AHRI’s latest white paper takes a comprehensive look at how the HR profession might look a decade from now.  The paper predicts that the role of HR professionals will change significantly by 2020 (when Gen X and Y will take over the board rooms of Australian organisations). The paper highlighted nine new likely roles for HR practitioners:  Read more...

• • Workplace transformers: transformers of the structure and conduct of work within a widely distributed set of locations
  • Work-life integrators: role models for integration and work-life balance

Here are five reports well worth a look.

Flexible Workplace
Rubicor’s report on flexible work arrangement in Australian workplaces uncovered surprising insights. The vast majority (86%) of organisations have some form of flexible workplace initiatives in place, yet 57% do not promote the benefits effectively to job seekers.  Employers faltered at selling their EVP effectively.

 Read more...

Three months ago we embarked on a study to better understand the behaviour of executives in Australia. The results from the study, involving 1332 executives across Australia, can be downloaded here.

The study offered many insights but also raised new questions,a nd many of the findings merit further exploration. In the coming days, I will explore in greater detail many of the topics covered in the report. Without doubt this report is a first step in a journey of discovery. For now, it is my hope that the findings will trigger discussion within organisations on how they recruit, engage and manage executive talent.  Read more...

Tough year? Need inspiration? What Matters Now, a free book with contributions from a range of writer/thinkers whose work I follow and deeply admired, is a must read.

A few nuggets:

There are tens of thousands of businesses making many millions a year in profits that still haven’t ever heard of twitter, blogs or facebook. Are they all wrong? Have they missed out or is the joke really on us? They do business through personal relationships, by delivering great customer service and it’s working for them. They’re more successful than most of those businesses who spend hours pontificating about how others lose out by missing social media and the latest wave. And yet they’re doing business. Great business. – Howard Mann  Read more...

A new fascinating study by the Centre for Work + Life (University of South Australia) sheds light on the link between home, work and community. The study is a comprehensive (four separate reports) look at how decisions about work are influenced by what happens at home and the wider community. As Dr Pip Williams, Project manager of the report, says: “Planning decisions about work and housing cannot be expressed independently of each other.”

Some interesting tidbits from the study:  Read more...

Average job tenure is seven years in Australia, easily the lowest amongst developed economies.

Why is this so?

The author of a new report – Australia at Work – highlighted various likely factors, but honed in one factor:  Read more...

A new research by Australia Institute revealed the nature and extent of overtime work in Australia.

Some of the highlights of the research:  Read more...

• A typical full-time employee works 70 minutes of unpaid overtime a day, amounting to 2.14 billion hours annually and gifting $72 billion to employers.
• Full-time employees work more unpaid overtime then anyone else (table 2)
• 50% of white-collared workers experienced unpaid overtime, compared to 24.2% for blue collared workers. (table 2)

CareerBuilder produced this e-book. It accomplished three things:

• It’s topical and useful. Even in the age of Google, good search technique is important.
• It’s a case of being generous; a genuine attempt to help. It’s good strategy.
• It’s smart marketing. No hard sell; registration not required. Easily spread.

The point is, it’s always better to give something of value before you can ask anything in return.

What triggers a senior executive to look for a new job? Do executives value formal education? What role does remuneration play in motivating a high-income earner? These are some of the questions Executive Monitor, a joint project of SixFigures and Destination Talent, aims to answer.  Read more...

In April Michael Specht and I embarked on a journey to try and understand the various sources of talent in Australia. A survey was conducted tracking the hiring practices of 409 organisations who made a total of 92,136 hires in the last 12 months. The final report compares the effectiveness of 17 (20 if we do not band some sources together) identifiable sources of talent.  Read more...

The Source of Talent, 09 report has been released. It’s free, download here (Name and email required).

It’s not easy to be the head honcho these days.

Across the globe, CEOs are reeling from the financial crisis. PWC’s Global CEO survey (pdf) found the number of CEOs who are confident about their one-year revenue growth prospects dropped to 21%, the lowest it has been in six years.

CEOs are predicting headcount to further fall in the next twelve months (graph1). However, a vast majority (97%) believes ‘talent’ is a critical driver of success and remains at the top long-term priority list (graph 2). In other words, while hands are currently tied, hiring will eventually pick up.  Read more...

What are the most effective sources of talent in Australia?

As important as this question is, there is a real paucity of data in Australia. Michael Specht from Inspecht and I are conducting a national survey to investigate and study the tools and channels used for hiring talent. Our aim is to understand how various organisations in different industries and regions approach the sourcing of talent (Gerry Crispin & Mark Mehler conducts a similar study in the US).    Read more...

No one dare mention the words ‘skills shortage’, not in this climate.

The reality, however, is a different story. A new report by Australian Human Resource Institute found the following:

• seven out of ten (69.42 %, see graph) employers experience skills shortage
• more than 85% believed skilled migration is necessary
• nine out of ten respondents (95.03%) whose organisations employed skilled migrants reported trying to fill the vacancies within Australia first.

 Read more...

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.  Read more...