About us

Premium ICT recruitment at a fair price.

Recruitment Hive is a highly experienced specialist ICT recruitment company that provides ICT Legends to Federal Government and associated industries.

When asked to describe the culture of Recruitment Hive, the range of words used by our employees included:

Our Mission Statement

Our mission is to enable our clients by sourcing high-quality ICT professionals. We are committed to being market-leaders and driving positive change. We dare to pop the Canberra bubble through our unique brand of Canberrability.

Our Values

  • Focus on providing great service & value to both Clients and Contractors
  • Open, honest and transparent, respectful & reliable in all our dealings
  • Let your own self shine in the office, casual is fine, be your best professional self out of the office (always look your best)
  • No-one is left behind, everyone succeeds, everyone has the chance to grow
  • Team is everything & communication strengthens the team, involve everyone, act to enhance trust
  • Healthy and fun competition that drives everyone to do their best
  • Celebrate success, learn from mistakes
  • Authority from experience not hierarchy
  • We’re grateful

Meet Our People

Executive Team

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Ben Ashman,
Chief Executive Officer

Hiver since 2012

Enjoys playing guitar(s), and gardening. Passionate about making a positive difference anywhere and everywhere, but particularly in regards to land regeneration, permaculture, soil, microbes, bacteria, and mycelium.

Ivy Kong,
Chief Financial Officer

Hiver since 2022

Enjoys swimming, skating, and playing the piano along with taking care of my family and achieving career goals. Passionate about travelling with her whole family once a year and providing excellent service to stakeholders to achieve optimal business outcomes.

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John Cassisi,
Recruitment Director

Hiver since 2025

Enjoys movies, AFL, fitness, and personal development  — think Goodfellas meets Canberra’s job hustle.

‘I’m not just a wise guy; I’m a guy balancing leg day, self-help books, and dodgy umpire calls.’ 

Sure, the job market’s tricky, but at least I’m not flipping tables like Joe Pesci.

Coffee?

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Rebecca Edwards,
HR Manager

Hiver since 2025

Enjoys sport and fitness, spending time with family and friends, supporting local sporting teams and the creative arts industry in and around Canberra, playing trivia (badly), reading, and exploring new art and craft projects. Is passionate about diversity in the workplace, continuous learning and personal growth, and working as part of a collaborative team to achieve business objectives.

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Lucy Pajaczkowski,
Executive Officer

Hiver since 2023

Likes reading obscure fiction, participating in trivia nights, watching documentaries, and indulging in High Tea. Passionate about being a lifelong learner and keeping the little grey cells active. 

Finance and IT

Bowen Li,
Finance Manager

Hiver since 2022

Likes to cycle, play tennis & basketball, and travel. Passionate about continuous learning, strategic planning, resolving issues and risk management.

Albert Diao,
Financial Accountant

Hiver since 2023

Enjoys photography and day-trips around Canberra. Passionate about attention to detail, time-management, multi-tasking and self-study.

Kayla Harper,
Finance Officer

Hiver since 2023

Interested in self-care, being with my family and friends, walking and exploring new places. Passionate about providing high levels of customer service with assisting and supporting candidates in the most effective way possible.

Nick Hedley,
IT Consultant

Hiver since 2024

Interested all things tech and IT, but primarily passionate about data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Enjoys video games, playing basketball, watching the NBA and lifting at the gym.

Contractor Services Team

Jessica Pouono,
Contractor Services

Hiver since 2024

Likes sunset walks, road trips, picking up random hobbies, and spending quality time with family and friends. Passionate about service, sending memes and radiating a room with positive energy.

leah

Leah Astle-Monahan,
Contractor Services

Hiver since 2023

Enjoys going to the gym, and anything in relation health and fitness. In addition to meditation, nature, reading non-fiction, art and all types of music are all the things that are inspiring! Passionate about helping people - loves listening to life stories and learning about an individual’s life experiences.

maddi

Maddison Wade,
Contractor Services

Hiver since 2022

Likes listening to music, yoga, gardening, being outdoors camping/at the beach/ hiking & spending time with my children and animals. Very passionate about self-care/development and investing time and care into developing deep lifelong personal relationships (friends and family).

Recruitment Team

matt

Matthew Fallon,
Recruitment Team Leader

Hiver since 2018

Enjoys swimming, becoming fit as possible, learning new things, helping people, watching live stand-up comedy and live music. Wants to open my own business one day. Passionate about Family, Career, Friends, Philosophy (in particular Stoicism), Sport, Politics, Exercise, Cooking and Karaoke.

Alison Cousins,
Recruitment Lead

Hiver since 2018

Likes being an aspiring property developer. Passionate about family, working hard and helping others.

Ben Cousins,
Consultant

Hiver since 2016

Likes travelling, sport, food and a good sleep. Passionate about promoting business ethics.

