Mentoring program is providing invaluable guidance

Emerging and new recruitment leaders are receiving invaluable advice and guidance through the PEARL (Professional, Emerging and Aspiring Recruitment Leaders) Mentoring Program offered through the RCSA.

Learning and Development Manager Cheryll Seslija said the ethos of PEARL is to develop future leaders. PEARL is an outlet towards building our next generation of talent and designed to give new and emerging leaders an opportunity to learn from the best of the best.

“It provides opportunities for mentors to contribute to the wellbeing of the industry by passing on their knowledge and experience to others through reflection on their own practices and exposure to new ideas, interests and opportunities for challenge,” Cheryll said.

“Mentors and mentees are matched based on their goals, objectives and professional background and then meet on a monthly basis over the course of a year to discuss and plan how to actualise these goals.”

Cheryll said a good example of how the program worked could be seen in New Zealand where Brenda James, founder of Career Reboot and a Career and Team Development Specialist, was mentoring Jeni Perkinson, a team leader at Advanced Personnel Services.

The pair were matched after completing questionnaires that covered their professional, social and leadership preferences.

Brenda has enjoyed a distinguished career and even fitted in study around her recruitment career to become a qualified career development practitioner.

In 2018, she set up her own business coaching people toward career clarity and taking meaningful career steps and while she continues to recruit on a smaller scale, her real connection with the industry is in paying forward all the advice and learning she has gathered by participating in the PEARL mentoring program.

She said mentoring Jeni had been a rewarding experience.

“Throughout my recruitment career, I’ve been privileged to be mentored by some of the best in the industry and I felt compelled to pay that forward,” she said.

“Working with Jeni has been both energising and inspiring. She is highly motivated and takes purposeful action after every meeting and call, meaning she is getting results for both herself and her team.

“She embodies great leadership qualities and it’s a delight to walk alongside Jeni on her leadership journey.”

For her part, Jeni said the program had changed the way she looked at the recruitment industry.

“It’s made me hungry and even more addicted to what I do every day,” she said.

“I was in an employment consultancy role before I joined Advanced Personnel Services is a management role, so as much as I’ve managed people pretty much all my life, when it came to managing recruiters, I didn’t know all I could and I was hungry to know more.

“As it turns out, I was blessed to be matched with Brenda and from our first conversation I knew she was the kind of person I could learn from.”

Jeni said the main thing she had got out of the PEARL program was wisdom.

“Brenda has been in this industry for a long time and she has so much knowledge to impart.

“She’s very honest and very real about the journey of recruitment and how to become a good recruiter.

“She is all about me as a person and growing to be a better person in this role, so it has been a positive learning journey.

“Brenda taps into my strengths and grows them while also working to identify and build on my weaknesses in a very managed way.

“It’s been amazing for me and made me hungry and more addicted to recruitment. It’s been amazing for me.”

If you would like to know more about the PEARL program, go to www.rcsa.com.au or contact Cheryll Seslija cseslija@rcsa.com.au