Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to Recruitment News Australia. This is the news for the 3rd of November 2026. I'm Adele Last. And I'm Ross Cleanit. Talents Brisbane-based Global COO, Megan Woodbury, is the sole Australia-based name on SIA's Global Power 150 Women in Staffing.
Speaker: The list includes 100 women from the Americas and 50 from SIA's International category, which covers everywhere else. Woodbury joined Talent in 2022 as Global CFO from Adcorp Holdings Australia, the South Africa publicly listed recruitment business that owns the Paxos and Labor Solutions Australia brands. She was promoted to Global COO in July 2024.
Speaker: According to the list citation, Woodbury led the company's transformation into an integrated people, technology consulting and workforce solutions group, noting that talent's revenue is up 60% and EBITDA has more than doubled over the last four years.
Speaker: She designed the Sprint Initiative, a 90-day leadership and capability program covering AI strategy, mentoring and cross-brand collaboration. The program was the foundation of talent's win in the Leadership Pathway Program category at the recent APSCO Awards.
Speaker: Woodbury also rebuilt their shared services function into what they call the hero team and that team won back office team of the year in last year's APSCO Awards. When I contacted Mark Nielsen,
Speaker: Talents Global CEO last week. He told me by email, we are so proud of Megan. Her contribution to Talents' growth trajectory over the last three years has been enormous. She is an exceptional professional.
Speaker: The only other connection to Australia on the list was Ambition. Its President of Americas, UK and Europe, Nikki Akuna Okana, was also named in the International 50. She's London-based and has been with the company for 18 years. The list's citation said she oversaw 199% year-on-year revenue growth in the US over the past 18 months. She also drove co-pilot adoption across the business.
Speaker: Akunya Akanya hosts the Leaders with Ambition podcast, is a keynote speaker, and she set up and chairs Ambition's Allyship, Belonging and Inclusion Committee. I contacted Ambition Executive Chair Nick Waterworth, who called her one of that rare breed of visionary and doer.
Speaker: She is fearless, fun and smart. Each of the 150 women on the list will be acknowledged at next year's SIA Executive Forum North America in Miami, Florida, from the 8th to the 11th of March.
Speaker: Jobs and Skills Australia has released its Recruitment Insights report for September and the headline is that, surprise, surprise, hiring activity has cooled a little. That's right, Ross. The Recruitment Experiences and Outlook survey, which polls around 1,000 employers each month, found 48% of employers were recruiting in September or had recently recruited. That's down two percentage points from August and three points lower than a year earlier.
Speaker: Compared to September 2025, recruitment in regional areas is down six points, while Capital City recruitment dropped two points. Even though fewer employers are hiring, the recruitment difficulty rate rose three points to 48% of recruiting employers, driven almost entirely by regional Australia, where hiring difficulty jumped 13 points in a single month to 60%. That's 14 points higher than a year ago.
Speaker: The proportion of recruiting employers with vacancies unfilled for longer than a month rose three points to 40%. That's three points lower than a year ago. Turning to the outlook, despite the headlines in the mainstream media, the share of employers expecting to increase staff over the next three months rose two points to 22%. That's still two points below a year ago, but it's substantially higher than the lows of 15% recorded in March, April and May this year.
Speaker: In summary, September showed that recruitment activity softened, difficulty rose, particularly outside the capitals, but hiring intentions strengthened a little and remain above the lows seen earlier in 2026. The October update is scheduled for a November 17 release, two days before the much anticipated October unemployment data.
Speaker: ITCOM co-founder Damien Ross has returned to SAP recruiter Speller International after a six-month stint as CEO of Natural Selection Group, which ended in July.
Speaker: in a LinkedIn post on Friday, Ross announced he will lead Speller's executive search function as general manager for client services. Ross's first role with the company was acting CEO from September 2021 for a little over 12 months. Damien Ross co-founded ITCOM, a Melbourne-based IT recruitment business, with Gary Lorden in 2004.
Speaker: Davidson bought ITCOM in July 2014 and merged it with its existing Davidson technology business. Ross stayed on as CEO until June 2019. Lorden is still at Davidson as Director of Monitor Consulting, the company's statement of work IT project consulting business.
Speaker: Ross joined Rebecca Wallace's Launch Group as CEO in January 2024. During his two-year tenure, launch was sold to Tokyo-listed Gresh's Inc. Nick Speller established Speller in November 2000. Long-time employee Judy Cole became the company's CEO in mid-2018. Speller has 10 consultants and four support staff at its Melbourne office, according to the company's website. Nick Speller has been a non-executive director since July 2019.
