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Has the alchol-fuelled culture of the recruitment industry changed?
137 Plays25 days ago
Episode 96 has news for 10 February 2025 and Question of the Week: "Has the alcohol-fuelled culture recruitment industry changed?"
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Transcript
Bullhorn Engage Announcement
00:00:09
Speaker
A quick reminder Adele that it's only four weeks until Bullhorn Engage on Thursday, the 6th of March, 2025 at the Wingstand Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney. Are there still tickets left Ross? Yes, they're just $299 each Adele, but there are less than 50 remaining. Bullhorn Engage is the place to learn about the future of recruitment. For more information, visit engage dot.bullhorn dot.com and we look forward to seeing you there.
00:00:40
Speaker
This is the news for the 10th of February 2025, I'm Ross Clannett.
SEEK's Failed Acquisition
00:00:45
Speaker
SEEK Limited's wholly owned subsidiary, SEEK International Investments Repatriation Limited failed to gain sufficient support for the proposal to acquire 100% of Xref shares at a shareholder meeting held last Monday.
00:00:58
Speaker
Exceeding the 75% threshold, 78.8% of Xref shareholders present and voting at the meeting voted in favour of the scheme resolution. However, once the proxy votes were cast, the resolution failed because only 67.6% were in favour. The failure was caused by one proxy shareholder voting 9.5 million shares against the resolution and abstaining from voting with the remaining 9.9 million proxies.
00:01:22
Speaker
The board of the reference and pre-employment checks employee engagement and exit surveys companies state it will continue to execute its growth strategies and independent business. Xref CEO and founder Lee Martin Seymour said in a press release, I'd like to extend my gratitude to the SEEK leadership team who've been a pleasure to work with during the scheme process. The Xref share price plummeted after the takeover was rebuffed with Xref's capitalisation of $23 million, dollars representing a 44% fall from SEEK's valuation at the time of the original offer of $41.2 million.
Xref's Financial Report 2024
00:01:54
Speaker
dollars
00:01:55
Speaker
Xref reported a $5.49 million dollars loss in the 2024 financial year. In a financial update released last Tuesday, Xref reported 80 new clients were signed between July and December last year and total revenue for the same six months grew 10% to $10.9 million dollars compared to $9.92 million dollars for the same period the previous year. New Zealand's unemployment rate rose 0.3% to 5.1% in the December 2024 quarter.
New Zealand's Unemployment Rise
00:02:25
Speaker
according to the latest labour market update from Statistics New Zealand. Compared to the December 2023 quarter, the rise was 1.1 points. New Zealand's labour force participation rate stood at 71%, down 0.2% on the quarter and down 0.9% for the same period last year.
Cornerstone Medical's Revenue Growth
00:02:44
Speaker
The New Zealand economy has struggled a lot with the national-led coalition elected in October 2023, cutting government spending included public sector hiring which has stimulated a surge in New Zealanders heading across the Tasman with the most recent migration departures from New Zealand at a 12-year high. Brisbane-based medical recruiter Cornerstone Medical Recruitment recorded 2024 financial year revenue of $102.6 million, a 39% rise from $73.9 million dollars the previous year, according to industry news service shortlist.
00:03:18
Speaker
gross profit rose 37% to $18.9 million, dollars but operating profit declined 5% to $5.2 million. 96% of the company's revenue is from on-hire and temporary placements. Cornerstone CEO Samantha Mickler said the large rise in costs was predominantly due to leasing more office space and the hiring of new senior roles, including Chief People Officer and Head of L&D.
Hymie's Revenue and Staffing Changes
00:03:43
Speaker
ASX listed recruitment services and RecTech company Hymie reported revenue of $7.45m for the second quarter into 31 December 2024, up 0.4% when compared to the prior year period.
00:03:55
Speaker
The company said revenue increased despite the impact of a key contract completion, reducing staffing at the end of last quarter. Gross profit was $710,000 for the quarter, slightly lower than the prior year gross profit of $720,000, with an EBITDA loss of $240,000 for the quarter after one-off salary costs and reduced contractor volume. The company has a market cap of $7.65 million.
US Relocation Inquiries to New Zealand
00:04:21
Speaker
dollars According to New Zealand recruiters, there's been a spike in Americans eyeing up a move to New Zealand following President Donald Trump's election and inauguration. It's been really, really busy since his inauguration. Founder of Accent Health Recruitment Prudence Thompson was quoted on a New Zealand news site. When Trump was elected in November, she said inquiries from the US hit 450 in one week, a dramatic surge from the normal four or five.
00:04:49
Speaker
It wasn't just the inauguration that caused a jump in inquiries, though, she said. There was also more activity after school shootings and climate change events, with a recent surge in inquiries from people in L.A. who were displaced by the fires. More recently, there was a particular concern about President Donald Trump signing executive orders that roll back protections for transgender people. New Zealand was considered a more progressive place to live, she said, and more accepting of the rainbow community.
