Recruitment firms evolve to survive

“The first quarter was fine, but in the second quarter things started to get very, very tough. In the last week of October the auto industry just hit the wall and progressively since then very few sectors have been left unscathed.”

Unfortunately, Hargrave says the company isn’t immune and has been forced to lay off workers to survive.

“We started to reduce our cost base as a start. We got out talking to our clients and understood their issues and we’ve made some significant redundancies in the business with overall cost cutting.

“We talked to clients and understood what pressures they’re feeling. You’ve got to work with your clients through this type of period because the reason we’re feeling it is because they’re feeling it first.”

But Hargrave says the business has survived the past few months because it has already focused on contract recruitment rather than fulfilling full-time employment roles.

“The permanent side has never been a big feature of our business, so that’s cushioned us in the early part of the impact when hiring freezes were put on. That was a tough time for a lot of people who were heavily exposed to full time recruitment.”

But unlike SmartWorker, Hargrave says focusing on a niche industry won’t help them get through the downturn.

“That works if you’re a small player, but it’s too late for us. That having been said, there is more interest in some sectors such as government and infrastructure, so we’ve increased our interest there.”

Hargrave says that the company is communicating with clients to ensure they’re the first to know when business picks up.

“Well know straight away when they start hiring,” he says. “I think we’re going to see when the upturn starts first, and traditionally recruitment is a good predictor of business confidence.”

“Hopefully that’ll occur in the next year or so.”

SmartCompany Dun & Bradstreet Industry Growth List – Recruitment

Rank	Company	2008 revenue $	2007 revenue $	Change %
1	Employment Services Holdings	190,933,000	3,872,000	4831.1
2	Total Staffing Solutions	26,986,297	614,164	4294
3	Reed Personnel Services	11,108,000	2,897,000	283.4
4	Smartworker	2,300,000	800,000	187.5
5	Paxus Australia	1,086,326,000	422,376,000	157.2
6	Rubicor Group	367,350,000	156,457,000	134.8
7	AngusKnight	7,268,317	3,154,302	130.4
8	Ambit Group	290,273,000	139,163,000	108.6
9	Resourcing Solutions	450,556,000	245,765,000	83.3
10	Skilled Rail Services	74,786,615	41,475,571	80.3
11	ARA Jobs	4,500,000	2,500,000	80
12	Aboriginal Employment Strategy	9,270,856	5,367,468	72.7
13	Bridgeworks Personnel	4,147,575	2,657,718	56.1
14	On-Q Human Resources	10,610,640	7,247,142	46.4
15	MTM (WA)	5,908,321	4,154,042	42.2
16	Nexus IT Resources	4,500,000	3,200,000	40.6
17	KCO	549,189	390,968	40.5
18	Skilled Group	1,929,530,000	1,384,811,000	39.3
19	QPL	27,264,304	20,363,368	33.9
20	Spectrum Employment Services Co-operative	15,113,067	11,343,578	33.2
21	SEEK	211,488,000	158,897,000	33.1
22	New Horizons Enterprises	26,781,315	20,616,145	29.9
23	Hays Specialist Recruitment (Australia)	1,051,409,000	834,539,000	26
24	Navitas	345,438,000	282,710,000	22.2
25	Wise Employment	31,152,838	25,573,147	21.8
26	Enterprise & Training Company	9,459,668	7,884,910	20
27	Mindworx	9,000,000	7,600,000	18.4
28	Topgold Enterprises	8,500,000	7,200,000	18.1
29	Cairns Region Group Apprentices	24,453,325	20,942,912	16.8
30	Brite Services	2,631,015	2,263,960	16.2
31	Ross Human Directions Group	406,455,000	354,200,000	14.8
32	Integrated Group	224,192,000	196,390,000	14.2
33	Enterprise Recruitment	33,200,250	29,220,868	13.6
34	Sarina Russo Job Access (Australia)	69,717,732	61,865,818	12.7
35	Jobs Australia	5,354,929	4,753,567	12.7
36	The Australian Institute Of Training And Development	1,050,971	939,127	11.9
37	CareerOne	3,153,000,000	2,849,000,000	10.7
38	Jobfind Centres Australia	35,000,000	31,692,536	10.4
39	Downing Teal	35,000,000	32,000,000	9.4
40	Ready Workforce	849,406,000	777,492,000	9.2
41	Peoplebank Australia	149,950,000	137,908,000	8.7
42	Fairfield Community Resource Centre	5,156,391	4,789,489	7.7
43	Staff Solutions Australia	4,014,133	3,728,642	7.7
44	ITIM Australia	8,705,589	8,133,703	7
45	Skills Training Employment Program Inc	4,900,000	4,700,000	4.3
46	L&H Group Services	790,000,000	766,000,000	3.1
47	Watson Wyatt Australia	39,230,591	38,044,217	3.1
48	Access Industries For The Disabled	13,202,781	12,839,472	2.8
49	Link Recruitment	95,353,000	95,222,000	0.1
50	Hillside Church Inc Welfare Fund	1,300,000	1,300,000	0