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Episode 111 - Talent X 2025 Summary
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Episode 111 Talent X 2025 Summary
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Transcript
AI Agents Transforming Business Efficiency
00:00:10
Speaker
Hey Ross, did you know Bullhorn can help you grow your business without growing your workforce? I did Adele, they're called AI agents. Recruitment AI agents can do everything your workforce does today, source, screen and qualify candidates to get new job orders, chase timesheets for approvals and answer payroll questions.
00:00:29
Speaker
These AI agents and assistants elevate your recruiters to focus on what they do best at every step of the recruitment process so that your agency can fill placements faster. Contact Bullhorn today about AI everywhere.
2025 RCSA Awards Winners Announced
00:00:43
Speaker
And this is the news for the 27th of May, 2025. I'm Adele Last. The winners of the 2025 RCSA Awards for Australia were announced at the Rec Gala last Thursday in Sydney.
00:00:55
Speaker
The winners were Excellence in Business Innovation, DNA Recruitment Solutions, Excellence in Candidate Care to Horner, Excellence in Client Service, Beaumont People.
00:01:06
Speaker
Excellence in DEI and Belonging, Vertical Scope Group. Excellence in Safety and Wellbeing Culture, Chandler McLeod. And Excellence in Social Purpose went to Launch. Outstanding Boutique Agency was Woodford Group.
00:01:19
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Outstanding Medium Agency was Horner. Outstanding Large Agency went to People to People. Rising Star Award went to Anna Jane Dargy of Zeep Medical. Recruitment Professional went to Laura Fraser of Fraser Tremble.
00:01:33
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and the recruitment leader was announced as Danielle Johnson of Sirius. The New Zealand winners will be announced on the 12th of June in Auckland.
Challenges in Recruitment Activity
00:01:42
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Jobs and Skills Australia's latest recruitment experiences and outlook survey results show that national recruitment activity has picked up over the last three months, despite falling by one percentage point to 48% in April.
00:01:56
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In smooth terms, the recruitment rate is now trending upwards. Recruitment activity also remains consistent with levels recorded a year ago. The proportion of employers reporting recruitment difficulty rose sharply by 12 points to 53% in April this year, the same level as April last year.
00:02:15
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This was more common in non-capital city areas and for higher skilled roles. The proportion of recruiting employers who were unable to fill their vacancies within a month increased by 9 percentage points to 46% in April.
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Employers were more optimistic in April about increasing their staffing in the next three months, with 23% forecasting a headcount increase, a three-point rise compared to March.
00:02:41
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The monthly JSA survey of 1,000 employers covers predominantly private businesses with five or more staff.
New Zealand's Economic Stability
00:02:48
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The New Zealand unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.1% in the March quarter compared to the December 2024 quarter, according to the latest labour market update from Statistics New Zealand.
00:03:01
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The seasonally adjusted number of unemployed people also remained steady at 156,000. The participation rate dropped 0.1% to 70.8%. the participation rate dropped point one per percent to seventy point eight per percent The year to the March 2025 quarter, average ordinary time hourly earnings increased up to $42.79, up 4.5%, with public sector wages rising by 5.8% and private sector wages climbing by 4.2%.
SEEK's Financial Outlook
00:03:29
Speaker
SEEK announced its full year 2025 revenue, EBITDA and adjusted profit are all likely to be in the top half of its guidance ranges. Company forecast revenue in the range of $1.06 to $1.1 billion. dollars EBITDA is expected to be in the range of $440 to $470 million, dollars while a adjusted profit is projected to be in the range of $135 to $160 million. dollars SEEK also forecast that the ANZ segment's recent ad-tier upgrade is expected to support low double-digit yield growth in the current financial year when compared to the previous financial year.
00:04:06
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It added that the decline in job ad volumes has continued to stabilise in recent months and this trend is expected to continue.
Leadership Changes at Manpower Group
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Manpower Group has promoted two long-time executives.
00:04:19
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The world's third largest staffing firm named Becky Frankowitz as President and Chief Strategy Officer and Ger Doyle as Regional President North America.
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Frankowitz will lead the company's strategy in her new roles including innovation, commercial strategy and ai Frankowitz will also oversee development and execution of strategic plans across the company's three brands, Manpower, Experius and Talent Solutions.
00:04:47
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Doyle succeeds Frankowitz as the Regional President of North America and will oversee the operations of all Manpower Group brands across the US and Canada. Both promotions take effect on the 1st of June.
Job Security vs. Remote Work Preferences
00:04:59
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majority of workers globally say they would choose a more secure job over the ability to work remotely, according to research from Randstad. The research showed 67% of workers would choose greater employability, defined as the ability to stay relevant, skilled and secure in a changing job market, over remote working options.
