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Episode 106 - Do "old" recruiters who become trainers still have what it takes?
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Episode 106 - Do old recruiters who become trainers still have what it takes?
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Transcript
AI in Recruitment: Enhancing 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. Yes, recruitment AI agents do everything your workforce does today.
00:00:25
Speaker
Source, screen and qualify candidates to get new job orders, chase timesheets or approvals, and even answer payroll questions. These AI agents and assistants elevate your recruiters to focus on what they do best at every step of the recruitment process.
00:00:39
Speaker
so your agency can fill placements faster.
00:00:43
Speaker
Contact Bullhorn today about AI everywhere.
March Labor Market Overview
00:00:49
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This is the news for the 22nd of April 2025. Ross Clennett. i'm rosslenet After the disconcerting drop in employment last month, the ABS released the March labour market results last Thursday, confirming the continued strength of the local labour market.
00:01:04
Speaker
Although the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose 0.1% 4.1%, total employment climbed by well above the average monthly rise of over the past months.
00:01:18
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the participation rate rose back to sixty seven point eight percent after dropping slightly in february Full-time employment increased by 15,000 to just exceed 10 million people in total and part-time employment increased by 17,200.
00:01:34
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All states and territories recorded an increase in total employment led by Tasmania up by 1.3% and Victoria and the ACT both up by 0.6%. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was lowest in the ACT at 2.8%.
00:01:49
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followed by WA and the Northern Territory, both at 3.6%.
Award-Winning Contractor Support
00:01:55
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Talent has won the Trailblazer Award at the World Employment Confederation Awards held in South Africa two weeks ago, having been nominated by the RCSA for their Contractor Experience Program.
00:02:07
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The Trailblazer Award acknowledges individual companies' outstanding commitment to innovation leadership and the relentless pursuit of progress for the betterment of all. Talents program supports contractors across all aspects of their wellbeing, professional, intellectual, financial, physical, mental and social.
00:02:25
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Talents Global CEO Mark Nielsen said, we are incredibly proud to take home this win on the global stage at the World Employment Confederation Awards. Our investment in our Engage application, dedicated contractor experience managers and surprise and delight benefits are the reason why we've got a world-class NPS score.
Decline in ANZ Recruitment Fees
00:02:44
Speaker
Hayes ANZ net fees for the quarter ended 31 March 2025, fell by 11% on a like-for-like basis in constant currency, with temp and contracting net margin down by 6% and perm fees down 20% compared to the corresponding period last year.
00:03:03
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Private sector net fees decreased by 9% and public sector dropped by 14%. country, ah country Hayes Australia net fees decreased by 9% and New Zealand decreased by 25%.
00:03:16
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By region, New South Wales dropped 12%. Victoria was down 20%. ACT declined 3%. WA and Queensland were both down 2%. On a group basis, Hayes PLC net fees decreased by 9%.
00:03:32
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Robert Walters reported net fee income declined by 15% in constant currency to £67.3 million, pounds according to its trading update for the first quarter ended 31 March 2025.
00:03:45
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Perm fees were down 17% and temp and contract margin was down 14%. In Asia-Pacific, net fee income declined 15% to £27.4 million. pounds Robert Walters Australia dropped 11% and New Zealand plummeted 34%.
00:04:02
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Global fee earner headcount fell by 4% quarter on quarter and was down 17% year on year to $1,890. to one thousand eight hundred and ninety Manpower, the third largest global staffing firm, reported Q1 2025 revenue fell 2% on a constant currency and organic basis to $4.09 billion. dollars Revenue from the US rose 1.2%.
00:04:27
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However, in France, the company's largest single market, revenue fell 9.5%. nine and a half per percent Group gross profit fell 6.2% and net earnings plummeted 85% to $5.6 million.
Rebranding to Address Clinician Shortages
00:04:42
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dollars Healthy People has been announced as the new global brand name for a range of existing healthcare agencies.
00:04:51
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Brands MCG Healthcare, Staff Aid and Poppy Nursing in the yeah UK and MCG Healthcare and TaylorCare in Australia will collectively be known as Healthy People.
00:05:02
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Healthy People now serves as the global healthcare recruitment arm of the OXO Group. The challenge within healthcare recruitment is that there is a shortage of clinicians throughout the world, said Ash Higgs Managing Director.