Speaker: It might sound like a spy novel, but it's real life, Adele. On page 26 of the 2026 Cyber Threat Report released by New Zealand's National Cyber Security Centre in September, they provide details of how a North Korean operative got hired by a large New Zealand business.
Speaker: Hired, Ross? Hired as a remote IT t contractor. Fake identity documents, a and New Zealand address, the whole package. And crucially, they recruited a New Zealand citizen to receive the company laptop and physically operate it on their behalf, without which they would not have made it inside.
Speaker: Let me guess, it's a fully remote recruitment process for a fully remote worker. The employer couriers a laptop to a local address, the home's resident signs for it the device comes online from inside New Zealand and no suspicions aroused.
Speaker: That's exactly what happened. The National Cybersecurity Center said it's about foreign currency and access for future extortion threats. North Korea is under UN sanctions, which apply New Zealand law, so a salary paid to a fake contract is essentially a sanctions-busting revenue stream for the regime. Apparently, this is part of a North Korean global operation generating hundreds of millions of dollars for the country's nuclear weapons and missile programs.
Speaker: How did it unravel? the business became suspicious of after-hours online activity that the workers' login was undertaking. They terminated the contract and refused to pay. And then the worker turned around and threatened to release commercially sensitive information.
Speaker: Which is where the employer finds themselves completely compromised. Money is one thing, but legitimate access to internal systems gives people a golden opportunity to extract maximum return from the crime.
Speaker: Of course, it does happen in Australia. Recently, Mohan Koo, president and co-founder of the insider threat firm DTEX, told The Age that dozens of Australian firms have been compromised this way. He referenced the Huntress investigation.
Speaker: He's referring to the Australian healthcare company with three staff members who claim to be Chinese nationals. Huntress pulled six months of login records for those three accounts.
Speaker: First red flag, all three kept connecting through a suspicious VPN. Second was timing. Most of the workers' activity happened outside normal Australian business hours.
Speaker: And the key factor was the documents the workers provided to their employer. Two of the three had uploaded a resident ID card and a passport. The passports were issued in the same city one day apart. The ID cards had identical validity dates and the same issuing police stations.
Speaker: This is just another reason for recruitment agencies to promote the processes they undertake to verify their candidates. These state-sponsored operators will only become more sophisticated and harder to detect quickly.
Speaker: Jobs and Skills Australia has put out the 2026 occupation shortage list and the headline numbers are 27% of occupations are in national shortage this year.
Speaker: The raw numbers, 279. The the good news is that the percentage of occupations in shortage has been easing for three years straight. It peaked at 36% in 2023. since then it's been and now it's down another two points to Unsurprisingly, it's not evenly spread across all job types, with the shortages still concentrated among professionals and technicians and trades workers. Almost half of technicians and trades worker occupations were assessed as being in shortage and 37% of professionals.
Speaker: 28 occupations were newly rated as in shortage compared with 2025. They spanned roles such as medical radiation therapist and optical dispenser in health. electronics and mechanical engineers in the andt science category. And for the more hands-on roles, chef and sign writer were noted, and not surprisingly machinery operator and driver roles.
Speaker: Some interesting areas of shortage are horse breeder, stage manager, tennis coach, meat boner and tyre fitter. And at the other end, which ones are no longer in shortage, Adele?
Speaker: About half of the occupations that dropped out of shortage were in health, roles like plastic surgeons and environmental health. Under engineering was geotech and civil engineers.
Speaker: Science dropped hydrogeologists and agriculture. And finally, ICT saw a reduction in the shortage of software testers and cybersecurity. The rest were scattered across other roles such as actuary, primary school teacher, organisational psychologist, urban and regional planning, crane hoist and lift operator and train driver.
Speaker: 127 occupations have been in shortage continuously every year from 2021 through to 2026. Among those 127 occupations, 60% were in just six subcategories, health professionals, design engineering and science professionals, building completion and related trades, engineering trades, automotive technicians and trades, and electro technology trades.
Speaker: Occupations in shortage had a recruitment difficulty rate of 54% compared with 36% for those not in shortage. JSA surveys show that shortage occupations took an average of 10.6 weeks to fill. Non-shortage roles averaged 7.8 weeks with an average overall fill rate sitting at 8.5 weeks. That's nearly three extra weeks per vacancy.
Speaker: And also, unsurprisingly, fewer people were applying. Roughly half as many shortage occupations drew 6.3 qualified applicants compared to 12.8 occupations not in shortage and drew 3.3 suitable applicants per vacancy compared to 6.3 suitable applicants per vacancy for those not in shortage.
Speaker: In summary, fewer occupations are in shortage than at any point since 2022. but the ones that remain are harder to fill and attract fewer suitable candidates.
