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Episode 73
147 Plays4 months ago
News for the week beginning 5 August and Question of the Week "What questions should you never ask in an interview?"
#RNA #RecruitmentNewsAustralia #RecruitmentPodcast
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Transcript
Weekly News Introduction
00:00:09
Speaker
This is the news for the week beginning the 5th of August, 2024. I'm Ross Clennet.
Tribute to Fritz Goldschmedding
00:00:14
Speaker
Randstad, the world's largest staffing firm, announced that its founder, Fritz Goldschmedding, passed away peacefully on Friday, the 26th of July at the age of 90. Randstad said in a press release, with Fritz's passing, we lose a great visionary and a wonderful inspirational personality. Fritz founded Randstad on strong community values and his legacy continues to live through all of us. His impact on our industry and contribution to the advancement of flexible work and ah HR services more broadly can be seen across the world. He will be dearly missed by those who had the honour of getting to know him and working alongside him. This is a very sad day for Randstad and we continue to keep Fritz's family in our thoughts.
Randstad's Global Influence
00:00:59
Speaker
Goldschmedding founded RANSAT in 1960 after writing a thesis on temporary work as part of his master's degree in economics. Goldschmedding subsequently started his own temporary services agency with a friend having conceived the idea while the two were cycling home with each investing 500 guilders, approximately 9,000 Australian dollars in today's dollars. The founding idea was to find part-time work for students and subsequently married women. Randstad's first foreign branch opened in 1965 in Brussels. By the end of the 1970s, it had over 100 branches. Gulchmedding held the CEO position at Randstad for 38 years, growing the company and actively lobbying to improve the image of the staffing industry, as well as strengthen the legal position of temporary employees. He retired from the Randstad board in 2011.
00:01:50
Speaker
According to Quote magazine, Goldschmedding leaves an estimated fortune of six billion euros, much of which relates to his shareholding of almost one third of Randstad. For many years, he was the richest person in the Netherlands. However, he donated a large proportion of his wealth, including to many employment related courses. In 2016, in an interview, he said he had no problem letting his money go. If you work for it, you did not do it alone, he said. So I gave it away because in a way, it is not mine.
NSW Gig Worker Protections
00:02:24
Speaker
The New South Wales government has announced it will legislate protections for gig workers in the food delivery and rideshare sectors, delivery drivers and truck drivers in a move it calls long overdue.
00:02:36
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Our economy has changed rapidly over recent years, while industrial relations laws have not kept pace, the New South Wales government said in a press release. Currently, gig workers have no minimum rates of pay or conditions. They have no unfair dismissal protections and no recourse to an independent industrial umpire. Using longstanding and widely supported powers under the New South Wales Industrial Relations Act, the reforms to cover the gig workers in food delivery and ride share will empower the New South Wales Industrial Relations Commission to set minimum pay and conditions for gig workers in the transport sector, mediate and if necessary, arbitrate disputes between platforms and gig workers and prevent companies trying to define gig workers or redefine gig workers to get around these reforms. The above changes will extend to gig workers the same legal protections already offered to couriers, taxi drivers and owner driver truck drivers under Chapter 6 of the Industrial Relations Act. Consultation will occur before the bill is introduced into Parliament, which is expected later this year.
Talent Platforms' Financial Trends
00:03:36
Speaker
ASX-listed Freelancer reported net revenue for the six months ending 30 June 2024 of $24.9 million dollars down 8% compared to last year. The group incurred a net loss after tax of $1 million dollars for the half. Full-year revenue at ASX-listed B2C talent platform Airtasco rose by 5.6% to $46.6 million dollars when compared to the prior corresponding period. In the 2024 financial year cancellations reduced by 26% over the prior year, reflecting a decrease in platform leakage and an all-time record in completed task volumes. Robert Walters reported revenue for the six months ending 30 June 2024 of ยฃ459 million pounds
00:04:22
Speaker
down 13% in constant currency compared to the previous year. Group net fee income was down 14% to ยฃ202.3 million, pounds with operating profit plummeting from ยฃ11.2 million pounds last year to ยฃ200,000 this year. Asia Pacific net fee income was down 13% year on year, with Australia's results not reported. Global Consultant Headcount at Robert Walters reduced 15% year on year to 3625.
