New Zealand Government Procurement announced earlier this week that the tender process for a new All-of-Government recruitment services contract has been paused to allow for further engagement with government agencies and the recruitment industry on the pricing model within the contract.

According to the New Zealand Herald, the government is pausing the eight-week tender process after backlash from recruiters, upset the government wants to pay a fixed price for filling vacancies regardless of the type of role or time taken to find suitable candidates.

The Recruitment, Consulting and Staffing Association (RCSA) last month went public with its lobbying efforts, telling the Herald it believed a ‘radical and untested’ approach likely aimed at cost-cutting would incentivise recruiters to prioritise private sector clients. Given the size of the public sector, the industry body feared the new approach to pricing could have wide-ranging effects on recruiters' businesses.

New Zealand Government Procurement general manager Laurence Pidcock said the tender, which opened on 5 August and was due to close on 30 September, had received "an incredible amount of interest".

The proposals seek to refresh the current All-of-Government (AoG) External Recruitment Services (ERS) contract and change the contract’s title to ‘Talent Acquisition Services’ (TAS) to better reflect the evolving nature of finding candidates and matching them with roles in the public service. 

“The Talent Acquisition Services tender has received an incredible amount of interest, demonstrating the importance of the contract for government agencies’ recruitment needs,” Pidcock said.

“While engagement was undertaken prior to the RFP going live, including issuing a request for information, supplier briefings and in person meetings, concerns have since been raised by the recruitment industry regarding the proposed shift from a percentage-based pricing model to a fixed fee model and it has become clear that not all voices were heard,” Pidcock said.

“We want to listen to the concerns that have been raised and therefore we are pausing the RFP. This will provide us time to hear and consider the valuable insights and feedback that those in the industry and the government agencies who use these services will be able to provide,” Pidcock added.

The current External Recruitment Services contract allows participating agencies to access any of 41 panel providers for a broad range of recruitment services such as permanent, temporary, and contractor placement types, roles in common administration and corporate, common IT jobs and services for payroll-only contractors.