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Episode 38
333 Plays1 year ago
New for the week beginning 20 November 2023 including Question of the Week: 'How relevant are Korn Ferry's Talent Acquisition 2024 predictions for the local recruitment industry?'
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Transcript
Job Market Overview
00:00:09
Speaker
I'm Adele Last and this is the news for we commencing 20th November 2023. The latest labour market data confirms the softening of the job market although conditions remain buoyant in historical terms. Online job advertisements at the national level decreased in October 2023 down by 3.8% or 10,400 job advertisements to stand at 261,200.
00:00:35
Speaker
This was the largest single month decrease in job advertisements during 2023. Furthermore, job ads are at their lowest since December 2021. Rises in the Northern Territory up by 3.2%, WA 1.4% and South Australia 0.9% did not counterbalance the falls in job ads recorded in the other four states and the ACT. Victoria recorded the largest decline with 7.1% month on month fall.
00:01:03
Speaker
By occupation group, the largest job ad declines are among labourers down 7.7%, followed by community and personal service workers down 7.3% and sales workers down 6%. The unemployment rate for October rose 0.1% to 3.7% on the back of a number of unemployed workers actively looking for work rising by 38,000, according to the ABS's Labour Force data release last Thursday.
00:01:30
Speaker
The participation rate rose from 66.7% to 67% and monthly hours worked in all jobs rose 0.5%. The RCSA has announced the successful candidates for the National Board and the various state and territory councils following recent elections. The National Board sees three new members. David Stewart, FRCSA Alliance Australia.
00:01:56
Speaker
Katherine O'Mahoney on queue recruitment, and Jason Elias, FRCSA, Elias recruitment. Stuart O'Mahoney and Elias are all based in Sydney. Employers across Australia see job hopping as the biggest red flag in job seekers, according to a June 2023 survey of 300 hiring managers by Robert Half Australia. The second most concerning warning was unrealistic salary expectations,
00:02:24
Speaker
followed by not holding the required qualifications, then requesting to work from home most of the time, with listing vague job descriptions and inconsistencies with LinkedIn in 5th and 6th place respectively. Japanese staffing giant Persol, owner of local brand, programmed, last week reported revenue for the first six months ended 30 September 2023, increased by 7.8% compared to the same period the previous year.
00:02:52
Speaker
Adjusted EBITDA declined by 19%. Persol's staffing segment was up 7.4% and the APAC region grew sales 6%. Industry News Service shortlist reported Brisbane headquartered Davidson Group grew revenue 5% year on year for the year ending 30 June 2023 to reach $239 million. Contract and temp revenue was up 4%, permanent placement income was up 10% and consulting income grew 33%.
00:03:22
Speaker
Group net profit after tax dropped 36% to $5.5 million. Davidson had 176 employees as at the end of the 2023 financial year.
Impact of AI on Employment
00:03:35
Speaker
OpenAI, the company behind Chat GPT, estimates that the jobs most at risk from the new wave of AI are those with the highest wages and that someone in an occupation that pays a six-figure salary is about three times as exposed as someone making US$30,000.
00:03:52
Speaker
diminished demand for and earnings from some white collar jobs is already a reality. In a study published earlier this year, US researchers showed that within a few months of the launch of chat GPT, copywriters and graphic designers on major online freelancing platforms saw a significant drop in the number of jobs they got and even steeper declines in earnings. This suggested not only that generative AI was taking their work, but also that it devalues the work they still carry out.
00:04:20
Speaker
Most strikingly, the study found that being more skilled was no shield against loss of work or earnings. A man has been crushed to death by a robot in South Korea after it failed to differentiate him from the boxes of food it was handling according to South Korean news agency Yonhap. The incident occurred when the robotics company employee in his 40s was inspecting the robot.
00:04:43
Speaker
robotic arm confusing the man for a box of vegetables grabbed him and pushed his body against the conveyor belt crushing his face and chest. He was sent to hospital but later died. According to Yonhap the robot was responsible for lifting boxes of peppers and transferring them onto pallets. South Korea has the second highest density of industrial robots in the world after Singapore.
Accolades and Trends in Staffing
00:05:07
Speaker
The 2023 Global Power 150 Women in Staffing list was published last week by staffing industry analysts, and it featured one Australian woman, London-based Sandra Henke, who is the global head of people and culture at Hayes. In its ninth year, the list highlights 100 women from the Americas and 50 globally who have made significant contributions to the success of their companies and the workforce ecosystem.
