Skill The Recruiters

The Age

Saturday November 17, 2007

Yvonne Nicolas

THERE can be drastic outcomes when recruitment consultants compromise their professional integrity or lack credible skills in performing their duties.

Michael Dimopoulos, founder and managing director of Recruitment Academy, says he has heard these kinds of stories far too often.

"The ramifications are huge, as the respect and professionalism of that firm is completely lost when it undermines an individual's opportunity for a given role."

He says that there is a process for dealing with these kinds of complaints through an industry body that sets industry standard benchmarks. "Beyond that, I have known many cases of candidates becoming clients, and it's not hard to work out where they won't source staff!

"Candidates are extremely important to recruitment firms, especially in this skills-shortage market. They are your best promoters and detractors, as the impact they create communicating their negative or positive experiences is what I believe differentiates them," Mr Dimopoulos says.

Recruitment Academy is an induction, training and placement company established in 2006 with a goal to create a bridge within the recruitment industry for career recruiters. The organisation specialises in recruitment consultant induction courses.

"We want to provide a pathway for recruitment firms and internal HR teams to access pre-trained, inducted, job-ready candidates," says Mr Dimopoulos.

"It is part of our determination to improve service delivery and performance standards to enhance the industry's reputation and help build a stronger sense of professionalism from within."

The academy employs eight staff in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, with plans to expand nationally to offer courses that will soon be accessible on its e-nduction website.

When e-nduction is launched, graduates who have successfully completed five modules will be entitled to 25 points towards an industry accreditation program.

The organisation is also in the process of launching eGraduate, a self-service portal to give recruitment agencies direct access to candidates interested in entering the recruitment industry.

This will provide the industry with access to a pool of pre-inducted candidates in Australia and New Zealand that outlines their resumes and psychometric reports.

"Users will be able to download live interviews that will be far more effective than current industry sourcing arrangements and pose less risk to both candidates and clients," says Mr Dimopoulos.

To date, the academy has inducted more than 200 candidates - both new recruits and working recruitment consultants keen to enhance their skills.

"Our ambition is to make the recruitment industry a better place for employees and in-house HR to improve return on investment and offer recruitment agencies access to talented consultants who are productive from their first day on the job," Mr Dimopoulos says.

"After years of double-digit growth, the number of trained, industry-savvy professionals available to recruitment firms is shrinking." He says a high percentage leave because they are not properly trained and inducted and the cost to recruit afresh is enormous.

"Tertiary qualifications are not a prerequisite for entry into the recruitment industry, yet the earning potential is great. Candidates within the recruitment industry traditionally come from a specialist stream such as accounting, financial services, IT and telecommunications and marketing . . . They also come from strong business-to-business sales background, typically telesales, direct sales, advertising sales and real estate."

"With unemployment at 30-year lows and the employment market so buoyant, recruitment firms are finding it difficult to recruit quality and experienced recruitment professionals to service their clients," says Mr Dimopoulos. -- YVONNE NICOLAS

LINK

recruitmentacademy.com.au

© 2007 The Age

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