In continued efforts to create solutions that help South Africa and the rest of Africa tackle unemployment and talent attraction, Business Connexion (BCX) has joined forces with specialist recruitment company Conscript Africa to create SkillsMap – a talent community portal where companies can post vacancies and potential candidates can apply for available positions.

The three-in-one software as a service (SaaS) application provides companies access to the SkillsMap Talent Community portal, an applicant tracking system as well as a customised client career portal. This first of its kind offering enables companies to source skilled professionals in an easier, more affordable monthly subscription fee.

Attracting and retaining the right talent is at the heart of any business’ success. With the skills pool in certain sectors being quite small, it is becoming increasingly challenging for companies to gain access to the right candidates in the quickest possible time.

Skills Map is the first top skills targeted online recruitment service based in Africa that targets the entire continent as well as the Middle East, Europe and the UK. Job seekers get free subscription onto SkillsMap; however, corporates require a paid for subscription.

“Recruitment is big business but also costs big business a lot of money annually, especially when they are looking for senior executives.
“At present, companies are already utilising available online recruitment services such as Career Web, Careers 24, PNet and Career Junction, and we see the world begin to embrace the SaaS model, we foresee a wider acceptance of this type of online model,” says Andre Vermeulen, managing executive: Business Connexion Application Services.

Heidi Duvenage, SkillsMap CEO, says that SkillsMap is targeting about 100 corporate clients in the first year and is looking to sign up between 1-million and 1,5-million individual users within the first two years.

“The application specifically targets premium skills and even candidates that are not necessarily on the market at the time, this includes anyone from graduates to top executives that are either looking to grow their career, develop their talents or make a career move,” states Duvenage.

She adds that even with the existing competition in the online recruitment space, SkillsMap will have a big differentiator from what is on the market because it focusses on nurturing and developing top talent through an online career coach called ‘MapMySkills’, focused on providing talent with various free tools in furthering their career paths.

“Getting career guidance can be costly to an individual, so MapMySkills serves two purposes in that it helps people with career guidance and at the same time saves them money.”
SkillsMap caters for most industries with specific focus on financial services, engineering, IT, telecommunications, sales and marketing, FMCG, engineering, mining, manufacturing and human resources.

“We have chosen to partner with Business Connexion on SkillsMap because this solution needs to have a reputable brand behind it. It’s not only about building the solution, but also ensuring the service is available and scalable.

“The fact that Business Connexion is the biggest software development company in South Africa (according to BMI TechKnowledge Survey 2012), and has world class maintenance and support services makes it a solid service,” she explains.

SkillsMap has launched with a Web site and a mobile application will be available within three months.