Speaker: Question of the week. What did we learn at Recruitment United Live? Ross, we both attended Recruitment United Live in Melbourne last Thursday. was a day for recruiters to get together, network and learn. There were nine speaker sessions. I'm going to name each one and I'd like you to give me your key takeaways.
Speaker: Okay, let's go. the first session was Claude Hacks by Actual Recruiters. This was hosted by John Burke and Joe Shepard. Okay, so firstly, automate the admin, not the decisions. For example, Joe has a 6 a.m. scheduled scrape that pulls every job in his niche, splits them into client posted and agency posted, and works out the real client behind the agency ads. Then he uses that insight to chase contingent jobs listed with his competitors, and he said he has won retained roles that way.
Speaker: ah Second, conversational data is being fruit. John's point was that if you capture the job brief properly, you can spin out email sequences, LinkedIn posts, interview prep, client-ready spreadsheet, and reverse market the best unsuccessful candidates to the right companies.
Speaker: I love the really practical tips these guys both gave. What was the third point you took away? Security and privacy. Don't DIY security when utilizing LLMs. Understand the privacy and security implications of each level of LLM usage.
Speaker: Create legally sound policies and workflows. Build comprehensive training to support these and ensure you audit what your employees are doing. nice The next session was held by recruitment trainer, Jared Ross, and co-founder, now former owner of IT recruiter, Halcyon Knights, Marcus Lynch. The topic heading was Jedi Mind Tricks for Business Development. What did you learn from this session, Russ?
Speaker: Yeah, it was great. um Firstly, you are the asset. Clients can spot the lack of soul in AI slop, use AI for research, then build unique ways to engage. Marcus mentioned stories of the teabag staple to a letter. That's a hard copy letter saying, let me buy you a cup of tea and the ah RFP hand delivered to the client reception by a consultant dressed in armor.
Speaker: You know, Halcyon Knights, corny but memorable. i did get them on the panel. and I'm sure there must have been a pretty good bid behind it too, I'm sure. what else did you have?
Speaker: ah Give before you get. Be a connector before a collector means introducing two people, not for a fee, but because you think they share interests. After a placement, do one-up broadcasting. So what that means is email one level above your client, the hiring manager, purely to praise them.
Speaker: Who doesn't want to be praised in front of their boss or to their boss? So there's no pitch in that. ah It's the same for referrals. Make it easy. Write the introduction yourself so the client only has to forward it.
Speaker: There's some older tips in there, but some new ones too that I like. What's the third takeaway? Well, I like Jared's point. He said, research deep, qualify hard and zoom out.
Speaker: He used a specific case to highlight that. When he was recruiting ah IT roles in Auckland, his firm lost the New Zealand District Health Board as a client when the all-of-government panel was re-tendered.
Speaker: He identified a multi-year data migration project with three external consultancies attached to the health board, and he won work with all three.
Speaker: Session three was Matt LaKarjiv, the LinkedIn cheat code. Matt dropped most of the F-bombs of the event. What were your takeaways?
Speaker: Yes, so after wading through the F-bombs, ah fame beats fast, some more Fs there. Everyone will soon have the same AI tools. iPhones already screen calls, and eventually AI will filter every inbox. The only two things that get through are being micro-famous in your niche and And sending messages that are, in market in Matt's words, not shit.
Speaker: Build your identity in your niche and craft personalized, impactful messages. He highlighted a Sydney FMCG recruiter who changed his LinkedIn banner to 250 plus people placed into FMCG.
Speaker: That was accompanied with six client logos and a salary guide. And this was all to prove his track record in his niche. He also said consider small events, for example, an in-house breakfast event for a small group of key hiring managers where you host the session and set the agenda.
Speaker: I was actually impressed that he gave away the whole pack via a QR code, including an AI skill file. but but Moving on to session five, the leadership panel recruitment in 2026 included Matt Sampson from as Aspect Personnel, Susie McInerney from Six Degrees Executive and Annie McGregor from Design and Build. Hit me with your best shots from the panel, Ross.
Speaker: Adaptability and change agility are key behaviors leaders must build in their people. A pace of change creates fatigue. Leaders need to understand how their teams are tracking through change and remain self-aware about their own mood and state of mind.
Speaker: A leader's mood affects the room, so leaders need to understand both their own presence and its impact on others. And then the session immediately before lunch was Tim Martin's, what the best recruiters know about AI that everybody else is missing. What did you take from this one, Ross?
Speaker: ah Firstly, context is everything, Adele. AI is a force multiplier. So it multiplies whatever expertise you bring. And sadly, 20 years of Google training has given us typing keywords to try and help us. So he said the default is if you want to ah an LLM to create a sales manager job ad, you go sales manager job ad.
