These blogs tend to go through phases. A few months writing about “All of Government”. A few bemoaning the RCSA. A month or two of trite comedy pieces. Currently, I’m on a global recruitment buzz. This is of course good news if you don’t work at a global recruitment firm (and you like to remain below the parapet), but it’s important to remember – I don’t really chose what the blog is about. Instead, with something to churn out every f*cking Friday, I have to write what’s in front of me. These week it’s a tale of two cities. Those cities being the rough’n’tumble working class Hays, and it’s more sophisticated middle-class neighbour Robert Walters.
Let’s start with the Hays.
Adam Edwards, having recently returned as the Prodigal Son, has just been handed the keys to Hays NZ. Although his LinkedIn profile won’t tell us yet, according to “sources”, Edwards will now be acting as Country MD, with full autonomy over the Aotearoa business. This second bit is important. Globals have a habit here of telling people they can run New Zealand, but certain roles and functions will report directly to Australia. My current understanding is that this isn’t the case. This matters more than it might seem. One of the quiet frustrations inside large international firms is the degree to which local leadership is hamstrung by regional oversight. The appointment of Edwards, with genuine authority attached, suggests that Hays have looked at the NZ market and made a deliberate decision: we’re in, we’re committed, and we’re putting someone in charge. In a market that has seen firm after firm quietly reduce their NZ footprint, that could be worth noting. Time will tell of course, but at least Edwards has done serious time at Hays – Wellington, South Island, Professional Services, Search, has gone elsewhere and returned to take the top job. He knows the business, he knows the market, can focus operations, and critically there’ll be no more decisions made by people who last visited Auckland for the Lions tour. Coincidentally of course. This is actually a positive story coming from a public listed recruitment firm. See? I can do it!
And apologies for being a week late, but now for the other story.
Apparently, Shay Peters has left Robert Walters.
There’s no press release. No warm farewell post from the global CEO. No “we thank Shay for his contribution and wish him well in his next chapter.” Just an empty desk. For a PLC – a publicly listed company with shareholders, governance obligations, and a communications team, the silence is, to use the technical term, f*cking weird. Has he quit? Was he sacked? Will he emerge with an even bigger job overseas? Please – someone tell me?! I’ve blogged about RW semi-frequently, and there’s always been plenty of employees willing to share the scoop with me. This time, nada. Is this a case of no one actually knowing, or have they closed ranks on me? I feel as close to this one as Shay’s trouser hems are to his expensive shoes.
Of course I’ve written about Robert Walters at length over the past eighteen months. The Christchurch exit. The redundancies. The team commission model that rewards managers and punishes billers. The contractor book that went from over 1,200 to somewhere around 600. The nine perm consultants who allegedly didn’t make a single placement in the first six months of 2024. I’ve been consistent but perhaps consistently critical of the way the business has been run, but has it all been fair? What I will say about Peters is this: he was the public face of RW in New Zealand for a long time. He was visible, media-savvy, and articulate. Whatever you think of the business on his watch, he certainly “showed up” (as people say these days). The RNZ interviews, the salary guides, the labour market commentary – he did the work that a country CEO is supposed to do. And again, he moved through the ranks and did something very few Kiwis do. He ran NZ, and then took on Australia also. From the outside, RW wasn’t looking too hot, but what do we actually know? Maybe NZ was the shining light by comparison, and Peters was awarded accordingly.
This makes the silence around his departure all the more curious. Senior executives leave businesses all the time. It happens often to those smart enough to get there. But when someone at that level exits a listed company and the organisation collectively decides that the best communication strategy is to say absolutely nothing, it usually means one of two things: either the departure was not on the friendliest of terms, or the business is so focused on managing its own narrative that it has forgotten the basic professional courtesy owed to New Zealand’s second best recruitment blogger. Either way, I don’t think it’s a good look. And it leaves the NZ market – clients, candidates, staff – with no idea who’s running the show or what comes next.
So there you have it. Two international firms, same market, same conditions. One installs experienced local leadership and signals commitment. The other loses its CEO and says nothing.
One of these approaches builds confidence. The other erodes it.
^SW
