high performers that add value for many years into the future sustainability is all about your workers and strong performers over a long period of time.Sustainability is tied to recruiting the most often overlooked value of a sustainability program may be the value of employees.When the right employee is matched with the right employer, employees are more engaged in their work this results in many benefits for the company, including greater employee retention and higher productivity. Highly engaged employees are less likely to leave the organization, lower absenteeism, higher productivity and a better service delivery experience in addition to this impact on operations, engaged employees can become more productive workers.

The e-recruitment system is housed and maintained at the dept of E-gov, all maintenance, enhancements and upgrades are done in house, thus reducing cost and also making it a very sustainable system. A yearly budget is dedicated for the system its upgrades, maintenance, enhancements and the walk in centers, this budget is increased dependent on the needs of the business owner and the requirements of the system, the system and business owners including the dept of E-gov plan on making all government services electronic thus ensuring the future of the system and also making it one of the bench marks of electronic recruitment in South Africa. Once housed on a common platform and servicing all departments of government nationally the system will host a variety of other services and will prove its worth.

Yes

The department of E-gov has an M&E dept (monitoring and evaluation) that evaluates all the departments processes, procedures and systems. The M&E dept conducted a survey with all depts that utilize the e-recruitment system and then provided feedback to the business owners on the positives and negatives of the system, these concerns were then addressed and upgrades were carried out. External service providers were brought in to evaluate the system and its effectiveness in an public sector environment, findings were positive as the system reduced all aspects of the old manual recruitment methods including downsizing of staff required to complete advertising and recruitment processes, streamlining of applications and a huge cost savings across board. Audit practitioners are brought in to make sure that the system is not manipulative and make sure that the applications system meets all government regulations. IT specialist test the system to make sure that it cannot be hacked of tempered with from within or externally.

All evaluations have been addressed, as the system is housed within E-gov we are able to address these issues and upgrades are carried out to eliminate any concerns from the departments as well as the public.

Impact on the depts: :Cost of adverting, :Turnaround times for appointments, :Shortlisting process. Public usage: :User friendly systems :Access of Public sector Jobs :Cost reduction when applying online :Public surveys to ensure optimal service delivery

When building the e-recruitment system the Dept. of E-gov engaged all other Gauteng Government Departments to make sure that we have included all of their recruitment needs and all departments were given an opportunity to add or suggest better ways of delivering a fully functional Public sector recruitment tool. During the workshops and information sharing sessions some management team members and employees may indicate that there is a significant unease as Public sector in South Africa are a bit hasten to embrace new technology , effort was required to reinforce change. Training was carried out by the e-recruitment team, and supported by IT, all departments were invited, and training was concluded in computer labs as a step by step process was undertaken. Training manuals were provided and e-mailed to all those in attendance, practitioners, team leaders and the deputy director participated in conducting the training and were assessed and scored after each training session was concluded. Telephonic and one on one consultation was provided thereafter to support departments that were experiencing difficulties. Extensive care was taken in the design of the system as this model is custom built to serve the Public sector and all departmental inputs were taken into consideration before implementation. Since then there have been many upgrades that have taken place addressing issues that were brought up from clients as well as job seekers. Walk in Centers were launched by senior Government Officials and one on one consultants were available to assist any concerns that the public had regarding the usage and credibility of the system, mobile labs were also at the public's service and would attend all government functions to further ensures the stability of the e-recruitment system.

The Good With unemployment at an all time high the Public sector is taking control of their hiring process and become accountable for their own recruitment, technology has stayed at the forefront of this digital revolution and e-recruitment is leading the way, new systems and processes have been required to meet this demand and the benefits of using online recruitment software such as e-recruitment have proven invaluable, public sector has had to adopt new techniques in order to reach the right candidates. The Bad During implementation some management and employees may indicate that there is a significant unease, distrust, and scepticism around recruitment technology, Public Sector employees in South Africa do not embrace digital change like the rest of the world does because of the unemployment rate and high cost of living, technology is looked at as a threat to job security and a opportunity to downsize the working force The Future E-government has many enhancements planned for the e- recruitment system, including a e-recruitment mobile App, real-time interviews, online psychometric tests, online reference and Home affairs checks and much more thus the need for innovation and technology for a better service delivery.