Firm’s recruitment success as online revenue grows
A specialist Welsh language recruitment company is gearing up for more online success following a period of record growth in the UK online advertising market.
Treforest-based Safle Swyddi, which signposts job vacancies where Welsh is desirable or essential, has increased its visitor numbers to around 12,000 Welsh speakers per month as more and more companies across Wales opt to advertise their job vacancies online.
The business has also posted in excess of 500 jobs which specifies spoken or written Welsh as a requirement since setting up the service just over two years ago.
In order to make it easier for job seekers to access and share jobs information via social networking sites on their PC or mobile phone, Safle Swyddi has just completed a site overhaul.
Founder and Managing Director, Tracey Williams explains: “Safle Swyddi has seen a marked increase in the number of companies looking to recruit Welsh speaking candidates for jobs ranging from administration, childcare and youth workers, to researchers, managing directors and teachers.
“Despite the wider turbulence within the recruitment market, our formula of providing a forum for employers to access Welsh speaking candidates online is clearly working well.
“By adding in a number of features which will make the site easier to access and use, we aim to encourage even more Welsh speakers and learners to use the language to further their careers, spot new opportunities and keep the language alive.”
Mrs Williams, a fluent Welsh speaker herself, founded the Safle Swyddi website with the idea of creating an interactive Welsh recruitment site which would not only flag up opportunities for Welsh speakers, but also enable employers to access Welsh speaking candidates early on in the recruitment process.
In addition to email links and bookmarks, online forms which can be completed and posted by employers within minutes, Safle Swyddi now also offers a service for companies wanting to translate their adverts into Welsh. Employers can also make use of the firm’s Welsh language vetting service if required.
Mrs Williams added: “Now more than ever employers are looking for people who can speak and work in both English and Welsh. Initiatives such as the Welsh Language Act of 1993 stipulate that Welsh speakers should be able to have access to all public services in Welsh. Also, The Welsh Language legislative competence order (LCO) is now in its final draft and includes a possible new right to require some private companies to use the language, I therefore expect these numbers to continue to rise.”