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Episode 32
345 Plays1 year ago
News for the week beginning 9 October 2023 and Question of the Week: "What are the warning signs that your high performer is not cut out to lead people?"
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Transcript
Australia's Job Shortages and Skills Gaps
00:00:07
Speaker
This is the news for the week beginning 9th October 2023. Flying instructor, animal husbandry technician, boat builder, tram driver and recruitment consultant are among the jobs to join the New Look Skills Priority List contained in the inaugural Jobs and Skills Report 2023 released last Wednesday. It found that 36% of all Australian occupation types, or 332 out of 916, have experienced shortages in 2023.
00:00:37
Speaker
Of those 332 occupations, 66 were newcomers to the list in 2023, with those occupation types largely comprised of highly trained professionals. 23 occupations listed in 2022 were removed. The four diagnosed causes of skill shortages include long-term and short-term lags between education and employment,
00:00:59
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with the report advocating for high throughput of students and trainees through higher intakes and increased completion rates. The report also notes a suitability gap where employers find applicants with the right qualifications, lacking experience in the role, along with low employee retention and occupations with high turnover rates.
00:01:18
Speaker
A report states employees could boost working conditions, enhance professional development, or offer clearer career pathways to workers. Additionally, it notes that improved remuneration might help businesses secure hard to find talent. However, very few businesses appear to be lifting their advertised wages to counteract workplace shortages, as just 1% of employees surveyed this year said that they'd increased remuneration to attract suitably qualified workers to open vacancies.
Local Government and CEO Recruitment Controversy
00:01:46
Speaker
Victoria's peak organisation for local government has rejected a recommendation by the state's anti-corruption watchdog to take recruitment of CEOs out of the hands of councils. In late July, Victoria's anti-corruption watchdog IBAC released a damning report on corruption involving councillors and property developers, which found two former councillors accepted combined benefits of more than $1 million for promoting the interests of a developer.
00:02:13
Speaker
IBAC's report on Operation Sandin said the local government CEOs have the advantage of being able to observe integrity breaches involving councillors, but in this case, their ability to deal with breaches was limited by the fact that were directly employed by councillors. IBAC called for reform to strengthen the independence of CEOs to ensure they are more empowered to respond to poor behaviour by councillors, including that the recruitment, employment and remuneration of a CEO
00:02:42
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should be determined by an independent committee. In a full response to the report issued last week, the President of the Municipal Association of Victoria, Mav, David Clark, said Mav welcomed reform to the local government sector, but said it was crucial that councils maintain their autonomy. The local government sector cannot support a recommendation impacting a council's ability to recruit and manage the employment and performance of its CEOs, he said.
Remote Work Legal Disputes in the US
00:03:10
Speaker
As the return to office mandates from employers continue, employee resentment in the United States has spilled over into legal action against employers for allegedly breaching contract terms or potentially violating workplace discrimination laws as they relate to remote work.
00:03:25
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Two weeks ago, a former AstraZeneca senior director sued the drugmaker, saying it breached her contract by refusing to pay her a performance bonus of more than $120,000 US and options valued at more than $65,000 US due to her working from home last year, according to the suit.
00:03:45
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Elmarie Badez, who was AstraZeneca's Senior Director of Business Transformation until January this year, claims her former employer retroactively changed its bonus structure to include an RTO component of three days per week in the office. Badez did not meet the requirement while working from her South Carolina home last year, where she's always worked since she started in the role in 2016.
00:04:08
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according to the suit, but is regularly met criteria to receive yearly bonuses and stock options and was paid out for meeting them in 2021.
RCSA Industry Awards 2024 Details
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Nominations for the 2024 RCSA Industry Awards have opened. Submissions for the 13 categories in this year's awards will close on Monday 4 December 2023. The RCSA will be hosting a webinar on the award entry process on 26 October
00:04:35
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RCSA's Head of Judging, Winston Bernard, Financial Advisor, Nigel Haas from Staffing Industry Metrics and Zoe Husband, RCSA's Industry Awards Program Manager will be the webinar panelists. You can view the award categories, register for the webinar and access additional information about the awards via the RCSA website. The winners will be announced at the RCSA Industry Awards Nights taking place in Melbourne on Thursday the 9th of May.
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in Auckland on Thursday 13 June 2024.
Insights on Salary Negotiation Practices
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Last year surveyed 6,673 professionals at the beginning of August on the topic of salary negotiations and found that slightly more than half or 54% did not negotiate their most recent salary. There was no differential by gender, men and women were equally likely to negotiate or not.
00:05:26
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Salary negotiation by industry is most common among advertising, 67% marketing, 62% and tech professionals, 56%. Just 22% of graduate students and 37% of accounting and law professionals negotiated their most recent salary.
Hiring Discrimination Case Against Adecco France
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A deco France along with two former directors of the firm faced a Paris court over hiring discrimination complaints stretching back more than 20 years.
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In March 2021, the Paris Court of Appeal ruled to send a deco France and two former directors of the firm to trial. The deco France was accused of discrimination in hiring and registration because of origin nationality or ethnicity of 500 temporary workers between 1997 and 2001.
Recruitment for Snowy 2.0 Project
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And a deco spokesperson said 100% of our employees have been made aware of and trained in the fight against discrimination.
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Recruitment is based solely on competence and aptitude for the positions. Edeco faces a fine of €1.65 million. The two former agency directors risk a fine of €330,000 and seven years in prison. Future Generation, the venture owned by Italy's WeBuild that is constructing the Snowy 2.0 project, is using a range of promotional and sourcing tactics, including a feature in the latest Qantas inflight magazine.