00:05:19
Speaker
At the same time, 59% of respondents said they would choose greater employability over a more inspiring or exciting role. Even among fully remote workers, 51% still favour employability over the flexibility to work remotely.
00:05:34
Speaker
This climbs to 63% among hybrid workers and 71% among those fully on site. Workers also prioritise less stress over pay, according to the report.
00:05:46
Speaker
40% have accepted lower paying roles to reduce stress and 43% have accepted a role with limited progression opportunities, but better work-life balance. When it comes to flexibility, workers say they prioritise their ability to determine working hours, with 59% preferring this autonomy over a higher salary, while 56% say they would rather have control of their working hours than their working location.
00:06:12
Speaker
Randstad's Work Monitor poll survey collected responses from 5,250 respondents in Australia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, UK and the US between the 28th of March and the 9th of April this year.
Australia’s Population Growth and Demographic Shifts
00:06:28
Speaker
The latest ABS population data release shows Australia's population 27.3 million <unk>tieth of september twenty twenty four The national population grew 484,300 people, 78.3%. the five years, the population grown 1.6 million people, which 6.2%.
00:06:44
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In the year ending 30th of 2024, net overseas migration 379,800 people,
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in the past five years a population has grown by one point six million people which is six point two percent in the year ending thirtieth of september twenty twenty four net oversees migration was three hundred and seventy nine thousand eight hundred people which was a decline of 31.7% compared to the corresponding period the year prior.
00:07:10
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The national population increase, live births minus deaths, was 104,200, which is closest to the lowest level ever on record. Western Australia at 2.5% and Victoria at 2.1% retained their respective places as Australia's fastest growing and second fastest growing state or territory.
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Tasmania recorded the lowest rate of population growth at just 0.3%. Queensland remained the number one destination for interstate moves with a net gain of 28,201 interstate residents.
00:07:41
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And New South Wales remained the state or territory that suffered the most from interstate relocations with a net loss of 29,500 residents.
OECD Unemployment Trends
00:07:51
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The average unemployment rate across the 38-member OECD remained broadly stable in March, edging up to 4.9% from 4.8% in February, according to new data released by the Paris-based organisation.
00:08:06
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The number of unemployed people in the OECD increased slightly to 34.2 million March, up from 33.9 million in February. up from thirty three point nine million in february Compared with February, the unemployment rate remained unchanged in 23 countries, while it rose in five nations and declined in four, according to the report.
00:08:24
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Five countries also had monthly unemployment rates close to record lows, including Turkey, which recorded a rate of 7.9%, its lowest level in more than 20 years.
Companies' Readiness for AI Adaptation
00:08:36
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Most companies lack a talent strategy to navigate the rapid transformation of artificial intelligence in the workplace. according to a survey by the ADECO Group, the world's second largest staffing firm.
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Despite a rise in AI investments, the survey, which polled 2,000 C-suite leaders across 13 countries and 17 industries, found that only 10% of companies are future-ready and have structured plans in place to support workers build skills and lead through AI's disruption.
00:09:05
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Companies also expect their employees to adapt to AI without direction, with 60% of respondents believing that workers are responsible for updating their AI skills. This is despite 34% of firms having no policy for using AI in the workplace.
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The survey's respondents ranked workforce strategies that cannot keep pace with AI disruption as the top talent risk to business growth, with 53% of CEOs saying their teams struggle to align on strategies in a timely manner.
00:09:33
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CEOs are also failing to act as role models for employees with only a third of leaders saying they've engaged in developing their own AI capabilities over the past 12 months, the survey said. The research also found that just 33% of companies are investing in data to understand and close skills gaps, despite skills shortages being the top barrier to digital transformation in 2025. And that's the news for the 27th of May
Highlights from TalentX 2025 Event
00:10:01
Speaker
2025. I'm Ross Clennett.
00:10:02
Speaker
Stay tuned for Question of the Week.
00:10:13
Speaker
Question of the week this week is about TalentX. We both attended last week in Sydney and we're going to do a summary of our impressions of the event. So, Ross, tell me your overall impression of TalentX 2025. I thought it was ah another very successful event, Adele. Over 900 attendees. I think it was 24, 26 exhibitors and there were three stages and it was just humming all day.
00:10:41
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It was a very busy day. ah Were there some standout ah speakers that you wanted to mention?
00:10:50
Speaker
Well, there were so many conversations that I got pulled into during the day. i only got to three sessions, which was a bit disappointing given how many I wanted to go to.
00:11:05
Speaker
So perhaps I'll just talk briefly about each of those. Darren Famiri, who was from or is from PeopleBank, and it was the billing manager, and he spoke about billing on average between $1.1 million and $1.2 million a year for each of the last 18 years, which is wow that's impressive pretty pretty extraordinary.
