A Medley of Recruitment Mischief and Good Times

Hello and welcome to the penultimate Whiteboard blog of 2012.  Bit of a quick one today as I’m guessing most of you are, like me, preparing for a busy day of festive cheer and general japery.  Happy to say that we are busy on the work front too, a sentiment mirrored by most of the recruiters I have been talking to this week, while dropping off Christmas gifts to our clients.

So what do we make of this sudden upturn in activity and hiring intentions?  Are businesses stretched so tight that they are panicking they won’t be positioned to accommodate increased demand in the New Year?  Is it a flash in the pan, last ditched desperate attempt to increase headcount now that all other channels of attracting talent have been exhausted?  Is it also just Auckland centric or are other recruiters out there feeling a shift in hiring sentiments too?

Whatever, consumer confidence is lifting, and a New Year always brings renewed optimism within businesses.  We in recruitment need to push hard to make sure we are delivering awesome results to clients, and also continue to find ways to remain relevant to our customers as they increasingly look for ways to do things themselves.  Bill Boorman’s appearance in Auckland on Monday to host the first #truNZ certainly gave plenty of food for thought around that.  As agencies we are often more nimble and agile change-agents than many of the more bureaucratic and top-heavy internal recruitment functions.  Use this to your advantage next year and forge ahead:  think mobile, think social recruiting, think contracting and flexible workforces and, above all, think of how you will provide specialist and expert advice rather than posting an ad on job boards just beneath the same job your client just posted.

Anyway, enough from me for today.  I will finish of the year with one of those reflective looks back on 2012 and look ahead to 2013 type things next week.  For now, have fun with the links below, and have a fun Friday 14th December.  It’s going to be wild out there 😉

Bonus reading on #truNZ from the incomparable Hassanah Rudd with her guest post on Richard Westney’s blog.

Seen this video doing the rounds yet?  Very amusing, originating from right here in NZ, and now gone viral:  Some Recruiter I Used To Know

Some photos from last night’s Quarterly Rice Consulting Social Recruiting PowWow: