For her dedication in putting skilled moms back into the South African labour force, Phillipa Geard of Recruitmymom.co.za has been named Job Creator of the Year® at the 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year® competition sponsored by Sanlam and BUSINESS/PARTNERS awards ceremony, held in Johannesburg this morning.

Geard’s online recruitment agency, RecruitMyMom.co.za, recognises that South African moms comprise a valuable portion of the country’s skilled labour force, and therefore caters to a unique gap in the market – providing moms all over the country with the opportunity to juggle both parenthood and a successful career.

From personal experience, Geard realised that there are plenty of moms who have given up successful corporate careers to dedicate more time to their children and families. This, however, was causing the South African economy to experience a “leaky pipeline” of female talent – where the labour force, over time, sees a haemorrhage of valuable, skilled women who choose families over careers.

When seeking flexible employment, Geard explains that traditional recruitment agencies often don’t take these women seriously because the recruitment service tends to be focused on revenue generation, and more money can be made through full-time placements than part-time or reduced-hour placements.

RecruitMyMom.co.za was launched in 2012 to uniquely and successfully meet a specific need amongst professional, skilled women or men wanting to return to work in a flexible capacity. The online recruitment agency offers a personalised service for permanent, temporary and contract positions. The team assists employers by shortlisting and providing them with the best applicants for the advertised position. Employers are simply required to offer some kind of flexibility within the required position.

Since launching five years ago, the agency has grown from a one-woman show to a team of eight full-time staff and has acquired nearly 50 000 skilled moms and thousands of registered employers to their database – which includes over 150 skills, ranging from accountants, actuaries, lawyers, risk managers, analysts, managing directors, marketers, to people with digital, human resources and office support skills and many more.

“Phillipa’s dedication to job creation and her success in changing the way employers regard flexibility in the workplace, is exactly what we need in the current South African economy – she is also driving a change in the public perception of the ‘working mom’ and is worthy of being named the 2018 Job Creator of the Year®,” said this year’s competition judges.

For more information on Recruit My Mom, visit their website on www.recruitmymom.co.za.