Last night, I attended an excellent event organised by University of Sydney on the theme of ‘Global Talent Search & Challenge’.  Overall, for me, two things stood out. First, while everyone else is preoccupied with short-term issues related to the downturn, in the long-term Australia face major workforce challenges, many dictated by global forces. Secondly, the movement of talent across national borders is happening with gusto.

Dr Michael Spence, Vice-Chancellor, opened the night proceedings with a declaration on how Australia can be a smart country by attracting the best talent from all over the world. Commenting on the mobility of talent, Dr Michael illustrated how fifteen years ago, law graduates have to first prove their mettle locally before they can hope for an overseas posting. Today, 30% of university law students are directly hired by overseas firms. “It is no longer enough to be the best in Sydney or Australia. Competition for talent is global and employers need to wake up to the new reality”, he added. Citing the University’s own example, Dr Michael talked about how important it is to have a flexible employment arrangement to compete for talent.

The keynote speaker of the night, Andrew Banks, MD, Talent2, offered a big picture view of the global trends contributing to the movement of talent.  Drawing on the experiences of Talent2, Andrew illustrated the challenges faced by countries, employers, educators and individuals in a rapidly evolving global work environment. He believes that the Australian workforce is increasingly separated into two  – those supporting the local economy and a growing group who are part of the global supply chain. He concluded with a note on talent  “it is easy to find, hard to land”.

Professor Lesleyanne Hawthorne, Associate Dean International & Director, University of Melbourne presented data upon data around the flow of talent in and out of Australia. An authority on migration with particular emphasis on health professionals, professor Lesleyanne succinctly illustrated the drivers of cross border talent flow, and where Australia stands in the scheme of things. Drawing from her research, Lesleyanne presented eye-opening statistics on the changing make-up of the Australian workforce. As high as 52% of the engineering workforce in Australia are born overseas. Similar trend runs in white collared sectors like computing, accountancy and medicine.  I met professor Lesleyanne briefly, and I will try and get hold of her presentation slides.

Professor Bruce Robinson, Dean, Faculty of Medicine is in charge of recruiting faculty members. Australia’s policies, he believes, borders on ‘arrogance and protectionism’ when it comes to recognising overseas trained talent. He also cites the unique example of losing out on talent because the university was ill equipped to recruit couples (e.g A North American professor will only relocate if the university can find a job for his wife, a musician).

SydneyTalent (Co sponsors of the event) offers an interesting business model, possibly a threat to traditional recruitment service providers. Whereas traditional recruiters concentrate on the fee paying clients, SydneyTalent seems to give equal weight to both the clients and the candidates. By facilitating deeper connection, SydneyTalent assists students (a move highly attractive to future students) and at the same time offer a screened talent pool to employers. Manned and operated like any other recruitment firm, SydneyTalent offers a compelling story. I met CEO Anne Moore briefly and I hope to explore more about their model in the coming days.

Lots of new insights, rich data, new perspectives on offer, a very fruitful night. Hopefully the organisers will put up the presentation slides for public access.

A new study conducted by PWC found CEOs across the world are currently, and understandably, concerned about ‘survival’ as opposed to ‘growth’. But make no mistake ‘talent’ is very much on the agenda. In fact an overwhelming 72%  think that talent is a ‘source of competitive advantage in sustaining long-term growth’

Asked the question ‘Considering the talent required for the success of your business, what are the key challenges you face?’, a majority (69%) think skill shortage is the biggest challenge.

Ralph Norris, CEO of Commonwealth Bank, was quoted in the report:

“Clearly, we’re going to see a situation where the war for talent is only going to increase in intensity…As a result, we’re doing a lot of thinking at the moment about how we handle workforce flexibility and the different requirements of the various generations that comprise our staff. At the moment, we have four generations of people working in our organisation: those born during the Second World War, the Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y”

Don’t be sidetracked by the alarmists or short-term recessionary bumps. Talent recruitment and management will be an enduring challenge for organisations in the future.

The report is a must read, it can be downloaded here. (warning large file)

A new study by Accenture found 50% of female and 52% of male executives (refer table), across Australia, felt they are insufficiently challenged at work. The vast majority (74%) of Australian executives are confident about their skills and capabilities, and are ready to take on new challenges, but remain underutilised by their employers.  The study reinforced the problem inherent in corporations across Australia – employee disengagement.

It is unlikely that companies will be ‘talent magnets’, or excel in talent acquisition, if they are unable to fully engage and utilise their current employees. Perhaps, the challenging economic environment will force employers to re-assess how current employees are engaged, challenged and managed.

The Accenture study titled ‘Untapped Potential: Stretching towards the future’ is rich with data (e.g. 46% of women who considered themselves ‘very successful’ are in jobs that required them to go beyond the normal call of duty). It is a must read. Understanding the problem is the first step towards a solution.

Brand name and remuneration
Graduating from premium universities necessarily does not mean higher remuneration for graduates.  Enrolling in the right discipline is more important than the brand name of the university. Meanwhile executive salaries have soared in Australia.

Skills shortage
A conference paper ( Global skills crunch: A case of dog eat dog?)  argues that alarm about long-term skill shortage is unfounded. Business cycles will have more dramatic effect on skill shortage than demographic changes.  Meanwhile, a new report found half of the mining sector will shed staff. Also, Indian IT professionals dominate the 457 visa intake into Australia.

Don’t trust HR
Debate on the relevance of HR is ignited by a new book . Meanwhile, McKinsey believes corporate boards must change their ways to meet the challenges of the economic crisis. 

Job board Corner
eFinancialCareers is conducting a survey on careers in the global job financial market, you can participate here (see terms & Conditions).  Sixfigures take candidate outreach to the streets.  More info on job boards here.

Crystal ball gazing – IDC’s prediction on the IT sector

From where does your talent come from? Which sources are the most effective?

The latest CareerXroads report re-affirms referrals as the most successful source of new staff, followed by corporate websites and commercial job boards.

CareerXroads report is based on US data. There is a paucity of similar data in Australia. Vedior’s ‘Asia-Pacific Employment Trends Survey 2008’ traced the most popular sourcing tools (unlike the CareerXroad study which measure successful hires) amongst  employers.  Interestingly, Job boards are more popular than referrals in Asia-pacific.

How does the results above compares with your own?