00:04:56
Speaker
Search firm Hydrecon Struggles reported net revenue rose 2.7% in the second quarter. Executive search revenue rose in America and Asia Pacific but declined in Europe. A $5.2 million dollars loss was reported for the quarter due to a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $16.2m. The firm's executive search consultant headcount fell to $415m in the second quarter, down 8 compared to the same quarter last year. Annualised executive search net revenue per consultant was $2m for the quarter, a 5% decline compared to the June quarter last year.
LinkedIn Growth and Inflation
00:05:36
Speaker
LinkedIn revenue rose 9% year over year in constant currency in parent company Microsoft's fiscal fourth quarter ended June 30. Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella said video was the platform's fastest growing format with uploads up 34% year over year. LinkedIn premium signups rose 51% in the fiscal year. Last week's highly anticipated June quarter CPI showed inflation in line with expectations. The data has revealed a headline inflation rate of 1% for the June quarter, unchanged from the 1% increase in the March quarter. This takes annual headline inflation in the year to June 30 to 3.8%, marginally increasing from 3.6% in the year to March.
00:06:25
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Trimmed mean CPI, the Reserve Bank's preferred measure of core inflation, slowed to 3.9% over the year to June, its lowest rate in two years.
South Australia's Economic Success
00:06:35
Speaker
Deloitte Access Economics commented, Australia's economy is already weak with investment and consumption in the economy too low and with business insolvencies escalating. One thing is clear, the Australian economy is not overheating and we did not expect to see the Reserve Bank hike interest rates in August. The latest Commonwealth Bank report finds that a strong jobs market and a construction boom have helped South Australia's economy once again outperform the rest of the nation. Australia's least populous mainland state topped the national rankings in the latest State of the States report for the third quarter in a row. With West Australia
00:07:13
Speaker
a close second thanks to strong population growth. CommSec said South Australia edged ahead of WA on the back of its jobs market with the unemployment rate one third lower than the decade average. The state also topped the list for construction work with the total real value of residential, commercial and engineering work completed being 15.6% above decade averages.
Workplace Justice Visa Pilot
00:07:36
Speaker
New South Wales is having a particularly tough time the national pullback in consumer spending amid torrid cost of living pressures, ranking seventh in retail spending against decade averages. Last Wednesday, the federal government officially launched a two-year pilot of a workplace justice visa, which will allow migrant workers to stay in work in Australia for six months while they pursue a Labor claim. The Department of Home Affairs is now also prohibited from cancelling the visas of some migrants who have breached their work conditions
00:08:08
Speaker
as long as they have at obtained a similar labour claim certification. Employee workplace advocates say that unlike a scheme that depends on government certification of claims alone, this pilot encourages migrants to join unions and equips unions with a new tool to organise and represent them, emboldening exploited workers to come forward.
Importance of Cover Letters
00:08:28
Speaker
625 hiring managers in the UK and Ireland surveyed as part of CVGenius' CV and Cover Letter Trends survey found that 85% of hiring managers think cover letters are vital in their hiring decisions. The survey data shows, contrary to the expectations of most agency recruiters, that 49% of hiring managers expect applicants to submit a cover letter. 56% believe if a candidate submits a cover letter, it shows they're more passionate about the job
00:08:56
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61% said the cover letters helped them understand an applicant's soft skills and 49% would consider an under-qualified applicant if they submitted a highly persuasive cover letter.
US Unemployment Concerns
00:09:09
Speaker
The unemployment rate in the United States rose to 4.3% in July as non-farm employment rose by 114,000 down from 206,000 in June and well below the average monthly gain of 215,000 over the prior 12 months. Employment continued to trend in healthcare, construction and transport and warehousing, while IT shared jobs. The latest report will likely add to worries for some economists that the Federal Reserve has waited too long to cut interest rates in its bid to stamp out inflation. Earlier this week, Federal Chair Jay Powell indicated the first rate cut of the post-pandemic period would come in September, even as many economists flagged signs of a rapidly cooling labour market.
RCSA SHAPE Conference Announcement
00:09:54
Speaker
Recruitment News Australia is back at SHAPE. RCSA's 2024 SHAPE conference is being held in Noosa from the 20th to the 22nd of this month. ah RNA has secured a $1,000 discount for RNA listeners who are not members of the RCSA. Simply use the discount code RCSA RNA or one word at the checkout to gain member rates for shape 2024. This saves you 24% off the non-member price. And don't worry if you think you won't know any other attendees, you'll know both Adele and myself. Please seek us out at the event.
Illegal Interview Questions Discussion
00:10:33
Speaker
And that's the news for the week beginning the 5th of August, 2024. I'm Adele Last.
