NPAworldwide Conference 2018 – Key Takeaways

The team at Grow Advisors have just come back from the annual @NPAWorldwide Conference at the Windsor Hotel in Melbourne. Tony and I went down earlier for the Owners Conference, and I was honoured to wrap the day up with key takeaways. Here is a glimpse of “Building the future together”, which was the conference theme:

Recruitment

  • Headhunting skills are winning over posting skills
  • Focus on either having great relationships with clients or securing hard to find candidates. If you don’t have either, you won’t have a job.
  • We need to find out who the ideal persona is that you are advertising towards (ours is Nigel!)
  • In the changing world, contracts will run shorter and it will be about skills acquisition, not talent acquisition.
  • You need to identify what the gap is in the market and what you actually offer to bridge that gap
  • It’s not enough to just be a “people person” anymore.
  • Recency bias often contorts our opinions

NPA

  • NPA meets most of the metrics for a top performing association and it can act as an incubator for young recruiters.
  • We need to impart the trust that our clients have in us, to secure other work for our NPA colleagues
  • There are no d!ckheads in the NPA but plenty elsewhere
  • You should use NPA as the reason to meet with clients and you need to tell the story of NPA, not just add the logo.

The Industry

  • Independent contracting should only be for those that have the capacity to manage their affairs
  • We all need to work with more Japanese companies as they pay early
  • 26.4 days late on payment terms makes companies in Australia the worst in the World in this category.
  • @Charles Cameron (RCSA CEO) likes calling out hypocritical behaviour
  • No-one wants to be bitten by the RCSA
  • We need to show that we as an industry, we do genuinely care
  • Those recruiters on the NSW State Government 007 panel have been shaken, not stirred!

The Future

  • Just because it’s tech, doesn’t make it right
  • You must have an online offering in the future.
  • Reference checking could potentially be replaced by reviews
  • Australian laws are sometimes getting subverted by platforms going offshore
  • In the future, it may become unlawful to conduct an interview
  • The psychological contract between employer and employee is being re-imagined into the cohort feeling

If you are a company, candidate or recruiter eager to find more about NPA, happy to provide further detail.

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