This trend will also impact on South Africa as the skills shortage turns the talent hunt global, with resources at home dwindling, says Gray. UK recruitment consultancy Joslin Rowe, for example, reported in its Financial Service Employment Index: September 2007 that financial services companies in London are on the hunt for South African professionals, who are in high demand because of the quality of their education, their work ethic and the similarity between the business cultures of the two countries, he says.
Gray believes that because of these trends, the search for talented employees will continue to become tougher, and South African HR managers will have to use imaginative, cutting-edge methods if they want to attract, retain and motivate the next generation of workers. HR managers need to understand this generation to relate to them in a meaningful way, he says.

Generation Y, also known as the digital generation or the entitlement generation, is a very different breed from the Baby Boomers “ those born between 1946 and 1964 – who have dominated the workplace until now. Disenchanted by the old paradigm of employee loyalty because of workplace trends towards consistent downsizing, rightsizing and retrenchments, they are not easily attracted and retained, says Gray. According to the US Department of Labour™s Employee tenure in 2006 report, the average 25 to 34-year-old employee keeps their current job for only 2.9 years.

He adds that, unlike the Baby Boomers who would have given almost anything for a top-paying spot at a big-name firm, younger employees are more interested in what companies can do to help them lead a more purposeful and meaningful life.

This is reflected in the findings of a recent volunteer impact survey carried out by Deloitte & Touche USA, which showed that 18 to 26-year-olds would prefer to work for companies that give them opportunities to contribute their talents to non-profit organisations. This generation expects to make a difference. They give of themselves and they want their employers to help them contribute as well, said Stan Smith, national director of Next Generation Initiatives at Deloitte & Touche USA. Companies that facilitate meaningful community involvement opportunities for their people will be very attractive employers.

This thinking is in line with the work/life balance that Generation Y employees “ those born between 1977 and 1994, representing over 70 million people in the US “ want to achieve and believe they deserve, having been brought up in a world in which they were told that they could have it all. As spending time with family and friends is important to younger workers, companies may increasingly have to consider benefits such as flexible work schedules and longer holidays to attract and retain the services of high-calibre staff, says Gray.
Surveys also show that Generation Y employees expect more rapid career advancement and better pay than older workers, and are more likely to move on if their goals are not quickly realised. They seek challenging work, and try to find ways of working better and faster, rather than spend long hours behind their desks, as their parents did. Generally more highly educated than previous generations of workers, they constantly seek to expand their skills and value opportunities for ongoing learning in the workplace through activities such as mentorship and coaching.

There are many differences between the attitudes, values and work ethic of the different generations that will now find themselves working side by side in the workplace. A critical difference is the way in which they communicate. Growing up in a world of rapid technological advancement, with more access to electronic equipment such as computers and cell phones, 25 to 34-year-olds have embraced mobility, accounting for 36% of South Africa™s online population and owning about half of the country™s cell phones, Gray says.
This generation increasingly consumes news through a collection of websites on their laptops, cellphones and iPods. As the media becomes more fragmented, media planning has become more complex, and it is difficult to speak to the right candidates using only traditional advertising methods, says Gray. He points out that a common misconception among HR managers is that companies need to reach as many candidates as possible but, in fact, using the most appropriate channels and devices to get the right message across to the right audience can substantially increase a company™s hit rate.

Technology has created many new opportunities for targeted recruitment via new media channels, he says. It can also improve recruitment efficiencies and reduce costs by automating the management of manual processes, such as managing job applications. For example, an external careers website that we implemented for SABMiller enables the company to filter, screen, manage applications and engage with a large volume of job seekers in seven different languages across Africa, Europe, the UK, Central and South America each month.

Graylink provides recruitment technology and marketing solutions built on international best practice and has amassed extension experience through direct involvement with client in global markets, he says. The company also spends a lot of time tracking and analysing global trends.

Gray says that to stay in the game HR managers now need to develop a level of comfort with technology and marketing practices. One way of up-skilling fast is to hire consultants. Another is to integrate a new generation of more internet-savvy practitioners into the organisation.

One thing is clear. The basic approach to recruitment is changing, and for recruiters and employers who want to source, recruit and retain the best talent, doing nothing is not an option, nor is mildly incremental improvement. It™s a challenging new world out there for HR managers.

Contact Graylink 086 114 5465 or visit www.graylink.biz.

FORGET the credit crunch, what about the career crunch? A survey of graduates and students conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers last month found that 81% were more concerned about their job prospects than they were a year ago.