00:05:32
Speaker
A Queensland Institute of Technology graduate, Henke joined the Hayes ANZ training team in 1997, rising through the Hayes local leadership ranks, ultimately reaching the role of director of HR and L&D, the Hayes ANZ. In 2012, she moved to the UK to take up the role of director of people and culture for Hayes UK and Ireland. In January 2016, Henke was promoted to the executive leadership team as global head of people and culture.
00:05:59
Speaker
Henke previously made SIA's Global Power 150 Women in Staffing list in 2019, 2020 and 2021. No Australian-based women have made the 2023 list. Frontline employees are the most unhappy, poorly supported and least trusting of leadership according to a just released employee experience report. Qualtrics surveyed 36,872 full-time and part-time employees
00:06:26
Speaker
across 32 countries and 28 industries in July this year and reported that the five major trends were 1. Employees would rather AI assist them than manage them. 53% of engaged employees reported being comfortable with AI compared to just 30% of disengaged employees. 2. Frontline employees are the most unhappy cohort at work
00:06:50
Speaker
They are significantly less happy than non-frontline employees when it comes to pay and benefits, career development, work processes, and trust in their leader. Three, the new job honeymoon phase has vanished. Employees with less than six months tenure have the lowest intent to stay at least three years of their organization. Four, employees don't mind if you monitor their work messages and emails. 80% of engaged respondents said they are comfortable with their organization monitoring their emails
00:07:19
Speaker
compared to 62% of disengaged employees. And five, a hybrid work structure is the best possible solution for the overall employee experience. One to three days in the office or at home lead to the highest employee experience scores overall across every metric, engagement, wellbeing, inclusion, and intent to stay. Five days in the office, however, leads to the worst employee experience outcomes across every metric.
00:07:48
Speaker
One in five employees confess to being unfaithful with a colleague at work according to a recent survey of 3,800 individuals in the UK by Rant Casino. The majority of affairs happen in the workplace 25% with work events 21% trips away 14% and meetings outside of work 17% also listed as places people strayed from their relationships.
00:08:13
Speaker
There's nothing new about affairs in the workplace, and if anything, it's incredibly common," said Laura O'Brien, spokesperson of Rank Casino. A place where everyone presents their best selves, takes lunches together as well as regular coffee breaks, the workplace undeniably serves as a fertile ground for affairs to blossom. But are certain professions more prone to infidelity? The data says so. The company compiled a list of the top industries for workplace affairs. Sales executives ranked top with 14.5%
00:08:42
Speaker
confessing to infidelity. Teachers are next most likely to have an affair at work with 13.7% of respondents claiming this across teaching, training and education in general. Healthcare professionals followed at 12.5%. At the other end of the scale according to the survey only 0.1% of employees in science and pharmaceuticals confess to an affair followed by both media and legal each at 0.5%.
Tribute to Colin Kerr
00:09:09
Speaker
Sydney contract recruiter Colin Kerr passed away as a result of a tragic accident on Melbourne Cup afternoon. Kerr was working at Axar Recruitment and Search where he'd been employed for nearly three years. Previously, Kerr worked at UNU Recruitment Partners for five years, Talent 2 for nearly 10 years, Ambition for 18 months and Morgan & Banks for five years. Kerr originally qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PwC in London in the late 1980s.
00:09:37
Speaker
Axar announced Coors passing via a LinkedIn post last Monday stating, the impact Colin had on Axar was tremendous. Colin treated everyone equally with respect and care. He was passionate to deliver for client and candidate alike. Colin was key to our culture at Axar. He's calm and slightly understated style offset what can be a hectic task focused environment. We will all remember Colin telling a joke and losing it in laughter before reaching the punchline.
00:10:04
Speaker
His big smile, sunglasses on his head and office treats will be greatly missed. Kerr is survived by his four children and his wife Catherine. And you're up to date with the news for the week beginning 20th November 2023.
AI in Recruitment: Boon or Bane?
00:10:22
Speaker
I'm Ross Clannett.
00:10:33
Speaker
Adele, our question of the week this week is, how relevant are Corn Ferry's 20-24 Talent Acquisition Trend Reports top six trends for the coming year? Let's go through these one by one. Shout out to Prize Adele, trend number one, AI.