00:06:50
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as it tries to fill 300 positions by the end of this year, including hiring FIFO workers on a 14 days on, 7 days off basis. Among the positions that Future Generation is recruiting for are Safety, Health and Environmental Advisors, Drill and Blast Workers, Administrators, Auditors, Surveyors, Cost Control Assistants, IT Managers and Site Engineers.
00:07:13
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Heavy vehicle drivers are paid $50 an hour with the potential to earn as much as $180,000 a year, although the remuneration for white collar jobs are more often described as competitive. A Future Generation spokeswoman said they were using community job search programs as well as national recruitment campaigns and career expos to try and hire people. The objective of the Qantas In Flight magazine campaign was to attract recruits with Australian construction and FIFO experience to join the project, she said.
Adecco and Microsoft's Career Platform Collaboration
00:07:43
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The ADECO group has signed a deal with Microsoft Corporation to create a career platform for workers as part of an overall memorandum of understanding between the global staffing firm and the tech giant. The career platform will assess individuals' current skills, strengths, and gaps, then map those against evolving labor market needs. It will deliver customized career advice and services in coaching, microlearning, and upskilling, preparing people for emerging job opportunities,
00:08:12
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and ensuring continued employability, the announcement states.
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compared to July, reaching their highest level since May, though they remain down year over year, according to data released last week by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of job openings stood at more than 9.6 million in August, which CNN reported was greater than the 8.8 million consensus estimate. Some of the biggest increases in job openings occurred in professional and business services, finance and insurance, and state and local government education.
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And that's the news for the week commencing, 9th October 2023.
Leadership Suitability and Warning Signs
00:09:08
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Our question of the week this week is a bit of an uncomfortable one perhaps. The question is, what are the warning signs your high performer is not cut out to lead people? What do you think, Ron?
00:09:20
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Well, there are a few pretty clear warning signs, and I've seen this from having led high performers myself and observed high performers. The first one is the high performer is very self-centered. You mean selfish, Ross?
00:09:38
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OK, OK, yes, OK, OK, selfish. But I mean it kind of in a good way in the sense that they do prioritize themselves over everyone else. And so you just don't observe them being particularly collaborative.
00:09:56
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Although they are collaborative when there's a clear financial return for them. So if someone's giving them a job, then absolutely they're going to collaborate in a conversation about that job or that client. But they're generally people that don't easily give time to other people, people who are more oriented to a people leader role. Just, you just see them naturally more.
00:10:21
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be interested in others, give time to others, collaborate. And those high performing recruiters that are best staying, you know, just as a recruiter, you just don't see that they're very driven by money. And as a result, everything they're doing each day is about improving the likelihood that they produce another placement. And so they're building more,
00:10:51
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and therefore they're earning more, which of course you hope, you know, every recruiter is focused on improving their billings, but it's just, I think the people who are not cut out to lead really focus on that to the exclusion of everything else and everyone else. So we're talking there about traits though, that we have touted as being positive elements of a, of a high performer, you know, things that, that make them good at what they do, you know, they're very driven, they're driven by money. They, uh, prioritize,
00:11:21
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their activities over anything and everything else. They're not distracted by the noise and the collaboration and the conversations, you know. So it's an interesting one. I see why it's hard for people who might have a high performer and say, well, this is going to be my next leader or this person's going to grow a desk and getting it wrong. But what do you do instead then, Ross? I mean, if you've got this great performer, this high performing recruiter who, as I said,
00:11:47
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for all intents and purposes is demonstrating the skills that we've been encouraging them to have. And now you want to put them in a leadership position, but you've got these warning signs. What do you do? Well.
00:12:01
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If the person themselves wants to be in a leadership position, then you crawl before you walk with someone like that. In other words, don't give them a team of three people. Give them one person.
00:12:19
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It's basically a beta trial. Can they mentor someone and see how they go with that one person? Because if they're not very effective with one person, what makes you think they're going to be effective with two or three? So that's the first thing because there's a different problem to solve. You can have someone who's a high performer who doesn't want to be a leader of people. And that's another question, which is simply,
00:12:47
Speaker
feed their ego, pay them more money. Whereas someone who is a hyperformer, who you have significant doubts about their leadership capability and they want to be a leader. That's where it's tricky because what if they fail in that first test of people leadership? Is it something you part for 12 months and circle back to? I think this is where you've got to be very clear with the person.
00:13:15
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what you're assessing them against and that there is a sort of a beta trial going on here to see how they go with one person. OK, so really quickly, then conversely, if they're the major warning signs, you mentioned selfishness, you know, not having that collaboration mindset, not giving time to others and the strong financial drive is the signs of a good leader, the opposite of that.
00:13:44
Speaker
Uh, is that another question for another day? It's probably another question, but certainly first and foremost, people who in my experience, um, go on to be effective leaders of other recruiters are those that kind of naturally collaborate or sit set in another way. They gain a lot of personal satisfaction out of helping other people succeed.
00:14:11
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And it could just be a little thing like referring a candidate, referring a client, whereas the high performer who's not suited to a team leader role, generally they don't, you know, they like to help other people succeed, but it doesn't kind of give them an extra boost. Like it, it really isn't a key driver or motivator for people who are really cut out to be a leader of people in agency recruitment. They really genuinely.
00:14:40
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get satisfaction out of helping others succeed. That's great. That's much clearer. Thanks, Ross. Thanks, Adele. And now you're up to date with your recruitment news. And for all previous episodes, visit our website at recruitmentnewsaustralia.com.au. And connect with us on LinkedIn, Ross Clannett. And Adele Last.