www.scirecruitment.co.nz

What works in the current job market in New Zealand – employers’ perspective

June 2, 2010 at 4:37 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Many employers and recruiting managers in New Zealand seem to rely predominantly on job boards to source candidates for their organisations. We know that this approach used to work reasonably well for some roles in 2006 and 2007. But is this really the best way of identifying and recruiting top talent in 2010?

I asked a number of decision makers within medium to large organisations (10 to be precise) operating across a wide range of industries in New Zealand whether they were happy with the quality of candidates they sourced through job boards. The answers clearly indicated that most of the managers in question did not feel they were able to recruit the talent they originally intended through the job boards and they had to ‘adjust’ their criteria.

While the number of applicants applying for jobs over the last 18 months has increased substantially, it seems to me that organisations find it increasingly more difficult to source the quality management talent they need.

To paraphrase an expression I heard recently, relying on job boards to recruit management talent is like ‘fishing in a pond’. Many employers/recruiters are there competing against one another, hoping to attract and recruit the best candidate for their role. So the competition among employers/recruiters is fierce but is the talent they are after there at all?

I should point out one very important fact that most employers and recruiters looking to source professionals through job boards tend to forget. The majority of applicants there are not necessarily the best candidates for their role – they are simply available and actively seeking a new role.

My experience with numerous recruitment & search assignments over the years tells me that, almost inevitably, the best candidates are passive and would not respond to ads placed on job boards. In fact they would not even visit these sites as they are not actively looking for a new role.

If recruiting through job boards is like fishing in a pond, searching for the right candidate among a passive market is the equivalent of fishing in the open ocean. Over the last 6 months only 4 out of 20 candidates selected for final interviews with client organisations in New Zealand came as a result of our advertising on job boards. The rest were sourced through our social media facilities and professional networking and search activities. This means that 80% of our best candidates were sourced outside job boards.

Our current pool of top-notch candidates at mid to senior management level in a number of functional areas is almost entirely sourced through social media and search activities. While job boards will continue to play a role in the future for certain types of roles they will most probably be seen increasingly as only an integral part of a more complex model incorporating elements of recruitment, search, social media and networking for management level roles.

It is the responsibility of professional recruiters, in my opinion, to advise their clients on the most appropriate methodology that is required for specific assignments. Company managers engaging external recruiters should also learn how to interview their prospective suppliers by asking the right questions regarding the most appropriate methodology to be applied.

Tell us what your thoughts are on this topic.

—–
SCI works exclusively with senior managerial professionals across a range of functional areas in New Zealand and Australia. If your organisation has recruitment needs at mid to senior management level our consultancy can provide you with access to exclusive passive candidates. For more information contact our office in Auckland on +64 9 962 5687.