Gauteng migrates job applications to SMS

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 21 May 2007

The Gauteng Shared Services Centre (GSSC) has introduced an SMS-based mobile application system as the bedrock of its recruiting process.

The system will assist 13 Gauteng provincial government departments to "render a quality service", by allowing civil servants and the public to submit job applications by SMS and tracing them in the same way up to the short-list stage.

"The GSSC are the pioneers in this system, our own HR services devised the solution and we are proud of it," says GSSC CE Mike Maile. "The system is designed to bring efficiency for the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) by cutting down on the paper used in the recruitment process, the time spent in response handling and enhance how we manage our database for candidates," he adds.

"More importantly, however, it will have a positive impact on people applying for positions in the GPG. Applications lodged by SMS will reduce the amount of money and time spent travelling to the GSSC to submit applications," Maile explains. "We know that unemployment is a challenge, yet unemployed people must spend inordinate amounts of money to enter the job market."

The application process has six steps:

* Identify an advertised position in the GPG
* Apply for the position by sending an SMS to 37562
* The GSSC calls the applicants to capture their profile
* Applicants can track their applications within the system
* The interview
* Appointment

The GSSC has not put a price to the system or the savings it hopes to realise from it, but says it should "make it easier to gain access to the job market ... at less than 5% of what the typical job application currently costs".

A two-month trial last year cost the GPG R500 000 in technology, staff and premises, and involved an unspecified "approved response handling service provider", GSSC spokesman Emmanuel Mdawu says.

He adds: "To estimate the saving to government at this point is premature. The saving will be determined through a comprehensive audit of the automation process. The focus at this point should be the immediate cost savings and convenience the system offers the citizens."