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Episode 12
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Episode 12
Special Episode this week - No question of the week however Adele & Ross attended the TalentX and RCSA Awards night and update you on all the happenings from those events as well as local news and content. Don't miss this episode.
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Transcript
Weekly News Highlights - 5 June 2023
00:00:08
Speaker
This is the news for the week beginning 5 June 2023.
Impact of Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement
00:00:13
Speaker
The Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement came into effect last Wednesday with significant implications for the local labour market, although the headline benefit is the removal of tariffs on over 99% of Australian goods exported to the UK.
00:00:26
Speaker
The FTA includes a stronger commitment to improving access for workers and waves the requirement for labour market testing on businesses wanting to employ people from the UK. It also increases the age limit for working holiday visas to 35 years and extends the time people can stay to three years. New visa provisions have been introduced to enable intra-company transfers and to create a new visa pathway to Australia for innovators from the UK.
Wage Growth vs Inflation: A Closer Look
00:00:54
Speaker
Australia's lowest paid workers will take home an extra $1.20 per hour when the new minimum wage decision takes effect from 1 July 2023. The Fair Work Commission announced an increase to the rate of the national minimum wage by 5.75% in its 2023 decision, taking the hourly pay rate for lowest paid workers from $21.38 to $22.60. The Commission also decided to increase all modern award minimum wage rates
00:01:23
Speaker
by 5.75% effective from the first full pay period on or after the 1st of July, 2023. Under the decision, workers will still be taking a real wage cut with inflation coming in at 6.8% in the 12 months to April. According to the New Zealand based owner of brands, AWF, Work Collective, Madison Recruitment, Absolute IT, Jackson Stone and Partners, and Hobson Levy,
00:01:52
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has reported revenue rose 2.7% to $227 million in the 2022 financial year.
Tech Workforce Dynamics in Australia
00:02:02
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Profit before tax declined 34% to $3 million. Australia has hit 78% of its 2030 tech job target of $1.2 million, according to a report released this week by the Tech Council of Australia.
00:02:19
Speaker
According to the report, our tech workforce was sitting at 935,000 in February. An additional 10,500 jobs were added to the roster during a three month period up until March. This news may seem surprising considering the continued number of high profile job losses within the Australian tech sector. But according to research from the TCA, for every tech job lost over the past quarter, 20 have been created. The majority of these most recent jobs have come from the indirect tech sector
00:02:49
Speaker
which the report explains as tech intensive jobs within other industries. The report states that one in 14 working Australians have a job in tech and there are now more software engineers than plumbers, hairdressers or baristas in Australia. The average tech job wages in Australia remain high with the average sitting at $132,000 according to the TCA's report.
Challenges in Recruitment Across Sectors
00:03:12
Speaker
The average time to hire an employee is now taking 44 days
00:03:17
Speaker
and all-time high, according to a report. Findings of the global talent climate released by the Josh Burnson Company and AMS reveal that time-to-hire rates in the first quarter of 2023 alone had extended by a day across all industries. As our data shows, time-to-hire has risen consistently for the last four years, said Jim Sykes, Global Managing Director of Client Operations at AMS. The energy and defence industry reported the longest recruitment period with over 67 days
00:03:47
Speaker
thanks to the specialisation of roles and small talent pools available according to the report. This is also the reason why the professional services industry is taking more than 47 days to find a new employee. The retail and consumer industry registered the shortest time to hire rates for 2022.
The Shift to In-Office Work: Trend Analysis
00:04:06
Speaker
Commonwealth Bank has ordered its 49,000 staff back into the office, demanding they show up at least 50% of their working time. The office mandate came from CBA Chief Executive Matt Komen and his executive team in an email delivered to Inboxers last Monday. We have now set the expectation with our office-based people that from mid-July they will be required to come into the office for at least 50% of their work time per month. CBA Group
00:04:32
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executive of human resources, Sheehan Lewis told the Australian Financial Review. She said the move was prompted by a decision to drive innovation and collaboration with face-to-face interactions. The order adds CBA to a growing list of employers mandating employees back to workplaces. Recently, NAB chief executive Ross McEwan also asked his senior staff to come back five days a week in the office.
00:04:57
Speaker
The move comes as research showed that just one in 10 workers are heading into the city five days a week. Alarmingly for employers, that figure dropped from one in five over the course of March and April this year, according to a Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry survey. However, the number of employees working from the office three to four days per week has increased from 41% in November 2022 to 46% in March 2023.
Underpayment Issues Among Migrants
00:05:23
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From June 6 onwards, employees can legally challenge an employer's refusal to grant flexible work arrangements. According to the Grattan Institute's new report, short changed how to stop the exploitation of migrant workers in Australia, up to 16% of employed recent migrants were paid less than the national minimum wage compared to up to 9% for all employees being paid below the national minimum wage across Australia.
