Recruitment

On 18 January 2012 my sister, Mary, passed away three and a half years after her terminal breast cancer diagnosis. She was one month past her 44th birthday. Her husband, Sam, her son Ned (then 5) and her daughter Lola (then 3) were left devastated, as were all of us who loved Mary, whether as…

Although I have been in the recruitment industry for just over thirty years there’s always another surprise around the corner. This week Seek Limited announced the appointment of disgraced former Commonwealth Bank (CBA) CEO, Ian Narev, to the dual role of Chief Operating Offer and Asia Pacific & Americas (AP & A) CEO. The timing…

I’ve had many conversations with recruitment agency owners about the experienced recruiter they hired, who seemed great on paper but turned out to be a complete dud. This is a painful occurrence for any recruitment agency owner but it’s especially so for a micro recruitment agency owner (a business with five, or fewer, employees). This…

“Agency recruitment is not dying. In fact it’s thriving. But not for everyone! The winners will be the modern recruiters who evolve, re-tool, up-skill and re-invent. The rate of change in recruitment means the landscape is littered with yesterday’s heroes.”  Greg Savage, 24 May 2016 It’s nearly three years since Greg Savage posted his “yesterday’s…

Just before Christmas 2016 the Clarius/Ignite board decided that one of their own, Julian Sallabank, was to be the company’s new CEO, replacing the departed Peter Wilson. At the time of the Sallabank appointment I outlined why I thought the Clarius/Ignite board were likely to be making a mistake (again) in appointing a CEO with…

It would be tiny field of recruiters that could claim any right to my (self-proclaimed) title of Most Times Present at a Greg Savage Event. I estimated I have experienced 1570 Greg Savage professional development events* over the 28 years I have been (i) a recruiter in a company that Greg leads, (ii) a leader…

When the recruitment industry is going through a flat spot with it can provide false comfort to recruitment agency owners and leaders whose businesses are struggling to improve sales and profit. In these circumstances it’s easy for an owner or leader to comfort themselves with the self-talk that their business is in reasonable shape. The…

I was conducting a coaching session with an owner of an emerging recruitment agency and he asked me a simple and rather obvious question, yet it was one I had not been asked before in such a concise way. We were discussing the development of leaders in his business. At that stage of his company’s…

In reflecting on my 30th anniversary in the recruitment industry I was thinking about what’s very different and what’s broadly the same now, compared to the late 1980s and early 1990s. One of the less obvious areas, but highly important, is risk and compliance. I worked at four different recruitment companies across my recruitment career…

This week I celebrate my 30 year anniversary of joining the recruitment industry. Day one of my career in recruitment was Monday 6 February 1989 at Accountancy Personnel (now Hays) 5-8 Glenn House, Stag Place, Victoria, London SW1E 5AG. Having departed Australia for Hong Kong on 19 December 1988 with a good friend of mine,…