Working as we do off the back of the recruitment industry, I consider we are actually a very good monitor for the industry as a whole. Most companies I know reported a good first quarter for the new financial year, followed by a dreadful October. Reasons for this were varied; however, the economic news out of the US in addition to European woes with Greek and Italian debt worries and unstable governments has undoubtedly had an effect. The relatively unstable government in Australia plus the recent Qantas industrial problems has also negatively impacted the economy.

None of these issues are going to be fixed overnight so I believe we need to accept the situation and get used to the fact that this is how it’s going to be from here on in. We are unlikely to return to the boom days pre-GFC and business will continue to be susceptible to what is going on around the world and locally.

How you react to this and how you will fare largely depends on what state your business is in. You need to have the right people working with you, be debt free, have kept your costs down, have good processes and procedures in place and have worked on getting your brand predominant in your particular market. You need to have a loyal client base, access to candidates in your area, be well connected in social media and have all the right technology in place if you want to be in a position to experience success.

Managing your cash flow is essential. We saw an interest rate drop on Melbourne Cup day, which was a pleasant surprise for some. And we could even see another one early next year. It’s important to remember that when times are good it is wise to put some money away – the rainy day may be just around the corner.

May I wish all recruitment extra readers a very happy Christmas and a great 2012.

Rod: Hi Nigel. Apart from England losing in the Rugby World Cup, what are your thoughts on 2011?

Nigel: I’ll ignore rugby and just talk about the recruitment industry. The short answer is that the numbers don’t lie and the good times are back for the industry. 2011 will see all temp and perm volume records beaten so recruitment businesses have had the opportunity to grow their revenue. Profitability will also be at all-time high so most businesses have been able to translate that increased business into an improvement on the bottom line.

Rod: Have you found the good times have been evenly distributed across sectors and geographies? I’ve never met as many individual million dollar billers but they’ve mostly been clustered around the mining and engineering sectors.

Nigel: There is no doubt that some sectors just continue to grow and provide great opportunities for well run businesses. Other sectors are going through structural changes in line with economy fluctuations and that creates winners and losers in the recruitment industry. In some ways the two-speed economy applies here as well.
What about you Rod, how has the year been from your perspective?

Rod: Well the mighty West Coast Eagles redeemed themselves to play AFL finals.
In the recruitment industry we have seen a few trends this year. The most notable to us has been that selling values have actually dropped in some sectors. I haven’t said that ever – while profits have risen and fallen, the valuation multiples have tended to stay stable since the late 90s.
Maybe buyers really did learn the lessons of the most recent downturn and are very carefully evaluating risk now.
Temp and Contract businesses continue to be sought after while Perm-oriented businesses are struggling to find a market.

Nigel: What are the lessons for business owners?

Rod: Many owners pin their hopes on a spectacular sale of their business. The most prudent wealth creation process is to balance the use of profits – working capital retention, reinvestment in growth, and pay yourself some dividends. Owners have to take advantage of profits when they are delivered.

Nigel: Do you think this erosion of value will continue?

Rod: No, I am really optimistic that the recruitment industry is rapidly maturing and that valuations will rise in the next few years.
One trend is the way larger corporates are buying – demanding greater sophistication from the service providers and ensuring better quality service provision.
There is also the harmonisation of workplace laws – ITCRA and RCSA are pushing hard to ensure the industry is up to the level of sophistication required to handle the legislative changes. Maybe this is the beginning of a certification process that will raise the bar for entry into the industry and that will be a good thing.
There are some good signs that the SME’s are rising to the challenges.

Nigel: That’s true, but there are some basic issues that don’t seem to get resolved. So many recruitment firms are absolutely inefficient in the utilisation of candidates.
A lot of time and money is spent on attracting candidates yet still only 10-15% get placed.
That’s got to change, it’s no wonder the industry has a poor reputation. What other industry would expect to thrive with 85% waste?

Rod: Yep. And sustainable growth is still an issue.

Nigel: In 2011 calendar year the RIB Report will show industry average headcounts per firm hit an all-time high, yet the majority of business owners still shy away from training their own. There have been some great examples this year of large and small companies that have profited from bold and positive internal training processes.
Rod: We are both seeing that SME owners are paying more attention to the principals of running a good business, not just being aggressive recruiters. Many more companies are appreciating the benefit of leadership training, strategy planning, business coaching and advisory boards

There is also a wave of process development and technology implementations. After what seemed like a decade with few advances in recruitment agency software there is finally
a LOT of choice for agencies to gain real flexibility and productivity.

Nigel: It is good to see that we still get excited about the industry despite our occasional grumbles.
2012 is full of potential for the industry.
Revenue should remain high, profits should remain very positive, and the best companies
will find new growth opportunities.

Rod: That’s true. Rest well over the New Year break because it’s going to be a busy year.

Social media has been a fantastically liberating and reuniting experience for a whole generation of subversive adolescents and young-at-hearts, but what does it mean for the rest of us – those of us looking to exploit it?

According to Seth Godin, Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make or service you provide, it’s about the stories you tell. Social media has enabled the swift and widespread creation and distribution of reputations, but equally their destruction. It’s the true test of your authenticity and preparation, and the rules change every day.

It has been said that social media is like teen sex – everyone wants to do it, few actually know how and when finally done they are surprised it’s not better.

So what are the rules of social media and what are the best ways to exploit it? Well I suspect the answer may be the infamous 42. It’s the appropriate question that is the issue.

To explore the topic in further depth, and perhaps provide some insight into how we use the channel in Recruitment, I’ve asked for help from one of Australia’s most talented
Social Media Analysts, Jared Woods.

