JOHANNESBURG - Depressed and suicidal job seekers have spurred a young businesswoman to extend a lifeline to the unemployed through her Johannesburg-based recruitment agency.
Margaret Mokgaetjie Mboyana, 30, who goes by the name “Maggy Mo”, is founder and chief executive of CV Desk, which she established in Randburg in 2015.
The unemployment scourge in South Africa, which has increased to 27.2 percent in the second quarter of 2018 from 26.7 percent in the first quarter, motivated her to shift her focus from bidding for lucrative government tenders to engage the spiralling crisis.
CV Desk matches suitable candidates to available job opportunities at some JSE-listed companies in the country. They also have an online jobs portal where job seekers upload their CVs and where employers post vacancies.
The company is a member of the federation of African Professional Staffing Organisations.
Maggy Mo says she started in entrepreneurship 10 years ago, supplying office furniture, groceries and general supplies for government institutions. Through the government tenders that she landed, she managed to raise enough capital to start CV Desk, owing to her concerted campaign against unemployment.
The company services the Department of Basic Education, the Banking Sector Education and Training Authority, the Mining Qualifications Authority. Its bluechip clients include Bidvest, IT services group EOH, Momentum, Caffe d’Oro, and student accommodation provider South Point.
CV Desk is also in the preferred supplier list of Woolworths, Absa, and mining giant Lonmin.
Maggy Mo says matching the unemployed to job offers at these companies is one of her passions.
One of the things she noticed when starting in the industry is that many job seekers struggle putting together a comprehensive CV and do not know where to look for employment.
“We do the whole 360 degrees with our clients, starting with how your CV is compiled, to where you are applying, how to conduct interviews and what to do after the interview.”
Maggy Mo says many recruitment agencies fail to assist job seekers to address these issues.
She notes that one of the mistakes job seekers commit is to “irritate” HR people with calls and emails as they get anxious to know the results following their job interviews.
CV Desk launched a campaign called Get That Job SA in March this year, to assist job seekers more effectively, on a pro bono basis.
The campaign saw Maggy Mo attending to cases of depressed and suicidal job seekers, who wanted to give up on life because they could not find employment.
“What is worse is that in some cases their families are not supportive at all.”
Since starting the campaign, some of those they are helping have managed to get jobs, says Maggy Mo, who is currently studying a BCom degree in HR at Regent Business School.
Her smile widens when speaking about their job placement rate of 90 percent. “There is no job seeker that we have assisted that is not currently employed.”
She attributes this to the company’s slogan of “Your Placement Consociate”, stating that they always go the extra mile for their clients.
Another campaign that Maggy Mo runs provides assistance to women wanting to become entrepreneurs.
She mentors and connects them with government agencies and funding institutions focusing on startups and SMMEs.
“A lot of women still believe the lie that their place is in the kitchen. Some think that you have to have a lot of money to start a business,” she says, before continuing: “I used to host annual conferences to try and demystify these issues, but now I offer them free advice and mentorship.”
A bulk of their lucrative projects, she says, come from Cape Town and for that reason she wants to open a branch in the Mother City.
However, Maggy Mo says her bigger goal is to have offices across the nine provinces in 10 years’ time.