Jon Bennett,
Consultant

Hiver since 2022

Enjoys keeping fit, cooking, hiking around Canberra and watching Arsenal FC NOT winning trophies and the English cricket team NOT winning the Ashes. Passionate about being a good dad, being respectful, thoughtful, empathetic and spreading good JuJu throughout the world.

eric

Eric Fallon,
Consultant

Hiver since 2021

Likes to Travel, play rugby & coach rugby. Passionate about culture, sport, family.

Alex Robson,
Consultant

Hiver since 2022

Enjoys cooking, NRL, cricket, gaming, and spending time with my pets! Passionate about being a decent human and helping others, freedom of speech, and cooking amazing food.

Andy Eyers,
Consultant

Hiver since 2017

Likes swimming, rock climbing, cooking & baking. Passionate about his family, travel, entrepreneurship, gaming and etymology.

Coral Whitmore,
Consultant

Hiver since 2023

Enjoys travelling and aims to travel to a new destination once a year. My passions include travelling and learning about new cultures and exploring new places.

Our Hive History

2012
Founded by Ben & Karen Ashman in a small Queanbeyan main-street office that shook like an earthquake as trucks rumbled by. Zero air-conditioning, zero contractors and zero Federal Government ICT Contractor Panel memberships, realising it is a fine line between courage and stupidity. Wet towels over our heads on 40 degree days.
2012
2013
We were ecstatic to be accepted onto the Dep. Of Human Services ICT Contractor Panel – great sighs of appreciation! We had 3 ICT contractors engaged. Still no air-conditioning.
2013
2015
20 engaged Federal Government contractors. We could pay our bills, feed our children and dream of the future with confidence.
2015
2016
• Moved to the Mill House in Queanbeyan. Ben Cousins became our first team member, often explaining that he was not Ben Ashman and then the next few minutes explaining that he was not “that" Ben Cousins and had never played in the AFL, nor been arrested shirtless on a highway in Perth.

• Accepted onto the Digital Marketplace.

• Donated $15 000 to Home@Queanbeyan after achieving 50 ICT Contractors in 18 Federal Government Clients in Canberra, NSW, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania.
2016
2018
• Released our Fair and Disclosed ICT Contractor fee strategy to banish opportunistic fee setting from our business. It was a resounding success. Both Candidates and Clients responded positively and our growth accelerated.

• Our internal team grew to 5 as Ben Cousins had invited his sister, Alison, to join us. The year prior had also seen Andy Eyers (the barrister from the coffee shop downstairs at the Mill House) join us and he had helped recruit his old school friend Matt Fallon into our team.
2018
2019
• Having outgrown the old Mill House in Queanbeyan we moved to Yass Road and plastered our signage everywhere. Giant 3D hexagons and “How are you placed for Tomorrow” greeted people as they drove through the Capital of Canberra on their way to the coast.

• We wrapped buses and airport billboards with “Canberrability” and embarked on our first brand marketing campaign that included making our own puppets for some of the weirdest advertising to ever hit the screens of Canberra.
2019
2020
During the pandemic, we supported struggling local Canberra artists with our CoVideo Virtual Gigfest. The pandemic stopped local performers in their tracks, so we offered up to $800 for performance videos, then hosted them on a custom site. We also offered $1500 in prizes to local Canberra region musicians in our Dance Music Creator program for soundtracks for our three Recruitment Hive puppet videos.
2020
2021
• By the end of 2021, and the pandemic, we had grown our ICT Contractor numbers by 92% and had to grow our internal team to 11. We were starting to run out of room in our new office…again!

• We were accepted as members to the Defence Industry Security Program(DISP).

• At the end of the year we were fortunate enough to be able to donate $40 000 to 25 Canberra region charities including Canberra Rape Crisis Centre & RoundAbout Canberra.
2021
2022
• After much debate we moved to the city. Coincidentally our new office in the AMP Building was the same building that our founder, Ben Ashman, first started his recruitment career in way back in 1998. *

• We won additional Federal Government panel memberships and achieved 332 working ICT Contractors by the end of the year.

• At the end of the year we were fortunate enough to be able to donate $50 000 to 15 Canberra region charities including Home@Queanbeyan & SleepBus.
2022
2023
• 18 internal team members, well over 300 working ICT Contractors in over 40 Federal Government clients in every state and territory of Australia except the NT.

• We decided that It’s time to pay Long Service Leave for federal government ICT contractors by establishing casual employment, and long service leave (LSL), as ‘best recruitment(labour-hire) practice’ for long-term federal government ICT contractors.

• We described this in detail through The Recruitment Hive LSL Manifesto

• At the end of the year we were fortunate enough to be able to donate $50 000 to 15 Canberra region charities including Palliative Care ACT & Stella Bella Little Stars.
2023
Client testimonial

I have a profound respect for their understanding of the IT local industry and business wisdom and deeply appreciate his advice. I do not hesitate to recommend Ben (and his team) to assist anyone trying to find new positions in Canberra.