Starting out as a recruiter in the mid 90’s I remember thinking how cool it was to be able to fax a résumé to a client. But then there were also times that weren’t so cool when I had to be in the office at 7:30am and still there at 7:30pm in case a client called in needing a temp for that day or the following morning. After all how else could they contact me? I wasn’t going to give them my home phone number! And then of course there times when my desk was covered in so many client files and candidate CVs that I couldn’t even find my rolodex if I tried!

Gosh how the recruitment world has changed.
Or has it?

Employers still want to deal with professional recruiters and to see the best candidates, candidates still want to deal with professional recruiters and to be represented for the best jobs, and the recruiters still want to be making the best matches.

So really nothing has changed … except of course for the way the whole recruitment process works.

Today hiring managers can scroll through CVs on their iPads (sorry what’s a fax?) in their office, at home or even on the bus; employers have their recruiters’ mobile numbers and email addresses stored in their mobile phones; candidate CVs have almost been replaced by the creation of a detailed LinkedIn profile and can be shared in the single click of a button; recruiters can ‘meet’ with candidates anywhere in the world virtually either via SKYPE or an on-line video interview platform; and new job openings can be fed straight into a candidate’s inbox via an online job board.

Long gone are the days of a recruiter having to wait on hold for half an hour before finally being able to dictate advertising copy to a customer service representative working in a call centre at the classifieds section of a local newspaper.

Yet while recruitment is now taking place at the speed of tomorrow, one thing that employers say has slowed down (or in some cases has disappeared entirely) is the concept of service. Even with all that technology has brought along with it – the social networks, mobile apps, video interview platforms, cloud-based candidate databases etc – if an employer decides to engage the services of a recruiter as opposed to undertaking the process on their own, then they want to be looked after. Employers want to be kept up to date at every stage of the process. They want recruiters to follow up, and to follow through.

Neither party in the so-called Recruitment Love Triangle (the employer, the recruiter or the candidate) should be comfortable hiding behind technology. It would be rare for a candidate to get a job without at least speaking to a recruiter or meeting with an employer face to face; Nor would an employer likely regularly use a recruiter with whom they only have an anonymous relationship over email.

I suppose it’s up to whether an employer is wanting a transactional relationship with their recruiter and a quick fix (bum on seat) solution to a hiring need, or whether they are looking for more of a consultative solution, and to build a long- term partnership with a recruiter who will help them grow their business, not just today but into the future.

When it comes to the world of recruitment, some things will never change.

Paul Slezak
February 2012.
Paul Slezak is Head of Community and Client Services with RecruitLoop. RecruitLoop gives employers a smarter way to recruit, with 80% cost savings: An online marketplace of experienced recruiters charging an hourly rate, and an online video interview platform.

The site provides various information relating to useful resources for jobseekers as well as employer related diversity toolkits and information pertaining to grants for employers of mature age workers (another issue for discussion at a later date!)

While everyone agrees the Government involvement is imperative in addressing not only age discrimination but also private sector engagement, how are these current initiatives being measured?

We recently contacted DEEWR to obtain some statistics on the success of the program and are still waiting for a response, however would love to hear your thoughts if you have had any experience – positive or negative – with Experience +

Reblogged from AARP:

Pop quiz: In December 2011, what was the unemployment rate for people 50 and over? The answer is 6.2 percent, nearly twice what it was at the beginning of the Great Recession in 2007. At AARP we often hear from members in their 50s, 60s and 70s who are unemployed and want and need to get back into the workforce…some desperately so. This month, AARP is shining the spotlight on older worker issues from a range of perspectives, from those who still need to work to have a roof over their heads, to those who …

Macquarie University is conducting research to understand the career stages of health workers and the career decisions of experienced health workers within allied health occupations. Adage have agreed to support this research by facilitating the researcher’s access to our members.

We ask you to consider volunteering for this research. The research will involve a survey which will take around 30 minutes to complete. You will be asked questions about your attitudes towards work and your career.

Please note your participation is voluntary and your responses will remain confidential between you and the researchers.

If you wish to participate in the survey please see the link below:

http://macquariefbe.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_a3LrvehisFHQzHe

Thank you, your participation is greatly appreciated.

