A new report by Ipsos suggested that employees are becoming more loyal. According to the study, the majority (55%) of the 1022 Australians surveyed last month indicated they would remain loyal even if they get offered a higher pay elsewhere.  A similar study by Kelly Services in March (sample size of 20,000) found that 44% percent of respondents are ‘totally committed’ to their current employer.

The above two surveys are a departure from earlier studies on the same subject. SEEK’s Satisfaction & Motivation survey taken in September 2009 reported that 61% of the workforce are keeping their eyes open for new opportunities. Our own survey revealed that close to 77% of high-income earners are ready to leave their current employers if a better opportunity comes along. In our study, only 9% of senior executives declared loyalty to their current employer.

So, is loyalty increasing? Perhaps, pay conditions have improved and employees have more reasons to stay with their current employer. As unemployment rate dropped to 5.2% and the economy show signs of more recovery, it could well be that alarmed employers are on charm offensive and are having success with their retention strategies.

While the different surveys presented different employee sentiments, there’s no denying that a significant chunk of the workforce is always on the lookout for new opportunities. By default, 1 million Australians are perennially looking for the next gig. For those in permanent roles, the average work tenure is getting shorter. ABS reports that a majority 21% of the Australian workforce are in their current job for less than twelve months. Only 7% are in their current role for 10 or more years. The idea that an employee should commit to a particular employer is a mindset from a by-gone era. Changing social mores, work styles and attitudes to employment, and economic fluctuations will ensure that employee churn will be a permanent fixtures in most organisations.

Expecting and preparing in advance for workplace churn is the best way recruiters can help insulate the organisation against risks.

The 2010 Job Board Report is ready for download here. Here are four observations from the report:

The Competitive Landscape
The wrath of the downturn spared no one; industry revenue dipped by 21%.  However, the industry grew in numbers even in the midst of falling revenue. We recorded 270 jobs boards, an increase of 14% from last year, and many more are still in the woodwork (we counted around 50). Convinced that the print industry has no long-term future, job boards are buoyed by the fact that spending on print media still amounts to an estimated $400-600 million every year.

As competition remains fierce, the gap between a good and bad operator becomes more apparent. While household names rule the roost, new players with little hope of survival enter the market; many just unique domain names masquerading as job boards. However, new niches rich with potential continue to be discovered. Resume databases are looked at with new vigour, monetising job seekers’ experience is doing the rounds, and new business models are emerging.

A Year of Doubt, A Future of Hard work
Besides having to tackle the wrath of an economic downturn, job boards have been forced to address simmering doubts. Proven or otherwise, alternatives to job boards are suggested with aplomb. The social media brigade is the loudest. Already, 53% of recruiters and 23% of HR have dabbled with social networks. While social media offers compelling reasons for adoption, there is little evidence of mass migration from job boards. Still, past glory amounts to little, and like all players in the employment game the task to stay relevant will be all consuming for job board owners.

Endorsement Remain Strong (The triangular nexus)
As it stands, the fortune of the job board sector is influenced significantly by recruiters; in turn recruiters owe their existence to employers. There’s a place for job boards as long as recruiters can do a better job than employers in finding talent. Good job boards count as an essential tool in the toolbox of any competent sourcing operation. 96% of recruiters continue to use job boards; it’s in the interest of job boards that the recruitment industry thrives. For now this dynamic – a nexus between job boards, recruiters and employers – remains healthy. Also, it helps that job seekers – those who have the least to gain from job boards – are generally positive with their endorsement.

Clarity of Purpose
Thanks in part to the emergence of alternatives, more than ever, there is a clearer understanding of the problems job boards can solve. With almost all friction eliminated in posting job ads, using job boards is effortless and widespread. Over time, fuelled in part by marketing and the lack of real alternatives, job boards have been painted as the be-all for sourcing.  Job boards do a good task within the realms of what they can and are supposed to do.  Expecting more than they can deliver often results in blame falling in job boards’ courts. Sourcing is a complex operation; a universal solution rarely exists. Smart sourcing operations who understand the need to use different tools for different tasks will call upon job boards to perform what they are best at doing; nothing more nothing less.

