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Are you leaking candidates?
It was the middle of week four in my new job. I was the third consultant on a three person temp accounting desk team. My Manager Bronwyn, and Michelle, the Senior Consultant, were finishing their weekly working temp calls. Bronwyn smiles at Michelle and says, ‘Time to call the sleepers!’ I…
Read MoreThe Perfect Employee … The Perfect Employer?*
So what do employers really want in an employee? Well the government thinks they have the answer and amazingly, I believe they’ve got it pretty right! How do I know? In my recent research I found this great publication, Australian Jobs 2008, which is prepared by the Department of Education, Employment & Workplace Relations. Page 26…
Read MoreSkills Shortage: The Sequel (Part 2)
In last week’s InSight lead article, ‘Skills Shortage: The Sequel’, I highlighted the recent flurry of publicity in the mainstream media about the skills shortage. Contrary stories have also made the news. Recruitment industry veteran, Bob Olivier, made headlines in the AFR (Friday 23 July, 2010, page 46) by stating he believed the skills shortage…
Read MoreSkills Shortage: The Sequel
The June 2010 unemployment rate in the United States was 9.5%. In the UK the ‘headline’ unemployment was 7.9% and two weeks ago, the OECD reported that the unemployment rate in the world’s 31 leading industrialised economies averaged fell to 8.6% in May, 2010. These rather bleak figures from elsewhere around the globe (although improving…
Read MoreThe power of saying ‘No’
One of the many memorable (and valuable) conversations I had in my recruitment life, occurred when my recruitment career was a bare 2 months old. I was a very ‘green’ 22 year old, living away from home for the first time, trying to make a go of working life in London. I was…
Read MoreHigh Achievers: Born or Made?*
Last week I was fortunate to be alerted (via Twitter) to a great article from FORTUNE (Why Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin) and I was given a fascinating book written by Malcolm Gladwell (Outliers: The Story of Success, Penguin Group, 2009). Both the article and the book examine successful people and they…
Read MoreHorizontal or vertical?
During coaching or mentoring sessions with recruitment company owners and managers, I am often asked for my views on growth strategies. Clients are interested to know whether it is better to grow horizontally (ie add a new discipline or niche) or vertically (ie build greater depth in their current discipline or niche). For me, the…
Read MoreLinear Improvement or Quantum Leap?
How to review your 2009/10 results to provide lessons and opportunities for 2010/11 ** For most recruiters, this is the last week of the ‘old’ Financial Year. The annual fees or billings clock is just about to wind back to $0 and June 2011 seems like an eternity away. It would…
Read MoreThanks Bro!
Australia has much to thank New Zealand for. Teaching us how to play better rugby is the most obvious one. Employing Kiwi, Robbie Deans, as head coach of our national rugby team, kind of says it all in terms of long-term Trans-Tasman superiority with the oval ball (although I will ask ‘who has won more…
Read MoreWhat are you on about, Ross?
My editorial in last week’s InSight about the attendance at the RCSA Consultant Forum, generated plenty of positive email traffic for me as well as a phone call from the CEO of one of the ‘big players’ who wasn’t too thrilled about what I had written in that article. We had a frank…
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