Talent 2 beat Hudson to it…and could estate agents be recruiters of the future?

It feels like The Whiteboard came of age this week.  The power of viral social media showed itself in a big, big way as last week’s post on the Hudson “approach” through their Linked In message spread across New Zealand and Australia and the blog ended September with over 1500 views, three times more than August.

Thanks for the interest, the comments and the word-spreading, it was exhilarating to watch and to be a part of.

Thanks also to the Australian recruitment Director who forwarded me a similar “approach” that pre-dated the Hudson one.  This one was from Talent 2 and it was sent in August, by the old-fashioned method of e-mail.  Unfortunately for the poor sender (an internal recruiter for Talent 2’s Australian RPO offering), she hadn’t done the “undisclosed recipients” thing and the personal e-mail addresses of a huge number of Aussie recruiters were there for all to see.  I say “huge number” because I haven’t the time or inclination to count them all for you.  Oh hang on…highlight…copy…paste into Word…Wordcount = 434.

434 Recruiters

That’s a lot of recruiters, especially as recruiters are exactly the type to hit Reply All with their feelings at being approached this way, which I am assured is exactly what happened.

It’s also a lot of hard-won Intellectual Property given away at the click of a button.  E-mailing can be a dangerous thing sometimes if you make a mistake!

My personal opinion on these approaches is quite relaxed.  A lot of the comments last week suggested this was lazy, impersonal and effectively nothing more than spam.  Really I don’t think it matters what it is if it helps Talent 2 and Hudson achieve their aim of growing their recruitment teams.  My only question mark would be over the quality of the recruiters that would respond in the affirmative to an approach like this, but from my experience the recruitment processes undertaken by both of these firms is long, in-depth and thorough, so there is a chance approaches such as this could end up being a wasted exercise.

It would be interesting to hear feedback from Hudson and Talent 2 on the effectiveness of the approach.

MOVING ON…

 

Anyway, moving on from this discussion, I heard in the news this week about the plight of New Zealand’s real estate agents with a slow moving market, falling housing prices and a new complaints facility which is already in a 3 month backlog due to the volume of complaints.

Perhaps I have a solution for these disgruntled estate agents:  Ever considered a career in recruitment?

I mean it’s practically the same thing isn’t it?  A house looking for new owners is just like a candidate looking for a new job.  And home buyers are the same as your clients.  They have a list of requirements that they want filling, and you go about presenting them with options which match most of the requirements, but usually not all, and they end up choosing one and offering less money than the house is really worth, and eventually a deal is struck and the home buyers have a new house.  Estate agents looking at a recruitment career can look at things like this:

House = Candidate

Buyers = Client

Vendor’s overvaluation of house value = Candidate’s unrealistic salary expectations

Buyers wanting a sea view, large back garden and period features = Client wanting a candidate with 8 years’ experience, a degree qualification, and the ability to type while talking on the phone

Persuading buyers to compromise on the sea view by showing a house with bush views but the sounds of the sea = Persuading a client to interview a candidate who isn’t degree qualified but does have a Diploma in an almost-related topic and specific work experience with a competitor

See what I mean?  Add to this that in recruitment that you actually get a base salary (usually – estate agents often work commission-only) and you don’t have to wear a suit and talk to members of the public at the weekends and you’ll be glad you left real estate in the first place!

I’d be interested to hear if anyone has taken on an estate agent into a recruitment role and how they have managed to transition across and perform in our industry.  Seems to me like they’d take to it like a duck to water.

Perhaps Hudson and Talent 2 could have a go at sending a blanket approach to this group instead – they might get a more positive response.

Hudson harness Linked In to put themselves about town

 

OK let’s see a show of hands.  Who out there received an “approach” from Hudson this week?

No?  Not you?

Well either you aren’t a recruiter currently operating in New Zealand or Australia, or you haven’t adequately described and categorized yourself on your Linked In profile (I know there is a third option that you might not have a Linked In profile… *gasp* …but I doubt you’d be reading this blog if you haven’t even progressed that far yet).

If you don’t know what I’m on about then I can explain.  This message quietly slipped into my Linked In inbox on Monday night:

Dear Jonathan Rice,

Hudson is the place where the best recruitment consultants do better.

From our A-list client base to a genuine focus on work/life balance, we invest heavily in supporting you so you can do what you do best.

Hudson is growing, and growing quickly. We’ve seen your LinkedIn profile and we’re keen to talk to you about joining the Hudson team. From A to Z, we can list the benefits of taking your next career step with Hudson.

We’re looking for talent management professionals and for recruitment consultants to join us across accounting & finance, sales & marketing, legal, human resources, ICT, office support, managed services, property, public sector, supply chain and technical & engineering.