Here are his thoughts:

“Technology is a funny thing. Usually, it starts out as a way to produce an existing product or service that requires less effort. Over time, as society adjusts to the convenience of a new piece of technology, new possibilities and refinements occur. Eventually, technology comes to be used in new ways that supersede our old methods, and give rise to new directions of their own. And there’s always a time where this evolution occurs, a crossroads where we choose to go forward into a new direction instead of just plodding down the same road.

We’re at this point now with the way companies attract staff, and in a number of areas. The adoption of the internet as a platform for advertising has stagnated, with job board classifieds becoming a choked jungle of similarly worded adverts. The emergence of social media has given rise to democratic broadcasting of opinion and feedback, as well as creating an opportunity for employer brands to engage at a conversational level. Agencies are getting smarter, companies are getting better at branding, and candidates are getting scarcer and more demanding.

If anything, it’s the perfect time for the social revolution.

Newspaper recruitment advertising takes two forms; classified advertising and EGN (Early General News). Classified is the job description, cut down as much as possible in word count, because every word costs money in the media. Ads are usually written like the job descriptions that birthed them, often dry and a shopping list of required skills, attributes and duties related to the role. The migration from press to online hasn’t changed it much – job boards are still pretty static places to look for a job, driven by keywords and straight text, sorted by industry and often flush with ads that use the same language and buzzwords.

EGN advertising is designed to fill a different need. While classified ads are for the active job seeker, EGN attempts to interrupt the habits of the passive job seeker. It is a place to put ads that are either pure employer branding, or aspirational roles that appeal to potential candidates who aren’t on the hunt for their next role. It is advertising blended into the daily habits of the media consumer, positioned to catch the eye and tell a story to those people who aren’t hunting, but could be tempted into applying. And it’s this type of advertising that’s well suited to the social sphere.

Social media allows brands to advertise in the thick of people’s social groups, on a one-to-one basis, for the first time in history. Never before have brands been able to interpose themselves into the conversations people are having about them. And never have brands had such a wealth of options when it comes to creating dynamic content on multiple platforms. Video, podcast, interactive media, games and live broadcast have never been so easy to produce, or so effective in building a comprehensive picture of an EVP. And yet, without a strategy that takes into account the attitude, approach and goals of an organisation, all the social tools in the world won’t deliver the success you want. To craft campaigns that can be effective, there’s something else we need to understand.

The emergence of social media has given rise to democratic broadcasting of opinion and feedback, as well as creating an opportunity for employer brands to engage at a conversational level.
Agencies are getting smarter, companies are getting better at branding, and candidates are getting scarcer and more demanding. If anything, it’s the perfect time for the social revolution.

Social media’s largest strength is the power of dyadic transfer. Dyadic transfer is the social phenomenon where one person’s happiness, success or passion can become contagious and directly affect those people to whom they are connected. Dyadic transfer, simply, is the principle that when you are happy and successful, your happiness infects others in your social circle. Hyperdyadic transfer is the next of dyadic transfer, an amplifi dyadic transfer that extends to people well beyond your immediate social circle and into a wide-ranging network of people connected to you. It’s the reason that social interaction is so powerful, and moreover, the reason that ‘just being on Facebook’ isn’t enough for brands to make a mark.

Dyadic and hyperdyadic transfer add a dimension to social marketing that’s previously only been hinted at. The social sphere’s love of repeating, retweeting and sharing engaging content allows brands that resonate strongly with fans to exploit dyadic transfer for additional gain. A brand that has a positive impact on one fan can positively affect people up to three degrees of separation away through the combination of visible online repetition and easily shared content. It allows a brand, literally, to make people happier by engaging and sharing more content, far beyond their visible and direct fan base.

For employment brands, this is a huge part of the strategic topography. A candidate who’s enjoying a pleasant, visible experience in going for a job, or an employee sharing successes at a new role, or a brand that’s adding value to their fan base can influence the happiness of a wide range of connections. A brand that creates engaging content can reach a very passive audience through this system of shared content. And with the ease of linking online, the added analytics available to measure ROI and the speed with which content can be updated, it’s almost a no-brainer. Almost.

The media has evolved, the technology of content creation has matured and the speed of response is amplified. But that doesn’t mean it has suddenly become easier to advertise. In fact, it’s harder, because audiences expect more. More humanity, more emotion, more sincerity in every communication. And as more companies rise to the challenge of delivering dynamic content, just posting status updates and text-based job ads won’t be enough. To leverage social media, companies become truly social, with all the risks and opportunities required.”

So how does that help us in the Recruitment sector? How do we exploit social channels to reach our audience and flog them jobs at our clients?

It may be that we reassess our position as Marketers. We must reassess our position as being able to buy attention. Strange words, coming from an ad man, but being authentic means more than just splashing the cash to get heard.
I’ll finish on a quote from Alex Bugusky, one of the founders of the USA’s most influential and creative ad agencies, Crispin Porter:

“Having a huge budget doesn’t mean anything in social media – the old paradigm was ‘pay to play’. Now you get what you authentically put in. You’ve got to be willing to play to play.”

Many thanks to Jared Woods for this article – you can read more at www.jaredwoods.com.au

2011 will be not-so-fondly remembered as a year of high expectations which didn’t live up to the hype. It was supposed to be the year that spelt recovery and growth; it was supposed to be the year we officially put the economic downturn behind us.

But it didn’t shape up that way. Instead, we got a multispeed economy and continued global economic wariness. And while Australia and the rest of the Asia Pacific c region is in a much better position than other parts of the world, it’s certainly not the land of milk and honey that some were expecting.

