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The Forum > Article Comments > Recruitment industry days are numbered in Oz > Comments

Recruitment industry days are numbered in Oz : Comments

By Malcolm King, published 28/2/2014

Australian employers are following their US and UK counterparts and giving recruitment agencies the flick, as management accountants and the unemployed toast their demise.

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Malcolm, I sense an element of extreme angst in what you have written. I agree 110% with it especially as it effects older workers.

I went for a lengthy period applying for positions about 5 years ago and getting no responses, not even an automatic acknowledgement (How hard is it to generate and send one?). I spoke with one of the agency helping older workers back into work and rewrote my CV in a way that masked my age and some of my qualifications. Voila! The requests for interview rained down from on high. Unfortunately as you walked in the door for the physical interview you could see the shock horror at who they were interviewing and that they had lost all interest in you as a potential candidate. Most interviewers at the agencies seemed so young as to be barely out of nappies.

15 years ago I went through a similar process when I considered taking a package and leaving my then employer. Interestingly the UK was doing an amount of recruitment in Oz at the time. The difference in attitude between the Oz recruiters and their UK counterparts was like comparing Qantas to all the competitors. The UK recruiters acknowledged receipt of fax applications next day. There were typically phone interviews within several days of the application. You were then acknowledged as being unsuccessful, typically before the first approach or acknowledgement from an Oz recruiter was received if that ever came.

I now work for myself as a contractor, the only positions worth considering are those placed directly by the employer. The agencies are a waste of time to respond to. Worse, the agencies can't be bothered considering anyone who doesn't respond on the day of the ad placement.

DKit
Posted by dkit, Friday, 28 February 2014 9:10:15 AM
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I hope they are numbered.

Now I am unemployed, I am looking for some manual work.

There is a food manufacturer around the corner. I live next door to a key worker there. He complains that the employment agency only provides dud workers. I asked him to see I i can work there given I have reasonable intelligence and have been a labourer and factory worker for many years.

No such luck. I am still waiting to hear for one job for an employment agency I hooked up with.

And I can outlift and out work most guys at my gym, despite being double their age.

There are some things that are really wrong in our desire to cut costs everywhere. You should be able to contact an employer directly.
Posted by Chris Lewis, Friday, 28 February 2014 9:59:48 AM
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I was on the books of an employment agency for about three years, and all I ever got from them was an annual Christmas card. When I subsequently got a job due to a contact, I was still required to waste an hour going round to their recruiting agency so they could tick me off and get their cut. If these parasites are going to the wall, that's great news. They already have places reserved on the 'B' Ark.

http://www.geoffwilkins.net/fragments/Adams.htm
Posted by Jon J, Friday, 28 February 2014 10:32:49 AM
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...The problem is of course; you need to be Chinese to work for a Chinese company, and Korean to work for $4ph with an Australian company! Nothing to do with age at all!

...But of course, the King "IS" wearing cloths isn't he? Or is John Howard Naked and Tony Abbott clothed?
Posted by diver dan, Friday, 28 February 2014 8:36:55 PM
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Thank you so much for this essay, Malcolm, and for reminding me why I hang around forums like OLO.

I do SO hope you are right. And if - and it's a big IF - we are finally waking up to the recruitment industry, hopefully it won't stop there. I hope that the entire privatisation consultancy racket that has played us all for suckers over these last couple of decades goes down the gurgler as well.

One area you didn't touch on, however, was the hideously expensive Centrelink recruitment consultancy racket, that pilfers the public purse feeding off the misery of the unemployed. These parasites do nothing to help the unemployed; they justify their pilfering by making the unemployed run the gauntlet of creatively useless weekly 'proofs' that they are really, really, REALLY trying to get work that just isn't there to get.

The public is still being kept in the dark about just how much of the annual welfare budget is frittered away on private consultancy, instead of being paid to the people who really need it.
Posted by Killarney, Saturday, 1 March 2014 6:18:35 AM
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Killarney,

I'm also sceptical in regard to the usefulness of Centrelink's 'recruitment consultants', it's an example of ideology over effectiveness, they just divert taxpayers' money into the private sector.
Posted by mac, Saturday, 1 March 2014 7:20:32 AM
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Killarney, mac, my wife works for one of those "Centrelink's 'recruitment consultants'", one that is actually a charity.

She deals with the long term unemployed, who have been out of a job for 2 years or more. About 25% of these are unemployable either due to ability of attitude. 50% have given up, or got to like being unemployed, & about 25% would like to get back to work, but don't know how to get over the reputation they gain from so long out of work.