If you’d like to find out more about why Hudson is the place where the best recruitment and talent management professionals do better, please email careers @ hudson and one of our team members will be in touch.

 

Pretty slick eh?  Thanks but no thanks Hudson, I’d rather remain a supplier if you’ll have me, but I admire the tone, nature and innovation of your approach.

So what’s going on?  How have Hudson managed to become a “Linked In Partner” and gain such unbridled access to all of our inboxes?  I imagine they have probably signed up to Linked In Recruiter Professional Services which is a system that basically allows you to use Linked In as a giant global CRM database and do candidate searches and “e-shots” (terminology from my Hays days) to people’s Linked In profiles.

Makes sense really – I mean did you think Linked In were a Not-For-Profit or a Charity?  Of course not.  It’s just that they didn’t really have much of a focus on revenue generating strategies outside of the US until earlier this year when Australia surpassed 1 million Linked In users and they opened an office on Sydney’s Pitt Street.  Steve Barham popped over from their Californian HQ as Director for recruitment solutions for their Australia and New Zealand markets and from that point on it was only a matter of time before we would start to see more premium Linked In usage entering our realms of reference.

One of the first to sign up was Rio Tinto’s internal recruitment team in Australia.  Now it looks like Hudson are having a go with it too.  So how effective do you think this will be?  I’m sure this premium product must cost a fair premium too – will they get a decent ROI?

I have already heard from a few recruiters out there in New Zealand who have received this approach from Hudson.  I’d be keen to see how wide the reach has been – feel free to leave a comment on the blog if you received it too (and yes, you can remain anonymous if you wish).

Most of all I’d be interested to hear your views on whether you feel this is an effective approach or not and, again anonymously, if any of you are planning on contacting them as a result.

I wish Hudson good luck with this new approach but I hope not too many of you say “yes” as I might need to start doing things a bit differently myself!  Always up for a bit of innovation though!

Have a good Friday and weekend everyone – talk again soon.

More Recruitment PR Stunts Please

The Whiteboard made an appearance on New Zealand TV last weekend when it was aired on the current affairs programme Sunday.  But, alas, not this blog, that will have to wait for another day.  No it was the whiteboard belonging to Queenstown based medical recruitment specialist MedRecruit.

A fine whiteboard it was though, with the title ‘Ave it August emblazoned across the top and the company’s Director, Dr Sam Hazeldine, writing up a nice $21k fee onto it.  You can view the whole programme by clicking here .  Click on “Cut and Run Part 2” for the bit with Sam and MedRecruit in it.

The article is looking at the exodus of kiwi medical talent to Australia for better working conditions, weather and pay etc etc (you’ve heard all this before, whatever sector you might recruit for).  What struck me was what fantastic exposure and PR this was for MedRecruit though.  Most press releases and PR guff in New Zealand tends to centre around the big globals such as Hudson, Hays, Robert Walters etc, who attach their executive management’s name (Marc Burrage, Jason Walker, Richard Manthel respectively) to the same old bland press releases from Aussie PR departments.  Don’t get me wrong, these guys do a pretty decent job of presenting their “findings” to the media, but it’s never anything new, almost always concentrating on skills shortages or increases in job orders, just couched in different ways each time.

But it was great to see something new from a smaller kiwi boutique player (at least currently – Sam has been going 4 years and is already up to 12 staff and making plans to open offices in Australia).  I spoke to Sam earlier this week and he does get some PR support from his wife who is PR and Marketing qualified, but he was directly approached by TVNZ to feature in their Sunday programme, by virtue of his well-known name in the medical recruitment field and its’ relevance to the topic of their piece.

I was also impressed to see Jane Kennelly of Frog Recruitment getting her company onto the headline article of One News last Friday night.  Again, click here if you want to see the whole video.  I have to say the article was kind of lacking in “newsworthiness” especially for a leading article (but much more welcome than hearing about terrorist bombs, floods and snubbed ageing footballers you might get leading the UK news).  But again it was great to see a kiwi boutique firm getting some national exposure through their PR efforts.

There is a lot of good things going in recruitment in New Zealand but I think that many of us tend to hide in our shells a little, especially as we are natural targets for the usual criticism traditionally hurled our way.  Well done to Dr Sam at MedRecruit and Jane at Frog Recruitment – be proud of what you do and get your name and brand out there.

And remember – the big globals don’t always get it right – just ask BP who originally claimed that the oil spill was not their fault, it was their contractor’s fault.  Or the hilarious “PR-off” going on between HP and their recently booted CEO.

It would be great to see a lot more positive PR from the New Zealand recruitment sector – anyone else got some good PR stories or things coming up?