The good folks at IQPC (organisers of the recruitment and retention conference) sent me the results of a survey they conducted at their conference last year. One of the questions attendees were asked was whether recruitment firms still offer value.

The attendees voted. The verdict?

Not unlike the recent hung parliament delivered by a divided electorate, opinion on recruiters is evenly split, with 38% agreeing or strongly agreeing that they add value, and 41.6% disagreeing or strongly disagreeing.  Read more...

It’s raining conferences! A year ago, I argued that in spite of the many available alternatives, conferences are worth the trouble. In a world of tweetups and webinars, I still think there’s immense value in physically attending a conference. Besides, committing oneself to a whole day of networking, listening and learning can never be a bad thing (if the price is right, of course). Do you think conferences add value? Have your say here (only 3 questions).  Read more...

Will job seekers ever shell out money to gain access to job related content? Lisa Watts CEO of ArtsHub, a fee-based membership portal for artists, contemplates a future where job seekers paying to access job content could be the norm rather than the exception.   Read more...

Worth $19 billion and employing 289,000 people, the digital industry – which comprise of software, website, animation, video, computer games – contributes 3% of the nation’s GDP. In NSW alone there are 36,192 creative digital businesses operating. Without doubt, given our love affair with anything digital, the industry is growing fast.

A new research by Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) claims that skills shortage is acute in the digital industry and it is fuelling a $2 billion trade deficit. A survey of employers carried out early in the year found a disconnect between graduates and the skills required by employers.  Read more...

To say Australians love social media is an understatement of the highest order; we lead the world in social media usage.

There seems to be a lot of anecdotal evidence that job seekers are using social media to look for employment opportunities and in some instances actually land a new job. In fact, a growing number of career advisors are encouraging the use of social media. In addition, the idea of using social media to promote one’s ‘personal brand’ is increasingly becoming popular. But, are Australians using social media to find jobs? If so, how widespread is the practice?  Read more...

IT Remuneration Trends
Salary increase in the ICT sector has been at its lowest in seven years mainly due to the effects of the GFC, the latest ACS survey found. Salaries on average grew by 3.3%, with the private sector registering less growth (3%) compared to the public sector which grew by 4.2%.

Also, check out Peoplebank’s August Salary Index for the latest IT remuneration rates.  Read more...

Julia Gillard’s ascension to the top job in the country has been hailed as a momentous achievement for Australian women. Whatever political persuasion you subscribe to, it’s hard to argue against the symbolism Julia Gillard’s rise represent (at least in the workplace) – that women are men’s equal, are as capable and ought to be rewarded accordingly.

Yet, the reality is a wide gap in pay continue to exist in workplaces across Australia. In fact, the gap between men and women has widen further since 2009. Here’s the latest data from the Equal Pay Day website:   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.

Every year 18% of the Australian workforce started work with a new employer. New data released by the ABS reconfirmed that we are a nation of job hoppers. Almost one in six or 1,972,300 of the workforce has been with a company/business for less than 12 months.

Here’s how the distribution looks:

Employment tenure is even lesser with high-income earners. Our survey revealed that executives on average worked for almost eight employers during their lifetime; and the vast majority (25%) have worked for their current employer for less than a year.  Read more...

When a job board falls sick, who do you call? The Job Board Doctor, of course. We touched base with Jeff Dickey-Chasins (aka The Job Board Doctor) to discuss the challenges faced by job boards.  Read more...

Personal branding in its simplest form is the application of marketing principles and tactics to promote an individual as a ‘brand’, with the expectation of gaining visibility, recognition and better career prospects. Since Tom Peters coined the phrase ‘brand you’ in the late nineties, the concept of self-promotion has taken off significantly. Today, it’s hard not to encounter material on personal branding; a Google search alone returned thousands of links on the topic.  Read more...

SEEK Limited revenue grew by 35%, registering a net profit of $89.5 million, a 62% increase from FY 2009. 

SEEK Employment’s (the job board business)  revenue grew by 1% from 170.9 in FY09 to  172.8 million in FY10, which is a small percentage, but it’s an impressive performance considering it is generated in the midst of the GFC. Revenue from SEEK Training grew significantly. SEEK Learning, in particular, performed very well with revenue increasing by 45%. Again the GFC has probably a hand in this, with many choosing to retrain and invest in education during the downturn. Overseas investment are also starting to pay dividends too.  Read more...

Each week we will highlight a talent solution provider. This week we present XPAND, an Australian owned IT recruitment and executive search provider. We spoke with Justin Babet (MD).

What recruitment problems do you solve?
Recruitment and Executive Search: Demand within Technology, Media and Communications is very high and it’s becoming increasing difficult to source talent. In this market it’s very important therefore to avoid the temptation to lower your standards and hire whoever you can get your hands on. We provide customers with the means to go above and beyond simply advertising roles in the hope of attracting A Grade talent. We plug our customers directly into our network of top talent across the region – talent that we’ve developed relationships with over many years.  Read more...

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...

If social media is going to be part of your recruitment game plan, it’s worth noting that it’s currently the least trusted source of information amongst 14 measured by Edelman in Australia (refer chart).

Q. Please tell me how credible you believe each one of them is as a source of information about a company  Read more...