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Revitalising Recruitment:
Transforming Australia’s Largest Mining Contractor into a Strategic Talent Acquisition Powerhouse.
The Challenge:
One of Australia's largest mining contractors faced challenges with its existing Recruitment function. The function operated reactively and lacked strategic sourcing and workforce planning capabilities. The client needed a transformation to transition into a strategic sourcing and Talent Acquisition function.
The Solution:
Hen's Teeth, a leading consulting firm, provided comprehensive advisory services to address the client's needs:
Team Structure: Reviewed and optimized the recruitment team's structure, identifying skill gaps and ensuring alignment with business growth objectives.
Technical Capability Assessment: Assessed the team's technical capabilities, providing recommendations for training and development to enhance strategic sourcing capabilities.
Recruitment Process Review: Evaluated existing processes, identifying areas for improvement to streamline candidate attraction, screening, and selection, reducing time-to-hire.
Brand Strength: Evaluated the client's employer brand, developing a comprehensive strategy to enhance its appeal to potential candidates.
EVP Enhancement: Assessed the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and provided recommendations to align it with the organization's values and culture, attracting and retaining top talent.
Reporting Improvement: Reviewed the reporting framework, identifying key performance indicators (KPIs), and creating a comprehensive reporting dashboard for accurate and relevant insights.
Outcome:
The client implemented the initial phases of recommendations, improving team capabilities, EVP, reporting, and attraction strategies. Hen's Teeth provided talent augmentation and leadership during the transition. The successful outcomes led to further engagement, including strategic sourcing initiatives, technology enhancement, and strategic workforce planning. Hen's Teeth continues to support the client's talent acquisition journey, delivering measurable results and driving long-term success.
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Transforming Talent Acquisition:
How Hen's Teeth Transforms Australia's Largest Steel Business Client
The Challenge:
Australia's largest steel manufacturing, distribution, and recycling business faced significant challenges with its Talent Acquisition function. The existing processes were inefficient, and the team lacked the necessary skills and capabilities to attract and retain top talent. The client needed a comprehensive review and transformation to optimize their talent acquisition efforts.
The Solution:
Hen's Teeth, a leading consulting firm, provided expert advice and guidance to overhaul the Talent Acquisition function. Through a thorough analysis of team structure, RPO provider relationship, technical capability, recruitment processes, employer branding, EVP, and reporting, Hen's Teeth delivered tailored recommendations to address the client's challenges.
Outcome:
The client implemented Hen's Teeth's recommendations, resulting in a more efficient and effective talent acquisition team. The changes led to improved alignment with the organization's goals and values. The recruitment process was enhanced, reducing time-to-hire and improving the candidate experience. The client also embarked on strengthening their employer brand and EVP, positioning themselves as an attractive destination for top talent. The transformation resulted in a more competitive talent acquisition function, equipped to attract and retain the best candidates in the industry.
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Navigating the Talent Mobilization Maze: How Hen's Teeth and The Spark Consortium Transformed Recruitment for the North East Link Project
The Challenge:
Spark DC JV, comprising Webuild, CPB, GS Engineering, and CCO, faced the daunting task of mobilizing 750 white-collar engineering professionals for the $11B North East Link project. The consortium needed to overcome recruitment challenges within a competitive labour market and develop an effective process to attract and retain qualified candidates.
The Solution:
Hen's Teeth, a leading Talent Acquisition Advisory business specializing in project mobilizations, partnered with The Spark Consortium to create a high-performing talent acquisition team, streamline recruitment processes, optimize the candidate experience, and develop a robust recruitment and attraction strategy. This collaboration played a pivotal role in the successful mobilization of the project.
Outcome:
The efforts of Hen's Teeth and The Spark Consortium yielded significant achievements. A high-performing recruitment team of 8 professionals was built, ensuring efficient candidate sourcing and selection. Over 16 months, 750 white-collar engineering professionals were successfully mobilized, enabling the North East Link project to progress as planned.
Moreover, the recruitment strategy prioritized diversity and inclusion, resulting in a 34% increase in female participation rates, a remarkable accomplishment in a male-dominated industry. The collaboration also provided job opportunities for over 70 priority job seekers, contributing to valuable employment opportunities for individuals in need.
By revolutionizing the talent acquisition process, Hen's Teeth and The Spark Consortium paved the way for a successful and inclusive North East Link project.
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Win-Win: Why we’re putting priority job seekers first.
Can’t find the right fit for your project? The answer could be staring you in the face. Australia is in the midst of a massive infrastructure boom, and construction and engineering employers are falling over themselves to fill roles. Engineers Australia recently reported that job vacancies in their industry have increased by a staggering 176% in the last two years alone – the highest numbers we’ve seen in a decade.