00:05:16
Speaker
People are wanting to make the move because they feel safer in New Zealand, in schools, in the workforce. Thompson said the main group interested were those aged 40 to 50 with families.
Defence Force Recruitment Challenges
00:05:27
Speaker
Figures from the Department of Finance show Defence Force Recruiting accounted for the largest single ad spend by the Federal Government in the most recent financial year. The department's data shows $61.4 million dollars was spent on ADF recruitment campaigns comprised of $41 million dollars on media placement and $20 million dollars on research and creative agencies. Despite the large investment at ADF campaigns, Defence Force Recruiting was 50% short of its enlistment target for the year.
00:05:55
Speaker
Total federal government ad spend was $251 million, dollars a 40% rise on the previous financial year.
University of Sydney's STEM Donation
00:06:04
Speaker
The pathway to more women, especially those from less advantaged backgrounds undertaking tertiary study and pursuing career opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, has received a massive fill-up after a $100 million dollar donation was announced last Wednesday. The record donation to the University of Sydney from tech founder Robin Curter will fund a two-decade program addressing the underrepresentation of women women studying and working in STEM. Kurta moved to Sydney from Bangladesh at the age of 18 to study at UTS. He opened his first data center in 2017, and last year his company Airtrunk, now running 11 hyperscale data centers, four in Australia and seven in Southeast Asia, was purchased by US and Canadian interests for an enterprise value of over $24 billion. dollars
00:06:54
Speaker
Air Trunk featured on the Great Place to Work 2023 list as one of the best medium-sized companies to work at and ranked as the 20th best medium and large tech company to work at in Australia. After the company's sale, Curta gave bonuses totalling $22 million dollars to more than 300 of his employees. Starting at six partner high schools from 2027 prioritising the Western Sydney region, the University of Sydney program will offer tutoring and mentoring in maths, physics and engineering across years 7 to 10. In years 11 and 12, about 1,200 girls in partner schools will be offered a place at the Curtor Academy with academic support from University of Sydney students and an annual bursary to continue STEM subjects. Those who graduate from the academy will receive a guaranteed scholarship and place at the university, including funds for university accommodation and mentoring throughout their degree.
Launch of NW People Recruitment Agency
00:07:47
Speaker
Former head of IT recruiter Paxis, Jason Trevetic, announced on LinkedIn last week that he and two former Paxis colleagues had co-founded ICT Recruitment and Workforce Solutions Business, and NW Technology Recruitment. The new agency is part of and NW People, formerly National Workforce, founded by Jackie Russell in 2009. Trevetic's co-founders are former Paxis, ACT, GM, Tamara Page, former Paxis Victorian, GM, Darren Falan.
00:08:14
Speaker
Trevetic, Page & Frelan all left Paxis last year as part of the company's reorganisation by parent AdCorp Australia CEO Pranesh Prasad. Prasad officially departed AdCorp last month after his resignation was announced last September.
US Job Market Cooling
00:08:29
Speaker
US employers added 143,000 jobs in January as the labour market showed signs of cooling at the start of 2025, according to the latest release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
00:08:41
Speaker
Hiring was weaker than expected by economists who had forecast 170,000 new jobs last month. The January result was a big drop from December when employers added 307,000 new jobs, although only slightly below the average monthly gain of 166,000 in 2024. The January unemployment rate dropped to 4% from 4.1% in December.
Google's Shift in DEI Goals
00:09:04
Speaker
Alphabet Inc's Google told employees it will no longer formally seek to improve the diversity of its workforce, marking the latest step in Silicon Valley's valley's retreat from initiatives that have fallen out of favour during the opening weeks of US President Donald Trump's administration. In a note to employees last Wednesday, Google said it was reviewing its programs and would no longer have aspirational goals tied to representation.
00:09:28
Speaker
Google had been among the most vocal companies pushing for more inclusive policies in the wake of protests against the police killings of George Floyd and other black Americans in 2020. At the time, about 96 percent of Google's US leaders were white or Asian and 73 percent of the company's global leaders were men.
00:09:45
Speaker
And the company stated its goal was to have 30% more of its leaders from underrepresented groups by 2025. Google's chief diversity officer, Melanie Parker, said in a 2024 interview with the BBC that the company had hit 60% of its five-year goals.
00:10:02
Speaker
Alphabet's annual filing with the US SEC last week omitted a line saying it was committed to making diversity, equity and inclusion part of everything we do and to grow a workforce that is representative of the users we serve. That statement appeared in annual reports from 2021 to 2024. Google spokesperson said the line was removed to reflect its review of DEI programs.
Question: Is recruitment's drinking culture changing?
00:10:27
Speaker
And that's your news up to date for the 10th of February, 2025. I'm Adele Last. Make sure you stay tuned now for Question of the Week.
