Teleseminar with Ross Clennett – 14 May 2008
Australasian Talent Conference 2008 – What can recruiters learn?
Thanks to all the participants who registered for my Teleseminar today which was a summary of all the vital information I took from the Conference and all the relevant trends and stories I plucked, which are relevant to recruiters in Australia and New Zealand.
I attended both ATC conference days and met many interesting people.
With over 300 delegates, 22 speakers, 26 exhibitors and sponsors, the 2nd Australasian Talent Conference held at the Sydney Hilton between 15-16 April 2008, was a feast of cutting edge information and ideas for people in the talent business.
For those people that took part in today’s Teleseminar, I welcome your views, comments and questions, so please post them here. I look forward to your company at my next Teleseminar, which I will announce in my eNewsletter, InSight.
Ross,
Could you please comment on the scarcity of agency recruiters that attended the seminar. There didn’t seem to be many of them amongst the internal recruiters. Do you think it is a lack of interest? A lack of awareness? How many agency recruiters are taking note of this move to online resourcing?
Our Director and one of our Senior recruiters attended and these were key questions that arose.
Thank you,
Melissa Alfonso-Cruz
Recruitment Consultant
The Johnson Group
Ross,
What are some successful techniques around consultant retention?
Robynne Duncan
National Training & Development Manager
Recruitment Solutions
Ross,
We never get a good response from print advertising and a lot of experts say that it is dying as a form of advertising for recruitment. When we sell it to clients we feel we are selling a product that doesn’t work and are really only getting them to pay for our branding – not a good outcome for the client.
I tend to agree and lots of companies I know do not spend any budget on print adverts.
We are considering dumping all our print ad budget.
What are your thoughts Ross??
Regards
Conduit Recruitment
Adam Walker MRICS AAIQS
Thanks for your questions, Melissa.
There were very few agencies attending that I could identify. I think it is mainly due to the ATC being seen as a bit too conceptual for agency recruiters, which I believe is a very big mistake. Any smart business owner needs to be aware of trends impacting their market so they can be proactive, rather than reactive to events. I think very few agencies truly understand the move into online resourcing.
Hi Robynne,
It’s a very broad question Robynne and the answers depend upon the longevity/success of the consultant as well as the options available to the employer, depending upon their size and financial depth. As a start I highly recommend you read Geoff Morgan and Andrew Banks’ book Flourish & Prosper as they address this issue extremely well.
My bullet point answers are:
– pay them appropriately
– offer continual training & development, both internal and externally provided
– external coaching
– use senior consultants to mentor rookie consultants
– have a reward and recognition program
– annual internal conference
I hope that gives you something as a starter.
Hi Adam,
Print still has a place, Adam, but it very much depends upon the market you recruit in. Certainly if you are not generating quality candidates through print then you should take a critical look at the quality of the ads that you are writing (most recruiters write very ineffective ads) and see what can be improved.
Most recruitment companies are spending more of their ad budget online and I expect that trend will continue.
Niche candidate targeting is best done through direct approaches and online and face-to-face networking.
Ross
I’ve emailed you a copy of a couple of adverts we have done recently – any advice as to the quality of them would be greatly appreciated.
Adam Walker
Adam,
re QS ad – the visual is great. However there isn’t one single piece of information in the advert about what the person will be doing or what they are expected to accomplish. As a result there is no WIIFM. The ad just states what your client is looking for, not what’s in it for the right candidate to take that job. The ONLY thing a candidate would know about the actaul job (from reading that ad) is that the job is ‘exciting’. I would score the ad 4/10. Overall – a waste of money.
re Dubai ad – great visual. Almost the reverse feedback of the other ad. There is some detail about what the person is to do in each role but no metrics at all. Talking about specific numbers (eg sites, budgets, project teams etc) gives people context. The ads provide little context. I assume the salaries are attractive enough to encourage applications.
I appreciate it is difficult to write a lot of information in a limited ad space and you have directed people to your website which is great. It might have been better to talk more specifically about the client and the projects in your available ad space to get people excited to visit the website or make phone enquiries. Overall 6.5/10.
Hope that helps
Ross