Today, Shirley introduces us to a very exciting arm of the Placement Partner team, starting with the mastermind – Alex Pretorius, our Tech Team Leader.
Our dedicated Devs do all of the heavy lifting which allows our client-facing team members to look like rock stars! In this insightful interview, we catch a glimpse of the main man behind the Software (very rarely seen outside of his natural habitat) and gain an understanding of the mindset behind the magic.
Before we dive in…
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Tell us a little bit about your team?
The Tech Team is made up of 5 developers, including myself. Each one of them has a specialised skill set, bringing unique solutions and ideas to the tables. All in all, we’ve got;
- Our expert in building branded CVs and perfect reports for our clients, Ntwanano.
- John specialises in developing features and has been setting up new integrations, which is a big part of the new and improved V8 system which we’ll be launching soon.
- Although he is one of the newer members of the team, Ryan has been making waves with great changes and updates to improve the system.
- We then have Zaakirah, our Front End and User Experience expert. Her focus has really been on creating the right look and feel to make Placement Partner the one tool which Recruiters love so much, that they simply can’t go without it.
Then there’s me! I have been with Placement Partner for 3 years now and have seen this team grow along with me. I’m incredibly grateful to have such a capable and powerful team that has my back.
It’s really quite phenomenal how this tech team has remained a central, active part of the Placement Partner ecosystem. They are right in there with the Support team and Account Managers to have a consistent understanding of what the team needs and what our clients need. This team has mastered the art of listening to a range of incoming voices and then working together to meet those requirements consistently.
What does it take to be the Tech Team Leader at Placement Partner?
One of the main skills that I have had to develop since becoming the Team Leader is the ability to multitask and juggle many projects at the same time. I’ve also had to extend myself more in the areas of project planning and mentoring the team. I feel one of the most important things I can do is to support my team. It takes a lot of patience too! We’ve had to work on our ability to cope with the ever-changing requirements of the Recruitment Industry.
Over the last few months, our tech team has not only remained agile and kept moving ahead in this turbulent environment, but also in the face of a global pandemic. They really stood strong and kept progressing positively, which is no small feat!
From a technical standpoint, what advice can you offer our clients to ensure that they are deriving the maximum value from the use of our system?
Firstly, I would encourage all of our clients to make use of the training opportunities available to them from our sales team. The more you know about the inner workings of the system the more efficiently you will be able to put it to use.
Another thing they can do to improve is to capture as much information as possible when adding a Candidate to the database. The more detail one captures for each Candidate, the more efficient the search function will be. This obviously makes it quicker and easier to find the right people when you have a vacancy to fill.
Our blog is another great place to pick up tips and information on new features and parts of the system which clients can make use of. I definitely urge them to keep a close eye on those! Anybody can take advantage of those tips to stay on tops of things and gain a competitive edge.
Tap into the resources available to you! We at Placement Partner, want to stay in constant contact with our clients to ensure that they can use the system better and better over time.
How do you think your Tech Team has become instrumental in shaping the software industry?
We regularly receive ideas and requests from our clients and these ideas don’t simply vanish into the void. Our team discusses each idea at length and carefully examines them. It is a process of looking at how this change would affect the Placement Partner system as a whole. Through this process, our clients’ ideas have shaped the system into what is it today – The leading South African Recruitment Software system.
As such, we really would like to encourage our clients to not only use the resources and become experts on the system as it currently stands, but also to continue reaching out to us and putting more of those brilliant ideas forward for our tech gurus to consider. This is really a team which is actively involved and looking to collaborate with Recruitment professionals in the pursuit of excellence!