00:10:49
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Question of the week this week is, what questions should you never ask in an interview?
00:10:58
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Well, there are many Adele, and this topic was prompted by a survey that I read, a survey of US hiring managers, where 32% of them acknowledged asking illegal questions in an interview intentionally. 13% of them said they do so frequently, which of course had me think, well, what about in Australia? What about recruitment agency recruiters? How many of those or what percentage of Australian recruitment agency recruiters are asking questions that either they shouldn't be asking or may lead to ah trouble with the candidate thinking they're going to be discriminated against? So should we go through a few examples? Yeah, tell me.
Sensitive Interview Questions
00:11:46
Speaker
OK, so what about citizenship? Is that something you think as a recruiter I can ask straight out a candidate about?
00:11:55
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going to say yes. I think I've asked questions like that to candidates. I want to know if they, you know, have the right visas and if they're able to work in the role. And so I've absolutely asked that question Ross. Yep. Sorry. So the correct answer Adele is if Australian citizenship is an inherent requirement of the role, you can ask about citizenship. So for example, in um some federal government jobs, it is a requirement to be an Australian citizen, particularly in the Department of Defence, but not all Australian government roles require the job holder to be an Australian citizen. So citizen so if I need to know if the person's able to do the job though, if they perhaps have lots of overseas experience and
00:12:51
Speaker
Uh, it appears that they haven't worked in Australia and I may be talking to a candidate that's a new migrant, let's say, and I need to know whether they're legally allowed to work here. I mean, how do I ask that question? Pretty simple. You just say to the candidate, what are your Australian work rights? Right. Okay. So this is where we need to understand the kind of question, kind of information you're trying to obtain. in relevancy to the requirements of the job and then how you can ask the question, right? Correct. Because as I'm sure all listeners know that being an overseas student in Australia provides limited work rights. So you have a restriction on the number of hours you can work during term time. And clearly that's different to someone who's a non-citizen but is a permanent resident.
00:13:44
Speaker
where there are no restrictions on ours. And that's why I recommend recruiters shouldn't ask a leading question. They shouldn't ask, also, do you have Australian work rights? Because you're encouraging the person to say, yes, it's better to ask an open question. What are your Australian work rights? Or on what basis do you have Australian work rights? And that leaves it open for the candidate to explain explicitly what type of work rights they have. So what other areas are we going to get tripped up in? I'm surprised at that first one. So what are the other areas that have been asked in interviews that shouldn't be? OK, so let me test you on this one, Adele. Criminal record. Can I ask candidates whether they have a criminal record?
00:14:38
Speaker
and This one I know is obviously sensitive, you know maybe not asking directly if they have a criminal record. In my previous experience, it would be about letting them know that a police check requirement might be a need of the job and and do they want to disclose anything prior to that. I guess that's how I might ask it. Am I in good books or bad? You're kind of on the right track, but I'm going to repeat what I said earlier. It's got to be relevant to the inherent requirements of the job. So let me give you a specific example. um If you're applying for a job as a payroll clerk,
00:15:20
Speaker
Adil, do you think there are certain criminal offenses that you've been convicted for that would be relevant to your suitability for the job of a payroll clerk? I think so, but I think our clients would just kind of say they don't want any criminal history. They would be very broad brush about that. But yeah, obviously with payroll, they've got access to bank accounts and money. So I think- So fraud. Right. No, clearly fraud. So you can certainly ask a question very specific to fraud, financial deception um and and those sorts of things. But if someone's had a criminal conviction for, hmm, let's just make one up, speeding, maybe they were charged with reckless driving or dangerous driving.
00:16:10
Speaker
That is not relevant to the inherent requirements of a payroll job. Or let me phrase it a different way. I think an employer would find it difficult to argue that that sort of conviction is relevant to a candidate suitability to the job of a payroll clerk. So should we avoid asking that question then Ross? Are we not asking the question about a criminal history or are you saying we need to make it specific to the job requirement? Well Adele, I'm glad you've asked because the Australian Human Rights um Commission provides very specific guidance on this very matter. Would you like me to read out their guidance? Please educate us. Excellent. Okay, so this is what they say. Employers should only ask job applicants and employees to disclose specific criminal record information if they have identified that certain criminal convictions or offences are relevant
00:17:09
Speaker
to the inherent requirements of the job. And related to that, advertisements and job information for a vacant position should clearly state whether a police check is a requirement of the position. OK, so I think I'm understanding this better now. You're saying that we need to make sure we understand the inherent requirements of the role and any impact things like a criminal record will have to that. And we need to be specific to the candidate. We need to actually say to the candidate, this is a concern for this role. A criminal conviction in this particular area of fraud, for example, in the payroll example, is going to be a concern. Is there anything you'd like to disclose or discuss around that?