00:10:55
Speaker
got two parts under AI. AI and recruiters, AI will increasingly handle time-consuming recruitment tasks, such as AI-driven assessments and scheduling, and AI for candidates. AI will assist candidates by finding openings for roles they may not have considered, optimizing their resumes and public letters, and preparing them for interviews.
00:11:21
Speaker
All right, so what do you reckon about the AI aspects of agency recruitment in 2024? Are they likely to be a factor in Australia next year, Adele, or not? Well, I think you'd have to be living in a cave if you thought that AI wasn't going to affect recruitment in any place in the world. So I think this one's not a huge surprise that it will obviously take away the more mundane tasks that recruiters already has in a lot of cases.
00:11:51
Speaker
across the world. But the interesting side of this one, I think, is the candidate side of candidates using AI more effectively, particularly in relation to updating resumes and making sure their applications fit for purpose. I think, again, probably not that unusual there. But this one, interestingly around preparing them for interviews, I do think there could be some work in that space that agencies could gain the benefit of.
00:12:18
Speaker
using AI in more detail to help them prepare candidates for jobs better? I certainly think the smart recruiters will be doing that rather than a lot of recruiter time spent preparing candidates for interview. I suspect they will use AI chat GPT
00:12:42
Speaker
to create a process that will effectively substitute for the recruiter. It won't be perhaps as good as the recruiter. In fact, actually it might even be better. But I suppose the key thing will be, will candidates respond positively to that? Will they mind being briefed by AI compared to a human being? Okay, what's the next
Future Hiring Trends
00:13:10
Speaker
one, Ross?
00:13:10
Speaker
Second trend, early career hiring. And here's what Corn Ferry says. There is a growing battle for workers who are fresh into the professional field. Employers are interested in the new ideas they bring and in times of economic uncertainty, it's easier to justify bringing on people with entry level salaries than hiring more experienced and expensive workers.
00:13:36
Speaker
Well, you think you know what I'm going to say about this one since my own business is built on this premise that you can bring in somebody and train them up and gain the benefit, as it says, of hiring someone at a lower salary without any preconceived ideas, without the baggage that they bring along, and fill gaps and vacancies that might not have been able to be filled.
00:14:01
Speaker
I'm a huge advocate of this and I absolutely think this is true though, across lots of industries where we are seeing people realizing with such a skills shortage, with such huge skills gaps, we just have to consider people without the level of experience previously required for some roles and look at training and development. And the benefits of that too, in terms of bringing in somebody in the earlier stages of their career,
00:14:29
Speaker
and investing in them and getting that loyalty back. I think that's a huge factor in this one, not just the saving of money, but the kind of employee loyalty you gain from it as well. I think the other thing, and this relates to the first point with respect to AI, is that early career hires are much more likely to be familiar with the use of AI, particularly chat GPT, and will have already learned how to use it
00:14:59
Speaker
while they've been a student or perhaps had some form of casual job. And I suspect they're going to represent much greater value for companies, recruitment agencies than people who want much higher salaries, even though they're significantly more experienced. Okay. All right. Let's look at number three, hiring for skills.
00:15:26
Speaker
Corn Ferry says in 2024 it's your skills not the pedigree of past employers on your resume that count instead of trying hiring initiatives to long-term strategic business needs many companies are hiring for and paying top dollar for the skills workers possess today such as generative AI specialists
00:15:55
Speaker
Job postings will focus more on specific skills instead of qualifications. What do you reckon? Well, that's, I mean, if any temp recruiters are listening, they will say, you know, definitely yes. You know, they will say that that's, I guess, the basis of temp recruitment at its core is that we are hiring and focusing on the skills element of what people bring. So.