Getting a job as soon as possible, they say, is a top priority. So much so, in fact, that more than 50% conceded that they are willing to look for work that is not relevant to their qualifications to ensure that they are employed. Furthermore , 42% anticipated less pay than they had initially hoped for.

And that is only one side of the recruitment coin.

As budgets come under pressure to facilitate the economic downturn, companies and their recruitment agencies are increasingly looking for more cost-effective and creative ways to fill positions.

But while in some places employers are cutting back, indications are that the majority of businesses across the world are still looking to recruit, particularly those in budding economies such as that of the Middle East. This means that overall, there are more applicants in the mix and that an increasing number of hopefuls are prepared to consider global assignments. The result for many human resource professionals and recruitment agencies is an increase in workload and the call to make greater use of technology to more effectively manage the rising flood of applications.

Technology, says Mark Gray, who heads up South African-based recruitment and technology company, Graylink, has had a huge effect on recruitment processes — for candidates, recruitment professionals and employers alike — in the past five years. Not only are employers and their agencies increasingly adopting online-only recruitment policies, but more and more are using social networking platforms — such as Facebook, Orkut, MySpace and Linkedin — to hunt for candidates. These sites, he says, are also increasingly helping job hunters market themselves online by providing potential employers with access to profiles, work history and details of specific skills.

Gray, who is the son of 1980s Johannesburg recruitment buff Don Gray (of Don Gray Associates), and the nephew of Allan Gray (founder of investment management firm, Allan Gray Limited), established Graylink as a supplier of specialised recruitment software to replace paper-based processes in 2002. Since then, he and his developers have advanced and expanded the application — which is delivered to clients over the internet — to make it possible for their 150 active clients to better track, screen, filter and manage applications, and to engage with thousands of job seekers in seven different languages across the world each month.

“Most companies readily acknowledge that recruiting talent is a priority,” comments Gray, whose enthusiasm for the internet survived the dotcom meltdown and which, combined with his understanding of recruitment, has helped put Graylink up ahead in the field of online recruitment in this country.

“Managing the recruitment process is, however, a challenge. When there is no database to source from directly, costs and time-to-hire increase. Done manually, the process requires a great deal of administration, and is inefficient and slow. What’s more, traditional recruitment advertising is increasingly costly and, in most cases, it does little to build the organisation’s brand.”

Graylink — which, in addition to operating out of its head office in Cape Town with a bureau in Johannesburg, also has offices in the UK, France, United Arab Emirates and Singapore, and representation in the US, Australia and, from early next year, South America — provides a single software code base to automate clients’ recruitment processes. Each organisation gets its own database of potential employees, and a recruitment website that is incorporated into its existing website.

The look, functionality and marketing-led approach of an organisation’s online recruitment service are, stresses Gray, fundamental to its success.

“It goes without saying that, like customers, candidates are attracted to strong brands,” he says. “Our approach ensures that each client’s brand is carefully managed and that it wins the attention of the right audience. With more organisations moving their recruitment online, competition has increased and it is no longer enough to have a website that merely lists current vacancies. You have to add value, compete for the best talent and, wherever possible, go out and look for it — and that is where social networking sites come into play.”

According to a study by CareerBuilder.com, which is one of the largest online job sites in the US, one in every five employers in that country uses social networks to research information about job candidates.

Reuters reported last month that “traffic on the world’s top professional web networks has surged since the financial crisis started to make headlines, with top player, privately held Linkedin, notching 25% more registrations in September than forecast”.

Membership on Linkedin has increased from 18-million at the beginning of the year to more than 31-million. It is growing fastest in the financial services, media, education and technology fields.

Increased use of social media, says Gray, compels employers and recruiters to examine, network, attract, engage and connect with potential employees like they have never done before. Companies are increasingly questioning long-standing recruitment strategies and accepting that social media has entered the mainstream as a recruitment strategy.

“While South Africans are slower on the uptake than many of their international colleagues, the more savvy local recruiters are already getting into social networks as a new way to hunt talent and market their clients as employers,” he says. “When done correctly, recruitment via social networking platforms can be a more effective and inexpensive way to reach and engage relevant talent than traditional methods.”

There are two options for recruiting candidates via social-networking sites: recruiters can either set up pages on the sites for passive recruiting or, using various search tools, actively troll the sites for suitable candidates.

