Each year in Australia, the recruitment industry holds a glamorous gala awards night—a bit like the Oscars for recruitment. Sadly this year, it was livestreamed on Facebook instead. Yours truly was nominated for Recruitment Leader of the Year and am proud to say that I won.
The reason for my post is not to brag, but rather to explain the reason I believe I won. And it is a reason as relevant to me as to everyone reading this—and that is NPAworldwide. Too often our industry is dog-eat-dog and hypercompetitive, but NPAworldwide is based on the ethos of collaboration. My submission was espousing the virtues of recruiters working collaboratively to optimise outcomes—not just for their clients and candidates, but for their own businesses. While this may be novel in many markets, NPAworldwide members have been way ahead of the curve understanding that half a loaf is better than none since 1956. In fact, counterintuitively I have introduced 3 out of the other 4 legal recruiters in NPAworldwide in Australia and we have formed a tight-knit collaborative group regularly sharing information and splits.
It is sad that it took a global pandemic for other recruiters to catch on, but I believe in a post-covid world there will be closer collaboration between agencies. I personally feel more comfortable if they are in the NPAworldwide tent and are governed by our bylaws and ethics.So reach out to other recruiters you know, like and trust and help take advantage of this new openness to collaboration.