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Episode 16
375 Plays1 year ago
Recruitment News Australia is Australia's only podcast with a focus on local recruitment industry content and news. Join Adele Last & Ross Clennett as they bring you the news this week from around Australia.
Subscribe to the podcast to get your weekly dose of local content.
Question of the week this week:"Is the candidate shortage over?"
See if Adele and Ross agree or disagree on this topic.
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Transcript
Weekly News Overview
00:00:07
Speaker
This is the news for the week beginning 3rd July 2023.
Job Vacancy Data Analysis
00:00:12
Speaker
Job vacancy data for May 2023 released last Thursday by the ABS revealed that job vacancies decreased by 2% or 9,000 vacancies in the three months to May 2023. Private sector vacancies declined 2.3% from February 2023 and public sector vacancies increased by 0.3%. The decline in job vacancies this quarter was driven by accommodation and food services.
00:00:39
Speaker
Despite this being the fourth consecutive quarterly decrease, the level of job vacancies in May was nearly 90% higher than in February 2020, just prior to the start of the pandemic. Businesses reporting at least one vacancy increased slightly to 24.7% of businesses in May, compared to 24.3% of businesses reporting at least one vacancy in February.
00:01:05
Speaker
In February 2020, just prior to the COVID-19 lockdowns, the proportion of businesses reporting at least one vacancy was 11%.
NZ Recruitment Industry Highlights
00:01:16
Speaker
Last Thursday, more than 300 people were in attendance to celebrate the best of New Zealand's recruitment and staffing industry at the RCSA Industry Awards in Auckland. This year, there were 37 finalists from 94 entries and the winners were Excellence in Canada
00:01:33
Speaker
State Care to Frog Recruitment, Excellence in Social Purpose to Accordant, the Work Collective, Excellence in Safety and Wellbeing to Remarkable People, Excellence in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, Student Job Search, Excellence in Business Innovation to Lead Safe, Excellence in Client Service, again, second winner for Frog. Outstanding Agency, up to five staff was co-legal, up to 15 staff was grader recruitment, and up to 40 staff was potentia.
00:02:02
Speaker
Outstanding agency over 40 staff was remarkable people and Robert Walters sharing that award. Rising staff of 2023 was Georgia Barr from Grata Recruitment. Recruitment professional for the year was Vanessa Powell from Robert Walters. Industry leader for 2023, Lisa Cooley from BrightSpark. And the CEO Outstanding Contribution Award went to Andrea Swan.
00:02:26
Speaker
After nearly 20 years with various group businesses, Peter Acheson departed RGF Staffing two weeks ago. The following week, after a 30-year tenure, Nick Bellagianis retired from Hayes. In 2004, Peter Acheson was recruited from Singtel Optus into the role of CEO of Ambit Recruitment.
00:02:45
Speaker
He subsequently became CEO of the merged Ambit PeopleBank entity in 2010. In 2015, PeopleBank and subsequently Janda McLeod were both acquired by Japanese Staffing Giant Recruit Holdings and in 2019,
00:03:01
Speaker
Acheson was appointed CEO of the merged entity, renamed RGF Staffing Asia Pacific, excluding Japan. When I spoke to Acheson earlier in the week, he was reflective about his unexpected departure from RGF and in no hurry to decide his next move. He said he had no intention of retiring and was intending to take a few months off to get Fitter and improve my tennis game. And he would be in the market for another CEO role in 2024.
00:03:31
Speaker
De La Giannis joined Hayes as a consultant in 1993 and was elevated into his first leadership role three years later. After a number of subsequent promotions, De La Giannis joined the Hayes ANZ board in 2004 and eight years later in 2012. After incumbent Nigel Peep returned to the UK to take charge of the faltering Hayes, UK and Ireland business, De La Giannis was appointed Managing Director of Hayes ANZ.
NZ Government Policy Changes
00:03:59
Speaker
Two weeks ago, the New Zealand government announced changes to the skilled migrant category resident visa. From the 9th of October, 2023, the current settings will be replaced with a simplified point system that sets clear skills thresholds for residents and offers several ways for people to demonstrate their skill level. The Minister for Immigration announced the new settings for the skilled migrant category resident visa, as well as a change to the accredited employer work visa settings.
00:04:25
Speaker
From November, 2023, the maximum duration of an employer work visa will be extended from three years to five years to align with the introduction of the five-year maximum continuous stay for employer work visa holders. People will need to leave New Zealand, spend 12 months outside New Zealand in order to be eligible for the further employer work visa.
