Meet the Australian winners of the Excellence in Candidate Care at RCSA’s Industry Awards

MAYDAY has won the award for Excellence in Candidate Care at this year’s RCSA Industry Awards for the second year in a row. Lynne Johnston, Managing Director, discusses why the award is important to the team and what she believes sets MAYDAY apart from others in the industry.

This is our second year in a row being rewarded by the RCSA for our candidate experience. In 2020, we watched the awards and cheered along virtually, however, in 2021 we were lucky enough to attend an in-person event, one of the only (and much anticipated) in the last two years.

Winning the award for Excellence in Candidate Care while surrounded by our amazing team, and our industry peers and partners, was incredible. Little did we know, within a few weeks we would be back in lockdown with in-person shindigs a thing of distant memory, making the fact we had a small window to all be together and celebrate even more special.

So why is this award so important to us?

We are currently in the most bizarre market I have ever worked in. After almost 15 years in the industry, I have never witnessed such unprecedented shifts and sudden changes within a singular market. The job market bounced back quicker than any of us could have predicted, leaving us in one of the most candidate short states Australia has ever seen. As a result, strong candidate relationships are more important to recruiters than ever before and prioritising the care factor is vital.

At MAYDAY, we embed the candidate experience into every stage of the recruitment process and strive to have meaningful interactions at every opportunity.

One of the more notable approaches we have implemented to ensure this occurs is by asking for feedback at all stages of the recruitment journey. We use this feedback to identify gaps that provide insights into how we can improve our processes so we can continually enhance the effectiveness of the services we provide.

We have “Recruiter Insider Champions” within our teams who monitor our candidate and client scores.

The designated RI champion acts quickly when areas of improvement are identified and trains our newbies on how to ensure all stages of the candidate process are executed to the highest standard.

We believe that asking questions and listening to the voice of the candidate is essential to understand what truly matters to them. In both 2020 and 2021, we completed market research with job seekers to find out what they are looking forward to in their next role, company, and leader.

As we are living in a different world where priorities have shifted, we also decided to track the changing candidate motivators that reflect the post-COVID world. The reason we place such emphasis on this research and listening to the talent market is that it helps us find them meaningful jobs they love! And it helps our clients understand true motivators and drivers, so they can attract and retain great people.

The little extras go a long way…

Our team have a massive focus on wellbeing. Our Wellness Committee run a variety of initiatives throughout the year to improve both the physical and mental wellbeing of our people. Rather than keep this to ourselves, we invite our candidate community to be part of our Wellness Weeks, encouraging them to take part in our virtual exercise classes, “wellness bingo” competitions, and even offering them Black Dog Institute mental health awareness training along with our team.

Throughout lockdown, we offered “career clinics” to our talent community, offered advice on maximising your LinkedIn profile and presence, and gave our temps top tips and hints on securing great contract roles.

In late 2020, we assembled a dedicated Contractor Care Team to ensure candidates fully understand the terms of temporary assignments, the complexities of casual loading, and award conditions.

There are many other ways we service and engage with our candidates, too many to list here but there is so much more in the pipeline. We’re always looking for fun and innovative ways to add value to our candidates and ensure we are the first place they think of when considering a role change. We aim for the continual blossoming of existing relationships, increases in our referral work, and to be able to reach and engage new customers so our candidate community continues to grow and thrive into 2022 and beyond.

To put it simply, we are extremely honoured to have been recognised by the RCSA for everything we do to drive excellence in the candidate experience. The big challenge for us now… can we make it a hattrick?