The bad news on the global financial meltdown is relentless.

In response a spate of local reports paint a pessimistic outlook on employment and hiring:  Read more...

• Hudson report found national employer sentiment has slowed for the third consecutive quarter
• SEEK Employment Index – Online job ads fell 4% in September
• Manpower-Melbourne institute’s Monthly Employment Report, expects employment growth to decrease by 1.8% in Oct
• RCSA Business Confidence report – recruiters confidence drops to its lowest since 2001

Gifford Pinchot talked about the ‘gift economy’, sustainability and changing ethical mores amongst employees, way back in 1995. His insights are very apt to the concerns (pdf) of modern day employees.  Below are some nuggets on ‘talent’, read the full article here.  Read more...

You would think that an industry facing debilitating talent shortage would offer attractive perks to lure women to join its ranks? The truth is female IT staff continues to be paid much lesser than their male counterparts. And, most people wonder why only 15-20% of the Australian IT industry workforce are female.  Read more...

• The baton, in corporate Australia, has passed from Baby Boomers to Generation X
• Australia’s largest IT recruitment firm Peoplebank explains its falling share price.
• Talent2 bucks the trend by posting record profits.
• New Zealand looks towards Australia to poach skilled staff
• New 457 visa rules will hurt Australian SME’s  ability to hire overseas talent
• Talent Mapping touted as the new solution to the ‘recruitment crisis’.

A major economic reality of modern day Australia is almost all industry sectors are plagued by a shortage of skilled staff.

Take a quick scan of the media:

• Mining industry needs 87,000 new workers by 2010
• One in three vacancies by 2012 will be in the property/construction industry
• Regardless of the state of the economy, demand for accounting talent never seems to cease

Not one sector seems to be immune from the scourge.  Read more...

Malcolm Gladwell (author of bestsellers Blink and the Tipping Point) is back, and true to character, takes a fascinating look at the problem of finding the right talent. 

According to Malcolm, pre-hiring tests and assessments are largely useless in determining how a new hire will perform in the real world.  Drawing on examples of professional sports in USA, Malcolm highlights what he called the mismatch problem -  "the criteria we use to to assess someone’s ability to do a job is radically out of step with the actual demands of the job itself". And his conclusion is that there is a mismatch problem in most professions today – teachers, lawyers, police, airlines and so on.  Read more...

The recent increases in fuel price is likely to drive job seekers to look for opportunities which requires less travel time. Regardless of inflation, it is a fact that most people, given a choice, prefer working closer to home.

Job search is local.  Any search for talent , therefore, starts with a basic understanding of supply and demand realities at the local level.  Read more...

Spare a thought for the recruitment team at Yahoo, faced with the nightmarish task of having to rebuild its  talent pool overnight. Even global marquee brands, an Internet stalwart in this case, aren’t immune to the scourge of attrition.

In Australia the national attrition rate is around 18.5% (40.3% in the accommodation and food service sector.), and a study by AHRI estimated the cost to organisations to be around $20 Billion annually.

Now, that’s a lot of money which ought to be put to better use.  Maybe it’s time to call the Chief Happiness Officer.

Another nugget from Seth:

“ Your sales force and your customers may scream that you need to lower your price. It’s not true. You need to increase your value. If people don’t want to pay, it’s because you’re not delivering enough value for the money you’re charging.  You’re not selling a commodity unless you want to.”

From job boards to recruitment agencies, pricing is a theme central to all talent service providers.  The current thinking is exemplified by recruitment industry guru, John Sumser who believes ‘low price means low quality’ and attracts the wrong type of customers.  Read more...