The role of online recruitment in the African travel and hospitality industry

Launched by Clickthinking and Habari Media in Cape Town in May 2005, Lodgestaff.com is a unique new online recruitment classified service catering to the African travel & hospitality industry. By providing an easily accessible website; lodges, resorts, hotels, guest houses, restaurants, spa's and travel centers are able to advertise their staff vacancies, and job seekers are able to search and apply for available positions online.

Local hospitality industry recruitment agencies are finding Lodgestaff.com to be a very cost-effective and successful medium to reach the right candidates, and this is reflected by the fact that since their launch in mid May, well over 3 500 vacancies have been posted on Lodgestaff.com for job seekers to browse. They've grown to an average of 1000 new job seekers visiting the site each day, and are seeing a daily average of 200 new job applications being made to exciting posts across Africa.

The effectiveness of online recruitment in the hospitality industry in Africa is due in part to the often remote nature of the industry, and to high rates of staff turnover caused by 'nomadic' staff behaviour. Traditional recruitment has become expensive and time consuming, whereas the Internet provides an easily accessible and cost effective solution, enabling Lodgestaff.com to bridge the gap between the job seeker and the recruiter. "We provide a quick, convenient and effective way for job seekers to reach recruiters across the continent, as well as providing valuable information on CV writing and advice on interview techniques," says Lodgestaff.com GM Teri Fynn. For recruiters, the time spent at every step of the recruiting process is greatly reduced, which translates into huge savings for employers in terms of speed and cost effectiveness.

The flexibility of online job search websites is a great advantage over traditional print classified advertising. Local South African recruitment website Career Junction, for example, allows recruiters to search a database of thousands of CV's for the right candidate, and Therecruiters.co.za allows recruiters to view a short video clip of each potential candidate. The Internet also offers recruiters unlimited space to describe in detail the vacancy they have available, further enabling them to attract relevant candidates.

In conclusion, the Internet as a central platform for recruitment and job searches is able to deliver new levels of speed, ease and efficiency to both sides of the recruitment spectrum. In Africa, sites like Career Junction are hot on the heels of international players Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com, while Lodgestaff.com is Africa's alternative to the UK's Caterer.com

* Online Recruitment or Ecruiting www.indiawebdevelopers.com/articles/internet_recruiting