Direct Hire… 2 tips!

December 8, 2010 Leave a Comment

When organisations hire directly from the market (and at times they should) I have two little tips to share that are easily forgotten.

1. Sell your company, your vision, your job, your values, your people etc. You may love your company but don’t assume an applicant will yet. Don’t assume anything. They don’t know enough to love you yet and they are interviewing you as much as you them. You have to move from interviewer to sales person as this is what recruiters do for you.

2. Manage the experience well. This means provide a good job brief and de-brief the applicant post interview regardless of desire to hire or not. This stage is about your brand and your reputation.

Sadly a very good client of ours has just lost a couple of great people because these items were over-looked. These are things recruiters do for you when engaged but when you do it yourself they are equally important!

I hope this helps…

Filed under Business in Wellington, Consulting, Recruitment Tagged with , , , ,

Market ain’t that hot…let’s keep it real!

July 15, 2010 Leave a Comment

I’ve been reading a lot of market commentry about just how hot the ICT employment market is again. I even read a blog from a Sydney based recruiter stating that it’s the hottest market they have ever seen! I hate to be rude but… that person can’t have been around long!

From a recruitment industry perspective let’s keep some perspective and acknowledge that the market is a lot better than this time 12 months ago. However, I suggest cautious optimisism is not a bad approach. Plan for growth without feeling the need to freak out and hire at all cost.

The recruitment industry had a real clean out over the last 18 months with those less than 110% committed to the career opting out. Let’s remain determined to focus on quality and committed people as we re-emerge and grow our businesses.

Filed under Business in Wellington, Consulting, contracting, Information Technology, New Zealand, Recruitment Tagged with , , , ,

Talent Shortage approaches “Tipping Point”

May 18, 2010 Leave a Comment

Is it possible that so soon after the GFC we could be trending towards a human capital marketplace whereby demand is outstripping supply?

It seems the answer is yes! According to an article published in CIO magazine in Australia last week an ex colleague of mine is quoted suggesting that demand for critical IT specialists will return to pre GFC levels by the end of Q2 this year. Richard Fischer is now MD of Greythorn in Australia and is well positioned to accurately reflect market conditions.

I must concur with him when reflecting on the state of the NZ market. (I’m referrring to the ICT sector here). We now have clients very actively seeking specialists in both contract and permanent capacities. This is in stark comparison to just six months ago when uncertainty and indecisiveness prevailed.

So what? Well at this stage I can only recommend vigilance and a focus on workforce planning. If you feel exposed by a stressed out workforce or light on critical skills then don’t procrastinate. Acting early could be the best plan as it may be harder to find who you want than what you are recently accustomed to and don’t assume the market is flooded with specialists awaiting an opportunity. It isn’t and it may get tighter.

Engage with an agency of choice and commit to a proper sourcing strategy. Recruiting will be back to the top of management KPI charts in no time!

http://www.cio.com.au/article/346206/it_workers_stick_their_guns_through_gfc_survey/?fp=4&fpid=51242

Filed under Business in Wellington, Information Technology, New Zealand, Recruitment, Uncategorized Tagged with , ,

SOLD OUT!

March 1, 2010 Leave a Comment

Yep word of mouth has sold out the stadium… first time ever… 30,000 plus to a club football match in NZ …. Amazing!

Lesson for us in business… people talk and influence others… give people a good experience… no bull you say … so simple yet so easily forgotten!!!

Go the Nix!

Filed under Business in Wellington, Performance, Sport

Word of Mouth…Period!

February 24, 2010 Leave a Comment

Watching 25,000 people at a football match in Wellington on Sunday was a great reminder of how strong word of mouth marketing really is! When people get a great experience and tell others the snowball effect is massive. Its entirely possible that the stadium in Wellington could be full come Sunday week  if the talk on the street is an indicator…which I think it is. People are buzzing and talking it up. This word of mouth plus a bit of social media, facebook and twitter commentry is the best marketing of all.

Get to “The Nix” v Newcastle semi-final its the best show in town at the moment!

Filed under Business in Wellington, Performance, Sport

Game Changing!

November 6, 2009 Leave a Comment

“09 is Game Changing?”

In my 21 years in the IT recruitment industry I think we may be just be coming out of the most ‘game changing’ period I have seen. Sure 1990 was tough post the ’87 crash and Y2K created huge opportunity, then a following lull, but this may be different!

1. The flexible workforce is now a reality!
2. Price transparency and value is for real!
3. Social networks is the great technology enabler!
4. “people are our most important asset”… this Mantra will now be tested like never before!

Flexible workforce: Yep. Short-term, fixed term, part-time, job share, hourly rate, fixed rate, daily rate, work from home, virtual workforce, webcasting, crowd-sourcing or cloud. Whatever it takes and whatever is affordable is driving very creative workforce solutions. This is now a reality and is a change that must be embraced by employers, recruiters, candidates, HR professionals and consultants. Whilst the rhetoric has been around a while we are now genuinely seeing these solutions being deployed with greater acceptance.

Price & Value: Perhaps it the stark financial reality everyone has needed to face that has finally cut through cultures of excess and lack of accountability. This has demanded an honesty amongst executives and suppliers that has driven price down where value didn’t equate. From this moment I reckon that value will be much more closely aligned to price especially in the services and consultancy supply community. People will still pay well for value but won’t accept excess.

