Why Melbourne Businesses Are Choosing Boutique Over Big

There are two types of clients in recruitment. Those who want to partner with a recruiter, and those who engage one because they have no other option. The difference between those two client types, and the outcomes they get, was one of the central themes when Tavis Shearer sat down with Kylie Jasinski, Founder of Prime Recruitment, in a recent episode of Tav’s Little Video Chat.

Kylie built Prime Recruitment six years ago on the back of her expert industry experience in property development, construction and real estate. The conversation was as usual Tav style, candid, direct and packed with relevant information for any business owner currently in the hiring market. The rules of engagement between employers and recruiters has changed noticeably, and the businesses getting the best results from recruitment are the ones that understand why.

 

The Melbourne Market Is Coming Back… But It Requires a Different Approach

The property and construction sector in Melbourne has had a tough few years. As Kylie described it, hiring decisions were being driven by planning regulations, cost of construction pressures and the uncertainties of projects underway. Tower cranes parked up became a real market indicator. Businesses were cautious, recruitment processes dragged out, and candidates were also unsure of circumstances affecting their placement.

This changed noticeably from around October to November last year as job flow increased in the final quarter of 2025, decision making timeframes shortened, and confidence returned to the market. TRS Resourcing observed the same trend across its client base a clear uptick in hiring activity alongside a measurable reduction in time-to-hire as businesses moved from holding patterns into growth mode.

For employers, this matters because the market that is returning is not the same one that existed before the downturn. Candidate expectations have recalibrated. Salary is no longer the sole motivator it once was, particularly in the private sector. What candidates in property and construction are now prioritising is the quality of leadership they will work under, the learning and development opportunities on offer, and the clarity of their career progression pathway.

Quality Over Quantity Is No Longer a Preference.. It Is the Standard

One of the strongest points Kylie made throughout the conversation is that the era of the recruitment firm as a one stop shop is over. The market is moving decisively toward specialist, niche recruiters who have genuine depth and knowledge within their sector not breadth across everything.

Businesses that have been burned by recruiters who promised the world and delivered nothing, or who placed candidates who left within months, are now searching themselves for something and someone different. They want a recruiter who understands their market, can challenge their brief when the money is off or the spec does not reflect reality, and who will sit down and consult rather than simply fill a role.

As Kylie put it directly, clients come in with a requirement and a good recruiter should have the knowledge and the instinct to say “that does not exist at that price point”, or “the industry is moving this way and here is why your role needs to evolve.” That kind of market intelligence is what separates a transactional placement service from a genuine recruitment partner.

 

The Retained Model Is Gaining Ground… And Here’s Why

Prime Recruitment has moved toward a retained search model, at least in part, requiring a commencement fee of between three and five percent of the total placement fee as a sign-on before beginning a campaign. It creates exclusivity, aligns everyone around a shared outcome, and commits both parties to a four to six week structured process.

For employers considering this approach, the benefit is straightforward. When a recruiter has been engaged properly and they have great knowledge in the game, they run a proper campaign. They go to market with intent, they research the talent pool, and they come back with candidates no one else has (not recycled CVs from a shared database) people who have been sourced and headhunted and well vetted and prepared.

Kylie was explicit about this: the days of blasting the same CV around to multiple clients until someone bites are finished. The businesses seeing the best hiring outcomes right now are the ones working closely with one specialist recruiter, with a clear brief, a realistic salary range, and an agreed process. This is what produces a quality hire.

Red Flags Every Employer Should Know Before Engaging a Recruiter

Both Tavis and Kylie discussed about poor outcomes in recruitment relationships and much of it comes back to due diligence on both sides.

From an employer’s perspective, when a recruiter asks probing questions about why a role is vacant, how many people have held it in the last 12 months, and what has changed in the business, that is not an interrogation. That is exactly what a good recruiter should be doing. A role that has turned over three times in a year is a red flag that no recruiter can solve without management being willing to address the underlying cause.

Equally, this conversation flagged that businesses unwilling to examine their own culture, leadership or employee value proposition before going to market will consistently struggle to retain the candidates they place regardless of how skilled the recruiter is. The revolving door problem is rarely a recruitment problem. It is almost always a business environment problem that gets handed to recruiters to manage.

The most productive client relationships, as Kylie described them, are with businesses that have done some internal reflection first. They know what role they need to fill, why it is genuinely important to the business, what they can offer a candidate, and what career development will look like. That clarity makes the recruiter’s job infinitely easier and the outcome far more likely to stick.

Green Flags: What a Good Recruiter Looks For in a Client

It is worth understanding what a quality boutique recruiter considers when deciding whether to take on a new client and the due diligence on businesses before engaging.

What they look for: strong employee value proposition, low staff turnover, a clear business growth strategy, commercial viability, and alignment between the role being hired and where the business is genuinely heading. They cross-reference this with candidate intelligence gathered from people who have worked in or around that business, industry contacts, and public information.

What they avoid: businesses with revolving door hiring histories that blame recruiters without examining internal causes, flashy operations without the financial foundations to support them, and clients who approach recruitment as a transactional fix rather than a strategic partnership.

If your business ticks the green flag list, you will find that working with a quality boutique recruiter is a very different experience to what many employers have come to expect. The best recruiters are not just filling seats. They are helping businesses think through structure, growth plans, and the talent required to execute both.

Practical Takeaways for Employers

• Clarify your brief internally before engaging a recruiter. Know what the role actually requires, not just what the job description says.
• Understand what candidates in your sector are actually motivated by right now, in most cases it is leadership quality and career development more than salary alone.
• Consider a retained or partial retained model for senior or specialist hires. It produces better outcomes and better candidates.
• Ask your recruiter challenging questions, and expect them to ask you back questions just as challenging, so be prepared! The consultation should go both ways.
• If you have high turnover, examine the internal causes before blaming the external recruitment process.

TRS Resourcing works with businesses across construction, infrastructure, property and technical sectors in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. If you are hiring in 2025 and want a recruiter with genuine market depth, reach out to the TRS team to discuss how they approach the process differently.

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