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Episode 116 - Are you a TechnoEmpath?
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Episode 116 - Are you a TechnoEmpath?
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Transcript
Introduction to Bullhorn Amplify and AI in Recruitment
00:00:09
Speaker
Have you checked out Bullhorn Amplify? It's the AI game changer for recruitment teams. Amplify delivers 17% faster submit times, 22% higher fill rates, 49% better candidate matches.
00:00:22
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If you want to boost your productivity, visit the Bullhorn website to learn more about Amplify.
Job Vacancies Increase in July 2025
00:00:28
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This is the news for the 1st of July, 2025. I'm Ross Klenit. The total number of job vacancies in May was 339,400, a rise of 2.9% from the February 2025 result, according to seasonally adjusted data released by the ABS last Thursday.
00:00:46
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Private sector hiring led the rise with an increase of 3.2% compared to public sector hiring, which rose by only 0.6%. Compared to May last year, total vacancies declined 2.8%.
00:00:58
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two point eight <unk> On a state and territory basis, Victoria's 7% rise in vacancies was the largest, with Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT also recording quarter-on-quarter vacancy rises.
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Eight out of 18 sectors recorded quarter-on-quarter rises in vacancies, with the construction sector's 20.5% jump leading the way, although compared to May last year, construction vacancies were down
Sector-Specific Vacancy Trends
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10.4%.
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The largest quarter-on-quarter falls were in wholesale trade, down 13%, and electricity, gas, water and waste services, down 12%. Compared to a year ago, job vacancies decreased in 10 industries, with the most significant decline in electricity, gas, water and waste services, down 24%. Sean Crick, ABS Head of Labor Statistics said, the rise in job vacancies was driven by industries with a high proportion of skilled workers, including professional scientific and technical services and construction.
Refugee Employment Challenges in Australia
00:01:58
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A decade after arriving in Australia, many refugees who were managers' and professionals in their home countries, continue to struggle to find work at the same level, experiencing what a new report by the Australian Institute of Family Studies describes as an occupational downgrade.
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Lead author of the report, John Van Coy, told SBS News, We looked at the jobs they were doing before they arrived in Australia and the jobs they've been able to secure or go for in Australia over that 10-year period.
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We found there was a major drop-off. We're calling it occupational downgrading, which basically means for those that were working in professional and managerial roles before coming to Australia, in sectors like business, HR and IT, t many of those individuals, even after 10 years of permanent residency in Australia, weren't able to find the same level of employment or occupational status, Fang Koi said.
00:02:51
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Around 2,400 humanitarian migrants were surveyed over 10 years after their first visas were granted in 2013. Most of the participants were from Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and Myanmar, reflecting the humanitarian intake that year.
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According to the study, 30% of employed women and 19% of employed men had worked in managerial or professional roles before arriving in Australia. That dropped to 17% and 10% respectively after 10 years of residency.
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The occupational downgrade was starker for women, with 67% who had been managers or professionals in their home countries, not in paid work in Australia. The women who were employed typically held jobs as carers, cleaners, education aides or sales assistants.
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After 10 years of permanent residence in Australia, the participation rate for refugee men, 63%, almost reached parity with those of Australian-born men. However, only 39% of refugee women were in the labour force.
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Around one-fifth of the study participants started their own business or transitioned into self-employment over the 10-year period, which is higher than the self-employment rate for the Australian-born population.
Incentives for Construction Workers in WA
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A cash bonus scheme to attract tradies to work in the building and construction sector in WA has been extended after more than 300 workers accepted the offer.
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The Build A Life in WA incentive provides building and construction workers up to $10,000 to move to WA. According to the WA government, a total of 1,019 skilled workers have submitted a claim or are currently having their claim assessed with 361 already having received their first milestone payment of $5,000. We're thrilled so many have taken the opportunity to make the move to help meet the demand of Western Australia's booming construction industry, said WA Premier Roger Cook in a statement.
