Well, it wasn't too long ago I wrote a post here about how potentially my company was changing the perception it has of its Recruitment Division.... Maybe I was a little early in my prediction.

I have been a little disappointed in recent reactions I'm afraid, and for those who may read this with the hope of getting some pearls of wisdom, you too could be disappointed, it has the potential to become just a me venting session... (my apologies in advance)

My work environment swung almost a complete 180 last week, surprisingly so. I have a really strong team, who has been through a lot this year, from their own personal circumstances to a volatile organisational environment, we have overcome, we have stayed together and have grown as a group. Something we all should be proud of. In Australia, we run a financial year of July to June, so the last couple of weeks were spent battoning down the hatches waiting for that fun time to arrive and getting all the reports, stats and reviews done for our Board of Directors (their meeting is on the 8th July, fingers crossed for that). Our stats seemed pretty compelling, extremely strong, even for a period where we were not as aggressively hiring as we should. An increase of 40+% new hires on the previous year, yeah really strong I think.

Here in lies the twist.... I was surprised to hear in a recent Management team meeting, that again, my team and I were again the area of the business which was holding it back.... now I am not one for losing my cool in meetings, especially with senior Management, as I am sure there is a time and a place for these things. So my external cool stayed in place, whilst I internally simmered. In those following conversations, at the right time and the right place, we debated those comments. My team have had to essentially drag our Recruiting process back up from scratch, build momentum from nothing... the results in the last month have been encouraging, and by the end of July we will have almost hit the heady hights of this time last year. Not a bad effort that, I think.

I am wondering, is the gig of ours a constant game of self justification? Will I always be having to prove our worth to the company as I don't bring in any revenue? If I do how much of the brown stuff will I drop my HR colleagues in? Will our Business Development people always be part of an untouchable caste? Will I be able to show that my companies growth is due to a large part the Recruitment team, and not purely the wonderkinds of the BD? more in our next episode......

Self marketing is an important part of what we do, your personal brand, the brand of your department or team. I have grown a lot in this area, and my team and I have been going through a gradual metamorphasis over the last few years, perhaps I see it has not been quick enough..... Time to go beyond just giddying on up....(I know this is big)..... it's time to Cowboy on up. (John Wayne style, not used car salesman style).

Not sure how this is going to pan out... but game on, I'm taking charge, confronting those who doubt, selling to those who'll listen, converting those who won't and become some kind of Recruiting crusader. We've played nicely for a while, now it's time to play for keeps. (is this my black spiderman coming out)

Oh that sounds angry and bitter.. sorry, that's more for me than anyone else, but no.... there is a time when one must take a stand, Recruitment has been taken for granted for too long, damn it I like to win, and come hell or high water we will ...

We'll hire some serious talent in the upcoming months, it's already happening. Stay tuned for the upcoming months, I'll come here to brag first! Then buy a megaphone for the office.

Happy Hunting (forgive my rant... feels better now though..... phew)

Dan