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Episode 68
237 Plays4 months ago
News for the week beginning 1 July 2024 and Question of the Week: "What do recruiters need to know about the art of rejection?"
#RNA #RecruitmentPodcast #RecruitmentNewsAustralia
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Transcript
Weekly News Introduction
00:00:09
Speaker
This is the news for the week beginning 1 July 2024. I'm Ross Clennett.
Collar Group Takeover Bid
00:00:15
Speaker
Collar Group founder Ephraim Stevenson has submitted a bid to take back control of the company from the administrators after the company went into voluntary administration five weeks ago. Stevenson's offer to retake control of Collar comprises an upfront contribution of just over $3.3 million dollars to be funded by Collar's debtor finance facility and the balance of $2.87 million dollars to be paid over 14 months in monthly int installments ranging between $100,000 and $250,000. The total offer is approximately $6.2 million, dollars recouping unsecured creditors just $0.09 in the dollar owed.
Collar's Financial Troubles
00:00:53
Speaker
Administrators are recommending creditors accept Stevenson's offer. Under a liquidation scenario the administrators advised employees might receive only 80% of any unpaid wages and superannuation and none of their leave and redundancy entitlements as opposed to 100% of all under the deed In their second report to creditors, the administrators advised that Collar's taxation obligations became unmanageable around December 2022 and subsequently the company may have been trading while insolvent from that time or even earlier. Collar Group was profitable in only seven of their 35 months of trading according to the report. Creditors will vote on Stevenson's offer today, Tuesday the 2nd of July.
Ombudsman Fines Employers
00:01:38
Speaker
The Fair Work Ombudsman's crackdown on illegal job advertisements has led to employers being hit with more than $89,000 in fines, with job websites also called upon to do better. Fair Work inspectors have issued 151 infringement notices to employers since March 2023, when the National Workplace Regulator received the power to issue fines on employers who post job ads offering below-award pay rates. In one example, Fair Work received an anonymous tip from a member of the public who alleged that a hospitality business was posting ads for full-time, part-time bar staff positions offering just $7 to $10.50 an hour. The regulator said employers are responsible for educating their staff who conduct recruitment activities as to the legal minimum rates of pay and if junior employees are being sought, this is made clear in the ad.
00:02:30
Speaker
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said the regulator would write to major online job websites to make clear that both Fair Work and the public expect them to take action stamping out unlawful ads and to seek their cooperation with Fair Work's compliance activities. Ms Booth said the regulator took dodgy job ads seriously because they often deliberately targeted vulnerable people such as migrants. We want to stop exploitation at the earliest moment and trying to take advantage of migrant workers who may be desperate for income or unaware of their rights as appalling, she said.
Defence Recruitment Audit
00:03:04
Speaker
The Australian National Audit Office has revealed that the Australian Defence Force had nothing in place to track with the three recruitment advertising campaigns run across 2022 and 2023 succeeded in attracting new recruits. The three campaigns were titled Take a Closer Look, launched in August 2022, Where It All Begins, launched in February 2023, and Live a Story Worth Telling, launched in March 2023. Campaigns are prepared by defence and commercial ad agencies. Defence monitors the performance of its active campaigns but does not conduct evaluations to determine their effectiveness as it is required to do, the audit office said. Defence agreed to an order office recommendation that it establish clear objectives for each campaign prior to its development, document and evaluation plan and prepare a final evaluation report after each campaign.
00:03:56
Speaker
Originally, recruiting was the responsibility of each service, but since 2002, it's been handled by Defence Force Recruiting, a branch within Defence People Group. Defence Force Recruiting's RPO contract is the largest recruitment contract in Australia. It's currently held by Iveco after it took over from manpower last year. Defence recruiting advertising accounted for more than a third of all Australian government campaign advertising expenditure in the 2023 financial year at a cost of just over $60 million.
Job Market Trends
00:04:27
Speaker
dollars Job vacancies decrease by a seasonally adjusted 2.7% in the three months to May 2024. Despite this being the eighth consecutive quarterly decrease, job vacancies are 55% higher than in February 2020 before the start of the pandemic.
00:04:47
Speaker
On a state by state basis, South Australia suffered the largest quarterly decline at 17.2%, followed by Western Australia, which had a drop of 12.3%. On a sector by sector basis, wholesale trade recorded a 30.9% decline on vacancies between February and May, and vacancies in manufacturing dropped 29.6%. The largest increase in vacancies was in the professional scientific and technical services sector, which recorded a 15.9% increase in quarterly vacancies, followed by accommodation and food services up 9.1%.