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Last week, the WA State Government announced an investment of $25.2 million dollars in its wage subsidy program aimed at helping building and construction employers recruit new tradies.
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The program, Group Training Organisation Wage Subsidy, helps cover employers' costs associated with hiring an apprentice or trainee.
CareerBuilder and Monster Bankruptcy
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In a major shake-up for the global recruitment landscape, CareerBuilder and Monster once dominant players in online job listings have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US.
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The announcement reported last Tuesday by Reuters confirms that the company will sell off key parts of its business signalling the end of an era for two of the most iconic job platforms. This development follows the September 2024 merger of CareerBuilder and Monster, a strategic move aimed at regaining market share loss to more agile competitors, including LinkedIn, Indeed and ZipRecruiter.
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Despite this consolidation, the company has struggled amid rising competition from aggregator platforms and social media, as well as challenging macroeconomic conditions. As part of its bankruptcy restructuring, the company's job board operations will be sold to JobGet, a gig worker platform.
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Government software services will go to Velsoft, a Canadian enterprise software company, and niche content sites, military.com and fastweb.com will be sold to Canadian media firm, Velnet.
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All sales are subject to court approval and a potentially higher bids. The company reported $50 to $100 million dollars in assets and $100 million to $500 million dollars in debts and is seeking $20 million dollars in financing to continue operations during bankruptcy.
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While the US s businesses are now slated for sale, the company is also evaluating strategic alternatives for its international operations, a sign that more sales or wind downs may follow.
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A spokesperson for CareerBuilder and Monster declined to comment on how many employees will be laid off or whether any current staff will remain with the business after the breakup.
Impact of Seek Ending API with Employment Hero
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Seek has announced it will be ending its API integration with Employment Hero effective from the 25th of August this year.
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The decision marks a significant shift in how Employment Hero customers will manage job postings, applicant tracking, and talent sourcing. Historically, Employment Hero users could seamlessly post job listings to Seek through its applicant tracking system.
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However, as of June 2023, Employment Hero implemented a change required requiring users to obtain a Seek Hirer ID and Advertiser ID to post on the platform, leading to updates to applicant information and job statuses being unable to be synchronized between the two platforms.
00:07:23
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Seek's decision to pull its API access from Employment Hero's platform is expected to impact users who have relied on the integrated functionality and indicates a shift in the company's strategic priorities, having recently sold a significant proportion of its stake in Employment Hero,
00:07:38
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for $95 million dollars to KKR, a global investment firm.
Recruitment Scams Involving Gaydens Law Firm
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Australian law firm Gaydens has issued a warning to the public after discovering that its name was being used in connection with an employment scam in the United States.
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The firm became aware that its name was being used to manipulate and target individuals through fraudulent recruitment practices. Please be advised that Gaydens is not conducting any recruitment outside Australia and is not affiliated with any overseas hiring or job offer communications, it said in a statement.
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According to the ACCC, job and employment scams are targeted to obtain money and personal information by deception, with scammers often impersonating legitimate businesses or well-known recruitment agencies.
AI's Limited Impact on Workforce Planning
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ACCC Deputy Chair Katrina Lowe claimed the issue is highly prevalent across Australia, with reported losses of $24.3 million dollars in
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55% of organisations in Australia and New Zealand say that AI has not impacted their workforce planning according to a survey by Talent International. The survey also reports that only 12% of organisations plan to hire an AI specialist or leader over the next 12 to 18 months.
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Meanwhile, only 5% of survey participants feel their organisation is responding to the changing AI landscape extremely well. Looking ahead, the sentiment amongst business leaders is optimistic, as 90% believe AI will have a positive impact on their team's work over the next two years.
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This is higher than the sentiment for workers, with only 63% believing will will positively impact their role in the next two years. Talent International surveyed 864 business leaders and tech professionals in New Zealand and Australia.
