Employee Spotlight: Richard Kerr
After celebrating his most successful month in 22 years of recruitment, we want to know what it takes to be one of the Queensland construction and infrastructure industry’s finest recruiters?
To find out, we have directed the spotlight onto Richard Kerr, Intro’s Regional Recruitment Manager.
While Rich would normally shy away from the bright lights of self-promotion, preferring to quietly enjoy his success, in this month’s blog we are shouting his well-deserved praise.
Richard started his career in recruitment in London in 1999. Before that, he had worked in real-estate where he cultivated his charismatic yet reserved sales personality.
He has spent the past 22 years specialising in the construction, mining and energy sectors where he continues to surpass expectations in talent pooling, remote recruitment, mobilisation and on-boarding. This experience across many sectors of recruitment has armed Richard to provide ideal employment solutions at Intro.
The construction recruitment industry has always been incredibly client-intensive; however, the current job market has shifted and is now candidate short. Meaning, it is now more important than ever to form trust and cultivate relationships with our candidates in this competitive market.
When asked about his recruiting style, Richard spoke about his candidates as though they were his mates. Richard makes it his priority to get to know his candidates so that he can match them with the right employer at the right time.
Do you have a favourite type of placement?
“My favourite placements are the ones where I really have to push the boat out for a candidate and use my own knowledge of them and the company rather than simply matching skills with criteria.
I have a few examples where the client didn’t even want to see the candidate based on their resume, but I knew they would be a perfect cultural fit.”
What is one of the strangest client requests you have encountered?
“When I recruited for construction labour-hire, I had a client ask for a labourer to cook a BBQ! He did such a good job he ended up staying with the client for months.”
How do you find recruitment different in the UK compared to Australia?
“From a technical perspective, the contract market is way more advanced in the UK. Many supervisors and site managers are employed on a contract basis for project durations.
In general, the market is more candidate short here. Employment rates in the UK and Australia are more similar now than they were when I first moved here in 2007.”
What is the most bizarre thing you have seen on a resume?
“When I worked in IT recruitment in London in the late 90s and early 2000s technology was changing quickly and there were some weird and wonderful things on people’s resumes then – from photos to format I’ve seen it all. But you certainly can’t beat a swimming certificate from primary school!”
What are your thoughts on people working from home?
“I have no doubt that working from home can work. In my experience, the people who are most successful working from home are highly organised and their job function is more task orientated.
For example, processing a loan requires heavy administrative work, research, data input and not much interaction with other people… a perfect work from home scenario.
In recruitment, we take lots of phone calls and pass leads and information to each other constantly throughout the workday. It is a very proactive and interactive job and requires you to be motivated to make things happen… not so well suited to working from home.
The most important thing is to strike the right balance between work and life. Take the time to watch your kids play sport!”
Intro Recruitment Solutions congratulates Rich on his hard work and dedication and is excited to see what his future holds.
Find Richard Kerr on LinkedIn: Richard’s LinkedIn.
