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Episode 9
368 Plays1 year ago
Episode 9
Staying up to date on what is happening within the Recruitment industry has never been easier. Listen to this episode.
Question of the Week:In what circumstances should you pitch for retained work?
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Transcript
Queensland Healthcare Incentives
00:00:07
Speaker
Welcome to Recruitment News Australia. And this is the news for week beginning 15th of May, 2023. Queensland is offering $20,000 to healthcare workers and up to $70,000 to doctors who moved to Queensland from interstate and overseas to work. The tax-free bonuses are the latest incentive used by the country's fastest growing state to attract doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals amid what's been called a health sector arms race.
00:00:35
Speaker
Interstate or overseas workers will receive $20,000 if they move to Queensland to take up a job anywhere in the state, including in Brisbane. It's being offered to doctors and specialists, nurses, midwives, allied health professionals, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce, dentists, oral health practitioners, and scientific officers. Health Minister Yvette Diaz said it will be paid in two installments, $10,000 upfront at commencement and another $10,000 in 12 months.
00:01:05
Speaker
Doctors moving to remote and regional Queensland will receive an additional $50,000 paid in two $25,000 payments at three months and 12 months into their roles.
LinkedIn Job Cuts in China
00:01:15
Speaker
LinkedIn is cutting 716 jobs and will begin phasing out its local jobs app in China. In a letter last week, the LinkedIn CEO said the decision to shutter the standalone China app called InCareer was made because of fierce competition and a challenging macroeconomic climate.
00:01:35
Speaker
in Korea was only launched by LinkedIn 18 months ago.
Queensland Police Recruitment Drive
00:01:41
Speaker
In line with the aggressive approach of its local health counterpart, the Queensland Police Service has launched a $90 million recruitment drive to address police employment challenges, including a raft of incentives to lure officers to join Queensland Police. Up to 400 police recruit graduates who hold a university degree in areas such as psychology,
00:02:01
Speaker
criminology, social work, counselling or other health service related fields will be able to receive up to $20,000 paid off their HECS debt and paying up to $20,000 for the relocation costs of police officers from interstate or overseas. New recruits will also receive a cost of living allowance of $183 per fortnight on top of their current recruit wage during the almost eight month training course.
00:02:25
Speaker
It's the latest measure from the state government to boost the front line after it launched a global recruitment drive earlier this year for hundreds of officers to join the force. Queensland Police has received 300 applications from overseas as a result.
00:02:40
Speaker
Accounting and Finance, Banking and Financial Services and IT Recruiter Ambition Group has released its annual accounts for the year ended 31 December 2022. Revenue rose 20% to reach $97.9 million over the year. Net fee income rose 30% and EBITDA was up 84% over the year.
00:03:05
Speaker
Although revenue in Ambition Australia was only up 1.4%, the UK was up 25%, and Asia, covering offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, climbed 35%.
ADECO Group Revenue Report
00:03:19
Speaker
Ambition's annual revenue was last above $100 million in 2017.
00:03:26
Speaker
The ADECO group reported revenue of €5.9 billion during the first quarter ended 31 March 2023, an increase of 3% organically in trading days adjusted. Within ADECO APEC revenues were 10% higher in Japan, while ADECO Australia and New Zealand reported flat revenue.
00:03:50
Speaker
New Zealand's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.4% in the March 2023 quarter compared to the December 2022 quarter. The labour force participation rate increased to 72% from 71.7%, the quarter prior and 70.9% the year prior. This was on the back of the participation rate for women increasing to 67.7%, the highest rate since the series began in 1986.
00:04:17
Speaker
By comparison, Australia's participation rate in March 2023 was only 66.8%, which is 5.2 percentage points lower.
APS Roles and Outsourcing
00:04:28
Speaker
The landscape for recruiters and consultancies servicing the labour force requirements of the federal government is set to change dramatically after the audit of employment within the Australian Public Service was released late last week by the Department of Finance. The audit examined the 2021-22 financial year to analyse how the APS was outsourcing work and what those arrangements were costing the budget.
