RECRUITMENT

GWSRR
“I think that’s the science of recruitment. Over years and years we get a gut feel
- that of intuition; when you meet someone.” - Scott Henshaw.
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long ago, it was easy to say: I want an auditor.
I think more and more, an understanding
of what sort of auditor with what sort of
qualifications, with what sort of experience,
with what sort of industry background, what
sort of motivators and drivers, with what sort
of a raft of different things come with that, is
becoming more and more important. As the
market arguably gets cluttered with communication
and information, before you can think
realistically about going out there and finding
what it is you like, you really need to distil that
down to, you know, a specific: This is what I
want to find.
Jim Taggart: So Scott, who creates that
brief? Can I just say, the first part of today is
really looking at just the employee/employer
relations and getting that. The second part
is really looking for the solutions of how, in
particular, TAFE can provide that. But, I’m
just really interested in the quality of that brief
– because quite often people say: I didn’t get
the person I wanted, or these things.
Scott Henshaw: Absolutely. And it’s
interesting. To Alison’s point earlier, I’m spending
more time with employers supporting them to
understand their exact requirements. There are
some great job analysis type tools out there
at the moment. I’m having open and frank
conversations with managing directors – leaders
of organisations – highly capable people,
often saying: “I’m not exactly sure what I want.
Hardeep Girn: So, I’ll ask the same question
from Jim, but in a different way. Imagine,
there’s a brief in terms of the specific skills are
required and the qualifications that might be
required for an individual. When does that
brief go over and beyond those core skills that
are required, where the employer would probably
choose somebody who has skills beyond
their role, such as social media? So, if an auditor
is doing an auditing job, do they need to
know social media? No. But, if it’s something
that is included in terms of extra value from
somebody who’s a great candidate, ticks all
the boxes in the role description of an auditor,
then what percentage of those candidates
are over and beyond the core skills needed?
Conversations that we’ve had with business,
indicate considerable crossovers exist with different
verticals and a good understanding of
where the organisation fits in the industry that
they’re in, is necessary.
Nicole Karagiannis: I don’t know that
I can put a percentage as such. But I guess
where we’re taking this conversation, we’re
taking it into the spectrum of technical and
non-technical skills, let alone the debate of
qualifications. And, even within qualifications,
there’s a debate of TAFE or Uni qualifications
– and that’s an interesting debate or discussion
to be potentially had separately. But, even
in the skills spectrum, I think employers are
looking for those technical skills or experience
Hardeep Girn.
WESTERN SYDNEY BUSINESS ACCESS SEPTEMBER 2015
Nicole Karagiannis and Scott Henshaw.
as a first. And the more astute as a leader you
are, the more you start to think about the nontechnical
space. So, that takes us right back
– so it’s a bit of a full circle – to leadership,
which is what we were touching on. If I’m
disgruntled with my leader, or if I’m a managing
director who knows what I’m looking for,
there’s leadership as a common denominator
in all the conversations we’ve had so far. So,
the more knowledgeable and the more strategic,
or the more really well rounded leader that
I am, the more open I will be to looking for
the non-technical skills, be it in social media
skills or be it, you know, the ability to, you
know, even build teams.
Scott Henshaw: EQ.
Nicole Karagiannis: EQ. Thank you. So,
someone with those skills around the ability
to rally the rest of your auditors, or the ability
to bring everyone to a more positive platform -
your engagement, your culture – they’re great
skills to finding in specific resources. But only
a great leader or an astute or open minded
leader is going to look for those, rather than:
here’s my checklist. I need someone who can do X
task and run this spreadsheet for me.So, we really
easily find ourselves in the leadership debate
or the qualification debate.
David Pring: Can I just jump in there for
a minute?
Nicole Karagiannis: Sure.
David Pring: I think a lot of those issues
that we are looking at are issues that we’ve
been dealing with and looking at in terms of
qualifications, etc. I think that the issue that
business is coming up with now, is: what’s
going to happen? Every business is disrupted
through technology, through automation,
through disaggregation of business. And what
business needs then is two additional things.
In addition to all of the skills, etc, is: how
resilient is someone to working in an environment
of change. We all tend to dislike change.
We all like security. We all like to know what’s
in it for me.
Michael Walls: Is uncertain.
David Pring: Dealing with that whole
uncertainty piece. And the level of resilience
that comes with that I think is one issue that
we have to deal with more and more.
Alison Wood: Which is also tied into
generational difference as well. And those
resilience indicators – and I’m sure that the
recruiters would identify the differences with
younger people not having particularly a lot
of resilience of having very different ways of
being brought up.
David Pring: So, that’s on the employee
side. On the employer side, the employer
doesn’t know what the business is going to
look like in five years. And so, having a workforce
that can deal with change, I think is critical.
And another skill that I’d look for is any
evidence that the person has had in thinking
about problems different, be it critical reasoning
– you know, coming through education
or examples of where they’ve done things or
been exposed to things.
Jim Taggart: Scott, I want to go back to
you. I want to talk about these risk profiles,
because they are a growing phenomenon
in which to measure both quantitative and
qualitative elements of people. What’s in those
documents that has not been there previously?
Scott Henshaw: I think if I could distil
it into one word, it’d be around “risk”. I think
employers more and more are looking to
de-risk the employment decision. And, you
know, the use of – and let’s just throw them
into a bundle, and there are a variety of them
for all sorts of different industries and applications
and jobs – but let’s refer to them
as psychometric assessment tools. I think it
helps employers de-risk that decision – you
know, traditionally – and they still have their
part – good screening processes, good behavioural
based interviews, reference checks
are powerful tools. We go into social media
checks now, Facebook profiles, LinkedIn,
assessment centre etc. We can find out a whole
heap of information about individuals. But I
think that the psychometric assessment tool
isn’t a decision maker. It’s not a pass or fail
thing. What it’s best used to do is confirm or
deny consistency through the process, both in
terms of what an employer was after in terms
of skill set, capability, emotional intelligence,
motivation, personality type, but also get a
good sense and feel that the messages that
this candidate has presented throughout, and
what I have felt from this candidate throughout,
match up and are consistent. I’m getting
a similar story at each of those contact points
with the candidate. It’s still a risky decision.
But if I’m doing all of these things – and more
and more employers are wanting to do more
of them – I’m happy to make the decision
– because you said it earlier: the investment
you’ve got to make to find them, the time it
costs to invest your time to induct them, the
training investment that you’ll put into and
need to put into top talent, to hang on to
them, it’s time consuming and it’s pricey. So,
we want to get that decision right. And I think,
fundamentally, de-risking the decision making
process has widely seen an increase in the use
of assessment tools.
Alison Wood: To what you’re saying,
Scott: it’s cultural fit. And that’s where the
psychometric testing, you know, has to play
a role – because the cultural fit for a not for
profit will be very, very different to the cultural
fit for KPMG, for instance. I mean this is general
– you know – they’re gross stereotypes.
But, that’s the reality, is it’s about getting the
right person.
Scott Henshaw: Well, I think it comes
back to a little bit of – and you hear a lot in
the current world – and particularly in the
social media world – about “authenticity”
and “genuineness”. And, you know, you can’t
be something in social media land that you’re
not in employment land. Therefore, if you are
genuine and authentic when we look at Facebook
and LinkedIn and all these other things
we can find, you get feelings and thoughts and
you make assumptions about what sort of person
this is, what they think, how they behave,
where they hang out. You wrap the rest of the
recruitment process around that. And, as long
as that is consistent and telling you the same
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