Another insipid piece of lazy recruiter-bashing hits the web

The recruitment industry is one that is an easy target for the knockers.

I have written about this topic a few times before.

The (supposed) quality broadsheet media, use incomplete facts to paint our industry as enjoying a taxpayer-funded ‘bonanza’.

‘Internet entrepreneurs’ looking for a bit of free publicity, engage in a recruiter-bashing by accusing our industry as being ‘completely exploitative’ in order to promote their own competing product.

The tabloids employ fresh-out-of-university journalism graduates to write one-sided, unverified ‘insider-spills-the-beans’ wanna-be exposés. On it goes; predictable, relentless, and very boring; all from the keyboards of the inexperienced, the lazy or the self-promoting (probably all three).

We now have another entry (thanks for the tip-off, Steve) into this underwhelming and self-satisfied field: the smug client.

Announcing Tyro Payments‘ The Honest Job Translator video which is two and three-quarter minutes of possibly the least creative, worst-acted, and mindless piece of ’employer branding’ (trashing) that I have ever had the misfortune to view.

What exactly is the point of this rubbish?

Why doesn’t the company spend the same amount of time, money, and energy to say something positive about their company, their staff, and their job opportunities?

Portraying a recruitment agency consultant as a clueless, blonde bimbo may have been funny twenty years ago but in 2015 I would think that the great creative, beardy, male minds at Tyro could come up with something just a little more contemporary and relevant.

I note that Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes is on the Tyro Board (which consists of 8 men, 0 women). Atlassian has been an outstanding example of being creative with their recruitment/employer branding (and including recruitment agencies in their sourcing streams) without resorting to dull pot-shots at recruiters. I hope Mike takes an interest in Tyro’s recruitment methods and finds an opportunity to take them to one side for a quiet word about how they might improve.

The fact that Tyro is running generic ads such as this one on SEEK (a job board – how cutting edge!) via a recruitment agency (Evolution Recruitment; I wonder how they feel about Tyro’s video?) probably says all you need to know about how effective their The Honest Job Translator campaign has been.

I would hope that Tyro has fired the ‘creative’ person/s who came up with their campaign and are now focusing on the positive news they have to sell (I’m sure there’s plenty of it if they care to look), without having to resort to recruiter-bashing and brand trashing.