Web 3.0: Social Networks are growing at such a rate that embracing it is the only option. Relationships, trust and knowledge will always underpin ultimate success but online branding and community development will drive our sourcing strategies, brand recognition, reputation and ultimately our effectiveness. Think price and value as above! Relevance to our audience and tools to reach them is extraordinarily challenging yet exciting for our industry. We’re all ears at this stage as we navigate forward trying out new tools and techniques!

“Yeah Right”: As green shoots appear company cultures will be tested like never before and lip service to employee engagement practices will come at a hefty price. Opportunities offshore will begin to open up again and a candidate short market will re-appear sooner than some think. Corporate behaviour over the last 12-18 months may just determine their success over the next 24 months. Some of the brutal treatment dished out by some large multi-nationals could come home to roost as people once again have choice.

Overall we see much more positivity than we did even 3 months ago. Unemployment forecasts and being reduced and most companies are cautiously optimistic about the year ahead. Have a happy and safe Xmas break.

Mark Chote
Managing Director
920 career agents

Filed under Business in Wellington, Consulting, contracting, Performance, Recruitment, Retention, Uncategorized

Green Shoots V2

October 28, 2009 Leave a Comment

A couple of months ago I commented on signs of growth. Since then I have spent some time in Australia also and was encouraged by reports and attitudes over there. Unemployment forecasts are being reviewed downwards both in Australia and NZ and generally reports are positive.

At a glance locally we are seeing more new jobs listed however the growth has been more evident in contracting and fixed term appointments. This is entirely logical but nevertheless encouraging as across the board people are talking up a better period ahead perhaps as early as Q2 2010?

Lets get with this mindset :_)

Filed under Business in Wellington, contracting

Green Shoots

August 29, 2009 Leave a Comment

It appears that all the lead economic indicators have bottomed out and that forecasts are a little better than earlier predicted. Certainly we have seen a small improvement in the new job vacancy market. It’s also true that labour markets always lag economic markets so it may be a while yet before we can say things are trending upwards.

So what advice can we share with you?

1. BE PREPARED! All listed vacancies are receiving very large response volumes whether they are via an agency or directly from the employer. This does not always correspond to a high volume of quality applicants. Make sure you tailor your application with very clear details matching your skills to those identified in the advert. Resist sending your standard CV off to every advert where you met some criteria. Follow up as employers inundated with responses will try and make the first cut on what they see on paper so make your presence felt!
2. BE FLEXIBLE! Think outside the square and think about how your skills and experience will add value to both the job and employer. Think also in terms of full and future value of any role and company you look at rather than just salary expectation. Contracting, fixed term contracting and contracting as a trial are methods of hire being utilised in this current market.
3. BE PROACTIVE! Think about all the sources you have to identify new work opportunities. Social networking sites like Linkedin, Events, Job Boards, Referrals from friends and Web Searching as examples. In terms of an Agency we suggest you chose someone who you think gets you and will work for you!

Stay Positive and Stay In-touch with the market and you’ll be well positioned as hopefully these green shoots develop into a much more buoyant job market over the next 6 – 12 months.

Filed under Business in Wellington, Recruitment Tagged with , , ,

Competing on price?

June 29, 2009 Leave a Comment

Tight market and a scarcity of new business opportunity has driven some industry players to compete on price as their lead strategy. I’ve always thought that competing on price alone was a dangerous game but maybe I’m wrong. I accept some movement is at times required but recently I’ve been made aware of competitors doing business at 30% of our normal industry terms.

My issues have always been:

1. Can I retain my best people if I can’t pay them well because my fees are so light?

2. Am I respecting the professional competence of my people?

3. Can I go back to my clients and double or triple my fees once the market improves?

4. Will someone always be prepared to go cheaper and if so what is the bottom?

5. Can I actually do the right thing by my client if it’s not sustainable in terms of profitability?

6. If my only value is price then where does it stop and how sustainable is my business?

Perhaps I’m ignoring an extrodinarily challenging market but I would much rather push up the value chain with increased service whilst accepting less volume than playing in a pricing war.

It will be interesting to observe where these price players go from here?

Filed under Business in Wellington, Performance, Recruitment

Get Ready!

May 27, 2009 Leave a Comment

Now is a great time to focus on becoming “World Class” at recruitment & retention. Competitive Advantage will stem from highly motivated and capable employees as we make our way out of recession. (Not that I claim to know when that will be…)

Retain…

Having a high level of engagement within the workforce will be critical as once the employment markets free up companies will lose more people than they desire. This is because many have simply put their head down to stay employed but they will jump ship once opportunities begin to present themselves. Therefore engage with them now if you want to retain them in better times.

Recruit…

The same applies to spending energy now on recruitment processes, tools and training. Even if your not hiring get prepared because things could change quite quickly. So in my view now is a great time to:

  • Keep building your talentpool
  • Stay in contact with future talent
  • Invest in your employment brand
  • Investigate all candidate sourcing channels

Who knows whats around the corner?

Filed under Business in Wellington, Performance, Retention Tagged with , , , ,

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