RCSA, the peak industry body that represents professional labour hire firms, has heralded the decision of the SA Government to repeal the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017 as a win for jobs and investment in SA over politics and outdated thinking. Charles Cameron, CEO of RCSA, said that repealing the licensing scheme would allow South Australia to have a sensible and considered solution to any alleged bad behaviour in the very small number of sectors where problems exist, rather than an ideologically inspired law that was never designed to address the specific problem at hand. "Rather than target the very small number of bad operators in the specific sectors they operate in, the laws legacy w

The decision today by WorkPac Pty Ltd not to appeal the Federal Circuit Court decision on WorkPac v Skene means all Australian businesses employing casual workers will be forced to continue operating under enormous uncertainty until an urgent legislative fix can be achieved. Charles Cameron, CEO of the peak industry body for the recruitment and staffing sector, RCSA, said that the environment caused by this decision is unsustainable for business and needs to be resolved outside of the court system. “Make no mistake, this is a decision that has enormous ramifications for all employers of casual staff, not just Labour Hire operators,” he said. “If just one quarter of Australia’s 2.5 million ca

We are pleased to welcome Mark Louwen as the new RCSA Membership Manager for Australia. To help you to get to know a little about Mark, we put a series of hard-hitting and not so hard hitting questions to him. Why did you take on the role with RCSA? I went into the interview with some hesitations as it is an industry I don’t know a lot about, however after meeting with Charles Cameron and speaking with Greg Savage over the phone, I couldn’t wait to get started. They spoke with so much passion and knowledge of the industry. You have a Business Development background. What would you describe as your greatest professional success? I’m proud of what I have achieved in all of my roles, in winnin

What does success mean to you? Is it meeting your monthly target, a deadline or a certain goal? To me, the simplest definition of success is “accomplishing what you set out to achieve.” Some may aim their goals higher than others, yet in my experience there is something that all achievers have in common. Having had the fortune of working with thousands of high performing individuals and leaders across the globe, my team and I were passionate about uncovering what really drives those to achieve. What we discovered is that the secret of success is in the mind! Sure, we agree that there are many things that contribute to success – however among the high performers we observed, we discovered tha

The lack of clarity around what defines “casual’ employment Fundamental to the work we do is understanding the definitions of permanent, temporary and casual employment. Given the landmark Federal Court decision in August it is now harder still to be able to define where the parameters are. On August 15, the Australian Full Federal Court handed down its ruling in the WorkPac v Skene case which, subject to any appeal to the High Court or legislative intervention, is expected to have deep and long-lasting ramifications for the employment sector and those we work with and for. Paul Skene was an employee at a Rio Tinto coal mine in Central Queensland under a labour hire arrangement with WorkPac

A world surfing champion, Shark Tank investor and some of the world’s leading business thinkers joined recruitment and staffing professionals at the RCSA Noosa conference. Seven time World Surfing Champion Layne Beachley, presenting at last week’s sellout RCSA conference in Noosa, had everyone gripped by her incredible story of resilience and determination in overcoming her personal setbacks to become a success. The theme of this year’s conference was the Art of Work and having made the art form of surfing her career Beachley joined a host of incredible and thought-provoking speakers to look at how loving what we do and being creative about it can lead to fulfilling careers. The conference w

In the aftermath of the #MeToo movement across the globe, I wanted to know more. How would #MeToo impact our dire need for step change in workplace gender equality and diversity? In what way was this going to play out in the Australian landscape? What were the attitudinal shifts of women – not just men? To find out, we commissioned research of over 600 men and women (mostly Australian) across varying work situations and levels of responsibility. The survey results revealed the activities which caused the biggest change in behaviours post #MeToo. Scarily, but not surprisingly so, we saw twice as many Aussie men fear working alone with and mentoring a woman as a result of the publicity. In dir

How many recruiters in Australia have written a book about recruitment? It’s a very, very small number. As far as I can tell it’s less than the fingers on two hands. How many recruiters in Australia and New Zealand have built a recruitment firm from nothing into a highly profitable $1 billion to $2 billion-plus turnover public company in less than 15 years, employing more than 2,000 people? The answer is: two people. Fortunately they have written a book about their experience, Flourish & Prosper: All We Learned From Our Time At Morgan & Banks - And So Much More by Geoff Morgan and Andrew Banks, published in 2004. This is an astonishing book for the simple reason that the authors are very, ve

Workplace wellness programs are quickly gaining traction as an essential element for a healthy office culture. We chat to a recruitment leader and two professors about their lessons learnt and findings about wellness programs. It seems wellness programs are not a fad, not a buzz-phrase and not going anywhere soon. In fact, workplace wellness programs are quickly becoming the new norm, as employers recognise happy staff make for higher productivity, engagement and commitment to the business. Increasingly, businesses have started to understand that helping staff to negotiate the stresses of life, whether they be work-related or otherwise, is a smart business investment. Giles Keay (pictured ri

It’s no secret that our world is changing at a rapid rate as technological advances fundamentally change the way we do business and this is no less true for the recruitment sector as it is the rest of the business world. The term AI - or artificial intelligence - is something we have all become familiar with in the past decade, but it has also come to mean Assistive Intelligence and for recruitment, this has manifested as, among other things, robots are managing engagement care. Take for example Olivia produced by Paradox for the recruitment sector and touted by the company as “the AI assistant that allows you to focus on what you do best, while she focuses on candidate capture, screening, s

The ABC’s Employable Me series helped raise awareness about the discrimination faced by those with conditions such as autism and OCD who are looking for work. The show was a hit and challenged misconceptions around those living with neuro-diverse conditions. In April, ABC Television ran a thought-provoking series that challenged Australia’s perception of hiring people living with neuro-diverse conditions. The result of the show, Employable Me, was ground-breaking and posed a number of questions for those working in recruitment. Producer Jenni Wilks (pictured right) told The Brief the series followed a number of Australians with neuro-diverse conditions such as autism, Tourette Syndrome and O