In Part One of this blog post, I told the story of how I found my way into recruitment. The fact is, breaking into the field of recruitment can be difficult and there is definitely no right or wrong route.  What I am aiming to do with Part Two of this blog is to provide you with a little more insight into what skills are required to succeed in the industry that I am so passionate about, and to hopefully ensure success for those who have what it takes.Agency Recruitment – please note that it...

"How did you get into recruitment? What are the skills that I need to get there?”These are questions that I have been asked several times throughout my career.  To give you the honest answer, I fell into recruitment.  It was definitely not something I had considered, or had even known about, coming from a small South Island town (there aren’t many recruitment companies when the population is only 25,000)! Over this two-part blog series I hope to give you an insight into my recruitment ...

Yesterday I attended my first #SMCAKL - the monthly event organised by the Social Media Club in Auckland. It's been on my "to go" list for a long time and so it was apt that my first one was pertinent to my job - social media for recruitment. With over 170 registered to attend, the topic of recruitment was appealling. It promised better attendance than most events organised by the recruitment industry, for the recruitment industry!I wasn't sure what to expect, as I knew most of the panellists. I...

With the Olympics just around the corner it seems a fitting analogy to compare the recruitment process to a 110m hurdle race. Each stage of the recruitment process represents a hurdle and unless you successfully navigate over each one in turn, you will never make it to the finish line.Falling at the final hurdle has got to be the worst of all given the time and energy expended as well as the anticipation of success at the finish line. Picking yourself off the floor at that point is an effort in ...

At this time of the year there is typically a direct correlation between decreasing temperatures and candidate numbers as hibernation tendencies kick-in! It is also the point at which many organisations close off and start their new financial year which impacts on their propensity to recruit given budgetary pressures or indeed freedoms.We have noticed a slight increase in the amount of Executive recruitment over the past couple of months, indicative of more candidate movement at this level, incr...

When community-based counselling service Home & Family Counselling approached us at the start of the year, we could not pass up the opportunity to assist. While we had made cash donations to support not-for-profits in the past, this time, we provided Home & Family Counselling recruitment services, completely free of charge. Our Auckland-based Consultant Mandy Mella took on the job, and for two weeks she worked alongside the not-for-profit to find them a permanent staff member for their p...

The Dominion Post spoke to me earlier this year about the rise of social media activities amongst employers. Here is the article reproduced courtesy of The Dominion Post (I personally would have titled it "Social Media Marketing Pays Dividends"...). New Zealand companies are increasingly interacting on social media to jostle for in-demand candidates, says Madison Recruitment’s Shereen Low.Madison’s latest trends report shows there’s more awareness around social media activities and use of these ...

As is typical of this time of year, we are seeing significant increases in both candidate application numbers and client recruitment activity.  Many employees tend to review their options at this time of year after they have had time to reflect on their career path over the summer holidays.Salary levels continue to be a key determinant in both recruitment and retention of those with business-critical skill sets (with more modest pressure applying to support roles). Employees are looking to ...

Typically at this time of year we see the last flurry of client recruitment activity prior to the summer Christmas break.  This is predominantly being seen in the private sector as many public sector organisations are still under cost containment pressures resulting in more strategic stakeholder analysis over spending and workforce planning. We predict this trend will continue at current or even greater degrees throughout 2012, especially now that the National Party have another three year ...