00:05:51
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up to 8.5% of recent migrants were paid at least $3 less than the hourly minimum. The report suggests these numbers are likely to under-represent the extent of underpayment because the analysis only counts those being paid less than the national minimum wage. It does not count cases where workers are underpaid against appropriate award rates, which typically pay more than the national minimum wage, penalty rates, or are not paid their super. The report goes on to suggest that part of the reason recent migrants
00:06:21
Speaker
are more likely to be underpaid is because they tend to work in industries where underpayment is more prevalent, such as hospitality and agriculture. For example, temporary visa holders accounted for nearly 20% of workers in hospitality, the industry with the highest reported rate of underpayment. Migrants also tend to be younger workers. Employees aged 20 to 29 are nearly six times more likely to be paid less than the national minimum wage than workers aged 30 to 39.
00:06:49
Speaker
But even after accounting for age, industry and other demographic characteristics, migrants are still more likely to be underpaid according to the report. The main reasons for underpayment are immigrants being less aware of their rights and the reduced likelihood they will complain due to concern they may jeopardise their visa through potential employer retribution.
Talent X Day and Future Recruitment Technologies
00:07:12
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Last Thursday was Talent X Day.
00:07:17
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for the RCSA. And Adele, you and I were in Sydney. We attended Talent X at the International Convention Centre and then also went to the awards night at Luna Park. So firstly, what did you think of Talent X? Yeah, I thought it was overall a great event. It appeared to be very well attended, I believe.
00:07:42
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were more people this year in Sydney than were at the event, the same event, same time last year in Melbourne. So it definitely seemed to be very well attended, very well organised as it always is with the RCSA and I feel like there was also even more exhibitors that were there and I really do enjoy that part of it. Ross, I like to hear about the new RecTech that's out there and updates to existing RecTech and
00:08:08
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connect with all of those suppliers to the industry as well. What were your thoughts? Yeah, I enjoyed it. I always enjoy being able to talk to many people. I wouldn't otherwise get on the phone. So there were plenty of owners and leaders there that I know. And also vendors, people who work for the suppliers.
00:08:29
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in the industry, so I had many conversations. It's enjoyable just to wander around and have those conversations without, as we all experience at the awards night, a lot of noise. It's just a bit easier.
00:08:46
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The coffee was good. I really enjoyed the food. I didn't sit on many of the speakers presentations,
Collar Recruitment's Growth Story
00:08:52
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but I did sit on Efram Stevenson's presentation where he talked about the growth of the Collar recruitment business that he established only less than two years ago. And for those of you that are interested in what I'm talking about,
00:09:11
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I'd direct you to Pete Watson's most recent episode of Recruitment Journeys, which it does feature Pete's conversation with Ephraim. Very interesting hearing about Ephraim's background and his path to establishing column recruitment.
00:09:27
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and the things that they've done to get to 115 employees in less than a year, sorry, less than two years. And also they're up to nearly a thousand people out in terms of daily or weekly, sorry, daily temps or contractors. So it's quite a success story. So as I said to my wife, when I explained, I was trying to explain Ephraim and I said, he kind of strikes me as like the Robbie Williams of the Australian recruitment industry. He's got that kind of look.
00:09:56
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and that kind of cheeky character, the English accent and yeah. I'm sure you'll see that as a compliment for sure. Well, I hope so. My wife said, well, now whenever you talk about him, you just have to say the Robbie Williams guy and she said, I'll remember him. Yeah, I think that's also a great point around an event like that. You know, it gets you to see what else is going on, gets you to look up and look around the industry a little bit. I think sometimes we can get used to
00:10:26
Speaker
um, being a little insular and looking down and working hard. And then when we do compare, we often call someone we know that's going to give us a good answer, a favorable answer to something. But what you want to hear is, you know, the real truth about what else is going out there and to be able to make some comparisons, good or bad, I suppose, around what you're doing in your own business and, you know, how you're making use of, um, you know, technology, as I've said, or, or other tools and, and, um, you know, the ways you're, you're running your business for, you know, greatest efficiency and growth.
00:10:56
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And I've got no doubt that without Ephraim's focus on, well, tech, but also getting the right people. And interestingly, the first person, if I heard incorrectly, the first person he employed was a marketing person, not a recruiter.
00:11:13
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So he's done things almost the reverse way that most recruitment agency owners do it, that they start with themselves and then they hire another recruiter and then they think about tech. Whereas Ephraim's first person he hired was not a recruiter and he thought about tech and he got the platforms.