At Adage we are focussed on connecting with employers who value maturity and experience and hope to be able to make an impact in 2012. With new employers coming on board each week we hope to be able to deliver our jobseekers variety and a discriminatory free environment.

We also welcome feedback and robust debate about the mature age market so if you’d like to contribute to our blog get in touch through support@adage.com.au.

The more noise we make, the bigger impact we can have!

View the episode here

“The Bureau’s Job Search Experience Australia 2011 figures report that a staggering 18% of unemployed people aged 45 years and over found the main reason they had difficulty finding work was because they were considered too old by employers,” Commissioner Ryan said.

“In a country where we are constantly being told there are skills shortages, this finding is an indictment on the mindset of many people making recruitment decisions,” said Commissioner Ryan.

“It highlights that we have to move urgently away from the discriminatory thinking that 45 means people are ready for the employment scrap heap.”

Ms Ryan said there was absolutely no evidence that most older people – certainly not people aged as young as 45 – fell into the age-based stereotypes such as being slower, less technologically savvy, less flexible or less trainable.

“Instead of reinforcing the damaging stereotypes against mature age workers, employers should see the economic advantages of widening the pool for potential employees to include those older workers who are capable and experienced,” Commissioner Ryan said.

Ms Ryan said we need to celebrate as best practice those forward-thinking employers who demonstrate good, non-discriminatory employment policy and make productive use of all their workforce, regardless of age.

Source: Human Rights Commission

There is a wide body of research to support the business case for hiring mature workers. Some of the most common arguments are outlined below:

Currently there are 7 million people in Australia aged over 50, with 24,000 people turning 50 each month.

The over 50s market control 60% of all wealth, have more disposable income then any other age group, own their own homes, spend more on travel, entertainment, white goods, gardening, new cars, furniture, food and beverages, with over 78% now owning their own computer.

50 Up delivers rich editorial content relevant to the over 50s.

The website and print magazine offers interviews with celebrities, articles on health, investment, travel, technology, cooking, fashion, and much more.

If you want to target the market that holds more wealth than any other age group, you cannot afford to miss promoting your business, goods or services to the over 50’s then you need to advertise with 50 Up Australia.

50 Up will offer you as an advertiser a diverse audience, readership and market penetration in a lively glossy magazine.

We offer you a variety of print and digital advertising and we invite you to contact Robert Kearney on 0419-639-209 or email Robert.kearney@50up.com.au for a no obligation discussion.

Life Begins Here

E: Robert.kearney@50up.com.au
W: 50up.com.au
F: www.facebook.com/50upAustralia   T: twitter.com/#!/50UPAustralia
M: 0419 639 209

Great Aussie invention: Hills Hoist

Australia is unquestionably a nation of innovative thinkers. Our isolation has meant that we have had to rely on our own resourcefulness and skills to develop solutions to many problems that were not just unique to our experience but had potential to meet market needs world wide.

Our greatest inventors and inventions often had very humble and unassuming beginnings. In fact some of the most unique and innovative ideas have originated, often literally from our own backyard; for example, the Victa Lawn Mower which was invented in 1952, in Concord a suburb of Sydney, Australia, by Mervyn Victor Richardson and the  Hills Hoist which was invented by Lance Hill in 1945. Hill also began to manufacture the height-adjustable rotary clothes hoist in Adelaide, South Australia. These two inventions are now such a familiar part of our culture that it is easy to forget in their day they revolutionised two very common household chores and changed the way we approach lawn mowing and laundry forever. In the medical sphere the Cochlear implant Ear Piece (Professor Graeme Clark A.C., then Foundation Professor of the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Melbourne in 1970, led the team that developed the Australian prototype bionic ear, which was implanted into the first patient, Rod Saunders, in 1978) In fact the list of Aussie ingenuity is very extensive across many fields of endeavour and the most common thread amongst them seems to be the lack of home grown support for research and development as well as local manufacture.

