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Show Notes

Grace Gilmore is the managing director of a recruiting company, Kennedy Reid, which recruits in the business support and insurance sector.

Grace moved to Australia 12 years ago from Ireland.  While working in a call centre, she was asked by a recruiter to move into the recruiting sector.  She has been at Kennedy Reid for ten years now.

When Grace graduated from university in Ireland, she worked in her father's business doing marketing and general business management.  However, there was a recession in Ireland, which prompted the decision to travel to Australia for a “short period”.

When young people graduate from school, Grace recommends trying as many different jobs and roles as possible, even if it means volunteering.  Try and get a broad range of experience. It can reveal your passions and what excites you in the corporate and business world.  The study is fantastic, but it's also helpful in using the time to mature before serious life decisions are made.

In the last three years, the most significant change has been focusing on the candidate and finding the best people for open roles.  However, the market is changing again, and there are not as many professional roles.

The face-to-face interaction in selecting talent for roles is less common.  Zoom interviews and online assessment is now the primary process. It’s a very different experience. Despite the changes, Grace would never hire someone without meeting them face to face.

Employers increasingly realise that the perfect candidate is rare, so internal training systems and processes are required to bridge the skills and culture gaps.

Kennedy Reid is well known in the recruiting industry for having a female-friendly environment and culture.  Success comes from having a culture that encourages individuals, open communication between the staff, welcoming people from various settings and backgrounds and leveraging their ideas and experience.  The work environment is flexible.  Work from home and different start and finish times all cater for the individual’s personal and work-life requirements.  Staff members feel listened to. 

Training the team occurs weekly, and as a part of this, the individual opinions and contributions are taken seriously.  Staff engagement and satisfaction are surveyed every quarter.  Each individual has a development program; the leaders know where each member wants to go with their career and the professional development required to achieve their goals.

As a leader, Grace previously saw herself as a bit more of a controlling leader, but over the past few years, success has come from letting go and encouraging her team to be autonomous.  She encourages people to have the confidence to be empowered in their jobs and take responsibility for their outcomes. 

“Loud leaving” is the practice of managers announcing to the office or their team that they are leaving work to go for a run or do something unrelated.  It is done to get the broader team to keep a proper balance in their life.

Grace practices loud, leaving.  At 11 am, she leaves for the gym and encourages her staff to do similar.  Team members must feel comfortable that getting out and doing something else like shopping, going home early or to the gym are beneficial and vital aspects of a working environment.

In summary:

Time: Use time effectively.  University – learning and maturing. Early career exploration and learning about self.

What changes?: The marketplace changes. How people work changes.    

What stays the same?: Attitude.  Take on people with a great attitudes.  Employers also need a good attitude. 

Good culture stays the same: Sharing ideas, listening, being inclusive, flexible and accommodating.

Things that need to stay the same: Good leadership.  What constitutes Good leadership evolves.

Adapting to new things

Loud leaving: flexible, accommodating, accommodating human characteristics.