Although I could use the data generated by our sophisticated CRM, I, like most recruiters, like to rely on a little thing known as gut-feel. Let’s be real, who needs solid, defensible, researched and reasoned information, when we can provide anecdotes, hear-say, speculation, and rumour. If you’re an agency leader and want to accurately predict your revenue for next quarter, you could use something like Kamal, and I’m sure you’ll get a lovely graph, but can this really contend with the slippery promises given to you by a hungover recruiter in a shiny suit? I think not.
Contrary to the above, today I’m going to use some actual data. Some slightly flawed and non-comparable data, but data none the less. Here goes.
Much is written (and spoken aggressively across the office) about the state of the economy currently. You only need to be a regular reader of this blog to know that I’ve been both chronicling our struggles, and predicting the uplift, for about two years now. Unfortunately, I habitually over-predict the uplift in an attempt to create some form of self-fulfilling prophecy. Alas, I turn on the news following a month overseas and see that inflation is again rearing its ugly head and a capsicum now costs more than full-face Botox. Previously, I’ve looked at what these economic doldrums have done to our billings. I’ve also looked at what it’s done to various firms. I’ve also examined how this recruitment wasteland has caused us to drop our standards. Today, I’m taking a look at applicant numbers, and what it really means for us recruitment folks.
Our sister business JOYN works on all sorts of weird and wonderful projects. One such project which straddles both adjectives, is the work we do for the Auckland local elections. The short version is, JOYN recruits and manages the vote processors who process the votes for these elections. This is our second time of doing this, with the first being in 2022. Given that we run the volume recruitment project, and both projects were essentially the same, we should have a fair(ish) comparison on how many job seekers there are floating around for these roles in both 2022 and 2025.
In both years, we ran the same amount of advertising on SEEK, TradeMeJobs, social media, and a cool recruitment microsite (which we built). In 2022, the recruitment ads ran for the full 30 days. In total, we received 582 applications. This year, the process was the same, except we only ran adverts for a maximum of 6 days. The reason for this will become clear shortly. Now, would anyone like to guess how many applicants we received?
3,520
Yep. About 6 times the number of applicants, with adverts that ran for a fifth of the amount of time. This of course is a very, VERY, sad indictment of the New Zealand economy. We all knew things were tough out there, and we anticipated higher applicant numbers accordingly. I did not expect this however. Like most companies since Alexander Graham Bell asked to speak with “Herb Eaversmells”, we have a telephone number. This 0800 number, for want of an actual landline, diverts to my mobile. Can you imagine the number of phone calls I’m currently getting from wannabe vote processors? They range from sensible people asking sensible questions, to those who just repeat “I AM JOB. I AM JOB” as an incredibly loud dog plays the drum intro to “In The Air Tonight” just inches from the receiver.
And this of course changes the very nature of what we do. So much so, that it could be described as a different job. Recruiting in 2022 was all about finding unfindable people. When you did find the unfindable, it was then about persuading and cajoling a very happy candidate to look at an opportunity. This is a unique skillset. The skillset of 2025s recruiter is very different. For many desks, it’s about reducing huge numbers to small numbers. It’s about cutting through the noise of an inbox on fire, an 0800 number that won’t stop ringing, and a non-stop barrage of candidates who think our job is to provide pro-bono CV formatting. It’s as if we need to operate like American Football. Two teams playing on the same side. One for “defense”, one for “offense”. During a booming market, I need a bold, flamboyant, tenacious, confident version of myself. In these tough times, I need to sub in a compassionate, tolerant, process-focussed version of me. I’m not sure if anyone can be masterful at both.
Until the market shifts, many volume recruiters will have to lean into technology to free up some bandwidth. Not technology that wins business and grows market share. Instead, technology which can dissuade and divert the inappropriate from reaching our desks. And as harsh as that sounds, the only way recruiters can help anyone is to give them the time to do so.
Anyway, regardless of the economy, it’s good to be back.
^SW