Trolling is generally done by using keywords to search targeted sites. This way recruiters dig out high-quality candidates that cannot be found elsewhere. These candidates can then be contacted directly about job offers that might interest them. Organisations can also set up groups to create communities around a shared interest, simultaneously using it to find talent.

The premise is that employers and recruiters have the opportunity to target, sound out and interact with candidates at length before final interviews take place.

Candidates, on the other hand, receive job offers from companies that have taken the time to seek them out, and find out all about their career objectives and skills.

Moreover, the kinds of online conversations recruiters have with candidates can reinforce the organisation’s brand. For example, Linkedin has a very active feature for asking and answering questions. As a member of Linkedin, a candidate is able to convey knowledge and expertise, positioning him or herself as an expert on a certain subjects. Linkedin also allows job seekers to list previous employers to confirm credibility.

But, cautions Gray, using social networks for recruitment and branding is not as simple as clicking and searching.

Recruiters need to understand exactly what organisations need, what each site provides in terms of service to users and intelligence to the recruiter, and which of these their desired candidate audience is actively using. In other words, it requires a specialised approach.

“For employers and job seekers to remain competition, they have to start getting more active around marketing themselves on social networks,” says Gray. “But it is as important to do it correctly to make it work — and to avoid damaging the brand, whether that of the company or the candidate.”

That then, is perhaps the other career crunch of the 21st century.

The new generation of job seekers do not respond in the same way as previous generations to recruitment drives, so recruiters need to plan and execute their strategies to attract them or risk being ignored.

Companies will have to take into account the changes in the workplace if they are to attract Generation Yers (18 – to 25-year-olds) and retain older workers. Dr Marie Puybaraud, director of global workplace innovation at Johnson Controls, says: “It is the only time that we can find four generations in the workplace, spanning from 18 years to more than 65. The ageing population will remain a constant and the younger generation will influx the workplace with a different mindset. The clash of generations may be significant.”

But she adds that companies are taking note of the demands of Generation Yers more than ever. At a time when many skills are in short supply, what is the best way to attract Generation Yers? Puybaraud, though reluctant to speak as a recruiter, says: “The skills shortage limits the choice of candidates for companies, while the skilled young employees have access to a wider range of employers.

“We could only extrapolate at this stage that if the Gen Y has more opportunities to choose a job, then the workplace could become a major factor to influence their choice. We asked the members of Gen Y in our interactive questionnaire about this, and to date we know they choose a company because of opportunities for learning, work colleagues, and opportunities for advancement and promotions.”

Mark Gray, the head of specialist HR technology firm Graylink, says companies do not have to spend a great deal to get results. A simple, clever, well-thought-out recruitment campaign can be hugely effective, he says.

Getting the basics of a good recruitment campaign right can mean the difference between landing the big fish or being left empty-handed, he adds.

Here are his 10 tips on how to run an effective recruitment campaign:

1. Know yourself: Companies must get to grips with their employer brand, because this is what sets them apart from competitors.
2. Know who you’re speaking to: Few HR departments seem to know who their target is. Recruiters must know the kind of candidate they are seeking, and understand that different types of jobs require different types of candidates with their own preferences.
3. Know the media landscape: Recruiters need to have a solid understanding of how the media works today and how fragmented it has become. They must also familiarise themselves with technology as the new generation is increasingly moving online.
4. Know your competition: To compete for talent, companies must know who they are up against, and what unique selling propositions they are offering candidates. 
5. Planning and execution: Every point of contact with candidates must be consistent in terms of quality and brand alignment, or it will damage the company’s brand.
6. Get to know your marketing department: HR must align its message with the corporate brand, and this requires co-operation between the members of the two departments.
7. Have a call to action: Every job advertisement must have a clear, concise instruction to interested candidates, but the call to action must suit the target audience. For example, it is not a good idea to ask traditional blue-collar workers to submit their CVs online, but it would be fine a young Gen Yer
8. See the whole process as a campaign: There must be a connection between the job advertisement and the call to action. If a job ad appears in a newspaper and directs candidates to a website, the website’s branding must be consistent with the advertisement and the employer brand.
9. Stand out in a crowd: Ads that look the same blend into the background — ads must be visible and make an impact.
10. Evaluate your campaign: The success of the campaign must be assessed and measured. If the same ad was posted across various media, companies should track the success of each one to discover what works and what doesn’t for the next one.

Talent, says HR Future Publisher Alan Hosking, resides in the top 20% of a company’s employees who, by their skills, knowledge, experience and attitude, generate 80% of the company’s revenue.

