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Episode 112 - is the recruitment process broken
105 Plays7 days ago
Episode 112 - is the recruitment process broken
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Transcript
AI in Recruitment: Bullhorn Amplify's Impact
00:00:09
Speaker
Meet Bullhorn Amplify, the AI game changer for recruitment teams. It works 24-7 to match the skills of your top performers so you can fill roles faster, boost productivity and grow your business without growing your team.
00:00:23
Speaker
Amplify delivers 17% faster, submit times 22% higher fill rates and 49% better candidate matches. If you want to learn more, don't miss the upcoming webinar hosted by Bullhorn's COO and VP of Product,
00:00:37
Speaker
You can register for the webinar at the Bullhorn website.
Leadership Changes: Jared McLaughlin's New Venture
00:00:40
Speaker
This is the news for the 3rd of June 2025. Ross Clennett.
00:00:45
Speaker
Former Davidson Group senior partner in the search and advisory division, Jared McLaughlin, last week announced the establishment of his own search practice, Hazel Executive and Boards.
00:00:56
Speaker
Melbourne-based McLaughlin left Davidson two months ago after nearly eight and a half years, having previously worked for just over 10 years at Saks Consulting. He joined his former Saks colleague, Claire McCartan, at Davidson in January 2017. In his LinkedIn update, McLaughlin said Hazel specialises in executive and board appointments,
00:01:15
Speaker
and also provides a suite of advisory services. Many of McLaughlin's former responsibilities at Davidson have been taken on by Seamus Scanlon, who was promoted to senior partner search and advisory in February this year.
Job Seeker Frustrations: The Call for Salary Transparency
00:01:28
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McLaughlin's exit is the second senior departure from Davidson's Melbourne operations this year after Cameron Norton moved to SHK in April. Job seekers continue to be frustrated with employers who lack salary transparency when advertising vacancies.
00:01:45
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Indeed's recent survey of 1,027 working Australians between the ages of 18 to 64, excluding the self-employed, was conducted in partnership with YouGov, revealed 55% of respondents nominated unclear salary as the major thing employers got wrong when advertising a job.
00:02:03
Speaker
Second most significant employer mistake but was a frustrating or overly complex hiring process, with 24% of respondents said they would abandon an application process because it took too long.
00:02:14
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The three aspects of a job that are the most compelling for a job seeker are salary, flexibility and security. In terms of the recruitment process, a majority of respondents said two weeks is the maximum reasonable time from application to offer and after that their interest plummets.
00:02:30
Speaker
Nine out of ten candidates checked company reviews before applying with 56% saying positive and employee reviews increased their trust and likelihood to apply. 88% of Australian job seekers said they've applied for a role and never heard back.
Australian Work Models: Flexibility vs. Office Perks
00:02:44
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97% say salary transparency helps them decide if a role is worth applying for, with 63% of working age Australians say they are significantly more likely to apply for a job if the salary is clearly stated.
00:02:57
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With respect to flexible work, the most significant findings were 59% of respondents want hybrid work to stay, 28% want strict in-office rules gone where remote work is possible, 24% want employers to stop expecting them to answer emails outside work hours,
00:03:13
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and 19% want flexible hours. The most overrated office perk was table tennis tables and office games.
Adcorp Holdings: Financial Performance and Restructuring
00:03:22
Speaker
South Africa-based workforce management solutions company Adcorp Holdings, owner of local brands Paxos, Labor Solutions Australia and LSA Health, reported group revenue increased by 2% to $1.15 billion dollars for the full year period ending 28 February 2025.
00:03:39
Speaker
twenty twenty five Revenue was up 3.4% in constant currency and represented the third consecutive year of revenue growth. The Paxos business recorded 4.8% decline in sales to $347 million an 8.6% drop in gross profit, while and LSA Health reported sales rose 16% $190 million. The Australian businesses represent 47% of group sales.
00:03:56
Speaker
while lsa and lsa health reported sales rose sixteen percent to one hundred and ninety million dollars the australian businesses represent forty seven percent of total group sales Group operating profit rose 34.4% and after-tax profit was up 60% to $12.2 million. dollars Former AdCorp CEO Praneesh Prasad initiated a major restructuring of the Paxos business 12 months ago that led to the departure of long-time CEO Jason Trevevic and subsequently nearly a dozen other leaders and senior recruiters.
00:04:28
Speaker
Prasad departed AdCorp Australia five months ago. In its investor presentation, Adcourt noted early success in banking, government and digital sectors under the new model when outlining the changes at Paxos.
