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Recruitment

Recruitment Recruitment Recruitment šŸ”

By April 16, 2021No Comments

Itā€™s been another full-on week in recruitment. The number of job ads posted to Seek has reached 57% of pre-Covid-19 levels. Wellingtonā€™s leading the way with the highest job ad levels at 63.2% of pre-Covid levels with Canterbury and Auckland sitting just over 50%. The minimum wage has gone up to $20 an hour and in what may or may not be related news; NZ saw a record number of folk moving off benefits and into employment, the most since electronic records started in 1996. Itā€™s starting to feel like the old days are back, but better. Our pub yarns tend to dip into recruitment chat a lot of the time. One subject we were discussing; is if a growing market better than a recovering market? Opinions were divided until a willy-related double entendre or a request to ā€˜do that funny voiceā€™ reset the conversation back to normality. The upshot of it though was that both create and foster the same thing; options.

During the first lockdown, I knew all the adverts that were running on TradeMe and who they were with. It made for predictable reading for me and I imagine fairly depressing reading for job seekers. Now, those job seekers have plenty to go after! I feel rec to rec is the smallest (and cutest) Russian doll; I do well when my clients are doing well and they do well when their clients do well, and so on. Agency owners arenā€™t without hubris however, I believe them when they say they are doing exceptionally at the moment. We’re back to heaps of activity. Why is this? Maybe clientsā€™ dizzy expectations have fallen? Have they realized getting the starlet out of an organization isnā€™t realistic? That the demand for work perhaps justifies giving someone who is hungry and enthusiastic a chance? There certainly seem to be more doors opened than ever for candidates.

Walters quipped last week that ā€œour role is more akin to a dating agency, not arranging marriagesā€ which is true on a lot of levels. Since I was partly raised by television, the forgotten screen, I think in terms of TV shows. Recruiters tend to play a Cilla Black role in the recruitment process, introducing a lucky lad or lass to three almost indistinguishable options for a partner. Those too young to remember will be aghast to know that the contestants were separated by a screen, a concept contradictory to the commonplace looks first, swipe right or left culture of today. Itā€™s not an air-tight analogy as Iā€™m yet to comprehend what ā€˜Our Graeme’s big booming voice would be in this metaphor. Itā€™s probably more a mix between that and one of the many home buying shows; location, location, location, a Place in The Sun et al.

Again, for those that arenā€™t aware of this very narrow scope of British tele the premise is simple; a couple is looking to move out of their beloved 3-bedroom semi and into something a little more reasonable, or unreasonable as the show progresses. Itā€™s like Grand Designs or Premier League Years; you never intend to watch it but there you are half an hour in fully invested and interested in Ken and Barbaraā€™s dynamic. Your candidate is both Ken and Barbara in the one unpredictable body. The bit that gets me, theyā€™ll give a description of their perfect home and the host will be like; ā€œ hmm that’s nice. Itā€™s a little off brief but, thereā€™s something Iā€™d LOVE to show youā€ then proceeds to show them some subterranean dwelling. K & B are seen nodding away faces lit by torch agreeing ā€œthis is perfect! Like when you spot a memeā€™s origin in a tv or movie, I sit up and yell ā€œthatā€™s from recruitment!ā€

There are heaps of options out there now. However, some of your candidates will still be closed off to the majority of them. As recruiters, you need to be a little wiley, obviously present choices that are in line with expectations but donā€™t be afraid to show something a little off brief. After all, there is more opportunity now than there has been in a long time.