I think I may be considered a stalwart now in the recruitment industry – having devoted 24 years of my life to the profession of recruiting. I still enjoy the opportunity to build company talent pools and help connect people’s careers yet …. Why do I think recruiters, used car salespeople & financial planners are lumped into the same box?

6 reasons:

1) Life Decisions
Jobs, cars, houses and finances are big life decisions that have a huge impact on your life and you do remember these big decisions and whether they were positive or negative. You will remember how you were treated when making one of these life decisions – you may not remember how you were treated when you bought you last lounge or fresh juice.

2) The Scurry of the Job Market
Running a recruitment assignment today can have many interjections – last minute hidden applicants, internal recommendations, changes of structural planning by the client and sometimes more than 150 applicants all wanting daily feedback. From a candidate perspective, it’s understandable that feedback on the day is so much sought, as it’s a tough time navigating the job search, yet so often as a recruiter to maintain feedback that is bespoke and timely is a challenge. So often the recruiter does not know themselves the client feedback as the client is delaying a decision. Is is sad to see today that job ads can say – if you are not successful you will not get feedback! That seems rude as there is a huge time investment by the applicant.

3) The Recruitment Industry Isn’t Regulated
There is not even a qualification to open a recruitment company. Even the real estate market has a license. You can hang up a shingle even without a Psychology or Human Resources Degree and start finding critical people assets for organisations! How ludicrous is that!

4) The Profession of Recruitment Has No Formal Training or Qualification in Australia
I fell into recruitment from a headhunt interview with a leading recruitment company at the time, who liked the fact I was in a national sales role and had qualifications in Psychology and Human Resources. The UK has recruitment degrees – they go to university and study recruitment as a profession. That is why you meet so many UK recruiters in Australia.

5) Transient Recruiters Thinking Short Term
Many transient UK recruiters pop over to Australia for a sabbatical and do recruitment for a moment – this has often had a detrimental impact on fast, non caring hiring processes – transient recruiters are not here for the long term, not leaving good impressions about the process.

6) The Tough Reality is Recruitment is More About Respectful Rejection Rather Than Recruitment
As only one person gets the role and up to 100+ invest their time for no outcome – people are not good at handling tough decisions at times. The crazy thing now is there is Artificial Intelligence technology (robots) that screen a resume and decide if the internal recruiter reviews a resume. There is even a product to screen all the rejection letters so applicants don’t have to open the “Dear John” rejection letters …ROBOTS TALKING TO ROBOTS ABOUT A HUMAN BEING EXPERIENCE!!

NO WONDER RECRUITERS ARE CONSIDERED SCUM! To experience the Mondo difference, please visit our website and contact one of our team members.

Destructive workplace words can kill morale, team culture, increase distrust and shut down performance and loyalty.

How often as a kid do you remember your mother saying,  If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all!” The power of being impeccable with your words is massive in the workplace!

Recently my two sons aged 15 (Harrison) and 13 (Will) were bickering and demonstrating a deep competitiveness between them. My 15 year old son in Year 9 said, “Mum, kids in my year are saying that Will (year 7) is a show off!” I quickly asked my older son, “So what did you say in reply to them about that comment?”  My older son replied, I said to them that I agree!” My instant response was to advise them that “You are brothers! You need to defend each other and never to support criticism of each other from others,”  I advised them that a better response would have been, “We are brothers and we all have our strengths and weaknesses.”

In the workplace it is so common for people to vent and so easy for people to support ill sentiment, even without shared experience. Be aware of the destruction that passive acceptance of workplace slander and criticism of others can create in the workplace!

I was once venting to my staff about the poor performance of an exiting employee unaware, as a leader, the impact this had on the existing team.  A few months later one of my staff spoke up and said, “When you spoke ill of that exiting employee, it made me lose trust in you as a leader. I wondered what you would say of me if I left.” This was a great lightbulb moment to me in managing others and reminded me of the power of being integral and impeccable in your words.

Critical, negative or slandering words are so damaging to morale and trust in the workplace. If you have a gripe do take it to the person you share this grief with, but first let a sunset go down before you do. Sometimes issues seem lesser after a night of reflection. Go direct to the person and don’t share your experience with others in the workplace. Make sure you are in a relaxed and open frame of mind when you share your concern and deeply look for compassion and consider things from the other person’s point of view. This is described as emotional intelligence and what is needed in the workplace to build trust and loyalty and a positive engaging workplace!

The Definition of Emotional intelligence is the capacity of individuals to recognise their own and others people’s emotions and discriminate between different feelings and label them appropriately.

In the fast and furious workplace of today, people move often and own personal brands is critical – be aware of the power of your words and the impact it will have on your personal branding inside the workplace. Be emotionally intelligent with your talk!