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Temporary Staffing

Top talent management company turns 40

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:17

For the past 40 years, Kelly has driven the transformation of South Africa’s recruiting industry.

In fact, it was Kelly founder, Neville Mackay, who first brought the concept of temporary staffing to the country back in 1969.

Since then Kelly has continued to keep pace with international trends and benchmarks, as well as innovated solutions to suit South Africa’s unique environment.

Kelly is the leading brand under the Kelly Group Limited umbrella alongside Kelly Industrial, Kelly ICT, Torque IT, PAG, Accountants on Call, Frontline, Executive Secretary Appointments, InnStaff, Paxsal and Renwick.

This month, Kelly celebrates its 40th anniversary, and Mackay reminisces that the company has come a long way since the days when he convinced companies they needed short term staff replacements.

“I had seen first hand how successful temporary staffing was in the US, but for South Africans it was a new concept, however, it took a mere six months for businesses to get used to the idea,” explains Mackay.

“We started with a single idea - to place temporary staff - and today Kelly has moved beyond that. Temporary staff has broadened into almost every field, with Kelly placing clerical staff such as secretaries and accountants to filling professional and management positions, and not only filling one or two positions, but in many cases, whole departments.

"Kelly today is built on a reputation of reliability, careful screening and good service: if a Kelly Associate (flexi-worker) comes into the position, the Client can be confident the role will be fulfilled efficiently and immediately."

Over the past four decades, Kelly has optimised recruiting efficiency and today attracts the highest calibre of talent. And, as Client relationships and the industry have matured, so has Kelly, to such an extent that Kelly is now the largest Talent Management organisation in South Africa, having evolved from what was once a distinct temporary and permanent placement business to being the country’s leader in Talent Management.

Kelly’s offerings to its Clients include a range of services for employment and business cycles including Permanent Recruitment, Global Staffing, Contingent Temporary Staffing, Contract Staffing, Outsourced Staffing (including on-site Management), Advertising Response Handling and Consulting.

But Kelly is much more than a recruitment specialist; it is currently South Africa’s Contact Centre and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry expert. Kelly has, for more than 16 years, been at the forefront of the development and growth of the Contact Centre and BPO industry during which time it has built extensive staffing expertise, not only within the South African market, but also globally.

Kelly also plays a vital role within South Africa’s communities, contributing to the upskilling of the local labour market and facilitating employment opportunities. Kelly was the first staffing provider in South Africa to open a branch in a township.

Kelly opened its doors in Alexandra in 1994, and in just under 15 years, Kelly Alexandra placed more than 4 500 previously disadvantaged individuals in permanent and flexi/temp jobs.

In 2008, Kelly opened its flagship branch, again in a township with more than 30 previously disadvantaged individuals trained every month at Kelly’s branch in Soweto’s Maponya Mall. Kelly was also the first staffing organisation to secure Services SETA endorsed Recruitment Learnerships and has partnered with the Department of Education and Editworks to implement Ikusasa Lami, (meaning my future, my tomorrow), to provide previously disadvantaged learners with career development opportunities.

As a Top Engendered Company, Kelly has not only been empowering South Africans for the past 40 years, but also women, as Kelly chief operating officer Gayleen Baxter explains: “Since its inception Kelly has encouraged greater roles for women in business and the economy. In fact, Kelly was nurturing skills over a range of industries long before women empowerment was a popular concept or legislative measures were enforced.

"Back in the 1970s and 1980s, the majority of jobs intended for women were in teaching, welfare, nursing and office support, however Kelly opened a whole new world for women in South Africa and their progression in the corporate world is something that we continue driving to this day."

To this end, Kelly was instrumental in the formation of the Professional Secretaries Association (PSA) in the 1980s, it sponsored the first women’s team in the Cape to Rio Yacht Race in the 1990s and every year Kelly staff support and participate in the 16 Days of Activism Campaign.

Not only does Kelly spearhead the drive to empower women in the workplace, the organisation also practices what it preaches and has been successfully led by two female managing directors in the past decade.

Even in times of economic downturns, Kelly remains strong and confident, as Mackay explains: “In my time as CEO we experienced three recessions; two mild and one very severe. In the past, within the first 12 months of coming out of a recession, our billings doubled. Thankfully we had maintained our infrastructure and could accommodate this influx in business.”

Baxter concurs, “Our philosophy focuses on people, service and leadership, which it has done from the start and it is this philosophy which will see us through this recession and the next 40 years!”

In recognition of Kelly’s consistent drive towards innovation and excellent service, the organisation has, over the years, received many independently audited accolades and awards.

Kelly is driven by a passion for the industry, and constantly re-engineers its solutions in line with international benchmarks. Baxter says she looks back over the years with pride: “The high standards of service Kelly provides will always sustain the company, in good times and bad,” says Baxter.

“Whatever the future holds - Kelly and its people will continue to provide honest and efficient services, service which benefits both our employees and our Clients.”