By Michael Botur

Recruiter Karen Harding recently told the story of a recruitment effort that tried to go against the prevailing currents of Australia’s extremely tight job market. Unfortunately, the company wanting to find its ideal candidate didn’t have the resourcefulness to get past the shortage of candidates in 2023’s current market conditions.

“This company wanted a role filled, for a Project Manager in the construction industry in Sydney. Construction was booming, and the employer should have found its ideal person. However, the salary they advertised wasn’t quite right for the skills and experience they wanted, the employer took two months to respond to suggestions, and the networks which they tapped were unsuccessful. It had a negative ending and cost the company money because they then had to allocate extra salary to pay the appropriate amount to find the person – which we could have guided them on from the get-go.”

It was an inefficient way for the company to attempt to recruit.

The big picture surrounding that example looks like this: there are 14 million workers in Australia and companies want workers to join, stay in a role and thrive.

It’s a hell of a year to try and find optimal staff if you don’t have realistic expectations around salary or skill sets, an established network of professional candidates, databases of contacts, the ability to write a captivating job advertisement and – perhaps most importantly – understanding how to keep a potential candidate ‘on the hook’ once they have ‘taken a bite.’

The first two quarters of 2023 have seen severe labour shortages in Australia, particularly for skilled roles which – although they may cost in terms of salary – cost more if you don’t have the staff your business needs to allow you to keep up.

The National Skills Commission tells us many of the Top 10 occupations in demand nationally are highly trained roles including registered nurses, carers, construction managers, mechanics, retail managers, ICT business and systems analysts, and civil engineering professionals – and these sorts of professionals are well-aware of the salary levels they can command and how market forces are in their favour.

Good thing that help has arrived in the form of a new recruitment brand with an edge.

New professional recruiters set realistic expectations – and follow up with results

Considering what it takes to land a candidate these days, it’s fitting that Karen Harding has been named Talent Acquisition Manager of HR Assured’s newest service, Recruitment, and that the new recruitment experts have a parent company, FCB, to provide helpful workplace resources.

FCB is a family of Australian and Kiwi companies with HR employment law and expertise at its core, meaning HR Assured’s Recruitment service receives the benefit of company knowledge. HR Assured Recruitment itself is spearheaded by a team of highly-trained talent specialists with experience, ideas and networks to match optimal workers with optimal companies.  The team under Harding consists of Recruitment Specialist Bhumika Taneja and Recruitment Specialist Jacqueline Tufenkjian, who says that the new service faces exactly the same market conditions as other recruiters.

The team has several points of difference, however;

• The team of recruiters are experts who know the market, the employment landscape, how to read human behaviours and follow a detailed process.
• HR Assured Recruitment reflects FCB’s core values – Inspired & Innovative, Exceed Expectations, Relationships Matter and We’re Better Together.
• The team’s approach is consultative, honest and transparent to both client and candidate.
• It keeps the client and candidate informed every step of the way. As Harding puts it, “Small amounts of communication go a long way in engaging a candidate and understanding more about the client and their culture.”
• The team’s processes are detailed and thorough, with no cutting corners
• HR Assured Recruitment has experience in getting cost-effective results from digital advertising.
• Roles – which always need rapid, focused dedication to be filled – are shared amongst not only Harding’s network team, but throughout the larger FCB family of companies.
• HRA Recruitment publishes articles with its sister companies about employment on a daily basis, is always up to date with what’s happening in the market and never falls behind.

Science plus personability equals results

Psychometric aptitude testing is an important feature of the new service, and specialises in harnessing the power of candidate testing, combining scientific results from PXT psychometric testing and adding professional perspective to the scientific results.

The other major point of difference is the human touch – that is, the ability to simply pick up a phone and have human conversations to keep job prospects interested in roles, as opposed to automating contact like so many apps.

“Keeping candidates attached, informed and interested is super-important when there is so much competition and you can easily lose a candidate to another role. We phone or email candidates regularly to keep them informed and interested.  Sometimes no news is news to a candidate who is job hunting.

“We get realistic about what needs to be done to work during this 40-year-low unemployment. Businesses have to be flexible, innovative and use all their avenues to find staff amid the current skills shortage.

“Examples of avenues we might use are making the most of referral bonuses, shoulder-tapping, targeted advertising – and potentially having to increase salary to get the right person. Sometimes this increases costs up front – but it does fill the role quickly,” Harding says.

Support extends beyond finding the right-fitting candidate

Once Harding’s team has matched a candidate with an organisation, a healthy amount of follow-up begins. This minimises any chance that the candidate won’t be a lasting fit, from a 30-day check-in and beyond.

As Harding puts it, “Saying yes to a CV is only one part of the journey. What we do is help shape a role, guide on salary and conditions, advertise to a discrete audience, find, induct, support and check in at scheduled intervals that you have the perfect match.  The relationship we build along the way in this process is very important to us – we want to get it right!”

“Our approach means you can more effectively replicate your top performers, mitigate the risk of a bad hire, reduce inherent hiring biases, get fresh eyes on your processes – and all of this means we’re increasing employee retention and longevity.”

“We’re responsible, we’re accountable – and you benefit from hopefully finding the perfect worker.”

Michael Botur is a copywriter and works for FCB and HR Assured. Based in sunny Northland, New Zealand, Michael’s passionate about shaping words to give audiences persuasive stories – sometimes for sales and marketing, other times for journalism, art or entertainment.