A Poor Sense of Timing from Manpower Professional

For a change I don’t have a lot to say this morning, other than to gather your thoughts on this job posted on SEEK at 1.18pm yesterday:

Engineering opportunities across the ditch

• Get paid to move away
• Great career progression opportunity
• Excellent travel opportunity for the family

Our hearts go out to all those affected by the recent events in Christchurch. Having been there in September for the 7.1 earthquake and endless aftershocks, I can relate to the destruction and post traumatic distress the latest shocks have caused.

If you are looking for an opportunity to get away for a while, Australian Engineering firms could be your silver lining. With paid relocation and resettling assistance, the next 2 years could be an experience that you and your family will not regret.

Our consultants are currently working on Senior Engineering roles across a variety of disciplines and locations including:

Electrical Engineers:

• Senior Distribution Engineer -Electrical Engineering MV and LV Distribution
• HV Substation Design Engineers
• Transmission Lines Design Engineers

Civil Engineers:

• Principal Maritime/Marine Structures Engineer
• Senior Civil Engineers – Land development
• Senior Civil Engineers – Water resources
• Senior Hydrologists
• Principal Water Resources Engineer
• Senior Structural Engineer – Career path to Branch Manager
• Principal Geotechnical Engineer – Water retaining structures

Metallurgical and Process Engineers:

• Process Engineer – Minerals processing experience preferred

These opportunities are with well renowned organisations on the East Coast of Australia (predominantly Brisbane) offering excellent salaries and career advancement opportunities. If you would like to discuss any of the above roles or how you would go about moving. Submit your CV using the APPLY button

This ad was posted almost exactly 48 hours after the earthquake struck on Tuesday. There are still people missing, the rescue and recovery mission is still underway, and there are still people out there hoping against hope that their friends, relatives or colleagues will make some kind of miraculous reappearance from the rubble of Christchurch. Am I being a little precious here, or is this just way too early?

Now the author of this job posting seems like a good enough boy. He was in Christchurch during the original September quake, caring for an ill relative according to his LinkedIn profile, and I don’t imagine this was meant with any sense of malice. But I do think it displays terrible timing and a naïve lack of judgement. From the way I read it, it appears his colleagues in Brisbane have gathered together their hard-to-fill engineering roles, determined that the fact he was there in September means he has “earned his stripes through the aftershocks”, and has the right angle to post on their behalf.

This is not helpful at this time. This is an attempt to generate commercial gain for your business, thinly disguised as offering a helping hand to Cantabrians keen to escape with their families. If it’s too early for the Crusaders, it is too early for Manpower Professional.

I have a couple of other quick observations on this. Firstly that half the city is still without power so quite how the Brisbane office of Manpower think potential candidates will have the means, never mind the will, to even read this job posting is beyond me. Secondly, Christchurch is in ruins. The city is smashed and from what I can see from the news the famous Mainland spirit has taken a beating too. I think that in time there will certainly be many Cantabrian engineers looking for pastures new with their families, but right now and for the coming months their skills and abilities are going to be crucial in helping the city recover.

And what of the Manpower Professional office in Christchurch itself? This office is consistently vying with South Auckland for the top performing branch in New Zealand. What would these guys make of this attempt, by their own colleagues “across the ditch”, to lure skilled engineers away from the disaster zone their city has become?

I listened to Mayor Bob Parker on the news last night talking about the need to behave with dignity and respect at this difficult time. Obviously that message hasn’t made it as far as Brisbane yet.

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?