But there are some trends in 2011 the recruitment industry did see coming. We predicted that skills shortages would make a rapid comeback this year, and ManpowerGroup’s annual Talent Shortage Survey suggests that prediction has been realised. Right now, 54% of Australian employers are experiencing difficulty filling critical positions.

We knew it wouldn’t take much to unmask the skills shortages that were temporarily hidden behind the global financial crisis. Almost as soon as companies started to hire again, many realised they couldn’t find the talent they needed. So it should come as no shock when I say that 2011 may well become best known as the year employers discovered that, when it comes to recruitment, they can’t go it alone.

Talent on a global playing field

Skills shortages aren’t just a local issue – it’s a problem playing out across the globe, with one in three employers indicating they’re having problems locating the skills they need (ManpowerGroup Talent Shortage Survey).

This year, employers have felt the full brunt of long times to fill, or job functions that remain unfilled. They’re starting to understand the real value of having the right people in the right place at the right time. And they’re gradually recognising that the right talent isn’t always possible to source from the same city or even the same country.

ManpowerGroup recently surveyed over 25,000 employers across 39 different countries and found that one in four employers worldwide look to foreign talent for hard-to-fill jobs. Globally, the hardest to fill jobs are engineers, labourers and skilled manual trades.

We’ve seen a trend amongst Australian employers who are looking at attracting foreign workers as a short term solution to the skills shortages they’re facing. And the fact is, they can’t afford not to. Moving into 2012 and beyond, a borderless workforce will be increasingly important.

The other kids on the block

Over the past year, Australia has been lucky to be a member of the Asia Pacific c region with countries like China and India identified in the ManpowerGroup survey as the two top country sources of talent supply. In some respects, we’ve been playing piggy in the middle: buoyed by the strength of China and our Asian neighbours yet held back by sluggish growth in the United States and European markets.

It’s clear that, in order to survive, we must consider ourselves part of a ‘region’, working closer with our Asia Pacific c neighbours and the opportunities they provide for sharing workforces across borders.

Building up talent in our own backyard: the focus for 2012

It’s one thing to say that a borderless workforce will help ease the skills shortage that Australia is currently facing. But attracting foreign workers into the country is not a standalone solution. It must be accompanied by other strategies to have a lasting impact.

To solve the skills shortage a threepronged approach is needed. One is to use foreign workers to fill immediate workforce gaps. But to attract quality, skilled workers into the country, companies will need help to understand legal and visa requirements, and assistance in assimilating people from other cultures into their existing workforce. Parallel to that strategy is setting up adequate training and retraining facilities that will help Australia use the people we have in the long term. We need to look at where the largest skills gaps are and collaborate with industry, government and training institutes to create local talent.

The final part of the solution is to encourage clients to take a more realistic view of the skills they’ll be able to attract. Too many clients are still looking for a 100% fit t to their requirements. It’s our job to help them unpack those roles so they’re making the most of the specialist skills that are the most difficult to find, while training up people to do the semi-skilled portion of the role. We must encourage clients to look for a realistic ‘teachable fit t’ rather than the mythical perfect match.

All of this has to happen while we continue to innovate as an industry. It’s very clear that this industry is no longer about traditional delivery, placement fees and hourly margins. We’re seeing a whole variety of alternative ways to survive, make money and continue to help our clients win. What’s also become clear in the past year is that our clients like the look of this new approach and now have an appetite for more.

Let the fun begin.

Does your selection system need a serious dose of complexity reduction?
If your system is overly complicated it can lead to a loss of focus, wasted time and, ultimately, a big headache.

Selection systems consist of the tools and processes that we use to hire and/ or promote people throughout all levels of an organisation but over time these systems can grow into increasingly complex arrangements that incorporate the legacies of prior systems. Alongside the accumulation of prior processes is the fact that each new hiring manager tends to install a new process in an attempt to please stakeholders. Add to this the adoption of ‘best practice’ models and you can end up with too many ‘practices’ and no clear plan about how talent acquisition fits with the talent management strategy.

There are three particular areas that drive unnecessary complexity. Wasted effort in these areas leads to increased costs and time with no improvement in quality of hire.

However, if addressed properly, you could save countless hours of wasted effort.

1. Too many competencies are included in the selection process

If a job has 15 competencies in the success profile, does the selection process need to assess all 15 competencies?

One way to streamline a hiring process quickly is to reduce the number of competencies measured. When competencies do not differentiate job candidates because all candidates score at a satisfactory level; or when all new hires will be trained in a particular competency, there is less need to include the competency in the hiring process. While consistency is critical there is no hard and fast rule for including all competencies from a success profile. Include only those competencies that are critical, that differentiate job candidates and that are more difficult to train.

By reducing the overall number of competencies included, you can reduce the amount of administration time for assessments and interviews and increase the amount of time you focus on critical competencies.

2. Too many hiring managers want to do their own thing

Whether it is asking their own interview questions, insisting on using their favourite test or requiring a panel interview when all others conduct individual interviews, hiring managers who have their own unique way of vetting candidates can cause complexity overload. Customising processes means that electronic management systems don’t do their job – the applicant tracking system is driven by manual rather than automated management and recruiters must learn and accommodate the individual quirks and idiosyncrasies of different hiring managers.

By defining the hiring process to include consistent steps, candidate knock-out points, specific assessments that are sanctioned (and validated), a target number of interviews and how final hiring decisions will be made make for a much more efficient system.

Allow hiring managers to configure their process by suggesting recommendations for the candidate sourcing strategy, picking their own interview questions or by choosing who to include in the interview process (within the boundaries of the selection system design).

