CEO, National Recruitment Federation
Geraldine joined the Federation in 2009 and is responsible for the running of the NRF office and all divisions of the Federation, including all PR & Marketing and internal communications. Since her arrival to the NRF she has been focused on expanding the services of the NRF to member and has introduced the accredited Certificate in recruitment practice to the Irish recruitment industry the only certificate for recruiters in Ireland.
Welcome to our video series, The Experts. In the series, we interview staffing and recruitment leaders to hear their perspectives on industry trends, lessons they’ve learned in the careers, and their leadership philosophies.
In this clip, Geraldine King, Chief Executive Officer at the National Recruitment Federation, shares her approach to leading teams across both gender and culture.
Geraldine King: Trust, honesty, be the best person for the job, and take everything into account. Put yourself into a position of not looking at somebody, but instead, taking what their skills are, and employing for that particular skillset regardless of gender, culture, disability, or anything else. And I think we still have a lot of work to do in that space. As a profession, I do think we are aware of it. We talk about it a lot. I think some countries, it’s easier to roll out diversity and promote women more than it is in other countries because the culture doesn’t allow for it. And I think that will progress, but it’s going to take some time.
GK: We need to give them confidence. We need to empower them. We need to educate them that they are the best. If you look at the actual profession, it’s predominantly made up of the majority in the female favor, and yet when you get to the top roles, the majority of CEOs and leaders are men. Now, that’s not a bad thing either because the men are obviously brilliant at what they do, but the women, we need to encourage them to go for the role and not rule themselves out when they see a man going for the role as well.
Click the image to tweet it.If you’re interested in hearing more insights from Geraldine on how to fix the recruitment industry’s reputation, check out her podcast episode: Take It from the Top (Episode 23).