00:11:28
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So did he give away some hints and tips? We all want to know those from these million-dollar billers. Well, not so much about the billing, but about leadership. So a couple of things I noted down.
00:11:39
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ah Never lie. Be honest without telling everybody everything. Recognition and celebration of team members is very important. Your role as a rainmaker for the rest of the team is very important. Your role in demonstrating or modelling work ethic is also very important. Celebrating success is...
00:12:01
Speaker
ensuring that people feel like they're succeeding. And you have to get to know the individual as a human. And I've absolutely endorsed this. It's not just about the person as an income producer or as an employee, but as a human.
00:12:18
Speaker
And he said the toughest challenge... when you transition from being a top biller to being a leader, is to stop being selfish. And what he meant by that was, of course, as an individual contributor, all you're thinking about really is yourself. Yes, your candidates and clients and colleagues to some degree, but as a leader, you've got to be thinking about your team members first rather than yourself. So i thought Darren did a great job.
00:12:43
Speaker
Excellent. Tell us about some of the other ones you listened to. Brittany Saunders. Now, I'm not on Insta and I'm not obviously a young woman into fashion, so I'd never heard of F.A.Y.T.
00:12:58
Speaker
But I found Brittany Saunders very engaging in terms of telling her story about firstly being a terrible employee and having, um she had a multitude of jobs over and not great period of time, like, I don't know, a couple of years, and she realized she needed to be self-employed.
00:13:19
Speaker
And so she started posting videos and I won't go through the whole story, but The whole message was about if you want to build something, you've got to be particularly online. You've got to be consistent. You've got to be authentic.
00:13:33
Speaker
Ultimately, you' got to screw screw what everybody else thinks. Just trust your own instincts. Trust that if you fail, you work it out as you go along. And don't listen to other people when they say you can't do that or that hasn't been done.
00:13:48
Speaker
And Brittany's very genuine on stage. I found her engaging and it was a worthwhile session. That's good. I was curious as to what the learnings would be from her session, given it is a very different industry. But um that sounds like there is something in there for all of us about learning to be our authentic self, because really that's what social media um is all about and what should what it should be about. And we often find it getting a little whitewashed where everybody's putting out that perfect picture. so There is an element of um authenticity and failure and, hate to say, bit of dagginess about her that actually makes her relatable. I think that's why she's become so popular.
00:14:30
Speaker
Agree. She focused on doesn't need to be high production value stuff, just put out authentic content, showing them behind the scenes. People relate to it. She said she was really surprised how much traction the videos of her just working in her little garage before it became a bigger business, um how much traction they got. And that's, I think, a lesson in an era when there's so much that's glossy and highly produced that people do relate to more authentic,
00:15:00
Speaker
ah creator material. And then I think the last one you're going to talk about was a session I did also sit in on, which was the final session with Nick Bell. Is that right?
00:15:12
Speaker
Yes, Nick Bell. Nick Bell is a rich lister and he's made, well, a lot of money. He's on Shark Tank. You might have seen him on Shark Tank.
00:15:24
Speaker
Shark Tank, yes. Exactly. Exactly. So some things that he said, um i don't know, is it controversial to say avoid going into business with people who have young kids because they're going to be distracted, they're not prioritising the business and you're going to be stretched and it's easier to focus on one thing, which is building the business.
00:15:51
Speaker
I can understand why he would say that, given his level of drive. I'd imagine there wouldn't be much scope for people who are less than 110% committed, but whether you say that on stage, I don't know.
00:16:05
Speaker
ah But scaling, he said the key to scaling is you have to know what your core skills are and you leverage leverage your core skills. So, for example, he said it's selling products or services in the $500 to $2,000 per month type subscription or transaction range. That's where he's found his niche.
00:16:27
Speaker
And if he's gone outside that niche, it's not gone very well. ah He said, be very cautious about going outside the scope of your knowledge. He's put money into a health business. He didn't know health and it's taken a lot longer to grow and be profitable than he expected.
00:16:44
Speaker
And he said, it's better for growth to be slow. What I mean, what I've interpreted that to mean is more organic. If you try and grow too quickly, he said, most startups fail because they attempt to grow too quickly. And certainly from where I observe startups.
00:17:02
Speaker
I would certainly agree with that. ah So, there's just a few things I picked up. And look, he's, shall we say, very confident.
00:17:15
Speaker
And I suppose he's got... That's a polite way to put it. Yeah, he's got reason to be confident. But um yeah, there were a lot of people. Yeah, he'd be an interesting one, I think, ah to interview in, you know, 20 years' time.