00:04:51
Speaker
The conclusion was that roughly 54,000 full-time equivalent roles were being filled by external workers on top of the 144,000 staff directly employed in the APS. In other words, 27% of the total APS workforce
00:05:09
Speaker
were not permanently employed public servants, but rather they were undertaking work for government departments and other government-funded entities, such as the National War Memorial, as on-high workers or employees of labour-hire firms, consultancies and other outsourcing companies.
00:05:27
Speaker
Data revealed that just over three quarters of the entire expenditure on workforce outsourcing was made by the Defence portfolio, including the Department of Veteran Affairs. In terms of headcount, Defence accounted for 64% of the total number of jobs filled by workers other than public servants. Social Services Incorporating Services Australia was responsible for 10% of total outsourced APS jobs, but only 5% of total outsourcing expenditure.
00:05:57
Speaker
Around 52% of external workers were provided by outsourced service providers, followed by contractors, 33.7%. Labor hire firms providing 12.5% of workers and consultancies, 1.8% of workers. The highest user of labor hire was social services, followed by the health portfolio and then the industry portfolio.
00:06:23
Speaker
The most common job family for labor hire workers was service delivery, followed by ICT and digital solutions.
00:06:30
Speaker
By portfolio, the greatest spend on labour hire occurred in social services with a $125,000 per annum average per role cost across 2,479 roles. Followed by health, 157,000 per annum average cost per role across 801 roles. And then industry science and resources, 133,000 per annum.
00:06:57
Speaker
Annual average cost per roll across 481 rolls.
US Private Sector Employment Growth
00:07:04
Speaker
Employment in the US private sector rose by 296,000 jobs in April according to the ADP National Employment Report. Among the findings, pay growth for those staying in their jobs rose 6.7% in April and pay for those changing jobs was up 13.2%. The growth in pay for those changing jobs was the lowest since November 2021
00:07:26
Speaker
it had grown by 14.2% in March. In other labor market data, US job openings in March were at their lowest level, seasonally adjusted, since April 2021. Job openings fell by 384,000 or 3.8% in March.
00:07:52
Speaker
On to question of the week this week, Ross.
Strategies for Retained Work
00:07:56
Speaker
And our question is about retained work. In what circumstances should you pitch for retained work? Well, in my mind, it's all to do with the marketer deal. And if you're in a candidate short market,
00:08:14
Speaker
it's generally, and I do say generally, are not advisable to pitch for a retainer. So to give you a classic example, accounting, I used to recruit in accounting. In the market for chartered accountants working in chartered accounting firms, it's very much candidate driven. You could go to 25 chartered accounting firms, and each of them would have at least one job. Many of them would have two or three or four or five jobs on the go at any one time. So if you have a candidate who's an experienced chartered accountant,
00:08:43
Speaker
or even a CPA accountant, and they're happy to work inside an accounting practice, then you will be able to get those candidates interviews straight away. And in many cases, you'll get an offer for each of the interviews that the candidate goes to. So in those circumstances, you're tying yourself into a particular client when you pitch a retainer and they agree, because you're agreeing to deliver a result.
00:09:09
Speaker
And I just think that's very difficult in a candidate short market. So Rec2Recs would also be the same. And clearly as a Rec2Rec, you're going to be able to place every single good candidate that you interview, whereas taking a retainer from a client may be a little more problematic. OK, I think another circumstance to consider there, as I was thinking about it, was to make sure that you've got client commitment. You know, that is really critical. You've got to have a strong relationship with the client and they've got to have that sense of urgency.
00:09:39
Speaker
to want to fill the job because they could sign you up to a retained arrangement and then kind of sit back and go slow. And you are still going to do the same amount of work with the same sense of urgency, but lose candidates in that process, thus making it look like you can't fulfill the retained requirements. So I think it's really important if you're going to enter into retain work and pitch for it is to make sure the client understands their obligations and that they have a commitment to a
00:10:09
Speaker
you know, an outcome within a reasonable timeframe. You want to perhaps also use it where you've got a client base that is slow to respond. So it could be a way to push those clients that seem to take a long time to come back to you or make decisions. Perhaps getting them to pay some money upfront in a retained model could also work. I think that's another good circumstance where you do have a slow to respond sort of client base. I see that as a good environment. But
00:10:37
Speaker
When wouldn't you pitch for us? When would you not want to pitch for retained work? So just to add something to what you said before I move on to answer the question. The other...