00:09:21
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Randstad Australia has announced it is passing on the workforce retention payment to its agency-employed early childhood education and care workers, including casual educators, early childhood teachers and cooks.
Retention Payments for Childcare Workers
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The world's largest staffing firm is the first education recruitment firm to publicly confirm this commitment. The WRP is a federal government initiative delivered through childcare subsidy channels to eligible early childcare workers.
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Although agencies do not receive the childcare subsidy directly, workers supplied through labour hire arrangements remain eligible for the WRP if they are placed at approved services. Matt Hodges, National Director of Education, Health and Social Science at Randstad,
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said the payments are integrated into regular wages, reflecting the government's intention of a 10% uplift in the first year of the scheme and a further 5% in the second. And that's the news for the 1st of July 2025.
The Rise of the 'Techno Empath' in Recruitment
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Adele Last.
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Stay tuned now for Question of the Week.
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um
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Question of the week this week is, are you techno empath? Techno empath is a phrase that Greg Savage has coined.
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And just so people can understand what that means, let's read out what Greg says. The techno empath is highly evolved in the use of technology.
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Indeed, they welcome it. A techno empath is AI literate, embraces CRM and ATS, uses them to their full extent. They understand and use data analytics, and adopt with vigour the use of all ai and automation tools implemented, including search technologies, video interviewing and assessment tools.
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But the techno empath, Ross, is a perfect blend of art and science. It's not just the techno side, there is the empath. So to complement the technology, the techno empath has superb interpersonal skills, they can build relationships, they're an enthusiastic networker, they've got advanced listening skills,
00:11:30
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They're able to ask incisive questions and understand real motivations. In fact, they have personal morals, ethics and empathy that AI most definitely lacks.
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So what do you think, Adele? Is Greg on to something here? The techno empath is the super recruiter. A super recruiter. Well, we've certainly got to be paying attention to this and I applaud Greg. I love a new phrase to describe ah different way we might think about our job.
00:11:59
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So what do you think? are you are you on board with the phrase techno empath? I do think it's a great phrase as well. I think people listening and reading Greg's article, would encourage you to go and have a look at his article at gregsavage.com.au.
00:12:13
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There is a great table there which has the two um sides of this role listed, including the skills. And I think I fall definitely, and as Greg says himself, more on the empath side. I think many of us who've been in recruitment for some time will see ourselves more on the empath side rather than the techno side. But it's a really good shining light on where you might sit and what what you need to develop. You know, if you sit more on one side, you need to develop skills on the other And vice versa, if you're a more recent um the recruiter, more recently joined the industry, you might um ah relate relate to the techno side and need to develop the empath skills more so.
Balancing Technology and Empathy in Recruitment
00:12:58
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I'd say as a sort of generalisation, that's absolutely true. The um people who have come up through the relationship-based focus of recruitment agency recruitment, I think will still do well. But if they're not moving with the times and understanding how technology can improve their effectiveness, then they're probably going to be ah left behind.
00:13:26
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And I think overall, this will probably apply slightly differently according to what sector you're recruiting in. So if you're in a sector where there's a high degree of, let's call it human element, then the human element in recruitment will probably be disproportionately important.
00:13:46
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Yeah, I agree with that as well. And if we think about an example of that being perhaps in something like childcare, if you think about a childcare worker as a role function, as humans, we would have a preference to have a human care for our children. You know, we're not at the stage where we feel comfortable that you'd have a room with cameras and some robots roaming around while your child is being cared for in that room.
00:14:10
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We understand the need to have that human to human contact. So we want a human in the room. So I think you're right in saying in assessing the right human for that room, ah it needs to be another human.
00:14:22
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We need the human element of, you know, judgment and decision making and assessment of human skills to accurately assess whether that person is going to be the right person for the job. I'd say ultimately, yes.
00:14:35
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um But we do have to be careful of what we assume is the preference of customers or consumers going forward. So to give you a specific example, there was research published um on the website livescience.com and the headline, people find ai more compassionate than mental health experts study finds.
