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Episode 155 - Is regional recruitment the next growth area for recruitment agencies?
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Episode 155 - News includes Christy Moses stepping into the CEO role at Miller Leith, with Stephen Borg, Joe Sette, and Jarrad Dowling all part of a broader leadership transition. We also looked at new data from GCheck showing just how widespread candidate exaggeration and AI-assisted deception have become in hiring, before unpacking the controversy around the Canberra Institute of Technology CEO appointment involving Margot McNeill and Executive Intelligence Group. We discuss to opportunities regional recruitment provides to the sector.
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Transcript
Remote Recruitment Expansion
00:00:08
Speaker
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Leadership Changes at Miller Leith
00:00:28
Speaker
This is the news for the 7th of April, 2026. Adele Last. And I'm Ross Clennett. In a notable leadership move in the local market, Christy Moses has been promoted to CEO of Miller Leith with the appointment taking effect from the 1st of May this year.
00:00:44
Speaker
Moses joined Miller Leith last year, having been at Six Degrees Executive for seven years, and before that, Future You for two and a half years and Michael Page for 10 years. The promotion of Moses was part of a broader leadership reshuffle, Thank you.
00:01:08
Speaker
at the same time group ceo jared dowling will take on an expanded remit across systems structure and consultant capability. Miller-Leath is a Melbourne-based specialist recruiter in the FMCG and retail space. The company was founded in 2012, won Seek's 2024 SARA Award for Medium Recruitment Agency of the Year and currently has 32 employees.
Job Vacancy Trends in 2024
00:01:32
Speaker
Ross, it's good news from the latest job vacancy report from the ABS. It is, Adele. The latest vacancy report has job vacancies at just under 338,000 in February, which is the highest it's been since November 2024. Job vacancies rose in 12 of the 18 industries surveyed in the three months to February. led by the construction industry and also customer-facing jobs like retail, trade and accommodation and food services. Yes, I did note construction vacancies jumped 19.3% over the quarter.
00:02:07
Speaker
Even though overall vacancies are still below the pandemic peaks, it's encouraging to see demand for workers rise. The Northern Territory had the biggest quarterly rise with vacancies surging 23%. Tasmania also saw a good increase with almost all states and territories posting increases, except for South Australia, which had a slight decline.
00:02:27
Speaker
See, it's mainly the private sector driving the growth. Private sector vacancies rose to just under 300,000 in February, while the public sector actually had a small dip over the quarter, although it is still up year on year.
00:02:40
Speaker
It's a positive outlook for 2026, showing renewed strength in key areas, although the impact of the war in the Middle East is not yet reflected in these figures.
Resume Fabrication and AI Involvement
00:02:49
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One story that really stood out this week was around just how common candidate lies and exaggeration have become in the hiring process.
00:02:57
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A recent report from candidate verification platform G-Check found that 93% of job seekers admit to what they're calling career phishing, which is essentially exaggerating or fabricating parts of their background to improve their chances of getting hired. So it's called career phishing these days, is it, Adele? When I was running a desk, it was simply called bullshitting.
00:03:18
Speaker
Call it like it is, Ross. Well, regardless, the detail in this report is pretty striking. Around 61% of respondents said they've exaggerated their level of expertise to better match a role. 47% admitted to inflating the impact or scope of previous positions.
00:03:36
Speaker
47% said they've actually made up stories during interviews to give stronger answers. And on top of that, 45% said they've adjusted employment dates to hide gaps in their work history.
00:03:48
Speaker
And then there's the AI angle, which is where this age-old practice has a new tech twist. The report found that 61% of candidates have used AI to practice interview answers so that they sound more polished.
00:04:01
Speaker
50% have used AI to tailor resumes for jobs they don't fully meet the criteria for, and around 25% have even used AI avatars to substitute for them during virtual interviews.
00:04:13
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What's perhaps most telling is the reason behind it. Many candidates said they feel compelled to do this just to stay competitive, especially in a tougher job market. In fact, around 60% believe they wouldn't have been hired if they'd presented themselves 100% accurately.
