Employers are increasingly becoming picky about the personnel they recruit and with the supply exceeding demand headhunters face a major challenge of finding the right person for the right job for their clients.
The war on talent is particularly intense in the IT industry with more number of young graduates entering the job market every year.
Job retention is also a major issue with employers as the demand for qualified personnel keeps moving up and unless proper incentives and career development programmes are in place, even multinationals would experience a high turnover of staff, experts say.
New Zealand has no dearth of recruitment consultants and headhunters but those offering specialised services, with a proper check of the qualifications, character and integrity of candidates continue to do well.
Innovative solution
RANN IT is a boutique recruitment consulting company that has earned the attention and respect of a number of large, medium and small enterprises throughout New Zealand.
Director Nigam Mehta and Consultant Kritika KB say that the firm’s ‘integrated direct hire solution’ has been central to its operations.
“We incorporate our successful sourcing strategies, high-end specialised talent pool, industry best practices, robust candidate attraction and screening strategies and online applicant tracking system. Our team shares the passion to optimise the ability of our customers to attract, assess, select and retain permanent, contract and temporary IT professionals,” they said.
Good credentials
Mr Mehta is justifiably proud of his Company’s achievements, which include the ‘Seek Sara Award’ in ‘The Best Small IT Recruitment’ category in 2012 and 2013.
“The Awards showcase the confidence that our customers and candidates have in us as one of their preferred IT Recruiters in Auckland,” he said.
With more than 15 years of experience, ten of which were in the IT recruitment industry in New Zealand and India and with successful placement of candidates for clients in New Zealand, India, US and Singapore, he launched RANN, which celebrated its fifth anniversary on April 2, 2014.
A graduate (BA) in Commerce from the University of Bombay, a postgraduate diplomat in Business (Marketing), Mr Mehta’s sound knowledge of the New Zealand market enables him to understand the evolving needs of employers and rise up to their expectations.
“The IT market is growing rapidly in New Zealand. We head hunt IT professionals overseas for very niche requirements. We target professionals coming back after their overseas experience, especially from UK. Although we are not immigration advisers or experts, we support successful candidates in securing work visas by forwarding their cases to our expert partners in immigration,” Mr Mehta said.
Boutique companies enjoy a niche market and RANN IT is no exception. Employers and Human Resources experts appreciate the in-depth knowledge of the market that Mr Mehta and his team possess and their network within the IT industry.
“Employers and Companies trust us because we pre-qualify candidates, save time of hiring managers by presenting only qualified candidates, market the company while networking and give them industry insights. We are a specialised IT recruitment company and would like to remain so. Our strategy is to grow into different markets of New Zealand, specifically Wellington, Hamilton and later in Australia,” Ms KB said.
According to Mr Mehta, despite the increasing use of mobile technology, recruiters and recruitment companies are not likely to change their focus from the existing methods.
“However, they will become smarter, efficient and technology savvy in terms of how they network. As specialist IT Recruiters, we will continue to do things differently. Not only we take care of our customers, but also have robust processes in place to coach our candidates as per our customer expectations, creating a win-win scenario for both customers and candidates,” Mr Mehta said.
