Established in July 1990, Compuways, the local ICT recruitment and skills specialist, celebrated 20 years in IT recruitment in 2010. Arnold Graaff, managing director of Compuways, shares some of his secrets for success in IT recruitment.
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Compuways is the brainchild of Arnold Graaff, and was initially started as a promotion agency for IT contracting freelancers, while he was working as a freelance programmer. The company gained traction when Graaff teamed up with a general recruiter and began focusing on all aspects of IT recruitment, resulting in the Compuways we now know today.
“IT placements compared to general placements are very much skills-based, therefore, a lot of effort goes into ensuring the applicant's skill-levels are up to standard,” says Graaff. “Other factors like team type and industry, as well as oriented matching, must be taken into account when placing candidates with an employer. All of that needs to happen before we even look at the softer aspects of candidate-matching, such as culture and personality types.”
The secret of Compuways' success has hinged around the development of an electronic database-driven system that firstly categorises applicants and then matches them to positions. Being a computer programmer since 1982, and after obtaining his Honours Degree in Computer Science in 1988, Graaff himself was deeply entrenched in the development of the system, and touts it as a unique contributor to the success of Compuways in the IT recruitment space. Graaff states that the system provides crucial support throughout the entire recruitment process. In the year 2000, the system was given a Web Interface, in essence, automating much of the manual process, and in turn enabling recruiters, applicants and employers to provide their inputs throughout the recruitment process.
“We attribute our success to our ability to deliver the right calibre of candidate to the right kind of company, time and again, and across the whole spectrum of the IT skills base,” states Graaff.
Compuways prides itself on having grown through many IT industry developments such as ERP, object orientation, as well as the mainframe and minis right through to contemporary networks and currently, the cloud. In the IT industry, times and technologies have changed considerably, requiring an array of different skills. Throughout its 18 years, Compuways has provided top-notch candidates, delivering from learnerships to CIOs, ERP consultants, technicians and developers.
Compuways has also started its own training academy, GetCertified IT Training, in 2005, to bridge the gap between the unemployed and the employed. “The incidence of highly qualified junior people being unemployed, due to a lack of experience and international certifications, prompted us to start the training school,” says Graaff. “It has also been a success story because of our close contact with the industry and by listening to our students and employers.” More information can be obtained on http://www.getcertified.co.za .
“Compuways has built a strong brand throughout the years and nurtured loyal client relationships - some of our clients are still with us since our inception. I believe our success can be attributed to our taking pride in every placement we make,” ends Graaff.
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