Harriet Birchall

Harriet Birchall joins Andy as the recruitment market's voice in the foundational cohort, a first-line view of NZ construction's labour crisis from someone who places people daily and watches the patterns. Harriet is at Links Recruitment specialising in QS (quantity surveying) recruitment, with an unusual cross-trained career path: site administrator (2 years) → marketing + communications for a main contractor → bid / tender writing → recruitment, meaning she carries both construction-domain fluency and the recruiter's market view. The picture she lays out is bleaker than many in the industry expected at the time (late 2022). The headline diagnosis: "so much work on and just no one to do it", the hardest market since 2008. The expected post-COVID overseas influx never materialised. NZ's appeal "has definitely dissipated", cost of living, pay rates significantly lower than Australia, lifestyle gap, rising interest rates forcing job-changes for mortgage payments. Young professionals are leaving for Australia, UK, US. Harriet's framing is unflinching: "I would have left if I was a full-time employee too." The episode also lands one of the most-quoted recruitment-market data points: "people are taking on jobs or positions two levels higher than they currently are" in a market this tight, easy to talk your way through early stages, devastating when a bad hire stays a year. The cost of recruitment is also surfaced as under-acknowledged: $10-40K per person including fees, laptops, phones, visas, admin, training. Andy admits a small-business-owner truth: "I'm still scared to recruit a person. It's quite a significant cost." The episode is the foundational entry of the brain-drain timeline that runs through Ep 50 (James leaving for Australia) and Ep 61 (Kevin Leadingham's recruiter-side quantification of the same trend).

Key Topics Discussed

• Labour Shortages, "hardest market since 2008". Harriet's headline framing. The 2008 GFC comparator means this is a once-in-15-years recruitment difficulty.
• "So much work on and just no one to do it". Harriet's signature line. The pipeline-vs-skilled-resource mismatch Ep 01 / Ep 04 / Ep 08 flagged earlier in 2022 is now structurally locked in.
• NZ appeal has dissipated post-COVID. Expected overseas influx didn't materialise. Reasons: pay rates significantly lower than Australia; lifestyle gap; cost of living "crazy"; rising interest rates forcing job-changes for mortgage payments. Same diagnosis Ep 50 confirms 18 months later when James leaves NZ; Ep 61 confirms 3 years later when Kevin quantifies 15-20% Australian pay premium.
• Brain drain to Australia, UK, US. Young professionals leaving. Harriet: "I would have left if I was a full-time employee too." Andy's retort: "you wouldn't trade New Zealand for anything?", Harriet's measured response shows the magnetic pull of greener-grass even for someone happy in NZ.
• Cost of recruitment ($10-40K per person). Recruitment fees + laptops + phones + visas + admin + training. Under-acknowledged by the industry. Andy admits being "scared to recruit" as a small-business owner. Same diagnosis Ep 44 - James Braddock / Ep 38 - Sam Newell develop into "offshore is the future" pattern.
• Over-promotion, "two levels higher than they currently are". Tight market means people take positions 2 levels above capability. Easy to talk through early stages. Damage of a bad hire staying a year is enormous. Direct precursor to Ep 46 conscious-leadership frame ("80% of decisions are emotional, not logical", recruiting under pressure is exactly that).
• Wellbeing as retention strategy. Huge emerging emphasis on staff wellbeing as the recruitment-side defence. But: "some people can't be appeased, the grass always seems greener."
• Market dynamics, survivors vs stagnant. Companies that survived COVID monopolised resources. Others are stagnating, finishing projects, not over-leveraging with staff. Bifurcation: top-end-of-market hiring + bottom-end-of-market shedding.
• Cross-trained recruiter career. Site admin → marketing/comms → bid writing → recruitment. The bid-writing background gives Harriet specific construction-domain fluency that pure-recruiter peers lack.

Notable Quotes

Harriet: "So much work on and just no one to do it."

Harriet: "It's one of the hardest markets sort of we've had to go through since you know 2008."

Harriet: "The appeal of New Zealand has definitely dissipated since pre-COVID."

Harriet: "People are taking on jobs or positions two levels higher than they currently are."

Harriet: "I would have left if I was a full-time employee too."

Andy: "I'm still scared to recruit a person. It's quite a significant cost."

Harriet (on retention): "Some people can't be appeased, the grass always seems greener."

Guest Background

Harriet Birchall, at time of recording, recruitment consultant at Links Recruitment specialising in QS (quantity surveying) recruitment in NZ construction. Career path: site administrator (2 years) → marketing and communications for a main contractor → bid / tender writing → recruitment. Cross-trained construction-domain fluency + recruitment market view make her a uniquely-placed observer.