00:04:28
Speaker
So Adele, it really raises a much bigger question for employers, not just about honesty, but about whether modern recruitment processes are equipped to accurately validate resume content, substantiate interview claims and verify candidate identity.
Controversial CEO Appointment
00:04:44
Speaker
Another story raising eyebrows this week is the scrutiny around the recruitment process that led to the appointment of Canberra Institute of Technology CEO Margot McNeill. I did see that, Adele. Public hearing that had been scheduled for last Tuesday was cancelled at the last minute just hours before it was due to begin. But before that happened, evidence had already started to point to a key concern, whether the background checking process was simply too narrow to uncover what the board needed to know.
00:05:12
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ah note that the appointment was handled by Canberra-based search firm Executive Intelligence Group after the role became vacant. following the departure of former CEO Leanne Cover, who was found by the ACT Integrity Commission to have engaged in serious corrupt conduct.
00:05:29
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And that's what makes this especially sensitive is that it later emerged Dr McNeill had been under investigation in her previous role at TAFE New South Wales while going through EIG's process for the Canberra Institute of Technology CEO role.
00:05:44
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But according to evidence given to the inquiry, the CIT board says it didn't know that when she was hired and board chair Kate Lundy said the organisation had received a positive reference during the process.
00:05:56
Speaker
She also said the board didn't know the full nature of the allegations at the time. And this is where the recruitment process, particularly the background checking, really comes under the spotlight. When question Ms Lundy confirmed EIG had used a standard form that asked, are you currently under investigation for breaching the APS Code of Conduct?
00:06:19
Speaker
And that's a very specific question to which Dr McNeill answered no. If someone's under investigation elsewhere or under a different code or framework, then it may not actually identify the issue, as was the case here.
00:06:35
Speaker
Exactly. And that's really the heart of the story. It's not just where the questions were asked, it's whether they were broad and rigorous enough to surface serious concerns. Because if the screening is too narrow, then technically someone can answer truthfully while still leaving out information that a hiring panel would absolutely want to know.
00:06:53
Speaker
Information that is highly likely to impact the hiring decision. And that's why this is likely to become a much bigger issue during the inquiry. It's about due diligence and disclosure, which is especially important in high-profile public sector appointments.
Economic Growth and Geopolitical Impacts
00:07:08
Speaker
Del, have you seen the latest Deloitte Access Economics Business Outlook report for March this year? It paints a concerning picture for the Australian economy. I did, Ross. It seems like economic growth is expected to slow down significantly. The report predicts a drop from 2.4% 2025-2026 to just in
00:07:32
Speaker
That's right. It also mentions that the unemployment rate is projected to hit a peak of 4.9% by June next year. it will decline after that, or it is forecast to decline after that, but still, it is a concerning trend.
00:07:48
Speaker
Absolutely. The report highlights that both domestic and international pricing pressures are driving this new business cycle. The ongoing Middle East conflict is a major factor, leading to higher inflation expectations globally.
00:08:01
Speaker
And that's impacting Australia directly with soaring crude oil prices translating into higher petrol prices here. This is already impacting the wholesale retail and distribution sectors and will undoubtedly affect other industries if the war in the Middle East continues indefinitely.
00:08:18
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Plus, domestic inflation was already a problem, which led the ah RBA to implement multiple interest rate hikes. The report suggests another interest rate hike is expected in the June quarter, with cuts not anticipated until June 2027. It really feels like the Australian economy is under a lot of strain.
Engagement and Podcast Promotion
00:08:40
Speaker
And that's your news for the 7th of April, 2026. If you're enjoying the Recruitment News podcast, we would love a five-star review on your favourite podcast platform. Or if you can let a colleague in the industry know, forward them our LinkedIn profile and get them to follow us on LinkedIn.
00:08:59
Speaker
Thanks for your support and stay tuned now for Question of the Week.
Regional Talent Opportunities and Trends
00:09:08
Speaker
Question of the Week. Could regional recruitment be the next growth area for agencies? o This is a fascinating one, Ross. Where does it come from? Well, I was quite intrigued by a 7 News article from two weeks ago that was headlined, complete lifestyle shift. Almost half of Gen Z living in Australian cities are considering a move to the regions.
