Last week recruiters from across Australia and New Zealand converged on Hamilton Island for the annual Recruitment & Consulting Services Association (RCSA) Conference. The theme for this year’s conference was Recruitment ReNEWed – Strategy, Technology, People and the line-up of speakers did not disappoint with their insights and knowledge sharing.
“The one constant in business today is change, driven by connected customers and staff, transforming technology solutions, agile start-ups and disruptive new business models” RCSA
This statement is certainly true for recruitment agencies however I think it applies more broadly to all businesses as we all try to keep up with or ahead of the change that is occurring in our respective industries and businesses. Strategy, technology and people is at the heart of that change for all businesses.
Here’s what I took away from this year’s conference and my thoughts on how change will impact the way businesses recruit.
Data is the new oil – Chris Riddell
Technology and digital isn’t just the latest buzz word, it’s revolutionising our world and is connecting us faster than ever before. Being able to gather and analyse real time data through leveraging technology and digital is the new oil and will give greater power to businesses to engage with their customers. We need to be constantly innovating and reinventing ourselves.
If you are not remarkable you are invisible – Michael McQueen
Pressure continues to mount on businesses to stand out from the crowd by adding value and having a story to tell. How are you remarkable?
Experiment vs Project – Michael Bunting
Creating a culture where it is ok to fail is key. How does our perception change when we change our terminology from a project to an experiment when trying something new? If it’s an experiment we are more comfortable and open with looking for failure.
Anyone can use Linked In to recruit, the power of the recruiter is in their ability to influence.
The recruiter of today and the future will offer their clients something they can’t achieve themselves – engaging and influencing talent. As skills shortages continue and being a candidate short market, recruiting top talent will continue to become increasingly difficult. Successful recruitment campaigns will centre on effective influencing and engagement through candidate talent communities.
Vision Mission Values: If they are alive you shouldn’t have to put them on the wall – Sue-Ellen Watts
Pretty self-explanatory really. Are you walking the talk with your vision, mission and values? Culture is more important today than ever before in engaging and connecting your tribe and if the leaders are not walking the talk a lack of employee engagement and retention will be the result.
On-boarding
Business and recruiters are placing increased importance on the on-boarding of new staff to increase engagement and retention, realising that an effective and comprehensive on-boarding strategy is key to ensuring new employees transition in to the business successfully. An on-boarding strategy is not a day one induction and tour, it’s a comprehensive strategy rolled out over many months.
Hiring talent is not a commodity – Greg Savage
Hiring talent is an art, it’s about influencing and engaging with talent communities. Technology will not replace the recruitment industry and businesses in the future should “always be recruiting even if they are not hiring as the businesses with the best people always win” – Greg Savage. Building a talent pipeline for your business is crucial for success if you want the top talent. Do you have the best people?
As always I’ve left the conference inspired, motivated and feeling overwhelmed with new ideas – where to start and how to implement them. A great problem to have. One thing is for sure though, I’ll be referring to these new ideas as experiments and not projects!
Now the count down begins for Port Douglas and the 2016 annual RCSA Conference – another beautiful location for learning and networking!
