How to start a recruitment agency in Australia and New Zealand

Before anything else, decide what type of recruitment agency you want to run. The most common models in Australia and New Zealand are: 

• Permanent placement: Finding candidates for full-time roles 
• Temp and labour hire: Supplying workers on a casual or contract basis 
• Executive search: Placing senior and specialist talent 

Your niche shapes everything. Your client base, your fee structure, your compliance obligations, and the technology you'll need. Labour hire agencies, for example, have significantly more complex payroll and compliance requirements than permanent placement firms. So, it's worth getting clear on your model before you set anything up. 

In Australia, you'll need to: 

• Choose a business structure (sole trader, partnership, or company) 
• Register your business name with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) 
• Obtain an Australian Business Number (ABN) 
• Register for GST if your expected turnover is A$75,000 or more 
• Get the right insurance in place: professional indemnity, public liability, and workers' compensation are standard 

You should also familiarise yourself with the Fair Work Act, which sets out minimum entitlements for employees, and consider joining the RCSA (Recruitment, Consulting and Staffing Association). The peak industry body for recruitment agencies across Australia and New Zealand. 

If you're running a labour hire business in certain states, you'll also need a labour hire licence (required in Queensland, Victoria, and South Australia). 

In New Zealand, you'll register with the Companies Office, obtain an NZBN, and operate under the Employment Relations Act 2000 and Holidays Act 2003. KiwiSaver obligations apply in place of superannuation, and IRD handles your tax obligations. 

Software at this stage: Access Vincere Evo 

Your CRM (Candidate Relationship Management system) is the most important piece of technology you'll set up. It's where every candidate profile, client relationship, job order, and placement lives. Without it, you're managing your desk on spreadsheets and sticky notes. If you go with spreadsheets, you will lose deals.  

Access Vincere Evo is built specifically for recruitment agencies and gives you a complete CRM and ATS (Applicant Tracking System) in one place. 

Software at this stage: Access FastTrack360 Evo 

If you're running a temp or labour hire agency, payroll is where new agencies most commonly come unstuck. Australian award interpretation is complex. Casual loadings, penalty rates, overtime, and allowances vary by Modern Award and can change. Get it wrong and you're exposed to underpayment claims and Fair Work scrutiny. 

Access FastTrack360 Evo is purpose-built for temp and labour hire agencies in Australia and New Zealand. Even if you're starting with permanent placements only, having a pay and bill solution ready means you can move into temp or contract work easily.  

Software at this stage: Access Attract Evo 

Your website is your agency's front door. For candidates searching for roles and for clients evaluating whether to work with you. A generic website builder won't cut it; you need a site built for recruitment, with job listings that update automatically, candidate portals, and SEO that gets you found. 

Access Attract Evo is designed exclusively by recruiters for recruitment agencies. You don't need a developer to get it live, and it connects directly to your CRM so there's no manual duplication of job listings. 

Software at this stage: Access Automate Evo

When you're starting up, every hour matters. Manually following up with candidates, sending reminders, and re-engaging your database takes time you don't have, especially when you're also winning new clients and managing placements. 

Access Automate lets you set up automated outreach sequences across email and SMS, so: 

• New candidates get a welcome sequence as soon as they register 
• Placed candidates are checked in with automatically 
• Dormant candidates in your database are re-engaged without manual effort 
• No lead goes cold while you're focused elsewhere 

This is the difference between a one-person agency that feels stretched and one that feels like a team. 

Software at this stage: Access Onboarded Evo 

Getting a candidate placed is only half the job. Getting them onboarded correctly is the other half. For labour hire and temp agencies, this means collecting the right documents, running the right checks, and keeping a full audit trail. 

Everything is stored digitally, with full audit trails, so if a client or regulator asks for evidence of compliance, you have it. 

With your tech stack in place, you're ready to go to market. In practice, this means: 

• Building your candidate pipeline: advertising roles, leveraging your network, and using your CRM to manage applications 
• Winning your first clients: direct outreach, LinkedIn, referrals, and demonstrating your niche expertise 
• Making sure that post-placement (payroll, onboarding, invoicing) runs smoothly from day one

According to Access Recruitment's AI in Recruitment 2026 Outlook - based on a survey of 159 recruitment agency leaders across ANZ and the UK - 78% of agencies have adopted AI in some form, yet only 6% have embedded it into their core operating model.  

Agencies that invest in AI training are 15x more likely to report strong ROI than those with minimal training (43.8% vs. 2.9%). High-growth agencies also report 4x greater AI ROI than declining agencies, despite using similar tools. 

This isn't a technology gap but an execution one.  

For start-ups, this is good news. You don't have the legacy systems, entrenched habits, or siloed processes that hold established agencies back. You have the rare opportunity to build AI into your workflows from day one.  

The agencies getting the most from AI in ANZ aren't the ones with the biggest tech budgets. They're the ones who made a deliberate choice to embed it deeply, train their teams properly, and treat it as a core part of how they operate.  

Hear what recruitment industry leaders made of these findings.