3. There is no clear agreement on standards for candidate performance

How often do you get one of these responses when discussing candidate performance?
“I liked the candidate, but there is something that just doesn’t seem right and it doesn’t really fit for my job opening.” “I know the cut-off on the assessment is 75%, but I really need someone that scores at the 80% level.” “I really liked this candidate and he/she is perfect, but I want to see what else is out there.” These comments can drive the best recruiters crazy.

Some hiring managers believe that there are so many people looking for work that you should be able to find the absolutely ideal person for them. It is important to ensure hiring managers understand the processes involved in the hiring procedure to open their eyes to the business implications of their decisions. Increasing understanding about trainable and non-trainable aspects of the success profile as well as what is available in terms of on-boarding and early career development options for new employees will help hiring managers make decisions about when and who to hire. Lastly, quantifying for hiring managers the cost of their decisions in terms of time and money is also important.

Like any good business plan, a Talent Acquisition (TA) Road Map will guide effort and keep the recruitment team focused. The roadmap should cover what’s in the selection system (and possibly what’s out), what TA stands for (driving values and core processes), and the customer/stakeholder service scorecard (to set expectations with hiring managers, recruiters and candidates) as a starting point. Advanced TA will include a strategic TA analytics framework and will provide tight (explicit) links to the business and downstream talent management processes – starting with on-boarding. Significant business impact attributed to the selection system implementation is the desired outcome. Elegant simplicity is the way to achieve it. Have you veered off your talent acquisition road map to a land of selection complexity? Visit www.ddiworld.com to learn more about how you can leverage selection tools to streamline your processes.

It’s not often I have the opportunity to declare my admiration for a business leader, but there is one that has stood out from the crowd for a very long time. He had a poor academic track record as a student, has dyslexia but has been recognised globally as a leader in product innovation and customer service and was knighted in 1998 for his “services to entrepreneurship”. He’s passionate about his business empire and the world we live in and he does more than just talk about it!

What truly makes him a stand out for me is best summed up in his own words; “My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them” and “for me business is not about wearing suits, or keeping stockholders pleased. It’s about being true to yourself, your ideas and focusing on the essentials”.

In 1970, aged 20, Sir Richard Branson started a mail order record business from the crypt of a church where he ran The Student Magazine. Trading under the name ‘Virgin’ he advertised popular records in the magazine and sold them for considerably less than the High Street outlets. Virgin became an overnight success, expanding into record shops and then adding a recording studio in 1972. Within a very short time Virgin Music became one of the top six record companies in the world and was sold in 1992 for £500 million.

Since 1985 he’s been involved in a number of world record breaking land and air speed and distance attempts. In 1986, he crossed the Atlantic Ocean on a boat in the fastest recorded time ever and, in 1987, ‘Virgin Atlantic Flyer’ was the first hot air balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean. He’s courageous, pushes the envelope and is prepared to stump up his own cash to advance the dreams of many of us; Virgin Galactic will be the first commercial enterprise to take paying passengers on journeys to suborbital space.

Would anyone else have the vision or commitment to what was once nothing more than a pipe dream?

In 2007 he launched the Virgin Earth Challenge, creating an opportunity for people to make history by helping to preserve history for many generations to come, the prize a mere US$25m. Later in the same year he joined Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel and Desmond Tutu to form The Elders, a group of independent leaders that seek to find sustainable solutions to tackle some of the world’s toughest humanitarian issues. He recently launched the Carbon War Room to mobilise capital, innovation, expertise and entrepreneurs to advance climate change efforts.

The name ‘Virgin’ was suggested by one of his early employees because they were all new at business and the name has served him proud for decades. He’s not afraid to use the Virgin theme to further express his views and is the author of “Losing My Virginity:
How I’ve Survived, Had Fun and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way”, “Screw It, Let’s Do It: Lessons in Life” and “Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur”.

The Virgin Group is now one of the world’s most recognised and respected brands and has expanded into air and rail travel, hospitality and leisure, telecommunications, media, health and wellness, space tourism, and clean energy through more than 300 companies in 30 countries.

Steve Granland

How many years have you been in the industry?
I have been working in the recruitment industry with the RCSA for just over one year – I will admit that at times that this feels more like fi ve years but strangely the last 15 months has gone so quickly it feels like three months! With over 15 years’ experience I consider myself an association management professional and I am a proud member of the Australian Society of Association Executives.

What do you feel you have contributed to the industry and why do you stay?
I don’t think I have been in the industry long enough to make too much of a contribution. I am however very proud of the work done by RCSA staff and volunteers over the past 15 months in launching the individual membership professional accreditation framework, the Professional Emerging and Aspiring Recruitment Leaders (PEARL) Program, the RCSA Journal and new website and the RCSA Awards including the new Young Recruitment Professional and Outstanding Contribution Awards. I have met many experienced industry people who have made significant contributions. For an industry which in reality is so young it is amazing from a newcomer’s perspective to see just how far it has come.

Do you foresee a particular development coming to fruition in the industry, or if you could choose something to do so what would it be?
Over the last 15 months I have come to appreciate just how important this industry is on both an individual level and at a macroeconomic level and I am definitely still learning. This industry interacts with and influences so many individuals and organisations on a daily basis and should be more widely credited for contributing to the success of Australian business. I would like to see a much better level of public understanding of the importance and value of the industry. The RCSA’s role here is to continue to build professionalism, raise profile and influence.

How would you sum up the current state of the recruitment industry?
Another thing I have learnt in my first 15 months is that the industry is very fast paced and very fluid and must be so in order to succeed. There are definitely competitive, technology and legislative challenges which must be faced on a daily basis; however, the
RCSA and its volunteer network is working very hard to ensure its member base is well placed to succeed.

