FNQ delights attract jobseekers
AFTER ESTABLISHING PRECRUITMENT BACK IN 1998, GAYLEEN TOLL HAS SEEN MANY CHANGES IN THE FAR NORTH’S JOB MARKET BUT IS CONFIDENT THE FUTURE HOLDS PLENTY OF PROMISE
AFTER more than 30 years in the recruitment industry, nearly 20 of those in the Far North market, Gayleen Toll (above) has a message for the region’s workers and jobseekers: “Stay informed, know what’s happening around the world and stay up to date with what skills are in demand.” Ms Toll, who established Precruitment in 1998, said the promise of providing quality staff was something she had to fight to convince the business community she could pull off. "People are still naive about how far Cairns is away from Brisbane but they are surprised what the region can offer them and their families.”
AFTER more than 30 years in the recruitment industry, nearly 20 of those in the Far North market, Gayleen Toll has an unwavering message for the region’s workers and jobseekers: “Stay informed, know what’s happening around the world and stay up to date with what skills are in demand.”
With signs of economic recovery trickling into Cairns and surrounding districts after being hit hard for most of the past decade by 2008’s global financial crisis, those hungry for a job could be fooled into thinking easy salaries will soon be plentiful.
But Ms Toll, who established Precruitment in 1998, one of the first professional recruitment businesses in the north, said many traditional, low-skilled roles had disappeared and been digitised.
“Cairns was officially the hardest hit by the GFC and the slowest to recover and companies have had to restructure, and invest in multi-tasking and upscaling their employees,” she said.
“Many administration roles have disappeared from organisations with streamlining processes, even ours.
“Mining and engineering
THE PROMISE OF PROVIDING QUALITY STAFF WAS SOMETHING MS TOLL HAD TO FIGHT HARD TO CONVINCE THE FAR NORTH BUSINESS COMMUNITY SHE COULD PULL OFF
has seen a downturn and the requirement for tech savvy and health industry professionals has increased. There is a lot of investment in health and technology.
“In 1998 the internet was new, there were no smart phones, no internet banking. Business need to continue to skill staff to keep up with technology – there are lots of opportunities out there but they are coming from different models.”
Before taking off to work in the ski industry in Australia and Austria, Ms Toll studied accounting but when she ended up in California and contemplated a finance career, her blood ran cold.
Looking for a role in the field, the young traveller was instead offered a job with recruiter Accountants on Call, a division of global firm Adecco, and spent the next five years recruiting talent for the likes of Silicon Valley foundation members Hewlett Packard, Apple, Lockheed and Stanford University.
A chance to start the business’ accounting division in Melbourne brought Ms Toll back to Australia and within a few years, with husband Colin, she moved to Cairns.
“I did some research on Cairns and saw no one did any professional recruitment north of Brisbane,” she said.
“I had a young son and was sick of the city. There is so
THEY WOULD HAVE JUST BEEN ANOTHER NUMBER, AND WOULDN’T HAVE EVEN MET THE RECRUITERS SO THAT MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE GAYLEEN TOLL
much more freedom here, it’s a beautiful city with all the benefits of a big city.”
The promise of providing quality staff was something Ms Toll had to fight hard to convince the Far North business community she could pull off.
“I really am passionate about recruitment – it is about helping people find rewarding careers and the employers benefit from matching good people. A business is only as good as the people,” she said.
“We have been able to win tenders with significant employers so we can really push for local people to get jobs which normally in the past would have gone down south. They would have just been another number, and wouldn’t have even met the recruiters so that makes a big difference.
“Clients used to say ‘we can’t get good people up here, we don’t have any’, but I was able to sell the benefits of living and working in our beautiful region. I could sell the employer and I could sell our lifestyle.
“People are still naive about how far Cairns is away from Brisbane but they are often pleasantly surprised what the region can offer for them and their families. They love we’ve got the international airport, we’ve got great restaurants to go to, we’ve got theatre and culture.
“The biggest challenge for people though is moving the whole family. Some will leave again because they miss their extended family.”
Although at least 50 per cent of candidates for highly skilled roles come from outside the region, Ms Toll said Cairns’ jobs market had changed and was now home to a “good base of highly skilled people”.
And, Ms Toll said women have taken a much more public role in the business community since she moved to the Far North.
She has served on the Cairns Chamber of Commerce committee which had “traditionally been a man’s realm”.