The other day in a post I mentioned I had visited a company that was ranked top 5 in Africa for growth in it's particular category. I will talk about that company in another post, but what I found interesting was the top 3 ranked in Africa all started their business 5 years ago back in 2019.
Most companies take years to become established and 5 years is considered still very early. The top 2 being ecommerce is no surprise as that is where the consumer market has headed worldwide and this will continue to grow year on year.
The one that stood out as being very different was the company in 3rd place called Resourgenix which is a recruitment company based in South Africa. I have never heard of them so I decided to read up on what makes their business so different. They have a revenue growth rate of nearly 550% so they must have found a niche they thought was required.
It turns out they offer short term contract staff in specialised positions stating that they offer temporary solutions that bridges a gap between long term solutions. Like most countries around the world South Africa's economy has been on shaky ground ever since the lock down periods. I would go as far as to say when the lockdowns happened SA was already in a recession due to rampant corruption by the previous government. This period was so bad they had an enquiry calling it State Capture when SOE's were plundered leaving no money behind in the tax coffers.
SA businesses have been in survival mode and in order to stay in business most companies are operating with a skeleton staff. Tis is another reason why unemployment is so high exceeding 60% for age group 18-34 years.
Supply And Demand
What Resourgenix has done is offered companies a solution to employ people temporarily in specialist areas they need help. The way the government protects employees you cannot afford to employee the wrong person as it is so hard to get rid of them.
Another bonus is once you have retrenched staff you are obligated to offer people their jobs back if you are rehiring and outsourcing temporary staff via another company would be a loop hole bypassing this red tape.
The other issue we have in SA is a thing called BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) status which there is no other way to describe this as it is basically racist recruitment. Instead of employing the best possible candidate for the position companies are forced to select by skin color and this does not always end well. Using a specialist firm to supply your exact needs also would be another loop hole by passing the hiring process. Many companies have a director who is a figurehead so they are BEE compliant and can then attract business they would normally be missing out on. This is actually such a farce and know companies in this position who have no other choice, but to do this.
We have seen the bigger companies recruit their mass work force trough agencies so they are not tied down by red tape and regulation when hiring and firing of personnel. With various unions often calling for strike action one can hardly blame them. In the past the top positions were normally head hunted, but with companies having so few staff it makes perfect sense to have positions temporarily filled until you find the right match.
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