Who they are
Priority Jobseekers come from backgrounds that have been identified by the government as requiring assistance to enter the workforce. They include the long-term unemployed, refugees and asylum seekers, First Nations people, women displaced by domestic violence, people displaced by the COVID-19 pandemic (whether geographically or in terms of their careers), reformed offenders returning to the community and veterans.
Why are they out in the cold
We’ve found that when employers are hiring, a bit of tribe mentality comes into play. A lot of people fall into the trap of trying to replicate their own backgrounds, or the teams they already have. They want to see candidates who have gone to certain universities, worked for the same handful of companies, had experience in the same city or country. When a candidate doesn’t tick those boxes, employers – often unconsciously – will find reasons not to consider them. That candidate might meet 70% of the job description, but the employer will get caught up on the 30%. They may also worry about someone’s communication skills or cultural fit. In terms of seeing past difference to acknowledge someone’s potential, the engineering and construction industries are lagging a little behind the rest of Australia – and it’s costing them.
What’s in it for you?
On most government tenders, businesses will have to comply with certain hiring KPIs that privilege Priority Jobseekers and trainees (and will receive commercial abatements for doing so). If you’re in that position, it’s in your interest to put this cohort at the top of your recruitment list. Often, a Priority Jobseeker may tick more than one of your KPI boxes – for instance, they may be a veteran and also one of the long-term unemployed, and they may enter your workforce as a trainee – so it’s an efficient way to meet these requirements while also offering someone in need an opportunity.
Even if you’re sourcing for a purely commercial project, with no penalties or pressures to deliver on these categories, there’s a powerful business case to be made for trying out a Priority Jobseeker strategy to relieve your talent burden and deliver ROI. For instance, if you’re after a skill set but you’re unable to compete on salary, you could consider taking on two people as trainees rather than one senior person: cover the responsibilities for now, and perhaps end up with two senior candidates tailor-made for your business. Not to mention the potential for any future training to be cost-neutral, because the government will pick up the cheque if that training contributes to tackling long-term unemployment.
Long-term benefits
Let’s look at just one group of Priority Jobseekers: refugees and asylum seekers. Even if they’re abundantly qualified, these candidates may not even make it past the review process. And it’s not for lack of trying. We work with migrants who have been applying for literally hundreds of jobs and getting nowhere (a common story for all kinds of Priority Jobseekers). This cycle of constant rejection is absolutely soul-grinding. Once candidates trapped in this cycle are offered a chance, their relief and happiness are overwhelming, and their investment in their work is correspondingly huge (we find people in this position are often first in the office and last out!). Their loyalty to the business that employed them runs deep. Over seven years of working with this cohort, we’ve found the turnover rate amongst them to be around 15%, as opposed to an industry baseline of 24%.
Feel-good factor + Real good results
A recent example: we worked with a double-degree qualified engineer from Algeria who couldn’t get an interview in the local market. When we met her, she’d been stacking shelves in a supermarket for two-and-a-half years. We were able to place her as a cadet, and shortly afterwards had the pleasure of letting her know she’d been promoted to a senior planner position with a wage of around $155k. You can imagine her joy. Her employers got an incredibly competent senior planner, which is very difficult to recruit locally, and her life was transformed. Talk about win-win!
A similar example: we recruited a candidate from Afghanistan who had walked for two days along a land border to escape his war-torn home. He couldn’t get a gig in Australia, but is now working as an IT administrator and has been able to fly out his fiancée from Afghanistan. There are so many stories like this, and so many Priority Jobseekers from all backgrounds who are prepared to give their all and stay the distance with the employer who’s offered them a hand up. We’ve even had employers who have taken on one Priority Jobseeker in a fairly tokenistic spirit, then come back to us to say “We want more like that one!”
What about the risks?
Hesitant about the unknown factors with a Priority Jobseeker?
The good news is that you can de-risk the employment by working alongside well-established partners. We mainly collaborate with the Brotherhood of Saint Laurence, McAuley Community Services for Women, the Department of Justice and the Australian Defense Force, but there are many not-for-profit and community organisations doing excellent work in this space. With this strategy, you’re not only getting an employee, you’re getting a dedicated case manager who gives them support and provides you with a low-stress feedback loop. There’s also a try-before-you buy factor: bring in a Priority Jobseeker on a lesser wage, give them a chance, and you could just surprise yourself.
In conclusion…
The Australian Government has forecast that there’ll be 147,000 vacancies in civil engineering alone by June next year. We’re experiencing a severe skills-shortage crisis, but if you think outside the square, you can address your business’ talent pressure, achieve some great long-term outcomes and contribute to a healthy, equitable society.