Accordant Group: Revenue Decline amid Economic Conditions
00:04:42
Speaker
New Zealand's publicly listed recruitment and labour hire firm Accordant Group reported full-year revenue of $165.2 million year ended March down on the prior year. The loss after tax of million dollars for the year represents an improvement um the prior year's loss of ten million dollars The company's white-collar brands, Madison Recruitment, Absolute IT, t Jackson Stone & Partners and Hobson Levy reported a 28.9% decline in sales to $92.5 million, dollars while blue-collar brands AWF and the Work Collective reported a sales drop of 11.6% to $72.8 million. dollars
00:05:25
Speaker
The company said recessionary conditions and reductions in government expenditure affected hiring activity. In its estimate of the online job advertising market, staffing industry analysts forecast global revenue of $34.2 billion dollars this year in its just-released online job advertising market 2025 update report.
00:05:48
Speaker
That's down from its peak of $36.1 billion 2022, but up from revenue $33.9 billion. but up from twenty twenty four s revenue of thirty three point nine billion SIA describes the online job advertising industry as a collection of websites and applications that enable employers to advertise local, national and international job listings.
00:06:07
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SIA said the online job advertising market is dominated by two firms, Microsoft's LinkedIn and Recruit Holdings Indeed. Combined, these two firms held 50% of global market share in 2024.
00:06:20
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Though the standard job board model is still the largest in terms of the number of market participants, It now shares leadership in terms of market size by revenue with job aggregators and social media job sites.
00:06:30
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According to the report, the market is also being addressed by a variety of other newer business models.
Remote Work Study: Tempo BPO in Turkey
00:06:40
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Academics from Stanford University, King's College London and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development have found significant recruitment, retention and productivity benefits to fully remote work in research published yesterday.
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ah large call centre in Turkey, Tempo BPO, moved its entire frontline workforce of 3,500 agents to fully remote in March 2020 and chose to remain fully remote even after the COVID lockdowns had been lifted.
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Using detailed personnel and performance data over four years, the study found that remote work had two key benefits for the firm. First, it increased productivity, primarily by allowing to employees to work in quieter home conditions with fewer interruptions.
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Secondly, it enabled the firm to hire better educated and more experienced workers without raising wages by hiring more women outside metropolitan areas. An additional finding was that fully remote workers who had three months of initial in-person training had superior long-run performance and retention.
00:07:40
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The major recruitment benefit was a widening of the talent pool without increasing costs. The share of married women in the company rose substantially, reflecting the appeal of home-based jobs in a context where Turkish social norms discourage married women from working outside the home.
00:07:56
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At the same time, the firm saw a sharp rise in hires from smaller towns where commuting constraints had previously excluded many potential workers. Notably, Tempo BPO was also able to hire more university graduates and experienced workers, all while keeping wages flat as the firm offers the national minimum wage regardless of location.
Fair Work Commission Case: Genuine Redundancy Dispute
00:08:18
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A worker has won a claim against his former employer in the Fair Work Commission after proving his redundancy was not genuine by presenting evidence including the discovery of a job advertisement in another country that appeared to match his position exactly.
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He also pointed to the timing of his dismissal, which occurred shortly after he had requested a salary increase and lodged general protections and workplace bullying applications. The worker started employment in July 2022 as an accounts receivable manager with a company that provided administrative services to a private higher education institution.
00:08:52
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Throughout his two-year employment, he received no performance appraiss appraisals or pay adjustments despite requesting feedback. After an email he sent to the CEO requesting a salary increase received no response, the worker discovered an advertisement on an Indian job site for a senior accounts receivable manager position that matched his job description exactly, including additional duties he had recently outlined to his manager.
00:09:16
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The FWC established the dismissal was not a genuine redundancy and was unfair. The FWC awarded the worker six weeks' compensation, totaling just over $8,500,000.
00:09:27
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significantly less than the maximum 26 weeks available. The reduced amount reflected the deteriorated employment relationship and the workers' two-year service period.
US Military Recruitment: Strategies and Spending
00:09:38
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The United States military has spent over $6 billion dollars in the past three years to recruit and keep service members, according to data shared by the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.
00:09:48
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The money went into bonuses and programs aimed at reversing a drop in enlistment, especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, when lockdowns limited recruiters access to schools and public events.
00:09:59
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The Navy spent more than any other service, even though it is smaller than the Army. The US Army had the most challenges with recruitment over the last decade, but has recently made a strong recovery. A major success in its recruitment strategy has been the Future Soldier Prep course launched in August 2022.
00:10:16
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The program offers lower performing recruits up to 90 days of academic or fitness training before the commencement of basic training, which has helped bring thousands of men and women up to entry standard. Across the services, bonuses continue to be offered in a range of hard to fill roles in cyber, intelligence, special operations and certain combat jobs.
New Entrants: Talentify Partners in the Recruitment Scene
00:10:37
Speaker
Rebecca Lazar and George Blias last week launched Talentify Partners, a Melbourne-based recruitment agency. Lazar has 17 years recruitment experience with stints at Two Scots Recruitment, Morgan Consulting and Randstad, where she most recently was the Victorian State Manager of for Banking and Finance.
