Fixed Term Contract vs Probation
For many years, companies have used a Fixed Term Contract as a way of “trying out” a potential new employee before appointing them in a permanent job. Although this may seem like a good idea, it is actually quite dangerous.
Firstly, the labour courts and the CCMA are very aware of this practice, and don’t look kindly on it. Section 186(1)(b) of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (LRA) protects the rights of the temporary employee, if he/she can prove that any actions on the part of the employee lead them to believe that the contract would be extended. So if a manager were just to mention that the job could be permanent and then doesn’t offer full time employment, the courts would look at the termination as a dismissal, irrespective of what the contract says.
Recruiting IT Developers
Are you battling to recruit IT developers? These chaps are difficult to find, and even more difficult to appoint. Do you want to know why?
The reason is that they are getting calls, often a few calls each week from people trying to recruit them. So they have the luxury of being extremely picky on the jobs they apply for.
The mistake most companies are making is that they are asking these candidates to spend hours doing tests and assessments before the candidate even knows if he or she wants the job. These candidates don’t mind doing these assessments – actually often times they enjoy it, but they are not prepared to spend 3 hours working on a project for free, especially for someone they don’t even know.
So what can you do?
6 Ideas for Staffing in a Scarce Skills Market.
In spite of the fact that South Africa’s unemployment rate is expected to average at around 25% in 2012* and the fact that many companies downsized during the last few years due to the global recession, finding top talent especially in areas of scarce skills is more difficult than ever. The reason is two fold. Firstly, traditional methods of advertising a vacancy (whether in the media or online) often attract an avalanche of desperately seeking candidates and filtering these is a long and tedious process. Secondly, the top candidates have their heads down and are so buried in what they are doing that they don’t have time to look at other opportunities.
