What does a typical sourcer look like? What tools and techniques are most frequently used to find talent? How much do sourcers typically earn? These and many other questions about sourcing and those who practice it remains largely unanswered. In fact, little data exists in Australia or NZ.  Read more...

The Executive Monitor 2011 report is ready for download.

The annual study is an on-going attempt to better understand the behaviour of executives and high-income earners in Australia. This year we revisit familiar themes, addressed in the first study, like education, remuneration and work, but also touch on new subject matters. In particular we looked at the issue of workplace diversity and discrimination. We also explored the view of executives on recruiters, jobs, social media, best places to work and study.   Read more...

We are embarking on a project to better understand the adoption of social media by the HR and recruitment community. Our approach is two-fold:

1) Social Talent Report: A study to monitor the behaviour, perception and intention of social media users in the context of attraction and recruitment of staff. This is a national survey open to the general public, especially recruiters and HR practitioners. Click here to take the Social Talent survey.

The 2011 Executive Monitor survey has started.

This year we are paying particular importance to the issue of discrimination and diversity in workplaces. We will also measure, one year on, how executives fare in areas like remuneration, education and work. The main brief is to monitor and track the intention of executives for the next twelve months.  Read more...

The use of social media to find employment is not widespread amongst graduates, according to the latest OneTest report.

Popular social networking sites like Linkedin is primarily a playground for more accomplished professionals to find new opportunities; it’s less useful for a new graduate who’s looking for her first job. So, it’s understandable that a large percentage (40%) do not find social media useful in their job search.  Read more...

Gender Equality in Workplaces: Consulting firm Bain takes a look at gender inequality in Australian workplaces and offered three views (inhibitors) on why this culture persist. I think setting targets, rather than just paying lip service to the issue, is the right way forward.

Information overload & work: Information overload is making us less productive. In Australia 49% of professionals report feeling dejected and frustrated at being unable to manage all the information; situation is unlikely to improve. There’s no doubt social media itself has contributed significantly to the information overload. Will we now pay more attention to the cost of being social?  Read more...

Early this year Destination Talent & SixFigures collaborated to produce the first Executive Monitor, a study conducted in 2009 to understand the perception, behaviour and expectation of executives in Australia.

A year on we are on the verge of embarking on the second round of study.  Last year’s survey was conducted right after the GFC, so it will be interesting to see how behaviour and attitudes have changed since.

Broadly the study is divided into five main areas:  Read more...

The findings from the latest CEO Survey, conducted jointly by Australia Industry Group and Deloitte, bring good news for third-party talent solution providers.

Firstly, three quarters of all businesses are planning to hire new staff in the next two years. The larger the company turnover the more bullish the hiring intentions;  almost 90% with revenue of $200 million intend to hire additional staff (refer chart). Confidence is high in the construction sector with 85.7% of respondents indicating they will hire new staff.  Read more...

My good friend Jeff Dickey-Chasins (aka Job Board Doctor) recently released the results of a study – Job Board Future Survey – he conducted between August and September. At 275 participants, the sample size is not overly large, but it’s unique in that three different demographic groups – job seekers, job board owners and recruiters – participated in the survey.

Though the report relates to the US marketplace it throws up interesting insights on why job seekers and recruiters use job boards.  Read more...

Monash University & Entity Solutions joined forces to produce the second IPro Index, a survey report investigating the behaviour of contractors in Australia.  IPro, coined by Entity Solutions, is short for ‘Independent Professionals’ (A magnet for Apple’s legal team?) and is used to refer mainly white collar contractors.

With 372 participants the sample size is not particularly large, but the survey served up some interesting questions and results.  Read more...

Consider these disturbing findings from the latest APESMA’s survey of its female members (58.6% had tertiary qualifications in science and 30.0% in engineering):  Read more...

1. Nearly 40% of respondents stated that they had been bullied and 38% discriminated against in the course of their employment.
2. Nearly 20% reported that they had been sexually harassed, although only one fifth of those had reported the incident through official channels.

Online Advertisement Grows
Australian online advertisement has reached $2 billion, according to the latest IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) report. The figures for employment classifieds are not made public, but the whole classifieds section (which includes motor vehicles, recruitment and real estate) grew by 9% to $470 million.

Online Job Vacancies Increases
Good news on the job board front. The DEEWR’s Internet Vacancy Index (IVI), which measure the number of job vacancies on SEEK, MyCareer, CareerOne and Australia Job Search, grew by 6.2% in July. In annual terms, the index is 13.2% higher than in July 2009.  Read more...

We started the VOICES project to give voice to the voiceless, so to speak. Our brief was to encourage recruitment firms to collectively raise their voices on various client-supplier issues. The response has been encouraging.

Here’s what Justin Babet, MD, Xpand has to say:

I believe that most tenders are way too long. What’s really important is track record, proven results and the ability to work together as a team.  Read more...

How can employers and recruiters work together more efficiently? What processes are broken and require fixes? How can the client-supplier relationship in the recruitment industry be improved?

Of course, there are no easy answers. It’s my hunch, though, that the vast majority of friction between employers and recruiters occur mainly because both groups understand very little of how the other operates. At Destination Talent we wanted to start addressing the many challenges and problems inherent in the client-supplier relationship. To begin with, we are going to mobilise and present the perspective (voices) of the recruitment community. To that end, we are inviting recruiters to voice their opinion on how to improve a wide range of issues including:  Read more...

 
Age Diversity Report
It is a well documented fact that Australia lags other developed economies in mature age participation rate . According to the ACS age discrimination is rampant in the ICT sector, especially affecting those 45 years and older; worryingly ageism appears to be deeply ingrained in business culture. ACS’s frustration is understandable given the continuing shortage of skills the ICT sector grapples with. The ACS points the blame equally on employers and recruiters, but also offer recommendations on how to address the problem. Download the report here.  Read more...