She manages to get about 10% of them into a job per month, some into quite good jobs, but about 20% stop going with in a month.

I can only assume it is the same for all of them, but her organisation only get any funds from government for actual placement of unemployed. They don't get a cent for numbers on their books, or for trying. Payment is only for success, so perhaps not the rip off you think they are.
Posted by Hasbeen, Saturday, 1 March 2014 9:29:46 AM
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I too am suspicious of many JSA's (Job Services Australia) providers. I was very surprised when Catholic Care was caught defrauding the system a couple of years ago.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/false-claims-boost-chance-of-survival-in-jobs-game-20111218-1p0vb.html
Posted by Malcolm 'Paddy' King, Saturday, 1 March 2014 9:40:27 AM
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Hasbeen,

Fair comment, perhaps I was too cynical, however I was indicating my doubts as to the effectiveness of government funded private employment consultants as a solution to the problem of long term unemployment, even if they all do their jobs conscientiously and efficiently.

Of course some simply work the system, the link Paddy King provided is very informative.
Posted by mac, Saturday, 1 March 2014 9:23:53 PM
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When I hit the age of 50, I hit a brick wall so far as looking for work was concerned. Prior to that age, I had never been out of work for more than 2 weeks.

So began my first experiences of "recruitment agencies."

The first thing they did not like was my resume. Because I have had senior positions at building sites, had hired and fired tradesmen myself, and had spent all of my working life working on the tools, I knew for a fact that the best way to spot a good tradesmen was to look at his tool kit. Good tradesmen have good tool kits and bad tradesmen, without exception, have bad tool kits.

My resume would stress that I had the best toolkit in all of Christendom, and this had won me many jobs in the past with employers who knew what I knew. But not the employment agencies. "We don't care what tools you have!" was the constant refrain, as they put the red pencil through my tool list. "We want to know your goals, and what achievements you have attained!"

What really peed me off was the constant ploy of calling you in for an interview only to be told that the job would not start "for a couple of weeks." Months would pass, while the same damn job advert would reappear on SEEK every month. Even when the job entailed special and rare qualities or rare tickets which few people had, it was obvious that the recruiters or their customers had no intention of hiring an older person and were determined to keep looking forever for a young one with the same experience and tickets.

The $61 billion Barrow Island job in WA is looking for electricians at the moment and they are recruiting them in the USA because they claim that they can't find enough experienced electricians in Australia. The reason they can't find them, is because they are depending on recruitment agencies who use all use a recruitment formulae for assessing applicants that does not work.
Posted by LEGO, Sunday, 2 March 2014 5:22:08 AM
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Hasbeen

No doubt your wife's organization acts responsibly (although we only have your anecdotal word for it). However, I wasn't referring to HR firms engaging in recruitment-only activity.

What I have learned about Centrelink HR contractors is also largely anecdotal. Without going into details, I have found that much of the policing of Centrelink recipients' jobseeking activity is being contracted to HR firms, leaving actual Centrelink staff to mainly administer the paperwork. They (the HR firms) are required to regularly interview Centrelink recipients and write regular reports on their jobseeking behaviour.

These firms also spend a great deal of time designing and presenting 'training' seminars to Centrelink recipients, for whom attendance is mandatory/strongly recommended or else they lose their benefits/receive stern warnings.

This serves nothing more than a political purpose to ensure the government looks as if it is doing everything it can to help the unemployed find work. It also provides a warm fuzzy sense of self-righteousness for those who subscribe to 'the unemployed don't want to work' school, rather than acknowledge that the jobs are just no longer there.
Posted by Killarney, Sunday, 2 March 2014 5:30:57 AM
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Sorry Killarney, but most of that post was ideological claptrap.

Yes the "job seeker", so called as they are supposed to be looking for work to receive the dole, is expected to appear for a monthly appointment. You seem to forget they are being paid over $1500 a month by me & my tax payer mates for that hour of interview. God I'd love to earn $1500 an hour.

Granted that about half of my wifes associates were about as useful as tits on a bull, & did not help many unemployed, but many do work hard for those who want work. To be able to help, the placement officer must know what the job seeker has been doing, & establish an idea of the person.

In passing, 4 of her fellow workers lost their own jobs recently, as they were not placing enough unemployed. This could have been to try to find better staff, or because they did not bring in their costs, I don't know.