Where do you draw your inspiration and motivation from?
I am very fortunate that in my role I get the opportunity on a daily basis to work, engage and collaborate with a fantastic group of stakeholders including RCSA members, staff and volunteers who collectively provide no shortage of inspiration and motivation.

Steve Granland, CEO RCSA
Steve has over 15 years of senior management experience working with professional/industry associations in the finance (FINSIA), insurance (ANZIIF) and human resources (AHRI) sectors. Steve’s responsibility across professional and industry associations has primarily been membership management, corporate business development/sales, marketing and the development of continuous professional education systems. Prior to entering the world of association management Steve worked with a major bank for 10 years across a number of departments including Marketing, International and Human Resources. Steve has a Banking and Finance degree and a post graduate qualification in International Marketing.

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Rebecca Wallace

How many years have you been in the industry?
I have been in the industry for eight years, with nearly six of those years growing and leading Launch Recruitment.

What do you feel you have contributed to the industry and why do you stay?
I have built a quality consultancy delivering outstanding service to a niche industry – we were recently a finalist in the Communications Alliance Acomm Awards for service to the telecommunications industry. I am proud of the quality of the service we deliver. We partner with our client companies in the way we educate young talent for the future in the telecommunications sector. I speak at universities to assist in ensuring young people entering the workforce understand the opportunities for them in a telecommunications or utilities career. The sector is ever changing and has a lot to offer young graduates. I stay in the industry because I love my job. I am continually motivated by my fantastic team and the desire to constantly adapt and improve. There is always more to do!

Do you foresee a particular development coming to fruition in the industry, or if you could choose something to do so what would it be?
I wouldn’t say that I see it coming; however, I would like to see the industry adopt some barrier to entry. We are a professional industry and some course or certificate prior to entry would ensure the individual was serious about a long-term career in recruitment. It would also ensure a level of professional development. A barrier to entry may also spare our clients from dealing with individuals in the industry that are not in the profession for a chosen career. People who don’t have long-term career aspirations may compromise on ethical practice.

How would you sum up the current state of the recruitment industry?
I think the future is bright for our industry; our clients are busier than ever and the need for a professional recruitment partner has never been more important. I also see an increase in contract and temp recruitment as companies continue to use a flexible workforce to complement their project work. We are seeing many more RPOs and large internal recruitment teams on the landscape but this is not necessarily a bad thing. Our clients still focus on partnering with a specialist agency to grow their teams.

Where do you draw your inspiration and motivation from?
Constant improvement drives me and I am consistently impressed with the performance of my marvellous team. They inspire me to continually improve the service to our clients. I also draw motivation from our client base, we are lucky to have an interesting and innovative client base who are at the forefront of new technology. It’s an exciting place to be.

Rebecca Wallace, Managing Director, Launch Recruitment
Rebecca Wallace is the Managing Director of Launch Recruitment, a specialist search and selection firm for the telecommunications, utilities and agribusiness sectors. Rebecca founded Launch in 2006 and has successfully grown the business into a highly acclaimed recruitment firm with a values-based team committed to quality. Named in this year’s BRW Fast Starters list, Rebecca continues to expand the business following a number of national PSA wins and new hires across multiple states.

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Debra Loveridge

How many years have you been in the industry?
I have been in the industry almost 25 years now. I was a founding member of Select Appointments in May 1988 (now Randstad). From humble beginnings, with one small office in Sydney, we are now a business which has expanded organically and via acquisition. In 2009 we evolved a multi-branded recruitment network of 30 distinct businesses into one brand, which is now part of the second largest recruitment and HR services company in the world – Randstad.

What do you feel you have contributed to the industry and why do you stay?
I have been very committed to the recruitment and HR services industry for over 20 years. I’ve loved it and it’s loved me right back. I remain very passionate about providing meaningful employment and playing a very important part in the communities we serve. At a granular level, I believe the ability to put yourself in the shoes of a jobseeker helps you stay focused on providing a truly great service and building a strong reputation in our industry. I’ve had the privilege of working with our industry body – the RCSA – as Vice President and Director over the past few years, and have particularly enjoyed networking with and sharing in the experience of other CEOs as our industry has rapidly evolved into different business models and solutions, while focusing even harder on high standards, ethics and integrity. For me, I love being part of such a dynamic, ever changing environment – not only within Randstad but within our industry as a whole. And so the ‘love affair’ continues.

Do you foresee a particular development coming to fruition in the industry, or if you could choose something to do so what would it be?
In organisations like Randstad, where great people are at the heart of our culture, innovation is present all the time – it’s a constant as we strive to maintain a competitive advantage. Yet one of the greatest attributes (and benefits) of our business is that what we do every day remains very simple and those who seek to overcomplicate it, in my view, generally fail. So it’s important to stick to your core business, do it well and seek out innovation that really defines true value for clients and candidates. Our industry is made up of member companies, and the great ones will be constantly transforming, evolving and remaining agile – this will lead the industry in terms of innovation. A company’s ability to be agile through reasonably uncertain times will become increasingly important, and if we look at how major players do this in our industry, that is often where innovation lies. One thing we all need to adjust to is the speed of information sharing and network building in today’s fast-paced, online environment. The large presence of social media in our lives is great evidence of this. Connecting to, engaging and building communities is the cornerstone of recruitment and new online methods give us access to bigger markets, immediately. How you engage in this environment and build a strong value proposition for now and the future will require new and different approaches to communication across the industry. How recruiters communicate, act, engage and build brand in this space will bring natural innovation to how we have traditionally managed candidate and client relationships.

