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Time For A Change In Recruitment

By January 26, 2017No Comments

I’m going to do something with today’s blog that I said I’d never do: I’m going to chuck it up onto the LinkedIn Pulse platform as well as in the usual place on our own website.

I’d always been against this because I just thought Pulse would only add to the frenzied white noise and clamour for attention that social media (especially LinkedIn) appears to have become. I’ve been writing The Whiteboard blog for nearly seven years now and have never really paid too much heed of data, analytics, ROI, clicks, views etc… Not exactly very forward-thinking of me, I know, but I do in fact genuinely enjoy writing, and putting out these posts really is no hardship for me.

I like to be able to contribute something towards our New Zealand Recruitment & HR community and conversations, and I don’t really care how many people engage with my content generation (although a good old debate in the comments section never goes amiss).

The reason for my hypocritical volte-face is in fact fairly mundane and mechanical though. You see, the first post of 2017, A New Year Heralds New Recruitment Firms, appears to have been stolen by space invaders and plucked from the clutches of the interweb:

Whiteboard 404

Now that it has disappeared into the abyss, I can tell you with great assurance that it was probably the single greatest blog post ever written. Award-winning stuff in fact. (This claim is refutable should any smart Alec out there know how to find the missing post and reinstate it, ok?)  So anyway, one thing I reckon the Pulse platform probably has in its favour is that this kind of digital appropriation is unlikely to happen again. And hey if it gets more of you talking in the comments too, all the better.

One thing from our industry that did catch my eye this week was actually from the Pulse platform too: This article posted by Iain MacGibbon from Farrow Jamieson, bidding farewell to one of his longest-standing recruiters Adam Napper. Now recruiters leaving a firm is nothing new. Unfortunately our industry is cursed with high staff turnover, so Adam’s stint of seven odd years is impressive by industry standard. However, Adam is going to a competitor around the corner…

Image result for shock horror gif

The usual reaction from recruitment managers to this kind of mutiny is a stream of opprobrium and invective, an evisceration of character that belies the manager’s own insecurities and short-comings more than the departing recruiter’s perceived lack of loyalty. So I thought this humble and measured piece, thanking Adam and wishing him well, was a rare touch of class within our battle-scarred recruitment community. Nice one Iain, and all the best Adam.

Perhaps this is the beginning of a broader movement in our recruitment industry. Perhaps we are finally learning how to lead with dignity and treat our staff like adults, with respect.

Yeah nah. Maybe not.

Jonathan Rice

MD at New Zealand rec-to-rec firm Rice Consulting and co-founder of on-demand recruiter offering Joyn. Recruitment agitator and frustrated idealist, father of two, husband of one, and lover of all things Arsenal and crafty beer.