Thanks to NZ Recruitment 2.0 member, Lauren Young for alerting me to this innovative approach to recruitment advertising from Hamilton-based legal firm Tompkins Wake. Check out their Boston Legal style video.
 

Then click through from this video to read the letter of intent proposing defamation action against New Zealand for giving the city of Hamilton a bad rap. This reputation makes it particularly difficult to recruit lawyers, when apparently Hamilton has a lot to offer. Check out the “expert witness” written statements.  

Does this encourage any lawyers to shift to Hamilton?

Paul Jacobs
Engage

Sometimes recruitment agencies are unkindly referred to as sausage factories. So what happens when a recruitment agency teams up with a sausage and smallgoods manufacturer on a recruitment assignment? Answer: innovation.

New Zealand-based recruitment agency Farrow Jamieson teamed up recently with Heller Tasty Ltd to recruit a Human Resources Manager, based at their Kaiapoi Head Office and manufacturing facility.  

The vacancy was advertised in The Press (8 Nov) and Sunday Star Times (16 Nov) as well as on Seek, Trademe, Careerzone and HRINZ.  63 people applied (including those directly approached). This is where the innovation kicks in.  21 applicants, including 3 from overseas, were invited to a webinar (see definition), 18 registered and 3 couldn’t make the designated time.  

Farrow Jamieson consultant Robyn Goulevitch ran the webinar with two Heller representatives (one in Auckland and one in Christchurch).  During the webinar 32 questions were raised.

I encourage you to watch the webinar, right through to the end when they poll those attending:

Watch 

 
I found the webinar to be both extremely informative and upfront. The honest commentary was very refreshing.  Candidate feedback received since is apparently very positive, with overseas candidates commenting that they felt engaged in the process. Two candidates self selected out, realising the job wasn’t for them and the remainder were keen to progress.  Client feedback was also positive, they enjoyed talking about the business and were impressed with the intelligent questions from candidates.

Farrow Jamieson intend to make this approach a permanent part of the recruitment process, highlighting that “even the best briefed consultant will occasionally get questions they cannot answer.” They believe that this medium allows those questions to be answered and the client to gain insight into the thinking of the “market”.  In the future Farrow Jamieson intend using more polls to gauge candidate opinion.

This is an example where using technology appears to have added value to the recruitment experience for all parties involved. Do you think it is a good approach?

Paul Jacobs
Engage

For anyone with a blog or a corporate blog, Wordle is worth checking out. Wordle generates “word clouds” from text within the blog, with greater prominence given to words that appear more frequently. Below are some word clouds from a small selection of NZ and international recruitment-related blogs. It’s an interesting way to get a snapshot of the key themes of a blog.

KPMG New Zealand graduate careers site

Oracle Asia Pacific Recruitment Blog

Russell McVeagh Summer Clerk programme 

Microsoft’s JobsBlog

Paul Jacobs
Engage