00:05:14
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Healthy People gives us the opportunity to challenge convention through innovation and offer a seamless recruitment service across the board, built around the promise of people, health, community.
Economic Indicators: Payment Defaults
00:05:25
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Creditor Watch has released the March results for its Business Risk Index, revealing that ongoing cost of living and cost of doing business pressures continue to drive elevated payment defaults in the Australian economy.
00:05:38
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A record high, 9.4% of food service and hospitality businesses shut their doors in the year to March. Invoice payment defaults were 42% higher this March compared to the previous March.
00:05:50
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Payment defaults are a key forward indicator of insolvencies. Credit to Watch Chief Economist Ivan Cahoon said, President Trump's tariff changes are already having significant effects on financial markets with significant volatility in share prices and the Australian dollar.
00:06:07
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While the above are immediately damaging to consumer and business confidence and to the extent these uncertainties cause either consumers or businesses to delay purchases, hiring or investment decisions, the impact is a slowdown in economic activity which will pressure weaker businesses.
Education Challenges: Gender Gap and Vocational Training
00:06:24
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The dire skills shortages plaguing almost all industries won't be resolved. An industry expert has warned until Australia can figure out how to build a relevant, engaging and empowering educational system that can reverse the significant numbers of children who aren't finishing secondary school.
00:06:41
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We should be really worried about our kids not finishing school at the moment. Melinda Salentro, CEO of the Committee of Economic Development of Australia, said during an Australian Computer Society election forum panel session,
00:06:52
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in which she lamented Australia's skills deficits as far as the eye can see. The number of Australians with Year 12 or equivalent qualifications declined from 2022 to 2023 after nearly a decade of increases, according to the ABS.
00:07:08
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In 2023, just 84.9% finished high school, down from the previous year. young men aged twenty to twenty four were less likely than their female peers to have finished high school with only 81% of males completing secondary school compared to 88% of females.
HR Interviews: Candidate Experience
00:07:27
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And while many efforts to close the gender participation gap in male-dominated industries like IT, mining and construction have focused on actively recruiting girls and women, they are still marginalised by the prevailing industry culture.
00:07:42
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ACS election forum panel participants said the historical disconnect between vocational training bodies and industry is a problem for advancing both boys and girls. Job interviews for ah HR roles have been rated as one of the worst by job seekers, according to a new report.
00:07:59
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Reboot Online analysed more than 300,000 reviews in the Glassdoor profiles of the 100 best employers to reveal the experiences of job seekers in their job interviews. It found that 24% of job seekers who were interviewed for ah HR roles rated their experience as negative.
00:08:16
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The media and communication sector, which had a 26% negative experience rate, was the worst sector for poor job seeker experience. Other sectors with high rates of adverse experiences, including legal 24%, product and project management 22%, marketing at 21%.
00:08:31
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and marketing at twenty one percent The sector with the highest positive experience rate was transportation at 83%, followed by military and protective services, 74%, retail food services, 71%, healthcare, 70%, and skilled labour and manufacturing 69%.
00:08:46
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healthcare seventy percent and skilled labour and manufacturing at sixty nine percent The things that most annoyed job seekers about employers were repeated or long waiting periods between interviews, predictable interview questions, taking too long to respond after an interview, unclear expectations and job requirements, poor interview preparation and logistics, discriminatory language, and being late or forgetting about the interview.
AI's Impact on Global Workforce
00:09:13
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Artificial intelligence could impact 40% of jobs worldwide, offering productivity gains but also raising concerns about automation and job displacement, according to research from the United Nations Trade and Development.
00:09:27
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The research warned that the benefits of AI-driven automation often favour capital over labour, which could widen inequality and reduce the competitive advantage of low-cost labour in developing economies.
00:09:39
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However, it added that it can also create new industries and empower workers. Investing in reskilling, upskilling and workforce adaptation is essential to ensure AI can enhances employment opportunities rather than eliminating them, the research stated.
00:09:53
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The UNTD urged that countries should act now by investing in digital infrastructure, building capabilities and strengthening AI governance to harness the AI potential for sustainable development.
00:10:05
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According to the report, AI is projected to reach a market value of $4.8 trillion dollars by 2033. However, access to AI infrastructure and expertise remains concentrated in a few economies.
