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You heard it
here first!
Welcome to the
fifth edition of Agentalpha! In our last issue we celebrated the publications first
birthday, we shared some of our success stories and introduced you to our
newest division, Alpha Healthcare.
As always we also introduced you to some great candidates and gave you
the opportunity of winning a mystery gift! In this issue we look at the
largest issues facing candidates when hunting for a new role in a highly
competitive market, we introduce you to the newest member of our team and
give you a run down of the market in general. Please feel free to email us your feedback/comments. Also, if you would like to add
anything to our newsletter, do not hesitate to call! We are more than happy to market you
organisation and services in our newsletter – just send us the details! Other than that, we would like to
take the opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and safe,
enjoyable and happy holidays!
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In This Issue!
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We
Have a Newbie!
What
do candidates think of the whole market – the Facts and the Stats revealed!
Win
a Christmas Gift!
Market
Update
Candidate
Attraction
The
Best on our Books!
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We Have A Newbie!
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Denae
joins us from the US in 2010.
Denae’s background has been working for some of the most respected
companies in the medical industry.
Denae’s previous role was as a
Recruiter where she located, solicited and contracted health care providers
for permanent placement opportunities, particularly for Physicians. Prior to this, Denae owned her own
operation where she was marketing pharmacy recruiting services to
hospitals, retailers, community pharmacies and
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long-term
care organisations.
Prior
to recruitment, Denae’s career was in Sales within the healthcare and
pharmaceutical industries.
Denae
has had a very successful career in the US, however, has now chosen New
Zealand for the lifetstyle, and we snapped her up before anyone else could
to assist us to continue to develop our new Healthcare division, centred in
Wellington.
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Denae’s
experience combined with her passion and determination to get started
leaves us no doubt she will perform remarkably in this role, and we are
sure you will all join us in welcoming her to our ‘A’ team!
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A Candidates Point of View
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As recruiters, and more often in
this market of high unemployment, our roles take on a slight counselling
angle. Many good candidates
have been unemployed all year, and their job search has become exhausting. For some, their spirits have been
damaged as before the average good candidate would only have to apply for
three, maybe five jobs to secure one.
These candidates are now receiving rejection letter, after rejection
letter and all because there is just too
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much competition out there. As the numbers of active job
seekers increases, more organisations are taking on the recruitment process
themselves as they often have a good response to their own advertising.
Unfortunately, handling the quantity
of applications received can be a challenging task for an employee who has
very little time to dedicate to recruitment, responding to and dealing with
applications can be pushed
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down the list of Priorities.
Therefore, Alpha decided to put together a very brief survey on how
candidates are finding the employment market at the moment, and thought
employers may be interested in the results!
In terms of organisations
acknowledging candidate applications, the results weren’t too bad. 78% of respondents felt that they
received an acknowledgement to their application most of the time, which is
great.
(See below)
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The next part of the process for the
candidate is the waiting game…. Whereas the process from here in gets very
busy for the employer. When it comes to strategic planning, operation and
implementation, communication is key.
It is the same with recruitment. Recruitment is the result of a strategic business
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decision and therefore, should be carried
out with the highest level of professionalism. Nothing moves faster than negative feedback, therefore
it is important to make the recruitment process as fair, straightforward
and transparent as possible.
So, how are employers doing with protecting their
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business reputation by keeping
candidates up to date with the recruitment process? 22% of respondents felt that they
were never kept up to date whereas 33% felt that employers keep them up to
date most of the time. This means
that half the time businesses are keeping applicants up to date with the
process. (see below)
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When candidates receive a “thanks
but no thanks” response from an employer they benefit from understanding
why they were unsuccessful.
Firstly this helps them to understand where the employer is coming
from and secondly, it helps them to learn where they could
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have done better, or to only apply
to roles they know they have the skills and abilities to perform well
in. When it comes to giving
feedback, 44% of respondents felt that they never receive feedback as to
why they were unsuccessful.
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Of course it can be a very large
task to respond to each candidate in specific detail if over 100
applications were received, therefore it could be an idea to let candidates
know they were unsuccessful in an email or letter, along with an invitation
for them to call for further feedback.
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Going back to business reputation it
was interesting to see that one out of every two candidates feel their
application is often ignored, and of these candidates 50% would not apply
to the organisation concerned again.
This shows it is vital the process is handled well and all
candidates are responded to in a timely fashion. Of course, when a candidate feels they have been well
looked after in the process, often they will pass good feedback onto others
about the organisation concerned – even if they don’t make the cut – so
well worth the
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extra time and effort for free
positive publicity! How can employers make this process easier? Well it is about systems and
processes at the end of the day.
In this market recruitment is particularly challenging for employers
as people are finding a much larger response to deal with, due to the
number of candidates actively seeking employment. After speaking to a few
of our clients we have been told that after the initial culling back, they
are still left with 30 or 40 CV’s to long-list.
