THREE Western Australian recruitment agencies are breaking the mould to collaborate as one entity on the state government’s Common Use Agreement Panel (CUA).
Beating a field of 80 applicants, Rob Cervi from Perth-based REM, Sue Williams from West Perth-based Humanconnection, and Darren Berson from Mt Pleasant-based maXx Professional, have used a combined 37 years’ experience to form Group HRM to provide whole-of-government IT and communications recruitment services for the next five years.
The contract to recruit and place temporary personnel across all government agencies, government-funded not-for-profit organisations and suppliers over that time is valued at $350 million.
Under the terms of the CUA, any government department wanting to employ from the communications and IT sector until 2014 must use Group HRM’s services.
Ms Williams told WA Business News it was uncommon for a recruitment collective to be created in Perth and that the appointment to the CUA panel was a major coup for an unknown entity in the industry.
“WA is the most competitive state in Australia with regards to recruitment,” she said.
“But this [appointment] was a real opportunity for us to pool our experience together and work collectively. As they say, there’s power in numbers.”
Ms Williams said the collaboration signalled a new direction in the recruitment industry with clients recognising they can achieve a better result through using agencies undertaking joint ventures.
Mr Berson agreed, saying as the state entered into a new boom phase there would be a realignment of skills and job transitioning throughout WA, with growing demand for infrastructure and technology requirements.
That meant greater demand on recruitment agencies.
He said cost savings and efficiencies, such as a driver-less train network, underscored the imperatives of research and development in the IT and engineering sectors.
“There are a lot of good people out there with skills that just need to fit an employer’s particular situation,” Mr Berson said.
