Posts by Ross Clennett

Four months ago I wrote about the importance of improving Australia’s labour force participation rate given, with 480,000 vacancies. Even if Australia’s participation rate rose only one percentage point (to 67.7%) that would still represent an additional 210,000 immediately available workers. There are one million Australians who want to work but have barriers preventing them…

Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World, by economist Tyler Cowen and tech entrepreneur Daniel Gross provides a fascinating piece of information pertaining to hiring low-skill workers. In their book Gross and Cowen explore personality and its relationship with talent, noting: “Personality and conscientiousness matter most at the bottom of the…

Any agency leader attempting to incentivise, urge, or encourage their consultant to do “more BD” will be familiar with the response coming from their harried team member. “I don’t have time; I’m too busy filling jobs.” Consultants wanting to avoid picking up their phone to make BD calls know that the lure of another placement…

In my recent blog on the 2022 RCSA SHAPE Conference I outlined how I saw the need for the mindset of recruiters to evolve due to ‘conformist’ candidates now being outnumbered by ‘individualists’. To use a powerful metaphor offered by Nuriah Jadai on the first morning of last week’s RCSA SHAPE Conference – we need…

On July 7 the RCSA New Zealand Industry Awards were announced at a gala function in Auckland. The Recruitment Professional of the Year was won by CoLegal Managing Director, Anand Ranchhod APRCSA. I first met Anand four years ago when he participated in my Advanced Recruiter Program. Across the program’s three-month duration it was apparent…

My most recent blog about the contrasting approaches of two prospective employers prominent in my daughter’s recent search for a new job has drawn many comments; on the original blog, in person to me at the RSCA Conference last week in Hobart, and via a LinkedIn post. The comment that perfectly encapsulated the difference between…

It’s hard to have any sympathy for employers who are bemoaning the ‘skills shortage’ only to learn their behaviour demonstrates a mindset more akin to last century’s rather than the present one. My 21-year-old daughter, Nikki (photo, right) , recently completed her Certificate 111 in Patisserie after a disrupted year of full-time study in 2021…

Australians continued to digest the news this week that our most recent ex-Prime Minister secretly appointed himself to five ministries and the Premier of our largest state was looking suitably embarrassed as the report into the ‘jobs for the boy’s appointment of ex-Minister, John Barilaro to a plum New York trade commissioner job was made…

On Sunday the reigning English Premier League champions, Manchester City opened their title defence with a victory over West Ham United. City’s two goals were both scored by Norwegian striker Erling Haaland (pictured, above), in his debut game for the club. Haaland’s transfer from German club, Borussia Dortmund (who play in the German equivalent of…

It’s amazing (or maybe not) how quickly C-suite sentiment about the importance of their workers turns when market conditions change. Big 4 accounting and consulting firm, Deloitte, recently released their H1 2022 CFO Sentiment survey results. Comprehensively, with daylight second, the most nominated response to the category ‘Risks of most concern to CFOs over the…