00:16:19
Speaker
Again, I think that one's probably no surprise as such. I'm not sure I do agree with this one. I don't think that that is the case though. I think that people will still look at, you know, tenure and the quality of the previous employers and reasons for leaving. And I can't see that changing so dramatically that you'd override that with the fact that, well, the person's got the skill, we're going to hire them. It doesn't matter if they
00:16:49
Speaker
came out of or had a bad situation with the last employer, I can't see that overriding it in my opinion. I tend to see a greater acceptance of people not having a degree for roles and I'm expecting that we're going to see
00:17:15
Speaker
employers focusing on a very small number of skills that are critical and are probably likely to be more flexible on a range of other skills. Yep, fair call. Although I think within recruitment specifically and if we're talking tell and acquisition internally, I have not seen any position advertised in years that didn't require an HR professional to have an HR qualification and yet
00:17:45
Speaker
I remember early stages of my own career that there were many more positions where you could have been in the midst of study or had, you know, lower level, not full bachelor qualifications and you could have got a job in HR. And so, you know, there are some pockets, I think, in roles like that where it's just become the mandatory that it's, you know, the norm that you have to have a full qualification. And that one always surprises me, you know, an entry-level HR person who's not really dealing with, you know, frontline
00:18:13
Speaker
IR issues and the like may not need the full qualification so I think a difference by role.
Return-to-Office Challenges
00:18:29
Speaker
organizational leaders. CEO Lead Return to Office mandates are perceived as ignoring workers' personal commitments. What do you reckon? I think we have to agree with that one. I think, yeah, I mean, people have maybe been over, you know, over having to make allowances. You know, I think, I think that one's probably true. Not because it's right. I don't agree as such, but
00:18:58
Speaker
I do think post COVID people are tired. You know, there's a fatigue around having to make allowances around all sorts of things in the workplace. And so there's probably a tightening back to a bit more dictatorship like environments where people are sort of saying that's the way it's going to be. And we're not sort of stretching it for everybody. I don't know if that one's a bit sensitive. Well, I think the end result will be based on
00:19:25
Speaker
the key workers. So are the more valued employees going to just effectively look for other work because they're forced back to the office, forced back to the office more frequently than they want? I think that's the sort of thing ultimately that will drive it.
00:19:46
Speaker
because if you're just left with the very average employees because they've got less choice in the labor market, then that might cause company or CEOs to take a different view. Okay, what's the final one? Final one, relocate or resign. Corn Ferry says, as more leaders demand, employees head back to the office. There may be a resurgence in relocating for work. Hmm.
00:20:09
Speaker
So this one's sort of saying if people who've moved away from the office during COVID because they could work remotely are now required to come back in, they may have to relocate to do that. And pay more. Like I'm certainly reading articles where it seems that the candidates are sort of effectively demanding a premium to be working in the office four or five days a week.
00:20:35
Speaker
Well, this is obviously direct impact of cost of living, of housing issues. I mean, that's going to be the biggest driver of this one. It's all going well to say, come back into the office now to an employee that moved out regionally. But if they can't find accommodation or they don't have a house to move back into within the city metro areas, that's just physically an impossibility, that one. Yeah.
00:20:56
Speaker
Have they missed anything, Adele? Do you think, Corn Ferry, is there anything there that you would add to that list as a hiring trend to look out for in 2024? I think that they may have overlooked the impact around migration, in my opinion. I think that that probably needs to be mentioned as the changes to lots of visas start having impact in 2024. And that's another whole conversation potentially for us.
00:21:23
Speaker
Yeah, I think that one's overlooked and that's going to have a big impact on the workforce, the number of migrants and in what areas we're allowing people to stay. I've got no doubt that's going to be a big factor in Australia. You are going to have, I mean, you're already seeing it, but it's going to be even more prevalent next year where you've got people coming into this country for work.
00:21:44
Speaker
obviously without Australian work experience. So are employers prepared to shift their mindset in terms of more empathetically considering candidates who don't have Australian work experience yet have the skills or close to the skills that are necessary for the jobs that are advertised? Yeah, I think once upon a time it was this idea about a global workforce being about hiring people from overseas
00:22:13
Speaker
and bringing them here and that was a pretty scary concept. But now with so many people already in Australia with qualifications and skills and experience gained overseas, I think employers have to really look at those candidates more closely. And that's, we've done a question of the week around this before around why overseas experience is overlooked. So I think that's a definite trend that I would like to see if not, you know, I think it will start to rear up
00:22:42
Speaker
as we just have to address the fact that there are people here who can do the job that you need done, but yes, they gain experience overseas and how can we validate and credential that as relevant to the job. Yeah, that's certainly very front and centre for Australian recruiters and I suspect maybe not quite to the same degree in other markets. Were there any others that you thought were missed out from?
00:23:08
Speaker
No, I think that's probably covered it. I mean, they're really extensions of the points that are already made. OK.