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After spending all day going through
this response good résumé’s all start to look the same... how do you decide
who makes the shortlist? This
is where an agency may be of use, or if this is not an option, put some
solid processes in place. Draw
up a process map and assign team members to certain parts of the
process. For example, have
someone responsible for receiving the feedback request calls, and have
someone responsible for regular updates. If the process is taking longer than anticipated, let
the applicants know there has been a delay.
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We also
asked some open-ended questions in our survey and here are some of the
responses we got from candidates who have been looking for a new role for
an average of 5 months.
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“
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“The largest challenge is that so
many people apply for the one job and companies are tending to use more
than one agency.”
“I applied for 182 positions, all
within my expectations. It was
coping with the rejections, feeling as though I could not leave the
apartment in case I missed a call, and with each rejection each day that
passed really scared that it was not going to happen.”
“There are so many candidates out
there at the moment that over qualified people are going for jobs under
their level making it difficult for the candidates who want to progress in
their career go for challenging roles. This would be employer specific.”
“Being made redundant in
the middle of a recession was not helpful. I was fortunate that I was getting some interviews and
on nine occasions I know I was one of three in the final count. In the end it is an experience that
I could not afford and never want to experience again, as it is not only me
that is effected, there are those in the extended family and those friends
who want to help but do not know how - they feel embarrassed and some even
do not keep in contact as much as they previously did which is something I
can understand.”
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”
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Generally
across the board common factors in these challenges stemmed from age discrimination,
the high unemployment rate and the lack of jobs available.
If you have
any comments we would love to hear your feedback, just click here!
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Medical Update
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We are super-busy on this side! We have begun to build some really
strong relationships with healthcare professionals, boards, hospitals and
clinics. We are making a great
name for ourselves both in the private and public sector, and have really
been enjoying the
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opportunity to get involved with
highly skilled practitioners both offshore and in New Zealand.
Our networks have been extended to various
partnership overseas too, so not only are we assisting those who want to
join the healthcare industry in New Zealand, we are also
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referring kiwis on
who are eager to venture on their overseas working holiday experiences!
No official placements yet, but we are
getting superbly close and are all very excited about it! Go “A” Team!!
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WIN - WIN – WIN – Ho Ho
Ho!
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HOW?
This takes two clicks; one click to select your
response and one click to send your response.
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What will Santa wear under his suit on Christmas Eve?
There’s no right or wrong here, just
click on the picture…
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A great big Congratulations to our latest winner,
Sharon Wallace from
New Zealand Childcare Association!
Sharon believes that out of a lamb, a coil and a
rock, rock is the object that doesn’t effectively spring. For Sharon’s
efforts she received a Living and Giving gift certificate.
Thank you to all who entered our competition, we
had a great response!
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Market Update
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Lately restructures and redundancies are something we
have been getting used to hearing about, or even being a part of. With
almost all New Zealand industries being affected, a feeling of unease and
uncertainty amongst employees has been widespread. Some employers out there
may have been able to see the positive as their staff put ideas such as
‘work life balance’ on the back burner in order to prove their worth within
the company. Many have taken on increased workloads, especially in the
areas of business support, where redundancies typically begin.
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In October the
recession was officially declared to be finished, and although not all of
us can see this reflected in our bank statements, at Alpha we feel clients
are generally more positive about 2010. We all know that what goes up must
come down... and vice versa! An independent report released by SEEK show
advertisements placed on seek.co.nz are up an encouraging 12.2% in the four
months from July to October 2009. We must keep in mind that this was
largely affected by Auckland’s 14.6 % rise, whereas Wellington’s was a more
modest 3%, as government departments
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remain at a
standstill. However job seekers may begin to see a flicker of light at the
end of the tunnel as 2010 gets into swing.
So it may be
(and we are hoping!) that the tide is slowly turning. And as the job market
improves, there are indications that up to 40% of the workforce who have
become disgruntled or just bored over the past couple of years, will start
to look at new work opportunities. With many restructures having been
completed, employees will feel less at risk, and if they don’t want to move
may be happy to finally ask for that pay rise!
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The BEST On Our Books!
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Generalist
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Communications
- Media
$60K
Nostradamus
is a professional media guru.
Since selling his own media and risk specialist communications
company of 15 years he has since been contracting in various media and
written communications roles.
Nostradamus
could be described as a kitten with class. He is gentle but a very powerful communicator. He is creative and has many
contacts in his field. With
his specialist knowledge in publications,
editing, media and media strategy he is very capable of developing others
in this too, however, this must be in a role that allows him to remain
hands on.
I cannot guarantee he will predict the future, however, it
is highly probable that it will be a successful one with him on board!