“They want to work in companies that enjoy good standing in the community, in the marketplace and in the eyes of its employees, so that they can talk about their employer with pride,” says Hosking. “Consequently, they are not attracted to companies which do not have a strong employer brand.”

While South African business are slowly waking up and implementing employment branding strategies, these are still centred on how managers view the business (and their own management skills) rather than how current and future employees view it. The first step towards effective employee branding seems to be assessing the people management skills of management.

Hosking agrees, saying there’s no way incompetent management can create a reputable employer brand. “Essentially, while management creates the strategy to strengthen the employer brand, its success is in the eye of the employee. The employer brandm has to be seen to be good by the employees, not the employers,” says Hosking. “Unfortunately, incompetent employers believe their own lies. The employees have a better chance of seeing the true state of things.”

 Sadly, the human resources function in many companies today seems to have very little to do with building people up and a lot to do with controlling them. Etsko Schuitema, author of Leadership – The Care and Growth Model, suggests the mechanical metaphors we use to describe business (’If all parts of the system work, then the machine makes money’) make us overlook the fact that people are more than just parts of the system.

“We can nurse a mechanistic view of an organisation as much as we like,” writes Schuitema. “The simple fact of the matter is that if the people are not committed to the business, and therefore willing to go the extra mile, we do not have a sustainable enterprise.”

Some companies are getting it right. Hosking says Investec has such a good employer brand that they don’t have to advertise positions – they have quality candidates approaching them for work and they can afford to pick the best. Mark Gray, of marketing and human resources firm Graylink, also points to Outsurance and RMB as positive examples. “They’ve successfully integrated their corporate and employer branding efforts, linking their people directly to the success of their businesses and saying to the market ‘we respect those that work for us’,” says Gray.

 What are people looking for in a company when they seek a new employer? Gray believes needs change from audience to audience. Often age (and generation) has a large part to play. “When you’re just out of college looking for your first job, things like travel and experience are top of your agenda,” says Gray. “For those with families and a large mortgage, security might be of greater importance. The trick for any employer is to map what attractive things (value propositions) they can authentically offer with those things the target audience actually values/ wants/ needs.”

 Leadership, or the lack thereof, helps define every aspect of a business. Schuitema argues for the importance of leadership in empowering employees through genuine care (about them, not just the stock price) and the creation of growth opportunities and empowerment (less control, not more).

Companies that understand that employees are not simply a cost but a credit to the business are better positioned to release the full value their people bring. This ultimately is what makes or break an employment brand and a business.

Gray says exposure to online media and technology during their formative years means the techno-savvy young job seekers of today gather and act on information in very different ways to their predecessors.

“They not only want but expect to have similar technology tools in their offices to those they use in their personal lives,” he says.

These new generation employees, also known as the Google Generation or the Millennials, are motivated by self-fulfilment, work-life balance and choice as much as money, he says. They also attach far greater value to social connections and social media, which they maintain through constant engagement via their cellphones, laptops and iPods.

Their preferred way of doing things is already impacting on workplaces throughout the world to such an extent that in an article published in February, The Times suggested that a better model of how to define work should be devised.

“Think task, not time,” it suggested. “Gauge performance on the quality of work performed.”

Help managers and employees learn to measure dedication in ways other than face time. Use today’s networking capabilities to allow employees to work from anywhere. Shift your definition of work from a place your employees go for a specified period to something they do any time, anywhere.”

Gray points out that the differences between this generation and the last extend also to their methods of job-hunting – and, with a significant percentage of Baby Boomers, as the previous generation was known, about to retire in the next few years, employers have to get to grips now with how to engage with the Google Generation to avoid a workforce deficit.

“While older generations may prefer printed job advertisements, Generation Y increasingly consumes media online. The Baby Boomers scoured the newspapers for vacancies and trusted corporate marketing for research about a company, but the Google Generation is doing all this online, researching a new job as they would research a consumer product before buying it. The increased use of mobile Internet through smart phones means career sites also have to be stripped down to work on the simplest online platform.”

Companies need to find new ways of engaging with the new generation if they wish to successfully recruit the bright young employees of tomorrow, he says. “Generation Y’s conversation takes place in online forums, on blogs and on social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Employers need to have an active online presence to connect with them and become part of the conversation. Forums and other online spaces are starting to become interesting places to spot great talent.”

