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Communicate Personnel

Recruitment success spans three decades

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 09:56

Laura Hutchinson

This year, 2011, Communicate Personnel celebrates 30 years of successful business in the South African recruitment industry. We asked Laura Hutchinson, Communicate Personnel Managing Director (Western Cape), to share some business learnings on how the brand has adapted to the ever-changing recruitment landscape.

By no means the oldest recruitment agency; Communicate Personnel is certainly ranked as one of South Africa’s most established companies, specifically within the specialist niche recruitment market. When asked what she believes to be the brand’s continued success and longevity within the industry, Hutchinson’s response is simple: Our people.

“Our strap line underpins this, Great people – Communicate Personnel. In addition to this, add strong leadership, resilience and agility. We continuously hand-pick individuals who we believe will be able to integrate with our business methodology and ethics.

“Most of our leaders have advanced through the ranks of consulting; they have a hands-on approach and are therefore fully equipped and enabled to live the brand. Our philosophy to business is energetic and forward thinking.”

Adapting to new business practices and requirements of the evolving recruitment market; Hutchinson expounds.

“Over the past 30 years, the industry has become more sophisticated and technology has certainly advance way beyond the golf ball typewriter. But more importantly, our service offerings and the depth and sophistication of recruitment have evolved.

We have needed to respond to these changes. Right now, for example, Social Networking is bringing a whole new dimension to how we connect and engage with our clients and candidates. However, even with the advancements of technology, we do still believe in a personal approach. Recruitment is all about people and we prefer to engage with both our clients and candidates face-to-face in order to truly understand their specific needs and career aspirations. Ultimately, in order to remain successful, we must be business partners – working with, and for our clients and candidates.”

Do some original and sound business ethics and morals still stand within the organisation?

“We are and always have been a member of APSO, the Association of Personnel Services Organisation, which has a code of ethics which we uphold. Furthermore, we pride ourselves in the way we conduct business in this highly competitive market.

There is a Global War on Talent, which requires a recruitment agency to be very particular in the way it supports clients to attract and retain top skills. We see ourselves as true business partners with our clients, by understanding that people are your success and tenure in this competitive market, is imperative. Our service offering to our clients includes some of the following ethics:

“These are just a few very simple ways to conduct open and ethical business within this industry.”

Collectively, the Communicate Personnel management team comprises over 63 years of experience, something Hutchinson is very proud of. Some of the faces may not have changed much over the past 30 years; however, the corporate image has certainly developed to reflect the progression of the brand.

“Communicate Personnel is a people-centric brand, reflected in the triple ‘m’ within the Communicate logo, an iconic element, which represents our main product: people.

“In conclusion, the business is incredibly resilient and responsive. We believe that we have been able to anticipate and react to market demands and encumbering recessions with success, and aim to do so, for a further 30 years.”