March 2009
Pastel People, the recruitment division of Softline Pastel, has created a website facility that helps its customers find freelance bookkeepers, payroll specialists, and administrative staff to cover short-term requirements.
In the process, it is helping to address the skills shortage in bookkeeping and accounting by bringing back into the industry people who don’t want permanent or full time employment.
“When we started Pastel People, our focus was on permanent placements because that was what our customers told us they needed,” says Pastel People Director, Bridget du Toit.
“But as soon as word got around that Pastel had started a recruitment division, we began to get a lot of CVs from people who choose to work from home or want only short-term contracts. At the same time, customers were asking us to help them if, say, a permanent employee had to go on maternity or study leave and a short-term replacement was needed.
“We felt that we could provide a service in which we put the freelancers and the customers in contact with one another, without our having to get directly involved – or take responsibility for so many small contracts.
“So, our new Find a Freelancer section on our Pastel People website is not a revenue-generator for Pastel People. It’s simply a service that adds considerable value to our customers, and, as a rather nice by-product, provides employment for people who would not otherwise participate directly in the marketplace.”
Pastel People emailed members of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers (ICB) and Pastel’s Bookkeeping Forum about Find a Freelancer. “We had an excellent response from that mailshot – with a lot of people signing up as freelancers,” du Toit says. “We’re now opening up the site for registration by anyone else who has the necessary Pastel qualifications as well as people with strong office administration skills and experience,” du Toit says.
Customers looking for freelance services register on the Find a Freelancer website, specifying the type of skills they are looking for, what industry they are in, and where they are located geographically.
Freelancers also register on the site - for a nominal fee which covers the cost of maintaining the site - and specify their skills, experience, and geographical location. “The registration process is easy and quick,” du Toit says.
The website automatically matches freelancer skills to customer requirements and emails three freelancer contact details to a relevant customer.
“The parties then make contact with one another and if a deal is possible, they conclude their own contract,” du Toit says. “We’re simply the conduit.”
Once the website went live at the beginning of March, Pastel People very quickly began getting feedback from customers saying that they’d found exactly the kind of freelancers they were looking for. “We’re delighted that the original idea of providing a permanent placement service has so naturally and easily begun to expand the accounting and bookkeeping talent pool,” du Toit says.
“Without a facility like this a significant number of accountants and bookkeepers who, for all sorts of reasons, just don’t want to work full time would be lost to the industry.”
For more information or to register on the Find a Freelancer website please go to www.pastelpeople.co.za or call 0861 00 HIRE (4473).