Inflation and Interest Rates
00:05:24
Speaker
Australia's monthly inflation rate increased to its highest level in 2024 last week, indicating the Reserve Bank is more likely to hike interest rates than cut them. Consumer prices rose 4% on an annualised basis in May, compared with the 3.6% rate recorded for April,
00:05:41
Speaker
and the 3.8% rate economists expected for May. The more robust and influential quarterly CPI figure for the June quarter will be released on the 31st of July. The RBA expects the quarterly inflation pace will increase 0.2 percentage points to 3.8% up from 3.6% in the March quarter. The Guardian reported David Bassanese, Chief Economist with BetterShares, as saying the monthly CPI figure was a shocker that placed huge pressure ah pressure on the ah RBA to raise interest rates in August.
NZ Recruitment Awards
00:06:15
Speaker
The RCSA New Zealand 2024 Industry Award winners were announced at a Gala event in Auckland last month. From the 42 finalists across 13 categories, the winners are Excellence in Business Innovation, Haynes Attract,
00:06:30
Speaker
Candidate Care, Med Recruit, Client Service, Frog Recruitment, DEI and Belonging, Randstand, Social Purpose, Med Recruit, Safety and Wellbeing Culture, Remarkable People, Outstanding Agency, up to five staff Recruitment Studio, up to 15 staff Dynamics Recruitment, up to 40 staff Potentia, and ov over staff, one staff. Recruitment Professional, 2024 was Matthew Greenwood from Archway, rising star was Madeleine Berry from Archway. The recruitment leader 2024 was Guy Day from Potentia and the CEO Outstanding Contribution Award went to Jonathan Greening from Archway.
UK Family Jailed
00:07:13
Speaker
Four members of the UK's richest family have received jail sentences after they were found guilty of exploiting servants recruited from India. The billionaire Hindujars who live in Switzerland have an estimated wealth of $72 billion dollars generated from oil, gas, and banking assets, along with their ownership of the Raffles Hotel in London. Four members of the family to be convicted were Indian-born Tycoon Prakesh Hindajar and his wife Kamal, their son Ajay and his wife Namrata. During a year's long trial, they were accused of spending more on their pet dog than employees who worked at their lakeside villa in Geneva. Servants were recruited from India and were ah allegedly paid as little as $13 per day to work 18 hour days, seven days a week. The family was found guilty of exploitation and handed prison sentences ranging from four to four and a half years. The case was heard in Switzerland. However, it's reported the Hindu jars are currently based in Monaco and it's unclear whether extradition will be sought.
00:08:11
Speaker
The Hindu jars had also been charged with human trafficking due to their practice of hiring illiterate servants from India, but were acquitted. Instead, prosecutors sought jail sentences over the lesser charge of exploitation.
Salary Trends in Australia
00:08:25
Speaker
Advertised salaries posted on Seek Australia rose by 4.3% in May 2024 when compared to May 2023, according to the latest Seek Advertise Salary Index. On a month-on-month basis, advertised salaries grew slightly by 0.2% in May 2024. The quarterly change measured from February to May 24 increased by 0.8%. Seek head of market data and customer analytics, Lee Broderick, said in a press release, as the labour market softens, advertised salary growth is expected to ease, which it has done since September last year, where it peaked at 4.9% year-on-year.
00:09:02
Speaker
The steady month-on-month results this year point to the annual rate continuing to moderate in the coming months.
Tasmania's Doctor Recruitment Incentives
00:09:09
Speaker
up to forty graduate gps are set to have one hundred thousand dollars of their hex debt wiped will be provided with relocation incentives as part of the Tasmanian Liberal government making good on a recent election promise. The plan involves the recruitment of more doctors to Tasmania in response to multiple rural and regional practices having shut their doors across the state in recent years. State Health Minister Guy Barnett said the incentive package would complement the federal government's commitment to cover the hex debt for doctors working in eligible remote and rural areas.
00:09:40
Speaker
Mr Barnett said the incentives would apply over a five year period to ensure the medical professional state in Tasmania's regional and rural areas for at least that duration. The incentives particulars, including the specific areas it will apply to and how to apply are due to be released by the end of July. And that's the news for the week beginning the 1st of July, 2024. I'm Adele Last.