00:10:45
Speaker
Question of the Week is, has the alcohol fuel culture of the recruitment industry changed? Adele, what do you think? This is a really good question, Ross. Where does this one come from?
00:10:57
Speaker
Well, it has come from one of my clients who posted on LinkedIn last week about ah her 80 day alcohol free mark, which she got to. And she talked about all the benefits that she's gained from giving up drinking and being excited about what's ahead. And of course, um she's not the first person to do that.
00:11:26
Speaker
There's plenty of other people that have written about giving up drinking. Probably the most high profile would be Pete Watson and he and Hannah Roger have podcasts. The recruiters Wagon and Pete post fairly regularly about the anniversary.
00:11:45
Speaker
or various anniversaries of him giving up drinking. So I think that certainly created non-drinking as much more spoken about and frankly, probably not something to be embarrassed about or to hide. It definitely seems to be something that is spoken about more often, you're right. I think it's more publicly um out there to any discussions around people who are moving away from drinking alcohol and changing lifestyles and those kinds of things.
Positive Trends in Recruitment Culture
00:12:19
Speaker
And that is quite a contrast in my own personal experience. I think of coming into the industry when I did in the 90s, where it was a very heavily alcohol-fueled culture. I mean, there were Thursday night drinks, Friday night drinks, um sometimes both nights.
00:12:36
Speaker
ah It was um you know something that everybody did, everybody in the business went out, yeah they drank a lot, they were very hungover. you know It was the done thing. there was no It was just part of the lifestyle culture of the industry. Yeah, I'd say that that was similar to my experience. Certainly Thursday night, wasn't every Thursday night, but many Thursday nights going out to Ryan's Bar,
00:13:04
Speaker
Friday nights, customs house, maybe Ryan's Bar as well in Sydney. um It was kind of accepted and frankly, everyone were all sort of roughly the same age. Most people were single, very few people had children. And although I wouldn't quite define it as there being an in group and an out group, there certainly was more a drinking clique than those that didn't really drink. So, yeah, it was pretty clear when I was a recruiter who was on which side. I think that was part of the attraction. I think people were attracted to our industry because they kind of went, well, these guys work hard and play hard and look how much fun they have. And, you know, they're making good money and out they go and get their bonuses and spend it on a few drinks. like I think it was an attractive part of the industry, surprisingly.
00:13:57
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. And certainly when I worked in London, it was more of a drinking culture. Like people would go out and have drinks at lunchtime in a way that they just wouldn't do in Sydney in my experience. Yes, you might go out to a client lunch and have a glass or two of wine, but I mean, in London recruiters would go to the pub amongst themselves and have like a couple of pints at lunchtime. Of course, not, not everyone and not every lunchtime, but like it just seemed to be part of the culture.
00:14:25
Speaker
and And look, I know this is 35 years ago, 30 years ago, but I do think things are changing. I mean, the RTSA's attitude at events, probably a deal you could speak to being a non-drinker. That surprised me. I am um for those. some So I'll admit that and join ah part of that group that announced, I didn't give up drinking, though. I just don't really drink that much. I have drunk alcohol, but not in excess and um have never really drunk that much, particularly in public anyway. So I was very pleasantly surprised at the recent RCSA conference to fight in Nusa to find that there were alcohol-free options at every event and not just soft drinks. So ah that's the you know the odd thing as a non-drinker. Your only real option is kind of juice or Coke, and you look you feel like a 12-year-old standing there you know with you with your big glass of soft drink. But at these events, there were cocktails that were non-alcoholic. There was non-alcoholic beer.
00:15:22
Speaker
There were other options that made you feel like you were still an adult, but you didn't have to have alcohol if you chose not to, or for people that perhaps wanted to have just one or two drinks and then switched to something lighter. So that was a really pleasant um change that, you know, that I saw at that event and starting to see more events not being so focused around alcohol.
00:15:43
Speaker
But I do wonder, I'm a bit skeptical, Ross. I mean, like you said, for us, you know, 30 years ago, that that was the industry norm. Are we just old and out of it? has Has alcohol just been substituted for drugs nowadays? I mean, is it just a different, you know, same culture, just different, different fruts? Stimulants, different stimulants, you think? yeah um i Look, I mean, the honest answer is, of course, I don't know.
00:16:08
Speaker
I'm not working in a recruitment agency, so I really have no idea. I would guess that drug use is more prevalent. Is it significant? I don't know. I mean, I assume it's the same as it would be across broad Australian society. I wouldn't ah wouldn't think it'd be that much different. I think the difficulty is obviously drugs are not an overt you know, it's not a socially acceptable means of, you know, of a stimulant, whereas alcohol is out there in public, you know, from Australian societal perspective, if you're not standing at a party with a drink in your hand, there's something wrong with you. And and as I said, I've experienced that myself, it's, it's rather awkward, you know, people would, when I was younger, people would assume you were pregnant, if you didn't have an alcoholic drink. And now that I'm older, they don't assume that anymore. But they sort of like, what's wrong? You know, what's wrong with you? Why don't you have a drink in your hand? It is seen
00:17:06
Speaker
culturally in our society are something you know unusual. and and i've got also I Pete Watson, but I'm going to give a big shout out to Paul Lyons as well.