How would you sum up the current state of the recruitment industry?
Our industry is much like any other – we are in uncertain, somewhat unpredictable times. While Australia and New Zealand enjoys a stronger environment than our colleagues in Europe and the United States, there remains uncertainty as to how we will travel over the next 12 months. My view is, even in challenging times, there are always opportunities for good companies to exceed customer expectations and grow their top and bottom lines. Some of the best companies in the world have grown in extremely challenging geographic and economic conditions. I believe industry leaders need to focus on the indicators of their own business, look to ways to outperform the market, rather than being too concerned about external economic conditions. I believe it’s times like this that will bring further consolidation to our industry and the need for companies to review current offerings and look towards new business models to deliver better service outcomes for clients and candidates. Over the last few years we’ve seen many mergers and acquisitions and so the shape of our industry has changed yet again. My belief is that over the next few years we will continue to see more of this activity rather than less.

Where do you draw your inspiration and motivation from?
I draw inspiration from our people. The talent we continue to attract and retain in our business is inspiring, to say the least. In my role I have the opportunity to visit businesses across Australia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, and I’m really proud to see our people leading without title. They are taking the lead and doing great things with our candidates and clients – that’s what gives me the get up and go everyday.

Debra Loveridge, Managing Director – Asia Pacific Randstad
Deb Loveridge is the Managing Director – Asia Pacific of specialist recruitment & HR services company, Randstad. Deb was a founding member of the company back in May 1988 when it was just one small office in Sydney known as Select Appointments. Randstad is now a Fortune 500 Company and one of the world’s largest HR services providers, specialising in executive recruitment, HR Solutions and temporary and permanent staffing across a wide range of specialist industry sectors and professions. Throughout the years the company has been recognised as an industry leader and received a number of business awards. The Randstad Group now employs more than 520,000 people every day across over forty countries.

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Greg Savage

How many years have you been in the industry?
31 years

What do you feel you have contributed to the industry and why do you stay?
I hope that I have contributed to the industry in five areas. Along with many others I have been a supporter of the RCSA in a practical way for many years, for example, by sitting on a variety of committees and serving on state and national councils as well as speaking at RCSA events without charge for over 20 years. I hope my support contributes to change and professionalism within the industry. I also speak at hundreds of industry events in Australia and worldwide and I like to think that this has helped develop a greater knowledge base within the industry. Thirdly, I am very proud of the fact that I can point to 30 companies that are owned by people that used to work for me. I hope that in some small way I contributed to these people developing their craft and establishing such successful and profitable businesses. In terms of training and coaching, all the businesses I have owned and run have put a massive emphasis on professional development of our staff. I believe this has added to the net skill base of our industry. Finally, I put a lot of work and effort into establishing a social media presence, particularly through my blog, and I get a lot of positive feedback from people saying the information I share has helped them in some way.

I stay in the industry because I am passionate about it. It is both competitive and lucrative and I get great satisfaction from doing the job well. There is a nice symmetry to the business in that you make everyone happy when you fi t the right person to the right job in the right company.

Do you foresee a particular development coming to fruition in the industry, or if you could choose something to do so what would it be?
It is a tough time to be in the industry today and there is a certain amount of cynicism about the role we play. We are at the start of a substantive shift in the dynamic of the industry and we need to think about what value we can add. We have to prove that we provide a superior service and we demonstrate this by identifying candidates our clients cannot access and by developing a unique talent pipeline, using non-traditional methods.

Where do you draw your inspiration and motivation from?
I’m motivated by the desire to create a unique business, see my staff evolve and thrive and, of course, a fear of failure.

Greg Savage, Aquent International CEO
Over the past seven years Greg Savage has overseen Aquent’s diversification and growth strategy in the international market, refocusing the company on niche sectors within the marketing, creative and communication fields – an initiative that has secured Aquent’s leadership position in this space and resulted in the business growing sevenfold in seven years. With a recruitment career that spans 30 years, including multi-office management of recruitment operations in Australia, New Zealand, England, Europe and many Asian countries, including Japan and China, Greg was promoted to Aquent International CEO in 2005. Formerly CEO of Asia Pacific, the promotion added nine offices in seven European countries under his responsibility. He is now responsible for 450 staff in 35 offices in 18 countries.

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How many years have you been in the industry?
The advertisement in 1994 which enticed me into the recruitment industry had the headline ‘Frustrated Accountant’. I haven’t looked back and I am now in my 18th year in the industry.

What do you feel you have contributed to the industry and why do you stay?
Our industry has very low barriers to entry and consequently it is plagued by new entrants who over-promise, under-deliver and stay in the industry for a very short period of time. Besides my longevity which has been built on a philosophy of integrity,
I would be proud to say that my training of new consultants would be my biggest contribution. I have always exploited the potential and talent of new graduates. Our growth at people2people has been organic and leveraged from the training of our own consultants. Throughout my career, I have trained many individuals who now have successful recruitment careers, both within a recruitment agency and beyond. I stay in the industry because I still get a buzz when we make a placement, win a new client or beat a competitor. Although I am not as close to the desk as I used to be, I still celebrate when someone makes a placement. I particularly enjoy the thrill of a new consultant who has just closed their first deal.

Do you foresee a particular development coming to fruition in the industry, or if you could choose something to do so what would it be?
As the industry matures, we will continue to see the dominance of a few major global players. This is not unique to the recruitment industry, but a pattern observed in any maturing market. Globally, I would expect the industry to be dominated by four players; everyone else will have to exploit a niche. A niche does not necessarily mean being small, but may simply be a narrow market segment. Recruiters trying to be all things to all people are destined to fail if they are not one of the four global behemoths.