Rejecting Job Candidates Professionally
00:10:16
Speaker
Prompted by more results saying that candidates are very unhappy with the way they are rejected by recruiters and the fact that none of them hear at all back from employers about job applications. Our question of the week is what the recruiters need to know about the art of rejection. Adele. Yeah. And I think that's a really good question because it is an art. There is an art form to doing this and doing this well. And sometimes it does take a bit of practice, but there are some key elements of knowledge or, you know, a bit of a methodology, and so to speak, around how to do this well. And I cover this actually in my own ah rookie training program because that's, you know, people starting out not really understanding how to do this. And I want to make sure that
00:11:10
Speaker
when they join our profession that they are doing you what is a very difficult part of our job but doing it well to in order to maintain their own reputation and that of their clients as well. Okay, well, let's just distinguish two types of rejection. Firstly, the type of rejection when the candidate has had no engagement with the recruiter. They've simply applied and they're unsuccessful. So what's acceptable as a communication of rejection in those circumstances?
00:11:40
Speaker
Yeah, I think email, I certainly say to people if you've, if they've just applied and you haven't had any interaction with them, then I think it is acceptable to send an email and a written response is fine, but it doesn't vary. You've just spent five minutes just getting a bit of basic information, not an interview. Do you owe that person a call back or is an email okay in those circumstances? Well, I encourage people to tell the person on the phone whether they're going to proceed or not, but that's maybe a question for another day, pardon me, on how to do that. But I think a phone screen could safely be sent, a person who's been phone screened could be safely sent an email as well. I don't think, in my opinion, that warrants another phone call to tell them that they've been unsuccessful. I would do that in the phone call, in fact.
00:12:29
Speaker
Right. Okay. So then an interview. So an interview would be face to face or it could be a phone interview, but it's clearly in depth. It's going to be typically at the very least 15 or 20 minutes. It might be 30 or 40 or more minutes. Uh, so let's start with your interviewing people to shortlist them for a role and you decide based on the interview, you're not going to refer the candidate to the client. What's the appropriate etiquette here in rejecting the candidate? I think if the person has made the time to meet you, whether that's in person or on a video call or otherwise, that you owe them a telephone call. I think that's a real, that's that's a real mandatory requirement. And I'd love to encourage agency owners and leaders out there to make sure your recruiters, you make that a part of your process and make it a requirement that if the person has given you their time, that you give them the courtesy of a phone call.
00:13:30
Speaker
Okay. And what are you obligated or what should you tell them about your reasons for rejecting them? Because clearly the client hasn't played any part in rejecting them. It is a hundred percent you. So what should you say? I like to be really open at this point and have a ah conversation around my concerns and I use that wording. So I say to the candidate, These are my concerns about why I think you're not suitable. So I'm not saying you're not right. I'm saying I'm concerned about this, which leaves the door open slightly for them to be able to have a further conversation with you about whether your concerns are valid or if there's something you've missed. And and look, we're human. we We do miss things and I've got it wrong before. And I've thought to reject a candidate, but in that here are my concerns conversation. They've come back with a response that made me feel more comfortable.
00:14:26
Speaker
in order to represent them to the client. So I think it's best to not have an arrogant stance of, you know, I hold all the power and you're wrong for the job. You don't actually even know that at that point because you haven't presented them to the client. But more of a case of here's why I'm not going to present you to the job. These are my concerns. so Right. Okay. My approach was always just to focus on one thing. I would say to the candidate, The difference between the person or the people that I am or have referred to the client compared to you is X.
00:15:00
Speaker
And I, because my experience told me the more reasons I gave the candidate as to why I wasn't selecting them, the more grounds they had to then effectively rebut me. And I wasn't really a big fan of that. So I just made it one sort of key reason. And of course the person's welcome to rebut me and I'm absolutely, I'm open to hearing it, but I tended to just go with one key reason. Sure. And then, of course, it's really different when you then refer them to the client and the clients come back to you with feedback about why they're not going to proceed with the candidate. And again, as I said, I've got a bit of a methodology or or some, I guess, rules to to help you perfect this art of rejection. ah The first one that I would make, suggestion I would make is to make a rejection call outbound to the candidate. So always
00:15:55
Speaker
contact the candidate in an outbound call or at a designated time that suits you both. don't don't Don't give this information on the fly. Don't wait for the candidate to call you and then say, oh yeah, by the way, I was meaning to tell you that you've been unsuccessful for the job. It just makes people feel very unimportant and you you will irritate the person on that basis alone. like like The second thing I would say is to work out what is constructive feedback. And I've got a definition around that again in my training is that I define constructive feedback as something the candidate can change or impact or affect in a reasonably short period of time. So something that they can go away and do to improve themselves next time for the job. That might be about getting some more experience. That might be about studying a particular course. That might be about, you know, updating something that that they need to do in order to be but relevant for the job.