In his firm’s experience, however, only a small percentage of South African employers understand how to talk to the Google Generation. “With little understanding of the Internet and the online society, employers default to what they know best: untargeted recruitment advertising,” Gray says. “But the online shift is not a passing fad, and employers who do not move with the times may find it difficult to engage scarce talent in the future.”

Access to information and transparency on the web has taken some of the power from companies to control information and placed it in the hands of the job candidates, he says. “For example, JobVent, a peer-networking website, enables job candidates to rate their experiences of working at a particular company. A number of companies with poor employer brands have suffered immense image damage as a result of scathing reviews.”

Another emerging trend is that, with a growing awareness of the importance of personal branding, job seekers are increasing their online presence.

“Candidates are increasingly compiling video resumés or using LinkedIn to set up a CV for a global passport to jobs. They are also establishing personal networks via sites such as Facebook, and posting to blogs such as ThoughtLeader or online forums such as MyADSL to build their profiles as specialists on specific topics.”

Google recently made excellent use of the new generation’s need for information-sharing in a campaign to promote its new Swiss headquarters, featuring a selection of PowerPoint slides with photos reflecting a modern, inspiring, fun workspace, he says.

“The clips spread like wildfire as the dream job, via peer-referral on the Internet.”

He adds that with more opportunities for social networking emerging, audiences are becoming increasingly fragmented. “Some forums are also turning into closed groups where participation is by invitation only.

Employers will have to carefully segment and select their platforms for involvement to ensure the best return on their investments over time.”

Employing top skills in the future will rely on building personal connections and close online relationships. “But establishing an online presence does not come overnight,” he says. “Just as you wouldn’t barge in on a group of people having a private conversation, you can’t just drop in on a blog or forum and immediately start talking about your employer brand. You have to join the discussion regularly and contribute ideas over time for anyone to listen to you.”

He points out that companies need not necessarily do their recruitment on the Internet, but should at least be aware of what is being talked about and what the current issues are among young people, who conduct most of their discussions online. As recruiters must go where their audience is, employers could use online advertising to direct job seekers to their ads in the print media, through which they still reach their biggest audience in this country.

Used in this way, online media can offer benefits not only to potential employers but also to the print media, he says. “The Internet can thereby become a tool for and not a competitor to the print media.”

If anyone thought the problem of human resources had been solved by technology, a quick look at the Los Angeles district last month would show otherwise. Some 5 000 teachers and other state employees were overpaid a staggering $53 million in total and the state will have to spend quite a bit to recoup the funds. The culprit: a problematic HR system.

Technology in HR has been around for as long as computerised payrolls, and has brought lots of benefits – no more handwritten cheques at the end of the month for example – but the environment is now far more complex.

The workforce used to be fairly homogenous, easy to manage and easy to pay. Today’s workforce is complex, changes quickly and encompasses a number of types of workers in a number of different relationships. If companies get on top of HR issues, the Aberdeen Group has found in a recent survey, they will save time and money, and increase employee satisfaction.

Development: Keeping Pace

The payroll and HR systems developer has to consider a number of issues, most of which seem to be changing rapidly: security, access, labour legislation, compliance and changing software platforms. “Software and application development requires much time, effort and money, but is essential to ensure the solution meets the evolving needs of clients or an area of business and can adjust to market influences,” says Sharon Tayfield, operations director at Praxima Payroll Africa.

“Payroll and HR software is a particular case in point. Ongoing development – other than introducing new tax tables – is crucial to hone the functionality of these specialised solutions. To do so successfully, however, the payroll and HR software vendor must understand emerging needs. Of course providing updated tax tables is necessary, but there are other influences that require the ongoing development of payroll and HR software. Take labour legislation, for example. A change can affect the way a payroll or HR solution is handled and might require modifications to the software.”

Many of these solutions are written to operate on underlying software platforms and when these change new opportunities arise. “A typical example is leveraging the new developments within a Microsoft platform,” explains Tayfield. “If a new component within the underlying software is incorporated into the application, it may improve the performance or functionality of the payroll and HR solution.”

Changing business processes and trends, like the move towards electronic records, also influence development says Tayfield.

“Businesses are moving away from using cumbersome hard copy records that are easy to lose. A paperless environment is now the ideal. The rise of the mobile worker has further reinforced this requirement. Having a decentralised environment means employees should be able to access the business processes and documents they need online. For example, it is easier and more efficient for workers in a remote location such as a home office to apply for leave online than rely on laborious paperwork.”

