More choice but don’t get complacent with exec recruiting

By Niko Kloeten, NBR - 13th February 2009

Finding capable candidates for executive roles will be easier in 2009 but companies should still follow the proper processes, warn recruitment industry experts.

With rising unemployment and the prospect of skilled but out-of-work New Zealanders returning to these shores, the search for executive talent may go from the ridiculous to the sublime in a matter of months.

Whereas the candidates were calling the shots only a short while ago, recruitment industry figures say some young high-flyers are having to write in application letters for the first time.

Companies who previously had to reach out the tendrils to find anyone suitable are now inundated with CVs.

But while it may be tempting for companies to bypass recruitment consultants altogether and go DIY in their search for executives, Kelly Services country general manager Steve Kennedy says such moves could backfire.

“In this environment, with more people coming into the market with leadership and executive skills and more people coming back from overseas, organisations have more choice, but they have to be careful to use the right process.”

He says while some companies do use a DIY recruitment process, it is important for those without the required skills to do so successfully to use recruitment organisations.

“While they may not necessarily be complacent, companies may believe ‘why do we need a third party?’ The problem with that is: have you ever seen a bad CV?

“People can be quite creative with CVs,” he adds.

OCG chief executive George Brooks says anecdotal evidence suggests many New Zealanders working in the corporate world overseas, particularly in London, have been made redundant.

Labour MP David Cunliffe recently warned that New Zealanders made redundant overseas may come home to collect the dole, but the flipside is that more skilled people will be applying for the few available jobs.

And Mr Brooks says it is small to medium enterprises (SMEs) that will not only struggle most with the surfeit of choice, but also be the most likely to cut costs by bypassing professional recruitment advice.


“In SMEs the HR support is more general as opposed to having specific recruitment skills. These sorts of businesses can’t afford the time or cost of fixing it if they make a bad hire.”

He says it is also important for companies to treat unsuccessful applicants well, particularly because there will be so many of them and it would be easy enough not to bother replying to their CVs.

“Brands’ reputations can be affected by poor treatment of job candidates,” he says.

“Some of them may be just fishing, some will have been made redundant and most of them will be going through a tough time so it’s important you treat them with dignity and respect.”

Strategy Recruitment director Barry Brown says it’s a “recipe for disaster” when companies opt for DIY recruitment.

“I’d compare it to the real estate industry. Most people don’t start selling houses themselves; they get real estate agents to do it because of their expertise. Recruitment is very similar.”

Companies that try to take shortcuts could end up back where they started but worse off than before, he warns.

“Thinking back to the days after the sharemarket crash in 1987, people tried that (DIY recruiting) but ended up coming back to the recruitment industry after it had all gone wrong.”

Cook Executive Recruitment managing director Tim Cook says he has also seen companies try to do the recruitment process themselves only to come back later asking the recruitment industry for help.

He says it comes down to the fact that companies trying the DIY approach may be really good at whatever they do, but specialist recruiters are good at, unsurprisingly, recruiting.

“We do this 40, 50, even 60 hours of this (recruiting) a week,” he says. “I’d compare it to this – would you prepare a legal case without a lawyer? Would you do your accounts without an accountant?

“I’m not saying we never get it wrong, because sometimes we do get it wrong, but it’s a much lower risk in this environment going through us than trying to do it yourself.”

Recruitment companies are also well equipped to deal with large responses to job ads, he says.

And there’s another reason companies shouldn’t go DIY: confidentiality.

He says people working for rival companies may not want to apply directly for a job, but will do so if it is done through the privacy of a recruitment company.

“Companies may lose potentially good candidates that work for the other company,” he says.