00:11:31
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the various tech platforms in place and that's enabled the growth to occur rapidly and as he said I think 12 physical locations in Australia and one in Manila and I think he said there's three physical locations in Perth so it is quite a success story and it's contrary or very different to the growth of almost every other recruitment agency in this country.
Celebrating Achievements: RCSA Awards Night
00:12:02
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Interesting. I wonder if he will go for an award next year. Tell us about the award results now. Yes, the awards. OK, so let's just go through the award winners. I'll read them out and then we can have a bit of a discussion about the awards and then about the night. There were 13 categories. 46 finalists from 179 entries.
00:12:26
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Winners, Excellence in Candidate Care. This was jointly won by Caring for You, Nursing Agency and People to People. Excellence in Social Purpose, Talent Nation. Excellence in Safety and Wellbeing Culture, ProTech Group. Excellence in Business Innovation, Clicks IT Recruitment. Excellence in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, Chandler McLeod. Excellence in Client Service, People to People Recruitment. Outstanding Agency, up to 10 staff, Elias Recruitment.
00:12:56
Speaker
Outstanding agency up to 30 staff on tray recruitment. Outstanding agency up to 80 staff, Mayday recruitment. Outstanding agency over 80 staff, People Bank Australia. Rising Star 2023, Caroline Souter, Mayday recruitment. Recruitment Professional of the Year 2023, Michelle Rubinstein, Talent Web. Industry Leader 2023, jointly won by Rebecca Hartshorn,
00:13:26
Speaker
and Jeff Slade, Rebecca's from Launch and Jeff is of course from Slade Group and the CEO Award for Outstanding Contribution, Yelena Giro, I think it's pronounced from Adelaide, so I apologise, Yelena, if I've pronounced that incorrectly. So they were the award winners. Yeah, congratulations to all of the winners and the finalists in fact with such a big
00:13:51
Speaker
number of entrants to even be made a finalist. I think it's a great achievement but congratulations to those winners. I note there we talked, you mentioned there were two categories where we had a joint winner so what do you think of that Ross? I'm not, I've got to say I'm not a big fan of joint winners and I was not a judge, well in any category and I didn't speak to Winsome Bernard the head of judging about why they awarded
00:14:20
Speaker
joint wins. I would be interested to know a little bit more about that. My preference is not to have joint winners. My preference is definitely to have a winner. But I said, I'm sure there's very good reason why there were joint winners. They must have been incredibly hard to separate. Well, impossible, obviously. That's why they were joint winners. Yeah. Yeah. You would hope recruiters would be good at making a decision about choice between two. But yeah, sometimes I guess maybe it's hard to split
00:14:50
Speaker
I think it was managed very professionally. Each winner was allowed to get up and accept the award separately. So they still got their time to shine, which was nice to see. It was. And we've got not that many joint, sorry, multiple winners. So people to people were
00:15:11
Speaker
The winners are two categories, Excellence in Candidate Care and Excellence in Client Service. Mayday won one as an agency and then they had the Rising Star and the Chandler McLeod Group, which is Chandler McLeod and also People Bank won two. So there was a reasonable spread of awards across companies. Yeah, it was a big night though. There were lots of people there, probably the biggest night. I would say that the recruitment industry seen
00:15:41
Speaker
Uh, maybe ever, uh, you know, pre-COVID, I don't recall it being such a big night. It was at Luna Park under the big top, which was a really fantastic venue. It was very well organized. The dance floor was full. The drinks were flowing. Um, I'm glad they came to, it came to a conclusion and you had to get back on a ferry. Cause I think it probably could have got a bit ugly if it kept going on, but it was a really good night. It was 530 people. The, as far as I'm aware, the largest attendance ever.
00:16:12
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at an awards night. So all credit to the RCSA and of course RCSA members for supporting the event. It's all great when we can get together and have a good time. I certainly enjoyed the night and
00:16:25
Speaker
I'm looking forward to next year, which according to tradition will revert to Melbourne. So it's going to put a bit of pressure on the Melbourne recruitment community to top 530 from Sydney this year. So let's see if we can do it, given we both smell burnians. Adele. Yeah, if you weren't there and you're hearing us talk about it and you've wondered about going, you know, absolutely encourage you to come along. It is definitely a great night of celebration.
00:16:50
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you'll meet some people you never spoke to before in the industry in a great way, and you'll just be able to celebrate the year that was a good night. Yep, if you didn't make it this year, put it in for next year, it'll be a similar time. Last week of May or first week of June, I assume it'll be in Melbourne and a great time to be had by all. And you and I will be there again next year, no doubt. We'll see you
Conclusion and Future Episodes
00:17:16
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there. Okay.
00:17:20
Speaker
That concludes this episode of Recruitment News Australia. Thanks for listening. We look forward to connecting with you in the next episode.