Legislative requirements that demand records be kept for a certain period of time and, more importantly, can be retrieved quickly when required, also support the trend toward a paperless environment.

“This requirement has grown among our international clients who are required to comply with legislation such as Sarbanes-Oxley. The US market in particular also has a huge emphasis on security and the integrity of data. Changes or advances in security mean new ways of keeping information secure must be incorporated into the highly sensitive area of payroll. Encrypting data or batches of information during transfer has become vital, as has the inclusion of stringent authentication procedures to prevent fraud, such as the registration of ghost employees, and make people accountable for their actions.”

BI & HR

But the attitude of the client is what counts. Matina Kavallieratos, senior consultant at Harvey Jones Systems, notes that at a time when the skills shortage in SA makes the headlines regularly, holding on to good people is no longer an option – it is a necessity.

“Yet organisations either appear to adopt an attitude in line with Henry Ford’s: ‘Why is it when I hire a pair of hands, I get a human being as well?’ Or they are intimidated by the effort required to sift through the volume of data that needs to be translated into meaningful information. In this context, it is the organisation that knows what is happening to its employees that has the distinct advantage.”

Here business intelligence is invaluable. “Yet in implementing business intelligence, organisations neglect this area, seeing HR as the ‘soft’ part of the business, which does not drive overall financial success. In truth, it is an information area, which can deliver rich returns for all involved, if one considers that people are the greatest cost component of any business and understanding the cost drivers and where savings can be had and inefficiencies addressed can drop straight to the bottom line.”

The company that has the best skills wins, she notes, “and it can be five times more costly and disruptive to acquire new staff than to retain them.” Just as BI informs CRM, so it can underpin the HR process: how many staff members have left? Why did they leave? What could we have done to retain them? How can we grow our “stars”?

Kavallieratos says that automation of critical business indicators – the balanced scorecard; progress towards and current status with BEE targets; leave registers; training and skills development and retention; payroll analysis; and appraisals aligned directly with actual performance – are tools that can, and should, be applied to HR.

“Management – both in HR and elsewhere – can have a direct view into all of these activities through a visual dashboard. Ultimately, it is business intelligence that can provide the information that will allow organisations to acquire the best people, grow them to both parties’ benefits and retain the talent, which will charge today’s workplace.”

That’s good advice. Aberdeen’s report The Strategic Development of Core HR Systems (see sidebar) concludes that properly implemented HR systems allow companies to engage and retain their employees and get a better understanding of company processes. But neglecting them can result in, at best, a loss of competitive edge and increased employee dissatisfaction or, at worst, fines, lawsuits and unnecessary costs.

Moving to the Web

HR and recruitment systems, along with traditional payroll applications, have been traditionally developed as packaged applications, deployed in-house on client desktops. But some South African pioneers are using the power of the Web and of communities to compete. Mark Gray of Graylink set up his business in 2002. He develops his technology here and distributes it over the internet to local and international clients.

“We’ve been in the software as a service (SaaS) business for five years now and we don’t install in a client environment at all. Everything that we do is delivered via the infrastructure. Certain parts of HR are less critical than others, but the kind of companies that we work with are large multinationals who have embraced SaaS because it works well for them,” Gray explains.

Gray originally built his application to replace a paper-based process. “We have one software codebase to handle recruitment and each client gets their own database and a website which is seamlessly incorporated into their existing website. You wouldn’t know that it’s us delivering the service.

Gray says part of the power of SaaS is that it allows his clients to focus on what they’re doing: “which is recruitment. If you have a distributed user base we provide access to a recruiter website. It’s our job to make sure that it’s running – not theirs.”

Gray sees a bright future for Web-based HR and recruitment. “I think the first wave has been for applications and processes that aren’t that critical, but customers are becoming more comfortable with SaaS as a concept. They’ve seen this work for them and now have a more open mind about moving more business-critical applications to this model. Cost-wise they don’t have to buy any technology or hardware – we are the ones amortising the cost and the existing client-server model is being superceded by this one. If you look at the rands and cents, it works.”

He thinks traditional software vendors – which deliver their packages and host their applications in-house within the client – need to adapt their business models, otherwise they’re going to be in trouble. “We can upgrade much more easily – there’s no need to sit at the client and manually upgrade, plus we back up data every day and take it off-site. And we can afford to compete aggressively on price by delivering a similar product at 90% of the price of some overseas competitors,” Gray says.