Rotorua recruitment firm expands

Bay businesses are increasingly attractive to out-of-town candidates, says Talent ID's Kellie Hamlett.

Rotorua-based recruitment firm Talent ID is seeing significant growth across the region as the Bay continues to attract talented people from outside the region.

"The job market is steadily strengthening and 2015 in particular has seen strong growth patterns," said Kellie Hamlett, who founded the firm in 2007.

"Rotorua and the wider Bay of Plenty are currently experiencing growth in the job sector, both in terms of the number of new roles being created and the number of candidates wanting to relocate to the region.

"There is a lot of diversity in the roles that are on offer, which I think indicates that the economy is strengthening as a whole and not just sector-based."

The firm specialises in the small-to-medium business sector, recruiting individuals and providing an external human resource capability for businesses that don't have a human resource department.

Ms Hamlett recently added another staff member, bringing the total to three.

"We've long advocated and branded our business around the lifestyle and balance you have living here.

"Whether it's sport or family, you can have it all. We're now seeing this influx of people. The Bay of Plenty is so well-positioned to take advantage of business growth, with some fantastic candidates wanting to move into the region."

Alistair Rhodes, chief executive of Tauranga-based Bay Trust, who used Talent ID in his previous role as chief executive of Rotorua Airport, retained the firm earlier this year to help the trust go through a major restructuring.

"With the developments with Seek and other online services, I think she did a really good job helping us with our Tauranga-based positions."

Tauranga was fortunate in attracting a lot of people from Auckland as well as throughout the region for positions, he added.

"The last role we recruited, we had 70 applications with really good candidates from inside and outside the region."

However, Ms Hamlett noted that there were challenges ahead for businesses in finding quality candidates as they experienced growth.

One was that skilled candidates could become in shorter supply. In addition, businesses needed to keep current in terms of recruiting Gen Y and beyond staff, to ensure they could attract key talent, she said.