How would you sum up the current state of the recruitment industry?
The industry is consolidating quickly and technology is facilitating this change. Those who are slow to adopt technology will find this to be their biggest threat. Many ‘old timers’ will disappear in the next few years. They may or may not be replaced and the big firms will continue to grow. Those who exploit technology and understand that recruiters are not selling a candidate, but convenience and access to networks instead, will continue to thrive, particularly as the baby boomers retire.

Where do you draw your inspiration and motivation from?
Our world is full of chatter but only a few people take action. I am inspired by those who stand up and make a difference whether it is in business, sport, politics or in life generally. Life is too short to be a passenger!

Mark Smith, Director, People 2 People
Commencing his career with Deloitte in the late 1980s, Mark is a qualified Accountant. In 1994, he decided to make a career switch to the recruitment industry. During his early recruitment career with two listed recruitment entities, Mark recruited and managed teams in both temporary and permanent disciplines, in the Sydney, Brisbane and London markets. In February 2005, Mark established people2people with Manda Milling and Simon Gressier

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Linda Simonsen

How many years have you been in the industry?
9 years

What do you feel you have contributed to the industry and why do you stay?
When FuturePeople was founded back in 2002, our goal was to be different – to focus on the highly specialised contact centre industry, and to provide real value through innovative recruitment processes and long term partnerships with our clients. Over the years we have achieved that, helping clients like St George Bank win Best Contact Centre in the world, and assisting all our clients to meet their recruitment challenges head on. We stay in the industry because of these partnerships, and because of our commitment to innovation and excellence – as recent winner of the 2011 Best Innovation Award at the Recruitment Excellence Awards, we are driven by achievement and continuing to find better ways to deliver outcomes for our candidates, our clients and our own staff.

Do you foresee a particular development coming to fruition in the industry, or if you could choose something to do so what would it be?
I think we will see an increase in investment in the online space – but not specifically just on social media. The forward-thinking organisations are beginning to leverage technology to measure the performance and culture of their organisation, benchmark what success looks like at various levels, and use this information to create a holistic profile against which to recruit, as opposed to a simple checklist of job requirements. The organisations that understand their unique Employee Value Proposition (EVP), develop a strong employer brand, and can proactively engage the market with this proposition – these are the organisations who will have a competitive advantage in the ongoing war for talent.

How would you sum up the current state of the recruitment industry?
The recruitment industry has, for the most part, bounced back strongly from the GFC and certain sectors are experiencing robust growth. There is obviously a degree of nervousness about the future, with economic experts predicting a “double dip recession”; the prospect of another financial downturn is leading organisations to be cautious with their costs and overheads, which presents some challenges to the recruitment industry – principally how to deliver value and outcomes without compromising commercial viability. Organisations who are able to continue investment into research and development, and who can deliver outside the- box solution in these times, are in a strong position to weather whatever financial storms we may have ahead of us.

Where do you draw your inspiration and motivation from?
Michelangelo said “the greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it – but that it is too low, and we reach it”. For me, there are so many sources of inspiration to draw from, but that constant drive to fi nd a better way to do things, to look for opportunities to fix what isn’t broken and to achieve goals we thought we couldn’t reach – that’s what inspires and motivates me to keep pushing forward.

Linda Simonsen, CEO & Founder, FuturePeople Recruitment
Linda is the founder and CEO of FuturePeople Recruitment, a contact centre talent acquisition and
engagement consultancy. FuturePeople turns over in excess of $14 million per annum and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2011 Best Innovation Award at the Recruitment Excellence Awards, the 2010 Recruitment Excellence Award, Seek Annual Recruitment Award, SmartCompany Award, Telstra Business Award and was ranked 21st on the BRW Fast 100 list of Australia’s fastest growing businesses. Linda has 15 years experience within the Australian Contact Centre and Recruitment Industries and holds tertiary qualifications in Psychology and HR from the University of Sydney. Linda is a member of AHRI and Accredited Professional member of the Recruitment and Consulting Services Association (RCSA). Linda is a member of the CEO Institute, the Entrepreneurs Organisation (EO), a Board Director for Not for Profit Organisation Odyssey House, as well as on the NSW Regional Council for the Recruitment Consulting Services Association (RCSA).

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Ben Wood

How many years have you been in the industry?
Since 1987

What do you feel you have contributed to the industry and why do you stay
I’ve been active in the industry through my involvement with ITCRA, but for me it’s been more about helping others to develop a successful career in the industry. I think I’ve been able to provide leadership in this regard, as I’ve had a successful career in recruitment myself. I stay because it’s a great industry that continually throws up challenges and opportunities. It’s a “no excuses” business – the only reason you can’t do something is because of some personal limitation holding you back.

Do you foresee a particular development coming to fruition in the industry, or if you could choose something to do so what would it be?
I think our customers will continually want to pass more and more responsibility to those recruitment partners they trust. We’ve got to be willing and able to take more responsibility. Our customers will also want us to be continually looking for ways to provide better service at lower cost. We have to build business models that enable us to thrive in this competitive environment.

How would you sum up the current state of the recruitment industry?
Big picture, the industry’s in rude health, vibrant, growing at a rapid rate, developing a number of new business models which are creating demand. At the coalface, I think the job of the recruiter can be pretty tough and deserves to receive a lot of support – a good structure, effective sales tools, plenty of training, an experienced manager who can coach you through issues.