Yes she breaches those who don't fulfill their commitments. However it is only after people have missed 3 appointments that they lose the dole for a week. In passing, that does tend to have them turn up in the office, often very abusive, but there.

They even get away with no show for one job interview, only being breached when they miss a second.

You do seem to believe it is a right for these people to live off the taxpayer, rather than a privilege to be supported while they find a job, with or without help.

continued
Posted by Hasbeen, Sunday, 2 March 2014 1:57:31 PM
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One girl, 20 years old, had never had a job since school.

The paid for her to do a rental management course. They bought her some suitable clothes.

They found her a job in a real estate firm 15 kilometers from home. As their was no suitable public transport, they established that she could use her mother's car, or her mother would drop her off & pick her up. Incidentally, the mother was also on the public payroll, on welfare of some sort.

After three weeks the mother was in wanting them to buy the daughter a car. She no longer wanted to loan the daughter the car, & getting up every morning to drive the daughter was too onerous for her.

The daughter stopped turning up a couple of days later. Mother & daughter were in the office a couple of days later when they found the daughter on a 6 week waiting time to re-qualify for benefits. They became so abusive & threatening that the police had to be called to remove them.

A different example was a bloke who, after a mirage breakup, had just given up. He was living in a small delivery type van in a caravan park, making no effort for a couple of years.

Not the sharpest tack, he was a nice bloke, with some sort of horticultural qualification. My wife got him a day a week gardening at the local high school. He was a good worker, & a days janitorial work was added by the headmaster.

As a good worker he was offered the same at another school about 35 kilometers away. His vans gearbox was not up the running, so the agency paid to repair it, & he lapped up the extra work.

He was soon working 7 days a week, then employing help.

He is not good with money, so they arranged a bookkeeper for him, & he is even talking about building a house IN HIS SPARE TIME.

It is a pity that the experience with the girl is more common than this bloke.
Posted by Hasbeen, Sunday, 2 March 2014 2:02:17 PM
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hasbeen

‘You seem to forget they are being paid over $1500 a month by me & my tax payer mates …’

Oh, get over yourself! And you accuse ME of ideological claptrap!

For the record … ME and MY taxpayer mates are funding unnecessary tax cuts for the rich in order to finance in turn one of the lowest taxpaying systems in the world. We’re also funding a superannuation scheme out of which 37% of the annual budget finances the super contributions of the top 6% salary earners.

Added to that, a few US wars, an utterly useless and inept spy organisation and a new $1 billion building to house it, tens of billions of dollars in corporate and middle class welfare (aka tax incentives), plus billions of dollars to punish the few miserably desperate, half-drowned people who try to make it to our shores.

And the list goes on … But keep all those horror stories coming about useless layabout Centrelink social misfits robbing you and your taxpayer mates blind. It’s such a warm fuzzy feeling to beat up on the vulnerable.

In the meantime, Qantas has just laid off 5,000 people. I guess they can all set up horticultural businesses.
Posted by Killarney, Sunday, 2 March 2014 11:27:57 PM
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Killarney just what did your last post have to do with recruitment.

Do the left/green organisations have a school training their mouthpieces in how to avoid answering on the subject, when they have been proven wrong.

Nice rant though, I must study it for future use.
Posted by Hasbeen, Monday, 3 March 2014 9:57:03 AM
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Begorrah & pog ma hon, it'll be a grand ole day when the Irish back-packers working in recruitment agencies aren't there giving their Irish back-packer mates all the cream jobs!
Posted by Albie Manton in Darwin, Monday, 3 March 2014 12:35:07 PM
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Malcolm, must be a very slow day in the office. What a load of rubbish. The fact that you're a 'writer' and have many spelling mistakes in this article says more about you, bitter old man.
Posted by Kevin Doran, Monday, 3 March 2014 2:51:21 PM
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What a surprise Kevin, an Irishman working in recruitment in Australia, who has not only failed to refute the argument (we like to do that over here mate) but has decided to get personal. I dedicate this article to you.
Posted by Malcolm 'Paddy' King, Monday, 3 March 2014 4:06:43 PM
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thast so fnnuy Malolmc
Posted by Kevin Doran, Monday, 3 March 2014 5:39:02 PM
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Hasbeen

'Killarney just what did your last post have to do with recruitment.'

About as much as your self-righteous twin-fantasy fable about the layabout lazy versus the get-up-and-go entrepreneur. Yeah, man ... all a matter of attitoood.

At least MY rant only took up ONE comment.
Posted by Killarney, Monday, 3 March 2014 7:04:35 PM
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