Speaker: And then, of course, you get slopped. Whereas context is something like this. Create an ad for sales manager at a family-owned freight forwarder leading six account managers and needing to win back two top-tier accounts.
Speaker: That should produce something much more usable. I agree. What else? Talk more type less, LLMs have an amazing capacity to sort through verbal fluff to find the key information.
Speaker: You also said that speaking to an LLM helps people who are dyslexic, people on the spectrum and non-native English speakers. And thirdly, give the LLM a lot of relevant information and ask it for insights.
Speaker: For example, a candidate summary for a referral should include as its core resources, the job description, transcript of the recruitment brief, the candidate interview transcript, the client's website, a deep research report on the client sector and a deep research report on the candidate and your own notes. That's going to produce something pretty powerful.
Speaker: next session was Lotus People co-founder and now industry trainer, Laura Cole. Her session was titled, Starting from Zero, Building a Desk from Nothing. This one kind of grabbed my attention. What did you think, Ross?
Speaker: Yeah, look, um I certainly agree with Laura's key points. Niche deeply. Specialist beat generalist. Build a 12-month value plan of templates, checklists, webinars, and market intel aimed at your niche's pain points. Secondly, get your processes nailed early before scaling.
Speaker: Workflow the entire client and candidate journey with SLAs and post- post-placement steps in the ATS CRM because getting this right from the start will save a lot of pain doing it later.
Speaker: Did you have a third takeaway? Yes. And again, ah Laura must be looking at my notes. One of my mantras, play the long game, focus on winning and retaining high quality business and walk away from low quality clients.
Speaker: The final keynote was Maz Farrelly, the godmother of reality TV. She's responsible for producing TV shows like Big Brother. She delivered a really energetic and fun presentation. i have heard her speech before. I had that seen that presentation, but I probably enjoyed it more actually this time. Maz is full of life and colour. She's very vibrant. She's very direct as a presenter. And one of the funniest quotes so was in relation to advice on trying to differentiate yourself in your market. And she phrased it like this, think like a sex worker, what can I do that no one else does? but Wow. Yeah, I love Maz's presentation.
Speaker: ah Atlas was the sponsor of the event. So given your association with Atlas, so can you give me a sponsor's point of view? What did the day deliver?
Speaker: It was actually a really great venue. I noted that it was a little bit out of the CBD and it felt like it kind of captured people in one spot all day. i don't know if you noticed that people tended to stay for the whole event.
Speaker: There was also the opportunity to network really well. Again, when the when the breakout was on, when people were out having lunch or having you know afternoon tea, et cetera, were all together in one spot. So from a networking perspective, it was excellent. And obviously, Atlas got to present on stage, um you know have our name highlighted. i would have preferred a few less competitors, of course, but it is our home ground. So, you know, it was all good overall.
Speaker: Are there any things that you would do differently for next time? ah Just a couple of things. I mean, eating. At lunchtime, there were two food trucks and it was just a bit too much of a queue. I think some people were probably queuing for 20 minutes and then the burgers ran out. And in my experience, once people break for lunch, they just want to eat. You've got to have – you can have food trucks, but I think you do need to have food piled up there, ready to go, whether they're sandwiches. There were – There was some sushi, but I think they probably needed more. So that was a small thing.
Speaker: From a session point of view, every session had value. And as you can see from what I've said, I've taken stuff from every session. But overall, each session was very much a how-to session. it was more a... a training session. So it did get very content heavy and very detailed heavy.
Speaker: And it was something that required a lot of concentration. So I think it needed just some ah some other sessions to break it up. um We had a comedian. I don't think that quite worked. Chelsea did her best, but didn't quite land.
Speaker: I think you need case studies or you need something more macro that's going to give people the opportunity to kind of relax and think a bit more big picture. So just a couple of things to consider for next time.
Speaker: What about from the attendees perspective, Ross? What do you feel the day delivered? Well, i think community. Everyone loves Pete Watson, Pete... He is the founder of Recruitment United. It's a different type of community, different to traditional member organizations like APSCO and RCSA.
Speaker: ah do think a shared sense of community for our industry is critical and the future for our industry is going to be smaller businesses. So the role of a Recruitment United is critical.
Speaker: I mean, AI is changing our industry faster than any previous industry. technological development and paying attention to what is happening as a non-negotiable for any business owner. So certainly think Pete helped people understand more about AI, the importance of niching, the importance of ah your points of difference and just fun.
Speaker: You know, it's fun. I think it's a great privilege to be in this industry and it was just a day with a lot of fun. Oh, and of course, we can't forget Kim's cookies, the chocolate chip cookies. They were great. Outstanding. If you are thinking about going to the next event, I believe it's in Sydney, Go for the cookies alone. Like they were epic. I agree.