Where do you draw your inspiration and motivation from?
I enjoy seeing others succeed. I spend quite a bit of time teaching/training, so I need to commit to my own personal development otherwise I can sound like a broken record. I enjoy travel – seeing how other people live – and this helps me to see there are really no excuses.

Ben Wood, Managing Director, Clicks I.T. Recruitment
Ben is the Managing Director at Clicks I.T. Recruitment, an Australian-owned IT specialist firm with 50 staff and offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra. He has over 24 years of experience working in the recruitment industry both in Australia and in the UK and has been with Clicks since 1998. Clicks has a large contingent workforce of IT specialists working across corporate and government clients.

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We celebrated our fourth Recruitment Excellence Awards on 21st October, it was a great night – not least because of the company! It’s occurred to me, having seen the reaction of some of my Thomson Reuters colleagues, that there’s no other industry quite like recruitment. Yes we take a barrage of criticism – most of which is completely justified but no-one could say we’re not passionate! I like the people in recruitment, they’re strong, committed and gregarious. Like every industry we have our share of cowboys, but for the large part, we’re engaged not just in our own businesses but in the industry as a whole. This month we talk to seven industry leaders about their recruitment careers and what it is that fuels their dedication to the industry…

Click here for a selection of articles from this November 2011 edition of recruitment extra.

MC Brad Blaze delighted the audience with his impressive speed paintings, which were later auctioned to raise over $11,00 for both Breast Cancer Research and The Starlight Foundation.

Sydney’s premier dance act, Martini Club played until midnight, to a packed dancefloor. To find out this year’s winners and finalists click here.

Business improvement through financial transparency or “open-book management” is a simple yet powerful management approach that’s becoming more widely used and accepted. It’s an approach that calls for sharing the company’s income statement, cash flow and other financial information with employees and then using this to train, develop and encourage them to think and act like successful owners and career investors.

I consider myself most fortunate as my career commenced and flourished in an organisation which embraced financial transparency. Each of us knew where we could make a difference and understood how our actions would contribute to the cash flow, income and profitability of the company, in such a way that we truly understood how the company worked and made its profits. My point is that most employees wrongly assume that smallbusiness owners are wealthy, successful and making loads of money, but that’s not necessarily the case. Frequently they’re fighting for survival and often there’s a disconnect between the teams perception and reality, can you really afford for any member of your team to have this damaging misconception?

What open-book management does is eliminate many of the incorrect perceptions; it replaces them with the reality of the situation. I have always found that people are very much more willing to help and then give 110% when they have the right information, rather than their perceived assumptions.

What we need to do is to not only report the earnings (which many do), but to share with the team how and where the money is going back into the company (most don’t), and reveal to them where the money for training, new IT systems or to reduce debt will come from. Making this information transparent to all staff, at both the business and individual levels, introduces a new and effective way of developing teamwork and making staff more sensitive to their role and performance.

Transparency is a do-it-yourself mechanism that creates better management control, reduces the likelihood of poor performance and also fuels the team’s confidence about the future of the business.

The two things that people wrongly perceive about open-book management is that if you open up your books, and you show people that you’re making money, they will ask for more money.

That’s the first fear. And the second fear, somewhere down the road, someone may take the information that you’ve been providing them and give it to the competition. In my 30+ years in the industry neither situation has given me any problem, nor have I found others who have experienced it.

It’s my belief and experience that those companies who have the courage to share financial information can sustain a higher level of engagement over the long haul by creating a culture of continuous engagement built on strong strategic direction and honest leadership, intense customer focus, equitable rewards and effective internal communication. Companies that excel in these areas often enjoy better individual and organisational performance and deliver superior long-term financial results.

Rod Hore, HHMC

The concept that company performance can be improved through a policy of transparency and openness with employees has been around for some time. Different terminology has been adopted to describe it – open book management (OBM), participative decision making (PDM) and industrial democracy. However, the notion that providing employees with greater disclosure on financial performance and company strategy has been practised in some organisations for years.

There have been well-known advocates of the OBM model such as Jack Welch, the former Chairman and CEO of General Electric (GE). Welch believed that “opening up the books” to all employees helped gain a sense of ownership of the business and a sense of urgency. Staff could see the changes in performance and what it cost to run the business. Welch also devoted a lot of time and effort to communicating with employees so that they better understood the information disclosed in financial statements.

For GE this approach was regarded a success. However, GE is a global giant, could this style of management work within Recruitment companies that are typically small to medium enterprises?

For Recruitment companies there are potentially many benefits from adopting OBM if it is implemented well. Letting staff know about the company’s bottom line can bring about a more vested interest in how the company performs. This is especially so if there is a link with company performance and pay. Seeing the results, good and bad, can really help to clarify the pay cheque!

Not all good ideas are vested with the business owner or senior management. Informed employees can become innovators, creating solutions to problems, saving on costs or seeing ways to increase productivity. At its best employees can be integrally involved in preparing budgets, reducing costs and thinking like business owners.

Using a “sharing-the-books” concept calls for communication with staff to be done well and regularly for it to be fully effective. Employees need to be kept informed of results and progress against targets. Business owners can’t be inconsistent on OBM and not “get around to it” one month because they are busy.

Ideally, an open disclosure approach will help with employee buy-in and reduce the “it’s not my job” mentality increasing flexibility and willingness to get the job done.

There are those who will feel uncomfortable with letting staff know what the company profits are and that is understandable. Whether it will work may well depend on the type of culture that currently exists in the company.

The speed and breadth of communication globally and in our everyday lives has increased so substantially in recent years that it demands different approaches to how we do business. OBM is not new, though it may be more relevant today than ever before.