Haines insights

The headlines have (rightly) focused on the 5.6% unemployment rate. But what about the other 94.4%?

In this article, we wanted to spend some time focusing on the job hunters, no nonsense advice from New Zealand’s longest established recruitment advertising agency. We hope that by sharing our thoughts and insights, we can ease the load, focus the mind, and contribute to more kiwis finding the right roles.

In this article, Dan Phillips (our Creative Director) reflects on a recent campaign shoot that became something more than just content creation. What began as a brief to capture authentic moments for a disability services client turned into a powerful reminder of what meaningful work really looks like.

Trade Me’s latest market insights and our Global Talent Survey are telling the same story: interest in changing jobs is high, but confidence to actually move remains uneven. While intent is rising across both local and global markets, structural barriers and role friction are slowing conversion from interest to action.

Kiwis have always had one eye on the world - but are more starting to look back home?

There’s a kind of serendipity that only reveals itself when you pause long enough to take a look back. This is a story about that. As part of our brand identity, we’ve been doing exactly that - revisiting our history to better understand who we are today, and who we want to be next. As New Zealand’s oldest advertising agency, our past isn’t something we can (or should) ignore. We still carry the name of our founder, Charles Haines, and with it a legacy that has shaped generat

Here in Aotearoa, we’re quietly doing something impressive. Having recently ‘sharpened our tools’ by gaining the world’s number one employer brand leadership certification (from Employer Branding College) Ben Tinker and Dan Phillips have been reflecting on where the global EB market is headed… and where we sit on that curve. The good news? We’re not just keeping pace - we’re punching above our weight. The global compass is shifting We had a great chance to step to the side,

Different generations engage with recruitment content in distinct ways. Gen Z seeks purpose and identity, Millennials want life-aligned roles, and Gen X/Boomers value structure and recognition. Recognising these differences allows TA teams to design campaigns that resonate with each audience. As you adopt a strategic enabler mindset, understanding generational differences becomes crucial in shaping recruitment campaigns. We’re in the most diverse workforce New Zealand has ev

Traditional recruitment metrics like time-to-hire and source-of-hire tell us what happened, but not why. To drive real business value, TA teams need to move from reporting to insight: understanding candidate behaviour, predicting outcomes, and linking hiring to commercial impact. For years, recruitment analytics has largely focused on metrics that are easy to collect and quick to report: time-to-hire, source of hire, number of applications. They give us a picture of what hap

TL;DR: Great recruitment campaigns aren’t built and forgotten. They’re launched fast, tested in real time, and refined with data and feedback. Marketers call it a growth loop, recruiters should live by it too.  Bringing a growth mindset to talent campaigns  In Sessions 1 and 2, we reframed recruitment through a marketing lens and explored how to invest like a brand team. Now, it’s time to make it move.  Because strategy without execution? That’s just theory.  Recruitment

TD:LR: No employer brand? That silence is costing you. Without clear, consistent signals, great candidates scroll past, drop off, or choose competitors. Brand isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a performance multiplier. It builds trust, fuels long-term growth, and makes every job ad work harder. We’ve talked about crafting better ads. About winning attention. About where to show up, and how. But even the best-placed ad can’t fix what isn’t there. Because when you don’t actively sha

TL;DR: You’ve got three seconds to hook someone, make it count. Grab attention with clear, relevant messaging and strong visuals. Then back it up with a smart omnichannel strategy that meets candidates where they are, from TikTok to ZEIL. Consistency and clarity across every touchpoint turn interest into action. Now that you’ve written a great job ad, the next thing to understand is that In today’s digital world, you have roughly three seconds to capture someone’s interest b

TL;DR: Most job ads fail because they’re generic and disconnected from brand and culture. Today’s candidates want more than duties, they want purpose, flexibility, and growth. Great ads tell a story, reflect real culture, and connect on a human level. But even the best ad needs a strong employer brand behind it to truly work. We’ve all seen them: copy-paste job ads listing duties, bullet points, and the promise of a “competitive salary.” In a market where it's easier than ev