00:17:57
Speaker
Yes, that's right. And again, the Human Rights Commission provides very specific guidance here because it says, let me find it, um if an employer takes a criminal record into account in making an employment decision, in most cases, the employer should give the job applicant or employee a chance to provide further information about their criminal record, including, if they wish, details of the conviction or offense, the circumstances surrounding the offense, character references or other information before determining the appropriate outcome in each case. oh And this is a really interesting topic now and around, you know, we started this saying the questions you should never ask. There are things we need to know as recruiters in our role in order to assess a candidate. We know that.
00:18:49
Speaker
But we seem to be really focused always on the client need, you know, the client what the client wants and what they need and what they tell us. And it potentially leads us into asking questions of candidates that put us in a really difficult position, right, Russ? Yes. Well, let's let's use a specific example. Let's just say a client has had a very frustrating experience with a former employee because they were a parent and they were off in the client's mind too often dealing with sick children or having to leave work at short notice to collect their children. So let's say the client says that to us and says, I really don't want working mothers.
00:19:30
Speaker
How do we deal with that type of request? Well, again, if we use the the legal framework you've set out there, it's about working out what are the inherent requirements of the role. Does the role have very restrictive hours and, you know, location and a lack of flexibility in order to complete the role? And so therefore being called off-site or being frequently away from from the office or from the job is going to have an impact, regardless of whether that's for children, in fact, or any other responsibility. So it's looking at what is the requirement of the role and what kind of impact would somebody would it would it have for somebody to have to be frequently away from the role, if that's the case. So if it's a call center role and the person has to be in the office in the call center environment and they're not physically there and therefore can't do the job, but that's going to be an impact to the role.
00:20:26
Speaker
as opposed to a role that could be completed at home in the evening or you know something could be picked up out of hours. So let's just extend that example a bit further to push the envelope. Let's say that as a recruiter, I've asked the question the right way. I have a 38-year-old woman who I think is an excellent candidate, but I don't know their parent status or they whether they have dependents because I've not asked. And I ah refer the candidate to the client. The client can't tell exactly how old. the candidate is, but certainly based on the employment history suspects of women's of, let's say, appropriate childbearing age or ah the age of being a mother with which she's likely to have younger children. And what if the client says to me, well, Ross, um Sarah looks like she's probably a mum. Is she a mum? Because remember what I told you last time um about the previous person in this role? Like, how do I respond? Yeah.
00:21:23
Speaker
Well, hopefully you haven't asked that and you could very honestly say to the client, well, I don't know the answer to that. Exactly. That's not a conversation that we've had. ah But again, it's about bringing it back to the inherent requirements of role with your clients as well. So I know that you told me that that was a concern and I have spoken to Sarah and she has confirmed that there isn't any restriction for her ability to be able to work in the job Monday to Friday, nine to five in the office every day. There is no other further conversation. It's irrelevant whether there's kids involved or not. Exactly. So what do we hope people have taken from today's question of the week? What's the critical thing we need to bear in mind when the client starts or we start straying into areas that may be regarded as fertile ground for candidates to take discrimination complaints about us further?
00:22:18
Speaker
We really have to focus on the inherent requirements of the role first and foremost, assessing candidates against those needs and asking questions that aren't specific about their circumstances, but their relevant ability or or capacity to do the job. Great. And for more information and to see exactly what I was quoting from, I encourage you to Google Australian Human Rights Commission.
Preventing Discrimination in Hiring
00:22:45
Speaker
The PDF is called on the record guidelines for the prevention of discrimination in employment on the basis of criminal record. And that will give you a lot more information about criminal records specifically.
Closing Remarks
00:22:58
Speaker
And certainly I advise everyone to be across anti-discrimination law so they're not inadvertently
00:23:05
Speaker
providing grounds for candidates to press a claim against them.
00:23:11
Speaker
to stay up to date with every episode of recruitment news australia subscribe via our website recruitment newsautra dot com dot are follow our linkedin page recruitment news australia and subscribe via your favourite podcast app for more details about my services simply go to ross cleannet dot com And for more information about what's happening on my desk, you can visit careerlesu.com or the captainstable dot.com.au website.