1 June 2015
Survey Results
Firstly, thank you to all those that participated and
completed the survey. We have had over 750 completed surveys and
many more partially completed.
The survey did have some "interesting" questions, but the
results & associated commentary will explain why I included
them!
Question 1
| How
often do you partner with a recruitment agency when hiring a Mining
Specialist? |
| Answer Options |
Never |
Rarely |
Sometimes |
Frequently |
Always |
Rating
Average |
| Permanent Roles |
16.88% |
23.12% |
31.95% |
22.60% |
5.45% |
2.76 |
| Contract Roles |
14.29% |
25.45% |
41.82% |
14.81% |
3.63% |
2.68 |
Question 2
| Order
the below factors from 1 (most important) to 5 (least important)
that you use in deciding which agency to use when hiring a Mining
Specialists |
| Answer Options |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
Rating
Average |
| Mining Specialist Recruitment Consultants |
43.26% |
25.12% |
14.62% |
9.47% |
7.53% |
2.11 |
| Price / Rate |
28.05% |
18.70% |
27.79% |
15.07% |
10.39% |
2.61 |
| Years of experience in recruitment |
12.99% |
31.69% |
21.30% |
23.12% |
10.90% |
2.87 |
| Company brand name/market perception and size |
8.87% |
11.36% |
21.04% |
29.71% |
29.02% |
3.59 |
| Office/Geographic Location |
6.83% |
8.13% |
13.25% |
17.14% |
54.65% |
4.04 |
Overwhelming landslide majority wanted to partner with a
"Mining Recruitment Specialist" who was proven & had years
under the belt in the recruitment market - but only if the
price/rates were right!!!
Lagging on the preferences were the company brand/reputation
or geographic location of the offices.
A strong indicator that the majority realise that the larger
agencies generally don't have mining recruitment specialists with
many years' experience.
Question 3
|
Which online platforms do you use to research a Recruitment
Agency |
|
Answer Options |
Response
Percent |
| LinkedIn Company Page |
41.6% |
| LinkedIn Profiles of Employees of the
Agency |
31.9% |
| Facebook Company Page |
6.8% |
| Facebook Pages of Employees |
5.7% |
| Company Website |
66.5% |
| Google Search of Company |
49.6% |
| SEEK/Job Boards - to see what jobs they
advertise |
54.0% |
| Other (please specify) |
18.7% |
When researching a potential recruitment agencies to partner
with, the vast majority go to the agency web site, or conduct a
Google search.
Interestingly, up there on the search list was Seek/Job
boards. My take on this is that Seek/Job board presence does not
remotely indicate how busy, successful or reputable a recruitment
company is - it shows that they need to advertise to source
candidates! You can do that yourselves as a client, right?
For the 'other response' an overwhelming number of people
said 'word of mouth' - 80% of respondants in fact
Question 4
| If you had to choose between hiring the
ideal candidate which involves a recruitment fee OR hiring a solid
candidate which involves no recruitment fee, where would you rank
yourself on the following scale? |
| Answer Options |
Hire Ideal
Candidate - Fee |
Hire Solid
Candidate - No Fee |
Rating
Average |
| Average Ranking |
15.96% |
15.81% |
20.71% |
23.82% |
22.70% |
3.18 |
The results were as I feared! Frightening and shocking, but
not surprising based on what I have been observing for the last
year - hence the targeted question.
The majority of respondents would rather hire an "average"
candidate (who can "do the job") for no agency fee, than hire the
ideal/perfect candidate for a recruitment fee! How do you think the
board and/or shareholders would respond to this doozy?
Note: I didn't specify how much the fee was? Simply a
"recruitment fee".
We know times are tough for us all, but hiring anyone that is
"good enough", just because it might save a fee (let's say that's
$10K for example) is ludicrous. Think about it. How much damage,
lost business, errors can an "average" employee do? How much does
it cost to re-hire, re-train a new employee when they inevitably
leave (or made to leave) within 3-12 months?
Conversely, how much value, opportunity & revenue can a
brilliant employee generate (for a $10K fee)?
