Posts by Ross Clennett

After Recruit Holdings released its results yesterday afternoon, fourteen global recruitment agencies have now released quarterly updates for trading results to 30 September 2020. The September 2020 quarter median gross profit decline was 16 per cent, compared to the same quarter in 2019, a substantial improvement on the June 2020 quarter median decline of 30…

This morning, while the eyes of the world were watching the US election count enter its third evening, the New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, was sworn in for a second three-year term in office. New Zealanders were certainly keen to participate in the democratic process with the official turn out for the 17 October…

The cat was well and truly thrown among the pigeons yesterday when SEEK was the subject of a report by activist shareholder Blue Orca that its legacy job board business is stagnating, its Chinese online recruitment platform Zhaopin is inundated with false and fraudulent postings and it is carrying increasingly toxic levels of debt. “Zhaopin’s…

The recent deaths in of two food delivery riders, working for separate gig platforms has, again, brought into tragic focus one problem, of many, that a vulnerable worker faces when classified as an independent contractor, rather than as an employee. An Uber Eats rider, an Indonesian national, and a Hungry Panda rider, a Chinese national,…

There have been countless articles, podcasts and television panels discussing the impact of COVID-19 on people’s health and the impact on local, national and global economies. Last week a survey from the UK reported that 53 per cent of recruitment professionals had self-assessed their mental health as having declined in the past year. Financial difficulties…

(Left to right, Charles in WFH mode, September 2020 and, at the WEC conference in Geneva, March 2020) RCSA Chief Executive, Charles Cameron, is a few months past his four year anniversary in our industry’s hottest seat. As if he hasn’t got enough to do he has now been elected as one of the two…

The insidious nature of vested interests and a playing field that’s a long, long way from level, when it comes to Federal Government tenders and contracts, has come to the fore with the abysmal failure of the tender-free $5.77 million contract for ‘surge staffing’ in aged care facilities impacted by COVID-19,  awarded to Mable Technologies…

How are you going; really? More specifically; how is your mental health? Working from home; working alone; working in an unsuitable environment; and working in a tough market are each a challenge. If you are based in Victoria, as I am, you are also dealing with not being able to have face-to-face contact with any…

Have company directors finally woken up to the long term reputational damage that male leaders are causing organisations when they behave like entitled, sex-focused, arseholes (predators?), towards their female subordinates? The damage to the reputation and career of male arseholes of this type has been, to date, negligible (exhibit A: Donald Trump). The countless women…

Whenever you hear ‘choice’, ‘efficiency’ and ‘cost savings’ or similar platitudes being uttered by a self-styled ‘recruitment industry disruptor’ you should immediately be sceptical with respect to such claims. Your scepticism should rapidly elevate when, as is inevitable, the ‘disruptor’ asserts that they are not providing recruitment, placement or on-hire services, they are merely ‘connecting…