Voices
This year, to decipher the road ahead, we enlisted the help of twenty contributors, many of them giants of our industry. A beneficiary of their wisdom and good grace, I remain eternally grateful to all contributors below:

• Brett Minchington (CEO, Employer Brand International) argues that promoting employer brand should be the bedrock for all recruitment advertising.
• Greg Savage (CEO, Aquent) thinks that technology by itself amounts to little, and that it is people, not job boards, who find people.
• Jeff Dickey-Chasins (Founder, Job Board Doctor) sheds lights on new global trends that will affect the industry.
• Carey Eaton (CIO, SEEK), provides pointers on why job boards matter and the potential of the industry to further grow.
• Paul Jury (Head of Executive Recruitment, Talent 2), offers an assessment of the job board sector from a recruiter’s perspective.
• Clifford Rosenberg (MD, LinkedIn), believes the time for social networks in recruitment has arrived.
• Lisa Watts (CEO, ArtsHub) contemplates a future where job seekers paying for content might not be a rarity.
• Peter Wilson (President, AHRI) believes that Association-run job boards have an important role to play. Lauren Jensen, Marketing Manager ITCRA, shares similar sentiments.
• Keith Muirhead (Head of Jobs, TradeMe) believes a job board’s growth lies in looking after the welfare of the audience – job seekers.
• Google and search engines matter in job searching and sourcing, argues Glenn Davies (Director, JXT Consulting)
• Phil Harpur (Senior Research Manager, Frost & Sullivan) reveals past, present and future numbers for the job board sector.
• John Kirkby (CEO, ExpatJobs) lays down ten points to illustrate that all job boards are not created equal.
• Kevin Lodge (CEO, EOC) illustrates the value of face-to-face interaction as an alternative method to source talent.
• Adam Shay (MD, The Face) thinks offering advice on job boards will feature in the evolving role of advertising agencies.
• Andrea Culligan (MD, Unimail) addresses the issues of using multiple channels in recruiting Gen-Y.
• Kelly Magowan (CEO, Sixfigures) lays down the case for niche sites.
• Riges Younan (Director, Peerlo) affirms the need to boldly experiment with many sourcing tools.
• Leah Gibbs (Founder, Lifestyle Careers) highlights the idea that many demographic niches remain largely untapped.
• Martin Warren (Principal Consultant, Insidejobs) dives into the role of sourcing in identifying passive candidates.
• James Green (Director, Check4jobs) thinks aggregator with new business models have fresh solutions to offer.

The Job Board Report is supported by the following organisations:

JXT Consulting (Premium Sponsor)

New research claimed that newspapers, combined with their online websites, are more reputable and effective in influencing the views of consumers than other media channels. The report is a fascinating look at how people consume their news and interact with newspapers (figure 1). It paints a rather glowing picture of the Australian newspaper industry at a time when the sector is struggling for relevance in most developed economies.

So, are print classifieds making a comeback? Not really, but they are not completely dead either.

It’s a well documented (ppt presentation) fact that the Australian newspaper industry is not scarred as much as the medium is in other developed economies. In fact, according to CAESA, total print revenue in Australia grew by 1% in 2008 whereas it dropped by 12% in the US. Currently, the industry is worth around $ 3.7 billion (see chart).

Spending on classified advertising has dropped in 2009, registering around $1.25 billion in revenue. I am told by Newspaper Works that on a rough estimate employment advertising makes up around 30-33% of the classifieds market. So, even in the worst of times employment classifieds still generate around $400 million (exact figures not available publicly).

Tens of thousands of jobs are advertised online each week. In December 183,700 new jobs were added online (Also see SEI Index). In comparison, newspapers registered 9,645 jobs in January 2010. There is no doubt that online thumps print in volume of ads, however more money is spent on newspapers ads than on online job boards (See interesting Q&A with Paul Bassat).

Nevertheless, it is important to note that, even in the depths of the recession, newspapers continues to be rather resilient. The two indexes measuring print ads – ANZ index and DEWR –  recorded healthy numbers of job ads. In 2005-06, ANZ reports, on average 20,450 print ads were advertised weekly. In June 2009 it reached its lowest number of 8,111 jobs. Still, these are pretty significant numbers for an industry whose obituary has been written multiple times. It is highly unlikely  newspapers will relive their heydays again, but they aren’t actually losing further ground either.

Besides, it appears that many employers/recruiters continue to find value with print (Otherwise, it would be hard to justify ROI in light of the cheaper alternative offered by job boards). The Source of Talent Report ranked newspapers as the seventh most successful channel to recruit talent. One thing is for sure, even though employment classifieds has fundamentally shifted to online channels, print is not dying just yet.

Still, considering the rapid changes in how information is distributed and consumed, it’s hard to be bullish about print. Indeed, it maybe true that people trust newspapers, but the big question is whether this sentiment will have any positive bearing on the fortunes of the employment classifieds section. I see no evidence, in the report, which points to job seekers preferring print ads to online jobs ads. The likely scenario is that the print industry will continue to find new ways to do well, but it is unlikely that there will be much contribution to the revenue from the classifieds section. Tellingly enough, already 70% of a newspaper’s revenue in Australia comes from non-classified sources.

