Robert Walters exit the Christchurch market

“Cause I lost my job two weeks before Christmas” sings the late, great Sixto Rodriguez in his 1971 non-hit “Cause”. If a sadder first line of a sadder song has ever been written, I don’t want to hear it. Unfortunately for some, life is imitating art right now in the garden city. For those who aren’t aware, I’m referring to the news that Robert Walters is to exit the Christchurch market, leaving the seven or so recruiters and support staff largely up the Avon without a paddle. This news can be added to the already-bulging manilla file of “crap things that have happened in FY24/25”. In fact, I’m now estimating that those recruitment firms who have made redundancies now sit in the majority. Plenty of firms have made more people redundant, but where this is slightly different lies in the statement made by this decision. This isn’t a few desks in struggling industries – this is a decision to physically exit New Zealand’s second largest city. Given that Robert Walters are the most connected firm to Government, do they know something that we don’t know? Is this manufactured recession set to continue as we focus on making people take logos of their waistcoats and make a cultural return to the 1970s? Will we see a domino effect across the rest of RW and/or their competition? My understanding is that no one on the ground knew this was on the cards. That was until the big wigs of New Zealand and Australia showed up on the red-eye last Monday morning. And when you live in Christchurch, unexpected arrivals of dignitaries almost always means “Goodnight Vienna”.

The interesting thing about Robert Walters is the sense of loyalty that they instil in their team. As we don’t recruit for RW, we’ve spent the last 12 months tapping up almost every employee. The number we’ve got to the table is far below what you’d expect from the work we’ve put in. For a firm which doesn’t pay high-billing recruiters what they’re worth, they are fantastic at creating a sticky culture. They have proven themselves as excellent at training recruiters and providing management opportunities, whilst positioning themselves as more a “professional services firm” versus the second-hand car yard vibe that most of us give off. This means they can attract attractive young graduates from good families who may have considered a career in law, dangle a few carrots, and make them impervious to rec-to-rec headhunt calls. There is also the perception that firms like Robert Walters offer global mobility, make sound business decisions, and provide job security.

Unfortunately history has shown that this last point is far from true.

Once upon a time, Manpower graced these very shores. Manpower, once with ?2,700 offices in 80 countries and 30,000 staff, said “yeah, nah” to Aotearoa. Hudson, once huge, now have their phone answered by the cleaning lady. And of course, most pertinent to Robert Walters, their biggest and closest competitor Michael Page decided that a global pandemic was a bridge too far and buggered off out of New Zealand in June of 2020. Interestingly, I remember at the time, that Michael Page recruiters typically showed the same level of loyalty to the brand as R-DubYers do, only to be left high and dry. In this industry, the size of the brand doesn’t seem to make you any safer. Once upon a time, agency recruiters would “go internal” during tough times. If we look at this recession, the most dangerous place to be is in an internal recruitment team. Conventional wisdom seems to have gone out the window.

Let me be clear however, I am not criticising the loyalty shown by the staff at Walters. Nor am I criticising those who had to wield the axe. It is just a set of very unfortunate circumstances that has meant a group of very loyal employees will now be looking for a job in a slow, small market, at the worst time of year. It must have also been awful for those who had to fly down and deliver the news. Given the global nature of Robert Walters, we don’t even know where the decision was made. Maybe it was by some fancy Dans in Auckland or Wellington. Maybe it was in Australia. Or maybe, it was via a spreadsheet wielded by an accountant in London. Hopefully there are enough firms in Christchurch doing solid business right now. For them, this is a great opportunity to hire well-trained, well-mannered recruiters who have certainly demonstrated loyalty. I would also hope that some employees might use this as an opportunity to see the world, and hopefully RW can support them with their network of global offices.

Next week’s blog will be slightly more upbeat as I’ll still be drunk and commenting on the winners of the SARAs. Robert Walters are actually up for three awards, one of which is “Large Recruitment Agency of the Year”. The winners will have already been decided, but I’m sure even Robert Walters would be uncomfortable collecting that one on stage.

Have a good weekend.

^SW

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