Working in Partnership to Prepare a Contact Centre Workforce

The past few months have been particularly rewarding for us in taking our long standing partnership with the regional Ministry of Social Development (MSD) office into new grounds of preparing this regions potential workforce for employment in contact centre environments. Drawing on the experiences of introducing contact centres to economically depressed regions in South Wales and the interventions to prepare …

Contact Centre Impact on Regional Economies

Kiwi Bank’s creation of c.150 permanent jobs in a region that is going backwards on most economic indicators is perhaps the best news we have had the pleasure of reporting for several years. People Central has handled in excess of 200 permanent job losses through redundancy support in the last 2 years and we know that is just a small …

Accountests is Launched in New Zealand

After twelve months of intensive design, construction and peer review involving accounting, web and software expertise from Europe and New Zealand, it was with great pleasure that we launched the website and online testing platform for our new sister company Accountests Ltd on 15th July. Accountests has been created to fill a widely felt void felt by recruiting managers, business …

15FQ+

Positive Changes to 15FQ+

Most readers will already be users of our flagship personality questionnaire, 15FQ+, arguably the most comprehensive personality assessment adapted for New Zealand’s unique population and incorporating Belbin Team Roles, Leadership, Subordinate and Influencing Styles into one profile. This month heralds a significant step forward in the availability of the 15FQ+ to online users. Until now, 15FQ has taken two forms; …

interview and candidate abuse

Interview and Candidate Abuse

I first read the terms ‘Candidate Abuse’ and ‘Interview Abuse’, last month on BBC Capital and immediately had to know more.  The article catalogued a series of experiences of US and UK job applicants being put through tortuous and protracted multi-stage selection process, only to come second place, or even be offered a job with an employer they no longer …

Accounting Skills Tests Request

Accounting Skills Tests Request After many months of R&D we are nearing the end of a process of developing NZ Specific Accounting Skills Tests to assist employers in determining current skills/knowledge and development priorities for recruitment and development purposes.  We are now at the stage of pilot testing the draft tests with some qualified and unqualified accounting staff, which is …

Hawke’s Bay’s Top Recruitment Consultancy Re-Branded

We would like to warmly congratulate our colleagues at Pipeline Recruitment on a successful re-branding exercise. Since launching as Riot Recruitment in 2007, they swiftly established themselves as far and away the most credible recruitment professionals in the region, with constant positive feedback from candidates and clients alike, resulting in a deserved reputation as the ‘best in the bay’. When …

Up to $5k of Funding Available to Employers Recruiting Staff on Benefits

Employers looking to recruit staff into permanent and skilled roles would do well to take a closer look at recent shifts in the Ministry of Social Development’s (MSD) approach to people receiving benefits, which will see a section of society returning to the workforce, accompanied by significant incentives for employers to take them on. ‘Returning to work Mothers’ with valuable …

CEO and Director Selection and Assessment

High level recruitment decisions that fall apart as swiftly and spectacularly as the recently highly publicised departure of the newly appointed Hawke’s Bay Chamber of Commerce CEO, are a sobering reminder to us all of the need to apply the same diligence to testing and assessing candidates at the top end of the organisation as we do for graduate and …

Managing the Risk of Hiring Staff in Retail

A few months ago I was asked to join the team of judges for this year’s Unison Fibre Hastings City Business Excellence Awards and interview sixteen large national chain Hastings retailers on their current and planned approaches to marketing, customer service, staff development and retention, and how they expected to perform in the next twelve months in far from ideal …