00:10:18
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Just 100 firms, mainly in the US s and China, account for 40% of global corporate R&D spending. And that's the news for the 22nd of April 2025. I'm Adele Last.
00:10:32
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Stay tuned now for Question of the Week.
Balancing Tech and Human Skills in Recruitment
00:10:47
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Our question is old recruiters who become trainers, do they still have what it takes? oh Old recruiters? This is us, Ross, believe it or not. Now, i am i am so surprised that I'm in this category. I have decided i am in the category of an old recruiter who's become a trainer. I never thought I was.
00:11:09
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And this has come about from some recent posts I have seen on LinkedIn specifically from – a number of, let's say, new trainers to the market who are very different in style, um look and sound very different, I would say, to you or I. And so I put myself in that old category, to much to my own surprise, but I wonder, are we still relevant? Do we still have what it takes, Ross?
00:11:37
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Well, Adele, I've always put myself in the old category from the moment I started losing my hair. So...
00:11:45
Speaker
I'm probably, yeah I've been old for 20 years. That's how long I've been having my scalp haircut, shall we say. But look, at the end of the day, it's like recruitment. You shouldn't generalise about anybody based on their age.
00:12:04
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You should look at the requirements. So it's not just the requirements of the job, but the requirements of the training and then who is the most competent person to provide that training.
00:12:18
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But these posts that are going out from, you know, as I said, a more recent generation of of trainer are talking about the fact that ah we haven't recruited for a long time. We don't know what we're talking about. We're still dredging up old techniques and, you know, even, you know, training people to do cold calling.
00:12:40
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these kind of things. so what do you say to that? Well, but let' let's talk about ah cold calling. I mean, sure, cold calling is ah less of a factor in business development compared to 25 years ago, but it's still important.
00:13:01
Speaker
You've still got to know how to pick up the phone and call and when you reach somebody, have a conversation with Of course, there are other ways to build relationships or certainly to initiate relationships.
00:13:17
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But I would certainly still argue that having effective business development skills over the phone is still pretty important in your long-term success as an agency recruiter.
00:13:28
Speaker
Well, many of these new ideas ah from new trainers are touting, you know, um different ways of doing things, um looking at, you know, more relevant techniques to the market. um They seem to talk a lot about tech. they They use a lot of the tech and I'm not opposed to that, but there seems to be a lot of talk about, you know, using the tech and much less, in my opinion, on on those people skills, the soft skills that we know ah crucial in the business development process, let's say.
00:13:57
Speaker
Well, Okay, so lets let's look at Greg Savage. Okay, so Greg's not a recruitment trainer per se, but he's an independent recruitment expert, board member, speaker.
00:14:16
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So even though he's not a trainer, his content helps train recruiters and certainly the Savage Recruitment Academy does that. Now, ah Greg wasn't running a desk when I reported to him in 1991.
00:14:33
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So is what Greg says any less relevant because he hasn't run a desk for three and a half, nearly four decades? I mean... Well, I kind of feel like that's what the swipe was. um I really do feel like this post was taking a swipe at at people like Greg.
00:14:50
Speaker
um But I agree with you. I mean, ah You know, to me, knowledge is power and that's always been the case no matter kind of what industry you're in. This might have been um hitting home further for me because I've recently um re-watched the series called The Crown on Netflix, which is obviously all about the Queen and um and her life. And it was really interesting to me the way they're portraying this very steady, calm, um you know,
00:15:20
Speaker
face you know that she puts on you know in the face of adversity around anything that goes on no matter what happens around the queen she's this star steady and calm influence that just keeps powering forward and it's it's a really really powerful message and image that they portray in in the series and I kind of feel like you've got to look at some of that I guess in this context as well who are the trainers that you would want to um and you know trust your staff to? Who are the people that have the knowledge, have the experience?
00:15:54
Speaker
And yes, they haven't recruited for some time, but does that mean that their knowledge is any less valuable? Well, to me, the whole point is what impact can the person, let's say the trainer, have? Surely that's the most important thing.
00:16:11
Speaker
And even though, okay, let's let's go back to Greg, what even though he hasn't run a desk for a very long time, he's a very astute observer of the recruitment industry and the way recruitment businesses develop and what helps one business be successful and maybe another one be less successful.