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Personal Assistant
$55K
With over 10
years experience in senior support roles Fergie is a highly skilled PA
and administrator whose experience, enthusiasm and willingness to go the
extra mile make her a stand out candidate. Fergie has worked in a variety
of industries, including the private sector and not for profit. She has
enjoyed working with boards and management teams, as well as providing one
on one support to her manager. Fergie's flexible and easy going nature has
seen her develop strong professional relationships with people at all
levels. Her well developed organisational, time-management and
computer skills have meant she has been able to successfully carry out her
PA duties to a very high standard.
“Shut up,
just shut up, shut up” she’s just too good!
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Data Analyst/Advisor
$$ Negotiable $$
Yabadabadoo!!!
Wilma has left Bedrock to join us in Wellington!
Wilma is highly
qualified and skilled in statistics, research and analysis, with extensive
experience in implementing research projects, identifying problems and
developing analytical frameworks. She has managed many group and personal
projects, ensuring budgets and timeframes were met.
Wilma’s
experience covers the public and private sectors, with a particular
emphasis on the health industry. Since 2000, Wilma has developed at least
20 research studies, producing technical papers and presenting many of these
internationally. Wilma is a warm and friendly candidate, she
is intelligent and passionate about her career.
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Receptionist/Support
Admin $29 per hour
Sinead
has fantastic reception and sales support experience. She is a very organised and
broad-minded person with lots of patience!
Sinead
enjoys working within a team and likes to be kept busy. She is looking for a role of up to
30 hours however can commit to full time hours for short-term
contracts.
Sinead
is attracted to roles where she’s working towards a goal to help others and
has many years of administrative experience. She is a superb team player with a great sense of
humour!
If you
are looking for a top temp, you had better be quick with Sinead because nothing
compares, to her!
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PT
Policy Analyst
$50k and
perhaps a very wide parking space…
Tiger
is no good at golf but he speaks fluent Maori. He is passionate about and has great experience working
within Maori organisations.
His background in policy, research, project
administration/management and setting up office systems and processes is
evident.
Tiger
is a natural relationship builder, having management relationships at all
levels and across a broad range of cultures. Tiger is honest, fair, respectful and in turn well
respected. He is a big picture
thinker.
Tiger
just enjoys people and his skills in this area are well developed. This compliments his strong
government background.
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Sales
Rep – Trade
$55K
base plus
Shakira
has been employed in the trade industry for over 20 years. During this time she has worked in
retail and business-to-business sales. Shakira loves growing a territory
and this is what she is good at.
Shakira
has had experience working with architects, designers and tradesman and is
comfortable across plumbing, ventilation, hardware and lighting.
Shakira has a bright and vivacious personality and her
cheeky smile is infectious.
It’s fair to say she has fun taking her job seriously and has proven
this by often hitting her targets at 120%.
If you could use a winner on your team, she is available “whenever,
wherever!”
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Healthcare
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Occupational
Therapist
$$ Negotiable
Kelly is currently working as an Occupational Therapist in the
UK and has one and a half year’s experience. Kelly plans to come to New Zealand on a one-year work
visa, with the possibility of extending that when the time comes. She is
open to any location in New Zealand and is looking for a role working
within a hospital or community environment.
Kelly’s experience is within mental health however she is
open to working in other areas also and is currently in the process of
acquiring the required documents for her registration.
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Psychologist
$$ Negotiable
Greg
is currently working as a Psychologist in a government owned hospital in
Sao Paulo, Brazil. He has been there for two years, and previous to that
worked as a Clinical Psychologist for nine years with a public mental
health service, treating adults and adolescents. During this time. Greg has
also spent his evenings teaching in different areas of Psychology and
mental health with various universities in Sao Paulo.
Greg
seeks a full time position, ideally as a Psychologist.
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Laboratory Technician
$$ Negotiable
Although
currently in Auckland, Helen’s primary focus is on finding a position in
her field and is therefore prepared to relocate if required.
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Physiotherapist
$$ Negotiable
Susan
recently moved to Wellington with her partner who is a New Zealand citizen.
She has a total of nine years nursing experience gained in Japan after she
completed her Diploma of Nursing.
Susan
has also spent seven months in clinical placements in Australia, while
gaining her Bachelor of Nursing.
Susanis
looking for a nursing position in aged care or on a medical or general
ward.
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Counsellor
$$ Negotiable
Sarah
has 12 years experience counseling young people, mainly focused on individual
work, but also including family therapy. She has spent a bulk of this time
working in schools, and young persons counseling services. Sarah has also
run a private practice since 1997, where she has received referrals from
social services, solicitors and police.
Other
networks include CAMHS, YOT and the courts.
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If you are
interested in
finding out more
on any of
these highly
regarded
candidates
please send your
enquiry through to
wellington@alphajobs.co.nz
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