Finding the Best Talent in a Limited Labour Market

THE CHALLENGE:

One of the biggest challenges that recruiters are facing right now is a shortage of skilled candidates in the labour market. What makes this case even more challenging is that the types of roles our client requires are highly specialised within the gas and energy sector. This organisation is one of the biggest operators within this sector in Australia, and the companies that make up this industry require people who have a very particular set of skills that are narrowly specific to their operations.

BEING A BEARER OF SOLUTIONS:

We came to the table with an open book about the challenges the labour market is currently experiencing, but we also came with a list of solutions to get our business partnership off the ground as quickly and efficiently as possible. Working closely with our client’s internal recruitment specialists, we carefully selected candidates who have either worked in this particular industry sector, or those who have proven within other utilities related sectors that they possess the required transferrable soft skills and have had a record of success within the related industries where they have worked previously. We placed essential checks on their understanding of a variety of critical criteria such as compliance with regulatory bodies, familiarity with industry standards within their industry sector, their accomplishments, along with their leadership and team management skills. We also focused on their track record of managing projects while liaising effectively with various external stakeholders, including those from the government and private sectors. Another important area of focus was their potential to be able not only to follow procedures, but to recommend and make improvements along the way.

TECHNOLOGY THAT MAKES THE PROCESS WORK FOR PEOPLE:

The recruitment technologies and systems we employ ensured that we left no stone unturned as we trawled through hundreds of capable candidates, not only within the energy sector, but also in adjacent sectors such as telecommunications, construction, and engineering. The selection processes we used were meticulous, but clear on the expectations from both our client and our candidates vying for permanent and temporary roles. We are glad to have this opportunity to work with a client that values our honest approach. We worked together towards a shared goal with a willingness to look at an individual’s personality and capability to adapt and succeed no matter the challenge, while also having a view outside the lens of rigid technical jargon.

THE RELATIONSHIPS (PEOPLE) COME FIRST:

We enforce the importance of deadlines, technical adherence, and procedural requirements, but at the end of the day, recruitment is all about the relationships people invest in. We always go back to our simple ethos of Make People Matter, and this is echoed by the clients and candidates we match. This perspective in the recruitment process ensures that we consider the journey of the applicant and why they want to prove their capability at specific companies that they’ve targeted but never been given a go at. After all, that is a common motto of how Australian companies are built – by giving people a chance to have a go. We appreciate the opportunity to partner with a client who looks at people the same way we do. Our transparent approach to recruitment, hiring and onboarding resulted in 15 permanent roles and 7 long-term temporary roles being filled across different states in a short timeframe.

The case in point is that transparency is the currency to buy-in trust in the recruitment industry.

It starts with understanding how our clients work and attaching our services as an extension of their business. In this way, we find common values that allow the role and the company we represent to attract the most valuable people in such a limited labour market - particularly in a specialised sector such as Power and Energy.

Our client is an ASX listed national energy infrastructure provider to the gas and electricity energy sectors. Since the start of our partnership, Zoom Recruitment has worked on filling a number of permanent management, supervisory and technical positions for our client, along with several long-term temporary white-collar positions across their Networks Division. These include technical and administration-based roles in Adelaide, Brisbane, Rockhampton, and Melbourne. Many of the long-term temporary positions were urgent requirements that needed a fast turnaround. In one case, we were asked to source 10 skilled operational and supervisory level candidates in the shortest possible time frame. This meant working quickly to identify, interview and refer suitably experienced candidates - while not compromising on our client’s and our own recruitment processes.