It is a no brainer and simply points to the fact that we, as
an industry are losing sight of what's most important - our people!
People make organisations (and a juicy orebody!)! We're getting so
caught up in budgets, personal/departmental KPIs and cost
reductions that we're hiring many of the wrong people! E.g "Give me
a pat on the back, I reduced recruitment agency expenditure by
$200K this year by recruiting ourselves - but does anyone assess or
quantify the fall out?
But hey, you saved $10K on a recruitment agency fee…………..well
done.
Question 5
|
What do you believe is a fair and reasonable percentage for
a permanent technical recruitment placement fee? |
|
Answer Options |
Response
Percent |
| Less than 10% |
28.7% |
| 10-12% |
18.6% |
| 13-15% |
16.5% |
| 16-20% |
1.6% |
| Over 20% |
0.1% |
| A range - Depends on the level of
role |
34.5% |
Question 6
| What other services and / or
"value add" would you want from a recruitment agency? |
|
Answer Options |
Response
Percent |
| Candidate Trends of passive/inactive
candidates |
17.3% |
| Candidate Screening Tips |
40.4% |
| Muppet Checks (Stealth's informal
background checks) |
66.0% |
| Co-branded advertising (flush out
passive/inactive candidates) |
25.4% |
| Articles / Reports-Trends / Blogs /
White Papers |
14.5% |
| Psychometric Tests or Personality
Profiling |
36.5% |
| Other (please specify) |
7.6% |
WOW! What other services or "value adds" do you want from a
recruitment company?
A massive 66% of respondents wanted Stealth's "Muppet Checks"
(Informal background checks). Email us if you would
like to engage us to do a "Muppet Check" for a new Candidate you're
looking at hiring.
In a close 2nd and 3rd were Candidate Screening Tips and
Psychometric Testing/Personality Profiling.
Again, they are both services Stealth offer - we are regularly
engaged to screen candidates for positions - we consult on a fee
for service (time based) as opposed to a recruitment sourcing fee -
massive cost saving to the client. We help you screen your
candidates and ensure you are left with high quality, screened,
background checked (and referenced if required) candidates. Email us if you would
like to engage us to do Screening of Applicants for Job's you'ved
advertised.
NOTE: Several people wrote to us and
suggested via the survey that the term "Muppet Checks" is
unprofessional, disrespectful and wrong.
Query - what do you call candidates that you would never
employ, have a bad reputation (for whatever reason), are
blacklisted from most clients, are known to jump jobs for menial
pay rises, lie, deceive etc?
Call them what you will - we're not personally naming or
shaming them - we're simply referring to them as "Muppets" and can
help your organisation avoid them!
Engage Stealth to assist you with your background checks -
why not? There are 2 degrees of separation in mining and I've made
it my job for 12 years to network with as many mining professionals
as possible? Do I know everyone? No. But I know who to call, where
to look and how to be discreet.Email us if you would
like to engage us to do a "Muppet Check" for a new Candidate you're
looking at hiring.
Question 7
|
What is the size of your organisation? |
|
Answer Options |
Response
Percent |
| 1-10 |
25.2% |
| 11-50 |
11.1% |
| 51-200 |
16.0% |
| 201-500 |
12.7% |
| 501-1,000 |
5.6% |
| 1,001-5,000 |
15.4% |
| 5,001-10,000 |
4.6% |
| 10,000+ |
9.5% |
Question 8
|
How many roles are you looking to fill/have budgeted in the
next year? |
|
Answer Options |
Average |
| Responses ranged from 0-1000 |
7 |
Question 9
| Will you
use / or consider using a recruitment agency for these / some of
these roles? |
| Answer Options |
No |
Unlikely |
Maybe |
Very
Likely |
Yes |
Rating
Average |
| New Roles |
19.94% |
18.03% |
42.48% |
11.61% |
7.94% |
2.88 |
Question 10
| What type of company do you
work for? |
|
Answer Options |
Response
Percent |
| Underground |
12.9% |
| Open Pit |
24.8% |
| Exploration |
18.1% |
| Consultant |
22.6% |
| Other (please specify) |
21.6% |