00:10:48
Speaker
situation that really works is to test that it's a real job because if you've got a client who's sort of obfuscating about whether this is a real vacancy or not, there's no way they're going to pay a retainer, whereas they're only going to pay a retainer if it is a real job that they are committed to making an offer and having the candidate start.
Consultant Training on Retainers
00:11:09
Speaker
And I'm sure we've all had those circumstances I certainly have had where you've had this client that appears to be really keen to make higher
00:11:17
Speaker
And it's urgent, but it turns out there actually wasn't a real vacancy there. So it could be a way to call the bluff in a way, so to speak, is what you're saying. If you've got a doubt about a client's commitment, you could use it as a means of tying them in.
00:11:30
Speaker
Yeah, great. I think that's the perfect expression that they're all calling their bluff. So to answer your question, in what circumstances wouldn't I? Well, I hope it's pretty obvious, but temp and contract, I mean, it's clearly not really applicable in a temp and contract sense. It is for permanent recruitment. And I think panel arrangements, most
00:11:52
Speaker
recruiters who sign up to a panel arrangement are signing up to contingent, you know, to success only. And if you've signed up for that to go then and pitch for retainer might be something that will irritate the client. I'm certainly saying not in all circumstances, but certainly if you are intending to pitch, you want to have a pretty compelling case that the job that you're pitching a retainer for is an exceptional circumstance.
00:12:22
Speaker
to the normal arrangements of the panel. Yeah. And then I guess just to bring this to a conclusion, the little bit of additional advice we would give there would be to make sure that your consultants are well trained in the delivery of pitching retained work. They need to understand the finer points of the contract and the client's obligations and how to explain that to the client, how to work through that document and make sure the client understands exactly what they're agreeing to.
00:12:51
Speaker
that's going to be a critical element of some of the circumstance in which you'd pitch. Would you add to that anything to that, Ross? Well, yes, I'd add to that by saying that consultants should be trained firstly to evaluate an opportunity in terms of should I pitch for a retainer? So that's the first step, how to evaluate the opportunity. And then if the answer is yes, having evaluated the opportunity, yes, I want to pitch a retainer, then how to do it?
00:13:21
Speaker
how to handle the objections and how to ensure that the verbal agreement converts into a signature and the, uh, then agreement to send the first invoice because there could be a conversation that goes well and there's a verbal agreement, but that's not the end of it. It's the signing of the document to agree to that and everything that the retainer involves, including,
00:13:48
Speaker
Whether it's refundable in any circumstances or whether it's not. And I think that's an area where many, many recruitment agencies perhaps fall down a little. And making sure that you're explaining the benefits to the client, because that's the thing. It can seem very much like it's to our benefit and it's all about us, you know, locking some money away in the bank. But there are real benefits to the client of signing us up on a retained basis. So the recruiter needs to be able to deliver those and pitch to the client.
00:14:15
Speaker
Those certainly features as the contract says, but benefits to the client as well to really get it across the line.
00:14:22
Speaker
Without doubt, and the most important benefit, of course, is that the client gets the recruiter's undivided attention. The recruiter is accountable when the recruiter takes money upfront. They are saying, come hell or high water, I am going to fill this job. And that's the thing. The recruiter is putting their backside on the line to get that job filled, not just filled, but filled with a high quality person. And of course,
00:14:48
Speaker
The client's not paying anymore. When you're paying a retainer fee, yes, you're paying some money up front, but the total fee is not going to be any more than a contingent fee. So hopefully, convincing the client that there's a lot of value in that is something that will help the client say yes when the recruiter does pitch for a retainer. Great. Good discussion today, Ross. Thanks, Adele. That's a wrap.
00:15:13
Speaker
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