We think our clients in Manawatu, New Zealand probably haven't heard of Nicole Underwood. Who is Nicole Underwood?

I am an executive search consultant and coach with over 15 years experience in the recruitment industry. I started my career in the late 90's in Adelaide after attending an interview with a Recruitment Consultant who told me my perfect career was in recruitment – she was right! I haven't looked back.

I now run my own consultancy where I work with individuals and organisations to increase their performance through recruiting and retaining top talent.

What is www.nicoleunderwood.com.au all about? And can you tell us a little about the market you work in?

It's all about people – finding the best people, hiring them and then keeping them. I deliver tailored solutions to a range of clients across a wide range of industries. These services include retained recruitment, executive search, performance coaching and workshops. I write a blog "recruitment retention results" which is about my experiences building business, leading people and how to recruit and retain people.

Our Client Manager, has been following your Australian business blog for a while. You talk a lot about your experiences adopting a flexible workplace culture. What can you tell our clients about what you did, what worked and why did you become "flexi-friendly"?

In my last role, running a generalist recruitment business, I managed an all-female workforce where nearly half were on some type of flexible work arrangement. This involved late start times, early finish times, working from home arrangements and part-time roles. I incorporated these flexi-arrangements to provide a culture where people could achieve a work/life balance and I could retain highly talented females who wanted to return to work after babies and continue in senior positions.

Becoming flexi-friendly reduced staff turnover, enabled succession planning, increased productivity and attracted new staff to the business.

Having seen you at the RCSA Conference – we noticed that you personally ran a truly mobile office with Iphone, Ipad and web access. One of the global trends is for increasingly mobile flexible workers with flexible working arrangements. As a manager of people how do you recommend leader's manage the demands for increased flexibility? And how do you manage the workflow and outputs?

The best way to manage the demands for on-going flexibility is to be open to suggestions and be open to new ways of doing things. Not immediately seeing the negatives or being defensive, taking an empathetic approach and considering how the business needs and the individual's needs could both be met. Trials are a great way to see if it is going to be successful.

Managing workflows and outputs for flexible team members is about having clear KPI's (Key Performance Indicators). What is this team member responsible for delivering? What outcomes do they need to produce? I approached performance management in the same way as I did for full-time staff members.

Here in New Zealand, we are seeing shortages in highly skilled roles and increasing youth unemployment – what can you tell us about the employment market in Australia? What are your clients doing to overcome or work with their market?

Over the last few years in South Australia, we have been experiencing a job boom in the mining and resources sector. More recently however, we have seen this market compress and consolidate. This has resulted in organisations being more conservative and not hiring – taking a more "let's wait and see approach". This has had a knock-on effect and is very much reflected across a range of industries.

For those wanting to hire there is some great talent in the current market.

As a former recruitment leader, and employer of people yourself, you would have seen/observed both great recruiters and bad recruiters. As an industry expert who doesn't work for Palmerston North Personnel - what should our clients be looking for when selecting a recruitment provider?

The best recruiters in my experience are great listeners. They take the time to ask probing questions and don't assume. They are also personable and confident – without the ego.

I would recommend that clients looks for stability and longevity, knowledge of the market and their candidates, someone who is well networked, an expert in their field and at the end of the day – you need to like and respect them!

What are the hallmarks of a great recruitment campaign – if you were engaging a recruitment provider what would you expect to see from them?

A great recruitment campaign starts with an assessment of the market and a clear recommendation and strategy on how to source the best talent for the role. From there, I would expect regular communication on the statistics and facts in regards to the market response and interest.

I would expect an expert to take control and guide me through the process – asking when my input was required. A great campaign should always involve only interviewing those candidates who are a match for the role in terms of skill, competency and motivation as well as in-depth reference checking with direct employers and honest assessments of these reports.

Finally, the best recruitment campaigns don't end after the placement – they continue well into the candidate's first 12 months and will involve building a long-term relationship with a retention strategy in place.

In today's world there is SEEK, TradeMe and a few other job sites out of Australia like MyCareer. Is it really just about placing an advert online and waiting for the applicants to apply?

Ah no!

The best candidates in my experience, tend to be working elsewhere and don't know your vacancy exists. It is highly unlikely that they are surfing job sites looking for their next opportunity. The best candidate is a high performer in another organisation – the only way to access this talent is through referral, search, building talent networks or using tools such as social media and blogging.

Having seen you on your ipad during the RCSA conference, as mentioned above, it was obvious you are a prolific social media user. Why bother with social media and how has it helped your business?

Social media is an amazing tool to build your brand and profile. It also enables you to connect with like-minded individuals and have conversations, share ideas and develop new business.

I would only recommend it for people who are going to commit to the process and put in the time and effort needed to see the results. For me personally, I have met new business contacts, been able to seek help to solve problems, find new suppliers as well as many new clients have come to me via my blog. For example; I found the person to build my website through Twitter, the last candidate I placed through LinkedIn (due to a status update to my network), and a new speaking opportunity came via Facebook.

What are your predictions for 2013 recruiting in Australasia?

There is going to be a price squeeze on recruitment firms that can't clearly articulate their value and difference in the market.

We (recruitment service providers) will continue to find our biggest competition being clients who think they can do it themselves – only to have them return when it goes pear shaped. Finally, those recruitment firms that deliver a high quality service, can source hard to find top talent and build on-going relationships with a select group of clients will continue to thrive.