Recruitment Companies

If you're in the market for a job, you may decide to sign up with a recruitment agency (I did!) and have them represent you. Some people sign up with multiple recruiters in the hope that it will improve their odds. However, it may actually reduce your chances, especially with really great jobs. Here's why, and which agencies I'd recommend. If you've had any experiences with recruitment companies yourself, I'd love to hear them - add a comment to this post. 

• Many recruitment companies (especially the big, well known ones) hire backpackers with little or no recruitment experience. These are the people who are representing and 'selling' you - scary! 
• Some companies pay their people on a commission basis, depending on the number of phone calls they make to employers and HR people each day. As an HR person, this gets REALLY annoying and we tend to go into avoidance mode.
• When I see the same resume come in from multiple recruiters, I think the candidate must be of low quality, otherwise they would have already been snapped up.
• Recruiters charge an average of 17.5% finders fee on top of the salary they negotiate for you. This is great, because it means they're motivated to get the best deal for you. However, many good employers with internal recruitment teams don't want to pay thousands of dollars in fees, so they only take applications directly or from recruiters they're friendly with.

On the upside, there are some really talented people in the recruitment industry that have great relationships with employers - but how do you find them? My #1 Tip is to choose a small, niche company that focuses on one area or industry. These are often started by talented people who have worked within these industries and know them inside out. They don't rely on volume of resumes coming in cold, they build their networks of candidates and employers by approaching them. These smaller firms not only do a better job of looking after their candidates (you), but they are able to make much better matches between them and the companies, meaning that hopefully you find a job that is challenging, rewarding and you want to stay for a long time. This provides repeat business for them; their success is built on their reputation.

Here is a short list of recommended companies that I hope to add to with your input:

CONSTRUCTION & PROPERTY INDUSTRY Focus Recruitment, Melb based, connected Aust-wide

HUMAN RESOURCES INDUSTRY The Next Step, Australia-wide

IT & COMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY BDS Recruitment, Australia-wide

Redundancy payouts

Its happens to all of us. If you haven't yet had the experience of being laid off (or retrenched), chances are that the current economy will serve it up to you shortly. In the last week I've had two phone calls from friends in a post-redundancy panic asking: what should I be getting paid? Here's the advice I gave them.

*Please note, this advice is for staff employees, who sign a common law contract when they first start, have no EBA, and often are not under an award.

1. Annual leave paid out

Whenever you leave a job, whether you resign, are sacked, are made redundant or for any other reason; your employer must pay out all of the annual leave that you have accrued and not yet taken, at your current rate of pay.

2. Notice period paid out

Your contract of employment sets out how much notice your employer has to give before terminating you, or how much notice you must give if you resign. In a redundancy, you are entitled to either:

(a) work out your notice period - they tell you now but you don't actually finish up until the end of the period

or, more commonly,

(b) payment in lieu of notice - you leave today, but they pay you as if you worked out the period

Also, if you're over 45 years old and you have been with your company for more than 2 years, you get an additional week's notice (or notice in lieu) on top of this.

3. Possible severance payment

Employers have no obligation to make a severance payment to you, so an entitlement to any severance payment will come down to what was in your original contract, or the company policy. Big companies tend to make severance payments, whilst smaller companies tend not to. These are where the big money comes from. Policies tend to relate to the number of years you have worked with the company (service period). Some companies have a straight calculation eg. 3 weeks pay for every year, while other companies have more complex formulas eg. must have worked 12 months to get severance, 2 weeks pay for each of the 3 years after that and 3 weeks pay for any additional years.

4. Additional entitlements

• You may be entitled to Long Service Leave, or pro-rata Long Service Leave, depending on which state you live in. 
  
• You may be entitled to additional benefits if they are in your contract of employment.

5. Tax-free amounts

Large redundancy pay outs also incur a tax break (called an Eligible Termination Payout - ETP) on the first few thousand dollars. The Australian Taxation Office can provide information on this. It has changed several times recently, and can be complex, which is why I am not going to outline it here.

How to ensure you get what you're entitled to

If you're not sure whether your employer has paid you the correct amount, you should ring your payroll person, or the person who gave you the bad news, and ask for a break-down. When you call, don't act angry or forceful. Simply tell the person that you were made redundant but you're not sure what you're entitled to and you were wondering if they could help.

If you feel worried about doing this, don't be. I often have people ring me with these questions. In my experience, even the nastiest managers are feeling guilty for making your life crap at this stage, and will be sympathetic and likely to help you.