00:16:36
Speaker
So, I would argue, ah suppose because I'm in the same category, that it's the observation of what's happening and then being able to communicate that observation in a way that impacts the audience. So to use my own example, okay, I'm I'm going to use my own example because it's recent.
00:16:57
Speaker
So I spoke at Bullhorn Engage. You saw that presentation. And the result of that after the survey of the participants was it was rated as an average 4.78 out of 5. Okay, so saying that.
00:17:14
Speaker
not to kind of blow my own trumpet, but to provide evidence that as an observer of the industry, I was able to communicate to that audience what's happening, why it's happening, and the things that I suggest that you should do to protect yourself from from um becoming irrelevant as a recruiter and as a recruitment agency owner, but also to maximise the likelihood that you're going to succeed.
00:17:44
Speaker
So I would argue that's the critical thing. Can you, from your observations, create insights for your audience in a way that gives them an insight for action that they go, ah, based on that, I know how to apply that or I can apply that in this context. And yes, I know keynote speaking is different to training, but ultimately the purpose is the same. You want to inspire in the listener an insight for a new or better course of action to maximize the likelihood of success.
00:18:19
Speaker
But how are you training people on things you might not have done yourself? That's the crux of this. This is what they're talking about. How can we train people if we haven't done it ourselves? But we have.
00:18:31
Speaker
i mean... Yes, the tech is going to be different. It's going to improve all the time. But the application of the tech remains broadly the same in terms of how you're looking for it to help you become a more effective desk level recruiter.
00:18:51
Speaker
Because Ultimately, thing that drives the greatest success as a recruiter is the relationships. People keep coming back to you. People accept your advice. People act on your insights or your influencing.
00:19:06
Speaker
And of course, tech can help you with some of that. But i I would still strongly argue the difference between those that are above average and those that are the elite ah in terms of recruiters are going to be at their core their human skills?
00:19:22
Speaker
I think that there's an underestimation of the work, research and um active learning that we put in as well. I think, you know, you mentioned your Bullhorn Engage presentation that I know you've actually ended up delivering all around the country. There's a lot of research and data in that presentation and that goes into all of the training that we do.
00:19:44
Speaker
If a new piece of tech comes out, we do find out about what what is involved with this tech and how is it applied. We are still talking to clients every day. As you said, um Greg is engaged with lots of different businesses. He sits on boards.
00:19:57
Speaker
But even at trainer level, you and i we are still ah out there talking to businesses every day, understanding those challenges, looking at how tech is being applied or not applied and what is and isn't working, and then adding that to our wealth of knowledge in how to make sure we can motivate and um educate and inspire people, as you said,
00:20:19
Speaker
ah in the right path for them. You know, I think it's that's really critical as well. it It is. And that's why i welcome more recruitment trainers. i mean, I met um Michael Jones in Perth ah the week before last.
00:20:34
Speaker
I hadn't met Michael in person. ah He had been inside the Hayes business, both in the UK and Australia as a senior trainer, and he's gone out on his own and he's now um another industry trainer.
00:20:49
Speaker
And in speaking to Michael, I said, you know, it's kind of cliched, but it's like, I don't see us as competitors. Michael does almost all of his work face-to- face to face. I do almost all of mine remote via webinar.
00:21:02
Speaker
And, ah Michael's got a different style to me. He's got different experiences to me. Michael's going to suit some clients for training and I'm going to suit others and you're going to suit others and John White's going to suit others and Sophie Robertson's going to suit others. I mean, it's kind of horses for courses. um That's why generalizations are dangerous because you've got to look at who is the group being trained, what do they need training on and therefore who might be the best trainer.
00:21:33
Speaker
Yeah, so I think maybe if that could be our closing message, Ross, in our trainer space in the recruitment industry, um do we still have what it takes? Of course, we're going to answer yes, but, you know, look at the trainer, the content, their style, just as you would assess any supplier providing some sort of service to you.
00:21:52
Speaker
Do they suit the needs of what you're trying to achieve and do you have confidence in their ability to deliver? That's ultimately what it comes down to. i really think age you know knowledge of the recruitment industry years out of the industry is totally irrelevant.