Commendably, against all odds, newspaper operators are fighting back and putting up their case as best as they can (see video). The ‘Newspaper Works’ is an impressive initiative of the newspaper industry to have a common voice and fight for relevance in a rapidly changing landscape. Will we see a similar alliance/association of job board operators to speak in unison? Especially, given that they themselves are rattled by alternative forms of engagement with job seekers.

Is a recovery heading our way?

Even if there are no immediate proof, as a nation we are becoming more optimistic about the economy. ANU quarterly study found more Australians think the worse is behind us (Full report here). A similar theme is echoed by Nielsen’s Global Confidence Survey which found Australians are one of the most positive about economic recovery. Unemployment stands at 6.8%, but we are way ahead of other developed economies (spare a thought for Zimbabwe where the unemployment rate is 94%)

Meanwhile, SEEK share price stands at a healthy $4.4, whereas it was hovering around $2.02 only a few months back. While job vacancies dropped, the rate of decline has actually diminished (ANZ survey). In fact, Olivier’s version reported a steady rise in contracting roles. Aquent’s Market Eye also suggested increasing optimism amongst employers, with permanent hiring set to increase in the next six months.

The fact is a recovery will come. But the real question is when the recovery does comes, will we be ready?

Jessica Booth, senior HR advisor at CSIRO, believes ‘talent management’ is serious business in public sector organisations across Australia, and argues that positive ‘brand experiences’ are the key to attracting and retaining talent.

The notion of “Talent Management” has been bandied around for many years despite the difficulty in precisely defining the concept. A good definition that I like to refer to is that ‘talent management concerns competencies – what employees should know and be able to do, and performance processes – how to leverage those competencies by putting them in the right parts of the organization, and then measuring their impact on real goals’ (Galagan. 2008). More crudely, some say it’s about getting the right people in the right place at the right cost.

What does ‘talent management’, in public sector organisations, entails? At CSIRO, faced with an ageing population, skill shortages and the management of four generations in our workforce, the challenges of ‘talent management’ are many. It can involve strategies around recruitment, leadership development, culture, succession planning, performance management, brand, learning, career development, remuneration, and employee engagement.

The changing demographics of our workforce is one of the biggest challenges we face. We are witnessing a mass exodus of baby boomers (who’ve to date been our ‘lifers’). Bringing in Generation Y to replace them isn’t always the solution either. The skills we seek are sometimes so niche (I need to Google the titles sometimes!) they need to be sourced from around the globe. This creates additional complexity because staff in public sectors are remunerated within particular ‘bands’ rather than what the market is offering. In spite of the recession, redundancies and rising unemployment rates, public sector organisations are still embroiled in the ‘war for talent’.

So, what are we doing about it?

A robust recruitment strategy, no doubt, forms an integral part of any good talent management plan, and developing an ‘employer brand’ plays a massive part in this too. It’s all about how you sell yourself to current and future employees. Companies like McDonalds, SEEK, and Google invest a lot on their employment brand, similarly many public sector organisations in Australia are now putting some serious effort into understanding and communicating their ‘employment brand’. Many are creating positive brand experiences at each of their organisational touch points such as HR processes, internal communications, development opportunities, career management and interactions with the management team.

A study of Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, winner of the ‘Best companies to work for 2008′ award, workplace found the following themes:

• there is a strong focus on work-life balance
• there are flexible work practices
• quality and relationship with co-workers is extremely positive and strong
• employers feel pride in the work they do
• senior staff are accessible and approachable

Such positive brand experiences are not uncommon in Government agencies. Most public sector companies genuinely focus on things like flexible work practices, work life balance, and career development for its employees. Communicating these unique brand experiences effectively is important and challenging at the same time.

Progress, however, is encouraging. Many organisations moved from pretty looking glossy brochures to putting videos on the Internet. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has done this. At CSIRO we also developed a video to promote our ‘employment brand’.

In the video we see engaged employees who are encouraged to have a ‘great idea and then go and develop it’. They are empowered, they say they have the resources to do their jobs, they’re excited about tackling the problems, they say it’s a great working environment and overall a great place to be. A convincing and real brand experience is communicated in a short (1 minute 35 seconds) video. Public sector organisations have a long way to go in understanding and communicating their employer brand, but it is going to be absolutely necessary in the near future.

It’s truly about brand experiences that are going to enable public sector organisations to attract and retain talent, and also improve employee engagement across the workforce.  Developing and communicating brand experiences, I believe, is at the crux of ‘talent management’ strategies in public sector organisations.