00:10:56
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Blias has worked for eight employers across 13 years in the recruitment industry, including Insure Recruitment, People Bank, Fuse Recruitment, Manpower, Robert Walters, Ethos Beach Chapman,
00:11:07
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and most recently, Randstad. Talentify partners will recruit roles across accounting and finance, business support and customer service, audit risk compliance and IT.
Innovative Recruitment Processes: Addressing Inefficiencies
00:11:18
Speaker
And that's the news for the 3rd of June 2025. I'm Adele Last. Stay tuned now for Question of the Week.
00:11:31
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Question of the Week. Is the recruitment process broken? I think we have to say to some extent, yes, Ross. I agree, Adele.
00:11:42
Speaker
Yes, absolutely yes. And we both know why we're saying this today, don't we? Yeah, we reported in the news today, but it's from lots of research, obviously, and and the most recent report from Indeed confirms that ah job seekers have lots to complain about in relation to the recruitment process.
00:12:04
Speaker
um lots Lots of factors there. Unclear salary, complex process and lack of clear communication were the top three and these are not new. Same old, same old Adele. Like I've been looking at these surveys for years or the results of these surveys and year after year, no matter who's doing the survey, the same things come up.
00:12:30
Speaker
Candidates want more transparent salary information. They're incredibly frustrated with the process that they have to go through. And as you said in the news, many are just simply abandoning their application process because they're just so frustrated with it.
00:12:49
Speaker
And then they find that it's three or four interviews or they never hear back. And these things just keep repeating themselves. Yeah, there are a couple of things that really surprised me from this recent research. It's around...
00:13:04
Speaker
um the overly complicated process and and job seekers wanting that to be as simple as possible. And I get that. And any job seeker would want to have an answer as quickly as possible.
00:13:15
Speaker
The two weeks surprised me. You know, they want to turn around time from application to offer of two weeks. And I think that's, you know, whilst not unrealistic, it seemed pretty tight to me, um given that most, you know, employers are probably taking closer to six weeks and we know recruitment agencies turn it around faster. But Two weeks still seem pretty tight.
00:13:37
Speaker
Yeah, ah I mean, clearly for a lower skilled job, that's probably a reasonable expectation. For a more senior role, that would be unreasonable,
00:13:48
Speaker
But it's just not necessary for many jobs. I mean, I'll just give you a very simple example at a but sort of lower skill level. And this you can read about on the ABC website. And it's the case of a restaurant owner in Queenscliff on the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria.
00:14:09
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so frustrated with the high turnover of young hospitality workers, he thought he would go in the complete opposite direction and he wanted to get older workers or maybe retired or discouraged members of the workforce.
00:14:22
Speaker
He letterboxed the whole local government area. And he didn't ask people to apply for a job or send a resume. He simply said, I'm looking for workers for these particular types of jobs in my restaurant.
00:14:37
Speaker
Here is when you will be able to find me in my restaurant. Come to the restaurant to talk to me about the opportunities. You do not need to bring a resume. You do not need to make an appointment.
00:14:50
Speaker
Just turn up. I'll chat to you. I'll explain the job. I'll ask you some questions and we'll go from there. And how do you think he went, Adele? Oh, I'd love to know. What was the result?
00:15:01
Speaker
He filled all of the jobs and he has a waiting list of other older Australians who would love to work in his restaurant. Almost all of them, no previous hospo experience.
00:15:15
Speaker
See, it's not difficult. You've just got to think a bit differently. He knew that uploading a resume and applying for a job was going to be a bar to the type of workers he was after applying for the job. Because most people, it's like, oh, well, I don't have hospitality experience. They won't um they won't take me.
00:15:38
Speaker
or I don't really know what that job involves because I've never worked in that sector. And he understood that they were barriers and he removed them and he gained the benefit. It really doesn't have to be difficult. You can take an innovative approach and still fill all of your vacancies and more importantly, keep those vacancies filled because yeah that's what he's been able to do.
00:16:01
Speaker
Well, it's interesting you use the word innovative there, but, you know, that was probably historically how most jobs were filled prior to the recruitment industry becoming um a really big part of the employment sector. You know, people would just, you know, find out from others, find out from someone down the pub that a job was going somewhere and a company was employing and they would just present themselves for that job. They would rock up. And and look, we know this is the case because we know in the early stages of the recruitment sector forming, candidates would walk in and and those of you that are listening that are perhaps similar vintage to Ross and myself will know that we had application forms, you know, candidates used to walk in they had to fill an application form in because they didn't readily have resumes or they would come in and um walk in and present themselves um what we call walk-ins, you know, and that was a really common thing, you know, there were recruitment agencies with shop fronts so that candidates could walk before we went into big buildings and, and you know, hid ourselves away. so
00:17:00
Speaker
That process, whilst, yes, innovative in 2025, historically, you know, exactly where we started in some ways.