00:17:19
Speaker
um For those of you who don't know, Paul um was one of the very senior Michael Page executives ah in the late 90s, and then he and Nick Waterworth left and founded Ambition. And Paul, originally from the UK, I would say would be fair to say, I'm sure Paul would agree, was part of that fairly big drinking culture, particularly amongst the ex-UK recruiters. And in um May 2017, he posted on LinkedIn a blog, how you see life clearer when you stop drinking. And it was quite an extraordinary um response ah because he said he was because I spoke to him about it because I wrote a blog about drinking very sadly, so um prompted by the death of a girlfriend of mine from when I was a teenager who'd become an alcoholic and subsequently died. And
00:18:17
Speaker
So I wrote about that and I talked to Paul about that blog of his and he said he was a bit apprehensive about publishing that blog about the reaction. But he said he was absolutely astonished by how much traction like he he got with that blog, how much support he got, how many other people commented about recruiters, commented about giving up drinking. And then subsequently.
00:18:42
Speaker
ah ah contacting him and saying his blog had been sort of the shove they needed to look at their own drinking and to moderate or stop drinking altogether.
Support for Non-Drinkers in Recruitment Events
00:18:54
Speaker
So yeah I just really want to acknowledge Paul as a very senior person in our industry, probably the most senior person who went public first about non-drinking and ah really leading the way at a time. I mean, I know that's 8 years ago, but I think, um you know, even in 8 years, things have changed pretty dramatically around um drinking in our industry. And it's bold to go out there. You would have ah hoped, you know, when he did that, that was probably what he'd hoped to have some impact to someone's life. You know, obviously, you're not doing that for a PR ah stunt, you would hope.
00:19:29
Speaker
You're doing that for the purpose of being really honest and authentic about yourself and and impacting someone else's life. So that's the result that he's had. What a great outcome. And maybe he was, um you know, because eight years ago was a long, long time. As I said, RCSA and he just changed this, you know, last year. So, you know, eight years ago is a long time ago for him to maybe have started that movement that that prompted people like Pete and and others to, you know, start thinking about themselves and start making that change.
00:19:56
Speaker
But I think younger people, well, sorry, I should rephrase, based on my 23 year old daughter and 25 year old son, I would say Gen Z, generally drink less than when I was of, or people of my vintage were at the same age. And frankly, it's probably because of the cost of living and, you know, they just can't afford to spend money on drinking. But my son's sort of a health fanatic and he's at the gym, 5am.
00:20:25
Speaker
pretty much every morning. So he can't go there with a hangover or doesn't want to be. And my daughter basically says, I don't really like the taste of alcohol and she barely drinks. So that's not uncommon amongst her friends. So I just suspect so society, and and I've also seen figures about alcohol consumption with younger people and would generally suggest that um people are drinking a lot less than what they used to 30 years ago.
00:20:51
Speaker
and That makes sense yeah if if society is changing and then I guess it makes sense in our industry as well because I suspect we have like the general population of Australia, we have a bit of an aging industry in recruitment. so The people that are still in the industry now who've been in for a long time are much older than they were when they started. you know They were in their 20s and early 30s when they started. They're now in their 40s, 50s, and 60s and their lifestyle has changed. they're no longer It's no longer a focus to get drunk every weekend. And so they're, and they're owning those companies now or senior leaders in those businesses and are, you know, affecting that culture through the business of going, Hey, it's okay, we're not going to have every event revolve around alcohol, or we're going to have alcohol-free options that you're not going to be made to feel uncomfortable for not drinking. So, yeah. So I guess in answer to our own question, has the alcohol-fueled culture of the recruitment industry changed?
00:21:43
Speaker
I would say yes, of course, still some way to go, but it's definitely moved in the last 10 years. And I'd say even in the last five years, it's made a significant step in the right direction. So I applaud all those that have been um out there with their non-drinking. And I acknowledge all those owners and leaders that have supported that through the types of company events that they hold.
00:22:09
Speaker
I do as well and for those of us that never actually drank and we don't have to put it out there publicly, good on us as well and come have a nice ah Coke Zero with me in the corner next time we're at an event. I will Adele. Are you enjoying listening to Recruitment News Australia? If so, why not give us a five star review on your favourite podcast platform? You can also share episodes Catch up on previous episodes and let people know that you love to listen on our website at recruitmentnewsaustralia.com.au and thanks for listening.