Our engineering manufacturing arm has almost departed from our shores and in some instances forever. Manufacturing has been sent offshore where the labour is cheap. In some countries where the unskilled work force is paid just enough to survive with little else to improve their quality of life. It is an irony that we continue to export our ideas and intellectual property to countries that have little regard for occupational health and safety standards. Whilst OH&S is mandatory not only in this country but also other western nations, the implementation and enforcement of OH&S has meant that our local markets suffer with increased costs to our labour market which translates into high costs of our local manufactured products resulting in reduced dividends to the board members of our local companies. Is it any wonder that we prefer to export our manufacturing to countries with a cheaper labour force and reduced overheads ultimately resulting in the depletion of our local skills base and huge gaps in our workforce?

When our manufacturing was at its highest, there was an abundance of employment opportunities for both skilled and unskilled labourers, whether it was a foundry in Newcastle, the rail way yards at Redfern or workshop facilities dotted throughout the suburbs of all our major cities. These manufacturing facilities employed a skilled labour force of pattern makers and metal pourers in the foundries, fitters, boiler makers and tradesman’s assistants in the workshop facilities, rail car carriage builders, sheet metal fitters, boiler makers, electricians in the rail industry. These industries offered employment opportunities in their hundreds each year to apprentices. Many of these apprentices eventually established small businesses of their own becoming the local tradesmen that we call on when we require domestic help with our plumbing, electrical work, building maintenance and so on. The forgotten workers of our manufacturing industry are the unskilled workers. The unskilled labour force often comprised of people who had limited education opportunities or were marginalised through life circumstances but who nonetheless were absorbed by manufacturing into a working life that provided structure and valued their ability to complete basic tasks with minimal supervision. It is the unskilled labour force who have suffered most with the demise of manufacturing in this country. Not only have they lost employment opportunities but they have also lost a crucial support network that was so valuable in assisting those in the lower socio-economic strata of society in improving their own situation as well as the generations that followed them.

So as you can see the flow on affect of watering down our manufacturing industry has a direct impact on our domestic consumption of our daily household or commercial needs. We have chosen rightly or wrongly to import a variety of products that we could have made here in Australia and thereby reap the rewards of maintaining our local skills for future generations to come. We have essentially traded our very core values and the values of our children in exchange for a “quick buck”.

Certainly our resource industries have benefited from the bonanza of offshore manufacture, however if our greatest mining trading partner in Asia becomes a causality in this “global financial crisis” Australia will have nothing to fall back on because we have neglected to nurture a manufacturing industry over the past 30 years. One wonders if such neglect will be the undoing of the very foundation that this country was established on that is a decent day’s pay for a decent hard day’s work.

We can be optimistic that as a nation we will replenish the skill shortage which faces us, re-establish a workable apprentice system and learn from our experiences. It rests with our political leaders to realize that every country needs a manufacturing industry which will allow us to become competitive in a world market. After all we all live in an extraordinarily blessed country that has experienced enormous growth in the past and there is no reason why we shouldn’t experience the same or better again.

Written by Adage jobseeker Michael Coco

Economic reports from around the globe are forecasting volatile times ahead and the most at risk in times of economic uncertainty? Seniors and those entering retirement. But understanding your super fund and keeping an eye on the future can help safeguard your nest egg, no matter what stage of life you are in, writes Rachel Davis.

Once the preserve of finance professionals, stocks and shares are now common place discussions around the dinner table. The superannuation guarantee in Australia, soon to rise to 12%, has given our citizens an enviable nest egg but with most of it invested in the share market through super funds, it is open to the dramatic highs and lows of the markets.

A couple looking to achieve a comfortable retirement will need to spend $55,316 a year, while those seeking a ‘modest’ retirement lifestyle need to spend $31,767 a year, according to new figures released by the Association of Super Funds Australia.

To achieve this kind of income in retirement requires careful planning, some luck but also knowledge. Do you know where your super is? It sounds simple but the average Australian has multiple super funds, each charging fees and taking money straight out of their retirement income. Most super funds now offer free services – if you switch to them – that will track your lost super and then roll it over into one account.

Protecting your retirement income begins with your super fund. They are more accessible than ever before with many offering free advice and calculators on their websites. Question them and make sure you understand what kind of fund you are in and how much they are charging you.

If you are with one of the top three super funds, it is unlikely that you are getting the best deal so, do what you would in any other situation – shop around for the best deal. There are a number of independent super ratings houses that track the funds over three, five and 10 year periods.

Go ahead, I dare you to compare.

www.50up.com.au