00:16:51
Speaker
So is it constructive or not? Is the feedback you're getting from the client constructive or not? If it's constructive and then you choose to deliver that to the candidate, um you want to make sure you're letting them know upfront really quickly in that phone call. I'm ringing to let you know that you've been unsuccessful for for the job. Don't dilly-dally with small talk and chit-chat. It's disrespectful. So letting letting you know you've been unsuccessful for the job. I have some feedback for you. if you'd like to have it. Now I call this the feedback gift. So feedback belongs to the person it's about and you're offering it to them as a gift. They may choose not to open that gift. And that's okay. And that took me a long time to really understanding recruitment because I really felt like it was my job to make sure that everybody knew what they did wrong. Everybody had this valuable piece of information that they had to fix in order to you know get the job next time.
00:17:46
Speaker
and I got into some uncomfortable conversations with people as a result until I learned this, until I learned that the feedback I have whilst I think is valuable, the person may not want to open this gift, they may never want to know the information. So you offer it, I have feedback for you if you'd like it, but if they don't want to if they don't want to open the gift, that's okay too. You just leave that alone, leave it be. And I think that's a really sensitive way of delivering feedback when the person is ready to hear it. Because sometimes at that time in that call, it can be sometimes sometimes very highly emotive. They could be angry or frustrated or upset. um As recruiters listening would know, you can get tears sometimes. All of these things can happen. So for you to drive home some feedback, albeit constructive, may not be the right timing. So it might be about postponing that conversation to another time when the person is more open to the feedback, more open to opening the gift.
00:18:43
Speaker
What about something that the client might say that's not really skills-based, but they say something like, oh, you know, Damien came across quite arrogantly in the interview and that just kind of put me off and that's why I'm not interested in proceeding with him. Like that's pretty sensitive and it's quite personal. how And it's an opinion as well, you know, that that makes it all really difficult. Again, I'd still put that in the constructive category because If the candidate is coming across like that in the interview, that is something they can change in a really quick period of time. If they're told that, that they're coming across as being quite arrogant or aggressive in the interview or what have you, you could talk through, well, why do they, why do you think they think that? What are the things you're saying? Give me an example. And I'd ask the client for that first, of course. What's an example of why you're saying that? Don't just give me a gut feeling, oh, he came across as a bit aggressive. Okay. What did he say specifically or do or act?
00:19:41
Speaker
ah in order for you to feel that way. And in that way, I've got something really constructive that goes back to, you know, the candidate that says, Oh, you know, you put your feet up on the desk, or I mean, I'm exaggerating here, but you know, you sat back and you were too, you you acted a bit too cocky in the interview, and and this was the specific behavior that you did. The candidate can take that and go, Oh, okay, so if I just don't do that next time, then that's going to help me appear to be less aggressive or arrogant or whatever it might be. Yeah, and ah one thing I learned to do was to use the phrase, um the way the hiring manager experienced you was, rather than say you were arrogant, it's the hiring manager just experienced you as really overconfident bordering on arrogant, because that is accurate. Like we can't make an assumption about how the candidate behave, but what we can say accurately
00:20:37
Speaker
is the experience of the other person, the hiring manager or the ah HR person in the interview. And that, although people might think it's just playing with words, I do think it's important because it is an accurate representation of what we said to you. I love that one. That's a great phrase. I'm going to use that too from now on. Yeah. Well, it was some something that I found really difficult when I started as a recruiter rejecting people. I just was just not very good at it. And I found myself hesitant, not quite knowing what to say, but once I learned effectively a framework of how to reject people and
00:21:20
Speaker
Many of the things that you've said were things that that I absolutely adopted as a recruiter. um But most importantly, and this is absolutely critical, make sure you note who you need to call to reject because don't rely on your memory. Make sure that you've got database prompts or you've got a to-do list or something because there's nothing worse than Two weeks later, somehow you come across a candidate's name and you suddenly realize that you didn't tell them that they were a no and you haven't heard from them. And it's a really embarrassing call to make to then ring them a couple of weeks later or even longer. So be very vigilant about the people who have been rejected either by you or by your client and make sure that you do them the courtesy of making that call.
00:22:13
Speaker
Yeah, definitely one of the toughest parts of our job, as we said, so make sure you do it well. As Andrew Banks said many years ago, and it's ah something that's continued to ring in my ears, we are in the business of rejection because recruiters reject far more candidates than we accept.
00:22:34
Speaker
To stay up to date with every episode of Recruitment News Australia, subscribe via our website, recruitmentnewsaustralia.com.au, follow our LinkedIn page, Recruitment News Australia, and subscribe via your favourite podcast app. For more details about my services, simply go to rossclenet.com. And for more information about what's happening on my desk, you can visit carealassoo.com. or the captainstable dot.com.au website.