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And what this study found was that the participants found that the generative ai who was providing counselling responses was more compassionate and understanding than mental health experts. Even when participants knew that they were talking to either a human or an AI, people rated the AI responses higher. So what do you reckon that might be, Adele?
00:15:32
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That's so surprising to me because for most people you speak to nowadays, they're all still saying, I'd rather talk to a human. We talk about hate, you know, hating having to talk to, you know, hold, you know, bots that, you know, transfer us through to, you know, different people in an organization, all these kind of things. we We avoid where we can interacting with the bots and yet this study is saying something different.
00:15:54
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ah It is, and I suspect um that people might guess the first reason why, and that is, of course, a generative AI responder does not have judgment.
00:16:07
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They're just simply asking questions. They're not providing the experience of being judged that, of course, a human may inadvertently do in a counselling role.
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And then the second thing which is completely understandable, is that the generative AI had perfect recollection of that particular client's personal circumstances.
00:16:31
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If you're a human counsellor, I mean, you must see 15, 20, maybe 25 week It's easy to conflate someone with somebody else, to not remember critical pieces of information.
00:16:44
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You may have notes in front of you, but how how good are those notes? Whereas, as of course, the generative AI had perfect recall, knew everything or could um reach back into the history of the conversation and appropriately draw on something that had been known from those discussions. So I think that sort of research finding turns a lot of people's perceptions about the future of what we might call human work on its head.
00:17:16
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Yeah, I think there are a lot of us sitting there saying, well, you know, so much tech has come and gone on in recruitment. We're safe. We're going to be fine. We don't need to evolve to that same level. We'll use the tech for where it's useful. And, you know, most people are using chat GPT or something similar to that in their current work day every day at the moment or tools that automate and all those sorts of things. But the reality is we're saying to ourselves, well, it's not going to help in an interview. It's not going to help in a client visit, you know.
00:17:43
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ah can't say to the client, oh, hang on, ah in that negotiation discussion, just hang on a moment, let me pop it into chat GPT and see what it advises I should say. so you're going to have to use those human elements at the moment, you know. We know that that's what we're sitting behind. But I guess this kind of um this kind of phrase and term that Greg has has introduced and the thought process behind it is about trying to challenge your thought on saying, don't sit back and think that you're going to be safe by continuing to say, we don't, you know, we're not going to use the bots in those areas. There are so many elements where we won't. We know that, but it's going to be choice, but there'll be so many that you need to make sure your techno empath side of your, you know, the techno side of your empath profile is as high as it can be.
00:18:28
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ah i've I've got no doubt. And what will be fascinating will be to see the sort of investment that the large recruitment agencies do in both those areas. Because if you look at the share prices of Hayes, Robert Walters, Michael Page, they're all at 15-year lows.
00:18:46
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And I suspect... The analysts are looking at those businesses going, what's your future? Like, how are you going to use tech to get back to the productivity levels of the past?
00:18:57
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And this, to me, is one of the critical things that will define techno-empath business. you will see the productivity of those recruiters will be like three or four times the productivity rate of like an average recruiter.
Future of Super Recruiters
00:19:15
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And that differential is probably not that high at the moment, but I suspect you're going to get the top 10 to 15% will be just so, so, so much better than the average recruiter that it'll really make a massive difference in terms of agency profitability.
00:19:34
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So we get back to the top of our conversation where I said, you know, it's the super recruiter. it generally you're right It really is somebody at that elite level that's beyond perhaps what we can even fathom in today's market because we think that, as I said, we're just relying on our empath skills, our personal skills that are, that you know, what we feel are the differentiation.
00:19:54
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um But there is going to be so much tech that's going to impact that, that we need to make sure, as I said, that we're balancing both. So, Ask yourself the question, are you a techno empath? Go and check out Greg's article and we'd love to hear what your thoughts are on this topic.