00:17:11
Speaker
Well, time to hire continues to blow out, Adele. I don't have recent data in front of me, but when I wrote about it maybe last year or the year before my blog, time to hire had increased.
00:17:21
Speaker
And this is the problem with um so many barriers to people applying, internal recruiters who are not specialists in any particular role. So it's harder for them to identify candidates that they should be screening or bringing in for interview.
00:17:36
Speaker
internal recruiters overloaded with job requisitions, all of these things are creating significant barriers to jobs getting filled.
00:17:47
Speaker
And I just find it so frustrating because it's so predictable. It's really interesting that even, you know, that example you gave being at, I guess, hospitality level, maybe a little bit more entry level, people might listen to this might say, well, that works for that kind of sector. You could do that retail, you know, that sort of environment.
00:18:06
Speaker
But I think we really want to challenge people's thought process on that because it doesn't have to be the case. I'm sure there are a lot of highly skilled, highly qualified, educated candidates who just can't be bothered jumping through the hoops. They don't apply because they can't be bothered with the process because it is over ah overtly, you know, complicated and complex. So, you know, it could happen at any level position in some cases. I know that was just that example, but it requires a level of openness and, as you said, transparency,
00:18:36
Speaker
for the employer putting themselves out there. I mean, this guy who owns the the the restaurant in Queenscliff had to make himself available for anyone that was just going to rock up that day. He had to put himself out there. He had to go through the uncomfortable process of potentially rejecting somebody face-to-face, saying to them, look, I don't think you're right for this, you know, role.
00:18:56
Speaker
um So that's that's what most people are trying to, hot you know, get away from or hide from, really. That's that's part of why it's broken.
00:19:07
Speaker
And to that point, phone numbers have largely disappeared from ads. Not completely. I certainly still see ads with someone you can call to speak to about the vacancy. But with SEEK years ago wanting to capture candidate records and candidate resumes, they, i won't say they're discouraged, but certainly I don't think it's any surprise that with the rise of SEEK, people putting phone numbers on were recruiters or hiring managers putting phone numbers on ads, it's largely disappeared.
00:19:41
Speaker
Because if someone rings and you like the sound of them, then you'll just give them your email address and they'll send the resume straight away rather than going through si so just bringing back phone numbers to at least help or to encourage people to go, i don't want to apply. yeah I'll just call someone. I just want to ask about the salary or ask about this and that.
00:20:06
Speaker
And I know so many recruiters are like, oh, you know, don't the time – time taken up by talking to candidates on the phone. But frankly, I think that's a positive, not a negative, yet it's seen or has largely been seen as a negative recruit by recruiters and they're hiding behind just send your application as a way of being efficient. But I don't think it's efficient at all. I'm going to recruiters a little bit on this one because I do know a recruiter who I actually just spoke to recently
00:20:36
Speaker
who for his whole career has always put his phone number on the ad and in fact put some very explicit instructions to candidates to say most people don't ring up about a job. If you want to stand out, here's my number.
00:20:49
Speaker
He actually goes to the extent of saying to them, here's a way to make yourself stand out. And do you know how many people call him when he advertises any job? Oh, no, 10 or 15.
00:21:00
Speaker
He'd be lucky to get one or two. per job ad at any level. Really? Even when he's encouraging Even when he's telling people call, they still don't call. So this might be a societal thing. This might be about the fact that none of us want to be on the phone, recruiter or applicant alike, but it does still add to this model of it being broken in terms of that lack of communication, lack of connection, transparency, ability to be able to keep the process moving at pace, all of those things.
00:21:29
Speaker
Well, I think in management consulting speak, the current system or current recruitment process has a lot of friction. And the example I gave of the restaurant owner was reducing friction.
00:21:43
Speaker
It's just the person got the card in their letterbox and they're like, oh, that sounds like something I'm interested in. I'll drive to the restaurant or walk to the restaurant and I'll have a chat to the guy.
00:21:58
Speaker
and If only more people who are responsible for the recruitment in their organisation, and this is mainly inside companies, I'm not excluding completely our industry, but I think it's more the corporate area that's probably more responsible. If they just thought a little bit more like, how do I get the best person rather than how do I efficiently process each job, they might actually get somewhere.
00:22:27
Speaker
Yeah, hopefully we've challenged you with a bit of food for thought around that. And as you said, maybe it's not our industry as such, but maybe you can challenge your client around how quickly and and less complicatedly they could make make the process move for candidates that are applying.
00:22:44
Speaker
Well, let's face it, Adele, the bonus for the recruitment industry is if our ah clients are so terrible and have put off so many candidates, that means that when they can't get the job filled, who do they call? They have to call their favourite local recruiter. So maybe all of this inefficiency with the broken recruitment process for our clients is a good thing for our industry.
00:23:07
Speaker
Okay, interesting point.