00:09:35
Speaker
And I read on and said a salary boost was the main reason a cohort of adults younger than 30 said they would make the tree change in a survey for regional Australia ah recently. Sorry, it was say regional Australia Institute report. due to Z were motivated by cheaper cost of living, more affordable housing and proximity to nature. And I just thought, hmm, given they're not insignificant percentages, 49% of Gen Z said they were likely to move, 23% said they were ready to do so in the next year or so. And I thought that is a a substantial proportion of people under 30. Is that an opportunity for recruitment agencies?
00:10:22
Speaker
Well, you can absolutely understand it in the current market, of course, with petrol prices and cost of living with groceries and and rent, as as mentioned, or or trying to buy a house in the metro areas.
00:10:36
Speaker
As a young person today, it does make me wonder how people can survive or get ahead in the region in the metro areas and and regional regional work or living would seem very attractive. Yeah.
00:10:49
Speaker
And frankly, I think it is. I saw on ABC News maybe about three weeks ago an article about Tamworth and the growth of Tamworth. And Tamworth has grown, I'll probably say this not entirely accurately, but I think it was like it's gone from 40,000 to 50,000 residents in about 10 or 12 years.
00:11:08
Speaker
And a lot of those new residents are from outer Sydney. And the ah journalist interviewed a young couple from outer Sydney who'd moved and and had bought a house in Tamworth, both had jobs, and they were loving it, saying that they loved the house, not a house they could have afforded anywhere in Sydney, and they foresaw that the rest of their lives was probably going to be in Tamworth. And you've got to say, surely that's a bit of a template for other regional cities in Australia.
00:11:40
Speaker
So, if people are considering or are actually moving out to regional areas, then the opportunity for recruitment, like you've mentioned, could be quite – you know, there could be a strategy involved in a way to access this workforce who were metro-based, moved out to the regions, but still want to work in meaningful work.
00:12:04
Speaker
Well, yes, but I think to go a step further, Adele, I think recruitment agencies could reduce a lot of the friction with people moving because if people want to move to a region that they're not really that familiar with or to a city, they might go and visit it What's it like? They're probably going to go on the weekend.
00:12:23
Speaker
They're not really going to be able to go and talk to employers. They look at ads online. Most employers wouldn't consider someone unless they've actually moved to the region. i i just think there's just a lot of blockers there. And if a recruitment agency went to a regional council and said, we've got access to a lot of Gen Z talent,
00:12:47
Speaker
potentially they're people that could move to your city. Are you interested in working with us in an alliance, ah in building up, I don't know, marketing campaign or website so we can facilitate interest in our market?
00:13:02
Speaker
I mean, I'll just use a made up example, but if you're a recruitment agency in Melbourne and you were talking to, i don't know, the council out at Greater Gippsland, talking to employees at SAIL,
00:13:16
Speaker
um Warragul, somewhere like that. Like, you know, you think potentially those areas are always crying out for skilled talent. They're always complaining about how shallow the local talent pool is, especially for white-collar workers.
00:13:31
Speaker
You know, given how competitive the metro markets are for recruitment agencies, is this an opportunity? Well, there are recruitment agencies, much fewer, of course, but they are there are some located in the regional areas, of course, and in all regional areas of Australia. So is this more about a strategic approach to this because presumably they already attempt to to you know tempt people out from the metro areas to move out to the regions. But I think the difference is the agencies who are based in the regions, they don't have a database of metro candidates. They've got local candidates, whereas an agency in a metro area has got metro candidates.
00:14:13
Speaker
And if you're an agency that's got –
00:14:18
Speaker
depth of white-collar workforce, you've got a lot of younger workers, then you've got those people already captured on your database, or sorry, their details captured on your database. And you can start marketing to them, present the opportunity of a regional town, raise their awareness. i mean, it is going to be a drip-d drip, drip, drip.
00:14:40
Speaker
People aren't going to see an ad in regional Australia and suddenly decide to move or it's unlikely, but it's raising the awareness of what's available in the regions. And I think particularly now, cost of living, cost of housing, like and when I think about my son, who's a degree holder, he's been working for three years or nearly four.
