Recruiting set to expand

By ADAM GIFFORD

New Zealand company Recruitment Solutions has been taken over by an Australian company of the same name, which has set ambitious goals for growth.

Director Chris Heswall says Recruitment Solutions Australia has bought a 60 per cent interest for $1 million cash and shares, with an option to buy the remainder in three years for a multiple of that year's profit.

Heswall and fellow founder Mike Sanders stay on as shareholders and directors.

"They're a public company, they need to get aggressive on growth and they need acquisitions to grow," Heswall says. "We had no previous connection with them but they couldn't come in here because we had the name."

Recruitment Solutions New Zealand has turnover of about $3 million and 14 staff, and specialises in recruiting for the banking and finance, and the construction and engineering sectors.

Recruitment Solutions Australia turned over $NZ69.7 million last year.

"They want us to get into IT, accounting, insurance and sales and marketing. We hope to take on 10 people in the next three months and rip into it," says Heswall.

"They want us to be a mainstream brand, competing against companies like Morgan and Banks."

The company will move from its Peace Tower offices to Queen St and aims to establish offices in Wellington and Christchurch over the next year, either through natural growth or acquisition.

Heswall says his company had reached its limit for growth without further capital, particularly given the impact the internet is having on the recruiting industry.

Recruitment Solutions Australia is investing heavily in internet technology while maintaining a commitment to traditional recruitment methods.

"Recruitment and human resources is still very much a people business. Clients do not want to be pushed away at arm's length and asked to conduct the process through a keyboard," he says.

Like many recruiters, Recruitment Solutions is expanding its site from online registering of candidates to include career management tools and training programmes.

It is also considering developing its site at www.recruitment-solutions.com.au as an electronic trading hub or loyalty programme, in which registered candidates could be given access to discounted goods and services.

Also crossing the Tasman as a result of the move is a career management service for contract workers.

Another service will handle the performance management or the quality assurance of master vendor agreements, in which large companies appoint one recruiter as a preferred supplier for their recruitment needs.

"That has put a huge burden on human resource managers and line managers of paperwork, administration and performance assessment, critiquing how the recruiters are going," Heswall says.

"We're saying to clients they should outsource further and bring us in to be the individual performance assessment tool."

He says the service is proving popular in Australia.

Tim Wall, from Recruitment Solutions Australia, says the New Zealand company has a solid brand already and valuable skills, particularly in the way it has developed a niche for itself in construction and engineering.