First Nations Employment Growth
00:04:47
Speaker
Last week Jobs and Skills Australia released two reports relating to First Nations employment and educational outcomes. In the five years to 2022, the number of First Nations people working in contract, program and project administrators increased by 42% nationally. Other occupations which saw strong First Nations growth included welfare support workers up 33%, age and disability carers up 31%,
00:05:15
Speaker
and child carers up 22%. Public administration was the highest employing industry and the number of First Nations people working in it increased by 27% between February 2020 and May 2022. This trend along with a lower reliance on hospitality jobs helped First Nations employment recover more quickly than non-Indigenous employment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
00:05:42
Speaker
The report also finds that many First Nations people are employed in community service occupations, which are projected to see high growth over the next five years, positions such as age and disability carers, welfare support workers, and education aides. Jobs and Skills Australia's Recruitment Experiences and Outlook survey of around 1,000 employers each month sort views about their experiences with First Nations job applicants. The survey found that First Nations applicants have a 70% success rate when applying for jobs
00:06:12
Speaker
and 93% of businesses who hired a First Nations applicant said the person had adjusted well in the workplace. Some 52% of businesses used strategies to assist First Nations applicants to transition into the job, with a buddy or mentoring system being the most common. However, employers rarely adopted strategies such as reconciliation action plans or cultural competency training for staff.
US Military Recruitment Challenges
00:06:37
Speaker
It took only 24 hours for the US Navy to pause plans to have recruiters work six days a week. Under the plan announced last Thursday, longer work weeks for recruiters were set to begin on Saturday, July 8th. Rear Admiral Alexis Walker, the head of Navy Recruiting Command, sent an email telling recruiters to take the extra work as a war fighting imperative, although what war Walker meant was not specified.
00:07:02
Speaker
However, the following day, Chief of Naval Personnel, Vice Admiral Rick Cheeseman announced that the Navy isn't going to extend the work period for recruiters. The planned work expansion comes as the Navy, like other branches of the military, is struggling to meet its recruitment goals for this fiscal year. Currently, the US Navy predicts falling short of its goal of 37,000 new enlistees by at least 6,000 people. Last fiscal year, the Navy just reached its recruitment targets.
00:07:30
Speaker
The US Army is on track to fall short of hitting its number for the second year in a row and the US Air Force is expected to miss its goal by 27,000 enlistees or a full 10% shortfall.
Viral Dog Nanny Job Ad
00:07:43
Speaker
And finally, one billionaire family looking to spend large on their dogs put out a dream job advert for a dog nanny in London and it pays £100,000 a year and the ad went viral on TikTok.
00:07:58
Speaker
The now deleted job listing was posted by recruitment agency Fairfax and Kingston, who specialise in recruiting private staff for residents of London. They sought a full-time dog nanny to live in with the family in the city's expensive Kensington district. Our returning client is seeking an exceptional and highly experienced dog nanny to provide top
00:08:27
Speaker
tear care for their two beloved dogs, the recruiter for the job.
00:08:32
Speaker
George Ralph Dunn posted on a LinkedIn update. They are truly looking for someone at the top of their field who can ensure the overall wellbeing, happiness, and safety of their dogs. Requiring irregular hours, the role requires providing unparalleled care and attention to the dogs, treating them as valued members of the family, and coordinating all vet appointments, vaccinations, and health checkups.
00:09:01
Speaker
The nanny would also have to plan a personalized exercise regime for each dog as well as accompany them on domestic and international travel. It was reported that over 2,000 people applied for the dog nanny role. Ross, I wonder if the dog sat on the interview panel. Adele. One bark yes, two barks no.
Recruiter Strategy Discussion
00:09:36
Speaker
Onto question of the week this week. It is about the candidate shortage. The question is, is the candidate shortage over? Well the answer I think Adele is clearly no.
00:09:50
Speaker
It's definitely not over. If you look at the job vacancy data that was released last week for May, you see that it's still incredibly high. Even though there was a 2% drop from February, we see vacancies are about 80 to 85% higher compared to February 2020, just before the pandemic.
00:10:19
Speaker
So these vacancies are about people looking to explain that data a bit more, Ross. What does that show us? So the job vacancy data is the number of vacancies that are reported by private sector and public sector organizations at the survey point in May.
00:10:43
Speaker
So we've got 431,600, which is the May 2023 figure. And you compare that to just over 220,000, which was February 2020. So it's a couple hundred thousand more.
00:11:09
Speaker
Some industries are saying that the candidate shortage is over. They're seeing a much greater flow of candidates. So what is the data saying about that? Well, the data would suggest that they are telling the truth because again, the ABS breaks down the data by sector.