00:15:01
Speaker
He's in a pretty good white-collar job. He's earning an okay salary, but based on his salary, he he's still years away from having a deposit to buy a home, whereas with the amount he's got saved up, he'd be pretty close to being able to put a deposit down in a ah regional area.
00:15:19
Speaker
This is where I see this could be the second wave of pressure on the whole working from home policy campaign, you know, to for candidates that that put that pressure on employers to want to work from home.
00:15:34
Speaker
i think it is worth employers in the metro areas considering the fact that people, if they do want to own their own home or they do want to live ah out of you know their parents' home, they may have to live further out. They may have to start spreading out into the regions. And if employers still want to capture good talent, they've got to be more flexible about that. Again, yeah putting that pressure on can this job be done remotely? Can this job be done with minimal contact or potentially, you know, through a regional hub? You know, there are a lot of those um shared workspaces now popping up in the outer regional areas, which would allow somebody to go into an office, albeit not in the city.
00:16:16
Speaker
Well, I suppose people, if they are moving out to the regions to do work from home or remote work for a metropolitan employer, the question's got to be asked, well, could that job be done just as well or nearly as well from Manila or Mumbai or Nairobi or Johannesburg?
00:16:37
Speaker
Because if it's fully remote, okay, I get that the time zone is different for for those cities, but it does raise the question of, well, if it can be done fully remote within Australia, does it make you as a worker vulnerable to being undercut by cheaper labour in another country?
00:16:56
Speaker
Yeah, that's always a possibility, I suppose. And and there will be employers where that is a more attractive option, but there'll be plenty of employers that don't want to go that far. They don't want to employ someone. They don't want the the headache of the employee being in a different time zone, being paid across, you know, different currencies or, you know, even employers that might have security issues or you know, employers like defence and those sorts of things that can't do that. So i still think there's an opportunity both ways. Like you're saying, people ah could be employed in the regions and recruitment agencies could definitely capitalise on that. and facilitate with employers like you said but I think the other flip side could be that if whole generation moves out into the outer regions, how is the recruitment industry going to tap into that and educate employers, ah guide and coach employers on how to access the talent which is now no longer going to come in every day or even once a week anymore.
00:17:53
Speaker
Yeah. Well, i think I think you're right. It absolutely raises a bigger question about access to talent and the traditional mindset of five days a week in the office and the desire, the continued desire of people to own their own home and the opportunity that many regional cities offer ah to do that because house prices are far less than Metro Australia.
00:18:19
Speaker
And I don't know enough about Metro Australia, sorry, about regional Australia to know whether they're really thinking about this as an opportunity. But I certainly believe recruitment agencies have got potentially a role to play here in raising awareness with regional communities, particularly, obviously, the business communities out in the regions as to they potentially could be a salut solution to their talent problem.
00:18:45
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's probably something that the Australian government as a whole has been strategically trying to vie for, particularly with things like migrant visas where there's advantages to migrants to come and live in a region and work in a region. So it's obviously part of a greater ah migration structure, a migration of people on the land. And so, you know, this is playing beautifully into that strategy if it's not just migrants doing it but local Australians who were born in Australia or multi-generational in Australia are now moving out or back out to regions. I mean, the government's got to be rubbing their hands together.
00:19:21
Speaker
Well, and I think it's important for, let's say, the the culture of Australia because we've prided ourselves on being a country where we have strength in the regions.
00:19:37
Speaker
Over the last three decades, we've seen so many small towns wither and die and so many regional communities stagnate in terms of numbers, while the big metro centres have continued to grow and grow and grow and grow. and of course, that's also meant a lot of problems in terms of infrastructure in those cities. So I'm sure the federal government would be very happy to have a much greater spread across Australia rather than this continued intensive population growth in particularly the three major metropolitan cities on Australia's east coast.
00:20:14
Speaker
So Ross, in answering your original question, could regional recruitment be a strategy for recruitment agencies? I think yes, not for all recruitment agencies, but for forward-looking agencies who really are prepared to invest and are excited about the opportunities of regional recruitment, I think there is absolutely an opportunity there.