00:17:29
Speaker
I think he has a very interesting perspective on the world as he sees it. And obviously, that's how anyone sees their own world. But like you said, there are certain things that he said that I think with a bit of wisdom and experience, he may reconsider the way he views certain things. And what I do hope people take from his session, particularly, like you said, some of those, um let's say, young and somewhat cocky sometimes startups, you know, i think If they can see some of them themselves in him in that, and that you need that high level of drive and that high level you're doing of ability to, you know, shake off the failures and keep moving. That's really powerful part of being that kind of entrepreneur.
00:18:08
Speaker
um But there's a certain level of um of, you know, lack of long-term kind of foresight in that, you know, it's the here and the now and I'm going to you know, get that immediate gratification. So, you know, it was an he was an interesting character. Certainly um challenged you and, you know, speak good speakers should do that.
00:18:24
Speaker
I'm not sure I agreed with everything you said either. Well, what about you? What were the things you took from the sessions you attended? I, like you, um struggled to sit down and sit still in the sessions, actually, not because of the quality of the speakers or but because there wasn't the volume, but um the other part of this type of event, which many people will be aware of, is that networking element. So getting around the room, and ah talking to vendors, talking to agencies, talking to um other people in our industry, which is, you know, always a great way to catch up with.
00:18:56
Speaker
And there's so many people in one room at one time. So i love that element of it. I love being able to get around and talk to lots of people in one day. um i find that sort of energising, albeit tiring at times as well. I think by the end of it, I started to lose my voice. and um But I really do love um that sort of vibe to it. And then, of course, we went into the Rec Gala that evening, which was the dinner to announce the award. So it was a big day.
00:19:23
Speaker
it was It was a big day. I've got to say, never stopped talking the whole day. But I think the RCSA can be very satisfied with the way the day went. And no doubt there'll be surveying attendees to make it bigger and better next year, where I assume it'll be back to Melbourne.
00:19:41
Speaker
Yes, they alternate between cities, which I think is ah is a clever strategy. But yeah, look, if you haven't been to a TalentX event or you've been some time ago, i mean, You really do need to get along to this event. It's fast becoming the you know the jewel in the crown of of events throughout the recruitment year.
00:19:58
Speaker
There is so much value for the cost of the ticket ah and and also just the networking opportunities and the connections you make. And ah you know i challenge anyone to say they didn't walk away with something highly valuable from that day and the evening as well.
00:20:13
Speaker
Yeah. the food The food was great. Got to say, props to the food. The ICC did an excellent job. Lunch. fish and chips and wraps and yeah, I was very satisfied with the food. What was your verdict on the food on offer, Adele? There's something so fun about having hot chips at a conference. I don't know what that is. It makes you feel like a kid again, I think. Yeah, it does.
00:20:33
Speaker
um But even the evening, the dinner event was lovely as well, um which was in at Star Casino um and it was a ah proper true gala event, um which you know everybody had dressed up um really well and you know, celebrated together. That was, you know, it was a really great feeling in the room.
00:20:52
Speaker
It was, it was. The um the choice of MC for the event was rather curious, Paul Nicolau. ah He's a Sydney person. I didn't know who the hell he was.
00:21:03
Speaker
He was... Well, I'd say closer to my age than your age, Adele. I think that would be fair to say. And um how can I be diplomatic?
00:21:14
Speaker
um I think if the room was full of people my age, then maybe that might have been a good choice, but I suspect for anyone under the age of 40, they were probably just shaking their head, wondering what the hell they were listening to. Yeah, look, their previous years have had comedians, they've had Dave Hughes and Joel Creasy and people that know how to work a room, know how to keep things moving and have a little bit of light entertainment around it.
00:21:40
Speaker
um Yeah, I think that was probably the only thing I would mention too, that missed the mark a little in terms of of the room. and and you know the type of style he had, but um he seemed to have a lot of affection for Charles Cameron, let's just say.
00:21:55
Speaker
Yes, let's just say that and leave that right there. ah But the food was great, I've got to say. i enjoyed the starter. The prawns were excellent.
00:22:07
Speaker
And I had the mane of chicken, which yeah I enjoyed. What about you, Adele? Yeah, I had the same. It was good. And I love the shared desserts at the end. You know, they just put out little petty desserts and they're great to share.
00:22:18
Speaker
Yes. So come along. We hope to see you next year in Melbourne at the TalentX event. We will definitely be there. We love this event. um Well done, RCSA, and to all involved. Yes, it was an excellent night. And the band, you know, played the sort of normal covers you'd expect of an event like this, and they did a ah very good job. So, yes, well done, ah Charles, Jodie, and all the RCSA team.
00:22:44
Speaker
Excellent event. And thank you especially to the sponsors, because, We know, because obviously we have a great sponsor in Bullhorn, that the industry events, whether they be TalentX or the conference or the awards dinner, rely on support from sponsors. So thank you to all the sponsors who support the recruitment industry.
00:23:05
Speaker
Yes, that is important. Go and give them some love.