So the All-of-Government panel for recruitment services was officially announced this week. Well done to the 44 firms who made the panel and my apologies to Mana Recruitment and Careering Options who were missed off the leaked document from a couple of weeks ago. It’s an interesting quote from Steven Joyce who said:
“These contracts will deliver savings of between $5.1 million and $16.8 million a year,”
It seems that the actual impact and performance of this contract is still quite up in the air. It’s still unclear what public sector entities will want to be part of the contract and that’s where the discrepancy in forecast savings arises. It’s clear that savings had to be found by Government but I do still wonder if these old-fashioned supplier panels actually work that well in recruitment, where the ability to deliver and execute on assignments lies in the hands of consultants in a fluid industry where movement frequently occurs between firms both on and off these panels.
It will be interesting to watch which recruitment firms manage to maximise the opportunity before them by being on the panel now. As one of 44 firms there will still be a lot of relationship building required to make sure the work comes to you and not the other 43, and then the way the delivery is carried out, and remuneration structured, will all be critical to ensuring it is a profitable exercise.
Great opportunity for some though, well done again, and it’s definitely time to move on and make the most of what we have.
And there’s no better way to move on than remind you all of the exciting recruitment conference coming up in less than 2 weeks’ time here in Auckland. After a bit of agitating, cajoling and coercing, the organisers of RHUB have committed to bringing it across the Tasman and a top line up of speakers has been assembled. And then there’s me…
Obviously I’m not going to be doing myself completely out of business by discussing how to recruit recruiters. But what I am interested in is how we can all work to improve the organisational and workplace cultures within our recruitment businesses. A positive culture is a major draw card for recruitment talent to join your firm (and if you’re still unsure check out, and vote on, our LinkedIn poll here).
Having recently surveyed the recruitment leaders, owners and managers of New Zealand, we have managed to gain an eye-opening insight into the behaviours and operations of the New Zealand firms with the best record of not only attracting recruiters, but also retaining that recruitment talent, pointing to the positive cultures that make this possible. I’ll be going into this in more depth in my presentation at RHUB but for now I thought you might be interested in some top tips we were able to glean from the results of the survey.
So, here are ten tips for developing a positive culture to attract, and retain, the best recruitment talent in the market:
- Start by asking your external clients and stakeholders how they perceive your culture, and compare with feedback from your own staff to the same question. The closer the answers the better shape you’re in.
- Communicate openly and frequently with staff. Listen to their ideas and feedback, and act upon it.
- Remember the power of praise and recognition.
- Allow access to all social media platforms from work computers. And yes, this includes Facebook!
- Gain your own staff’s input into developing a company mission, vision and values.
- Provide on-going professional development for staff including professional memberships and attendance at industry conferences.
- Harness the positive impact of encouraging employee referrals to your business rather than an over reliance on job boards.
- Make sure your recruiters have the market opportunity, the tools, and a remuneration structure to give them a decent shout of earning a total package in the six figure brackets.
- Get involved in some “Corporate Volunteering” (otherwise known as Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives and gain your own staff’s input into what they would like to do.
- Never commit the cardinal sin of treating your top biller differently to other consulting staff.
I will be releasing a more comprehensive whitepaper on the survey’s findings on Monday so if anyone would like to be added to the mailing list please e-mail vanessa@rice.co.nz and she will ensure it arrives in your inbox next week.
Have a great weekend.