00:11:27
Speaker
So just to give you some comparisons, so that the comparisons are going to be August last year to May this year. So basically a nine month difference. So manufacturing August last year, 26% of businesses reporting vacancies, May this year, 17%.
00:11:47
Speaker
electricity, gas and water. Last August, 13%. This May, 37%. Accommodation and food services. Last August, 43%. May, 36%.
00:12:01
Speaker
education and training. Last August only just over 8% may this year just under 29% arts and recreation services. Last August just under 5% and may this year just under 23% of businesses reporting at least one vacancy. So you can see there's some dramatic differences, some going up and some going down on a sector by sector basis.
00:12:30
Speaker
That's really interesting and I think you probably some good advice around that then would be about knowing your sector obviously because it sounds like in some sectors the candidate shortage is starting to ease and in others it's possibly getting worse. Some of those reports sound like sort of three times the number of vacancies to only you know sort of six months ago. So maybe it's about knowing your own sector and knowing the relevant data, having that at hand, that kind of data that you're talking about Ross which we
00:13:00
Speaker
provide for you in this podcast weekly and you know having that available so you can have those conversations with your client in your sector about what might be happening. For sure and my first piece of advice for recruiters is never assume that your clients understand the market because mostly they don't and it's pretty obvious why they don't because it's not their job to understand the market
00:13:27
Speaker
Most hiring managers and most internal recruiters are so absorbed with their own jobs. They're not looking outside. They're not dealing with the market on a day to day basis like an external recruiter is. So the first thing as a recruiter that I'd be suggesting you ask the client is,
00:13:47
Speaker
what is your understanding of the market and just see what the client says and that will open up a useful conversation rather than assume they do or don't know. And then obviously using some of this data to make sure they've got a really good understanding at a local level at a sector level and providing that data to them as you said if they're not across it and many of them won't be and also the stories of what's going on in the industry for yourself so examples where
00:14:17
Speaker
it is still short under in specific roles or in specific areas where you can say, look, listen, we advertised a role like this last week and we only received 10 applications. And we know that that's not indicative of how many people are out there. So people are still not applying that kind of thing, using the stories to help shape the situation for the client. Stories are what people remember. And if you share, for example,
00:14:45
Speaker
the number of applications you had for a particular position, let's say last November, with the number of applications that you had for a similar position in June, that may
00:15:00
Speaker
tell a story that the client will remember far more vividly than any facts or data that you may communicate. And this is just human nature. We just remember stories more easily. And the very best recruiters are in fact really good storytellers. And this is how they use information in a way that the client and also candidates remember. That's a nice way to get information across without feeling like you're telling someone what to do as well, isn't it? It's a really great way to
00:15:29
Speaker
convey a situation without feeling like you're lecturing the client, which we know is not something we want to do. One of the other practical things I think is just about making sure the client understands the timeline and how long things are likely to take and how tired it really is and that they may not get a chance to make a comparison. And we've done a podcast question about this previously around what happens when my client asks for more candidates. I want to see more candidates. And I think it's very important to set that expectation that
00:15:59
Speaker
They may need to make an offer to somebody in this market without having a comparison at all in some cases or very few comparisons to measure up against. Find a candidate that you know is good, compare them to others that have been in the role before or others that you've seen previously and let's move ahead and make a decision not waiting around for the perfect person to come along.
00:16:22
Speaker
And that just supports the point that even if there is a slightly better candidate flow in your sector, the best candidates have still got the most choice. The best candidates will still go quickly. So it's absolutely in the client's best interest that if they do want to hire the best person for the job to move quickly. Like if they really don't care whether the candidate's a six out of 10 candidate or an eight and a half, sure.
00:16:50
Speaker
Take a couple of weeks, take three weeks. Really, most clients, given the choice, they go, oh, yeah, I'd actually prefer the eight and a half out of 10 candidate. Okay, well, if that's your choice, then my recommendation is move quickly because that's going to impress the best candidates and it gives you the best chance of hiring the best candidates as well. Sure. All right, so what's our conclusion on this one, Russ? Final words?
Market Conditions & Advice
00:17:14
Speaker
Well, regardless of the market, Adele, you may be getting more candidates, but clients are always going to be better served by moving quickly, but have great stories to share with your clients. So they hear that the clients of the recruiter that are hiring the best people are those that are moving quickly, have got a clear idea of the type of candidate that they want to hire. And when they interview that person, they can move quickly to make an offer and wrap up the offer.
00:17:45
Speaker
That's a wrap. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts from, Google, Apple, Spotify, or on our website.