42 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS <strong>November</strong>/<strong>December</strong> <strong>2018</strong> HR, MANAGEMENT AND RECRUITMENT Seek names <strong>Waikato</strong> recruitment company best in New Zealand A <strong>Waikato</strong>-grown business has been recognised by Seek as the best in the New Zealand recruitment industry, highlighting that value and care for people is paying off for the social business. Human resource and recruitment specialist Agoge was awarded <strong>2018</strong> New Zealand Large Recruitment Agency of the Year at the Seek Annual Recruitment Awards (SARAs). The award is for the agency with more than 20 consultants showing commitment to workplace culture, innovation, candidate engagement, commercial growth/achievement and contribution to the New Zealand recruitment industry as a whole. The award was made doubly special with Hamilton branch manager Andrew South also recognised as the New Zealand Recruitment Consultant of the Year. With a vision of ‘People Matter: Do Good’, the company’s ethos of caring for people is part of the secret to its success. For Agoge founder Andrew Nicol, winning the Large Recruiter award was recognition for the hard work of the team who go all out to care for people. “It goes to show you can be in business and do good,” Andrew said. Agoge is challenging the traditional model of a recruitment agency, by focusing on being a social business. “Historically the industry is renowned for a lack of care and feedback to jobseekers, and Agoge is challenging the industry to take a more candidate caring approach,” he said. Doing good in the wider The winning Agoge team. Photo: Seek Ltd community is an important focus. As a social business, Agoge’s partnership with Good Trust (founded by Nicol and James Grafas) recently helped bring water to more than 10,000 people in Cambodia. Agoge’s initiative, one for one, sees that for every week worked by an onsite staff member, a person in Cambodia gets access to clean drinking water for one month. “In the third world, clean water changes everything. We are excited to partner with the Good Trust to provide so many people with a lifetime of clean water,” said Andrew Nicol. “Because we work with people in such a big way we are constantly challenging what we’re doing for our people and how we can do it better,” said Andrew South. “It’s such an incredible honour to be recognised. “This award speaks so much more of the incredible team I have around me and confirms that we are on the right track in the way we care and serve our candidates, clients and all those we have the privilege of working beside.” Agoge was founded by Hamilton entrepreneur Andrew Nicol in 2003. The organisation now has branches throughout the country, and is successfully competing with large multinational organisations. Use recruitment specialist to attract best talent By BY LUKE HORTON RECRUITMENT TEAM LEADER Recent figures released by Stats NZ reveal that New Zealand’s unemployment rate has fallen to 3.9 percent, its lowest point since 2008. This is good news; low unemployment is typically a positive economic indicator, and certainly all the usual reporting suggests that the country is enjoying a period of economic strength. Low unemployment means that the labour market is tight— very tight in some industries, sectors and regions. Here in <strong>Waikato</strong>, we’re among the top five locations enjoying significant employment growth. We were up 3.3 percent in the last quarter, which translates to 8400 more jobs. I’m sure we’re all glad that the NZ economy is booming, and business confidence is roaring along. The reality is that all this growth comes with its own set of challenges. Number One: it’s increasingly hard in <strong>Waikato</strong> to source great talent. It’s unfortunately the nature of the (labour market) beast, when everyone out there is looking to grow their workforce, competition grows fiercer. So, what’s a business to do? Advertising, sitting back and waiting for applications is not enough. It’s true that traditional methods still work, some of the time, for some of the candidates. However, to attract the very best talent, you need to grab their attention well before you advertise (communicate your employment brand) and be visible, where candidates work, rest and play (mobile). Once you’ve got candidates, it’s essential that you move fast; multiple offers are a reality in today’s world. I admit my bias fully, and believe that organisations should partner with a local recruitment specialist like Madison. We’ll take the time to truly understand your business and people needs, will make the process quicker and easier AND produce results you need, i.e. talented people to fill your vacancies. After all, we live and breathe recruitment. The challenges of a tight market are just the kind of problem solving we enjoy (most of the time!). If you’d like to chat all things <strong>Waikato</strong>-recruitment related, give me a call on 07 8395660. For more opinions and articles, visit www.madison.co.nz/hamilton Experience a partnership with SEEK’s SARA winners... good business starts with good people... and we recruit the best 07 839 5660 madison.co.nz/hamilton
HR, MANAGEMENT AND RECRUITMENT WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS <strong>November</strong>/<strong>December</strong> <strong>2018</strong> 43 HR MANAGEMENT AND RECRUITMENT Finding the right person for the role... BOOK YOUR SPOT IN OUR FEBRUARY ISSUE For more information contact the team today at info@nmmedia.co.nz or phone 07 838 1333
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