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Episode 31
373 Plays1 year ago
News for the week beginning 2 October 2023 and Question of the Week: "Why you should vote for Adele Last as your accredited representative on the RCSA board?"
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Transcript
Weekly News Introduction
00:00:07
Speaker
This is the news for wheat commencing 2nd October 2023.
Job Vacancy Trends
00:00:12
Speaker
The quarterly release of job vacancy data last Thursday showed vacancies falling below 400,000 for the first time since November 2021. On a seasonally adjusted basis, vacancies dropped from 428,000 in May to 390,000 at the end of August, which is an 8.9% drop. Private sector vacancies fell 9.2% and public sector vacancies dropped 6.3%.
00:00:38
Speaker
vacancies are still 95% above their March 2020 level. The proportion of businesses reporting at least one vacancy was 21.7% in August, down from 24.7% in May. This was the lowest result since November 2021, but still almost double the March 2020 result.
International Recruitment Efforts
00:00:57
Speaker
On a sector by sector basis, manufacturing recorded the highest increase from May to August in the number of businesses recruiting at least one vacancy,
00:01:05
Speaker
from 16.8% to 29.5% with electricity, gas, water and waste services sector recording the largest drop over the same time span from 36.7% to 24.2% of businesses reporting at least one vacancy.
00:01:23
Speaker
Earlier this year, the Western Australian Government embarked on an aggressive advertising and promotional campaign to recruit British emergency services workers and healthcare workers to help fill hundreds of vacancies. Last Tuesday, the first 23 British police officers hired as a result of the campaign were officially welcomed and sworn into their new job by the WA Police Commissioner. Over 1,400 applications were received as a result of the campaign.
00:01:52
Speaker
After the swearing-in ceremony, one of the recruits, 33-year-old Ben Woods, formerly a sergeant in the Sussex Police in England, said,
00:02:09
Speaker
It feels like a nice safe place to be. Western Australia's Minister for Police Paul Papalia said the state was aiming to recruit 150 officers from overseas every year for the next five years.
Corporate Accountability in Worker Payments
00:02:24
Speaker
Starbucks has backpaid staff in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast more than $4.5 million after becoming aware of underpayments to workers including baristas and supervisors according to the Fair Work Ombudsman.
00:02:37
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The global coffee house chain has also entered into an enforceable undertaking. The company self-reported its non-compliance to the Fair Work Ombudsman in 2020 after conducting a review of its time and attendance and payroll systems. Most underpayments were the result of Starbucks failing to pay part-time staff to correct overtime they were entitled to under the fast food industry award. A small number of full-time store managers were also underpaid due to Starbucks paying them annual salaries
00:03:05
Speaker
that were insufficient to cover their minimum award tournaments given the significant amount of overtime and weekend work they performed. Individual back payments range from $20 to $18,574 across 2,427 current and former employees who were underpaid between 2014 and 2020. The average back payment is $1,883.
00:03:30
Speaker
Enforceable undertaking requires Starbucks to provide evidence to the ombudsman of its completed back payments by the end of September and make a $150,000 contrition payment to the Commonwealth's Consolidated Revenue Fund.
Staffing Industry Financial Overview
00:03:45
Speaker
The world's 100 largest staffing firms generated an estimated US$285.3 billion in revenue in 2022.
00:03:56
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representing 44% of global staffing revenue. According to the largest staffing firms globally, 2023 report by staffing industry analysts. The five largest global staffing firms accounted for 15% of global staffing revenue.
00:04:12
Speaker
The top five firms are unchanged from last year. In sales order, they are. Randstad, $25.8 billion. Adeko, $24.6 billion. Manpower, $20.9 billion. Allegiance Group, $13.5 billion. And in fifth place, Recruit Group with sales of $11.8 billion.
00:04:38
Speaker
48 of the 100 largest staffing firms are based in the United States. The UK has 14 and Japan has 11. Corn Ferry ranks as the largest executive search firm, while Recruit Group posted the highest market capitalization of all firms on the list at $49.9 billion.
New Zealand Job Market Update
00:05:00
Speaker
Seek New Zealand reported that job ads increase for the first time since March, rising 2% month on month.
00:05:07
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Applications per job ad increase for the sixth consecutive month rising 2%. The industries driving the job ad increase were hospitality and tourism 20%, community services and development 11%, and education and training 12%. Construction at negative 7% was the largest industry to record a decline in job ads.
Work Week Experiments: A New Norm?
00:05:30
Speaker
A British council that has been trying out a four-day week for office workers and bin collectors is to defy ministers and press ahead with its new working pattern it has announced. Earlier in the month Lee Rowley, the Minister for Local Government, wrote to the South Cambridge Sheared District Council saying this experiment should end. The letter was an escalation after the government said in June it was opposed to four-day work weeks in local government.
00:05:57
Speaker
But Bridget Smith, the Council's leader, said the four-day week would continue until the end of its trial period after it boosted the number and quality of job applicants, saving more than ยฃ550,000 a year in agency worker costs and allowing it to fuel nine posts that no one had previously wanted.
00:06:16
Speaker
We've consistently said that this is an evidence-based trial to see whether a four-day week can improve our critical recruitment challenges. She said, not being able to fill vacant posts, especially in our planning team, is disruptive to services for our residents. We need the trial to run for its full plan length until the end of March to gather data and assess whether a difference has been made.
Work Style Preferences Debate
00:06:40
Speaker
Apparently, there are two types of people, give or take a few, when it comes to preferred working styles today.
00:06:46
Speaker
splitters who like to have clear boundaries between their work and personal lives and tune into their jobs completely from 9am to 5pm and blenders who are preferring to mix their work tasks and personal time throughout the day. Amid the return to office push and transition to hybrid work, it seems leaders have overestimated how much people prefer to blend rather than work firm hours a new report has found.
00:07:12
Speaker
White collar workers are equally divided between being splitters and blenders, according to a Gallup poll survey of over 18,000 working age adults conducted in February. But among 150 chief human resources officers at Fortune 500 companies that Gallup surveyed recently, just 24% thought their white collar workers would be splitters, when in fact, 45% preferred a splitter work style. When it came to production frontline employees,
00:07:41
Speaker
CHROs thought 54% of their employees would be splitters and in reality 62% preferred a splitter work style. Employees are more likely to be disengaged, burned out and looking for another job when they aren't allowed to work in the way that best suits them according to the Gallup report. One takeaway from the finding is that Gallup suggests leaders could be underestimating the number of their employees who want a more structured nine to five routine.
00:08:09
Speaker
dedicated focus time and to know exactly when they are working or not. Leaders may need to be more understanding of those who prefer clear work boundaries. And that's the news for the week beginning the 2nd of October 2023.
RCSA Board Motivations and Diversity
00:08:31
Speaker
Question of the week. Question of the week this week is why you should vote for Adil last?
00:08:37
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as your accredited representative on the RCSA board. To provide some context, the board of directors are elected by RCSA members and are responsible for all matters pertaining to the running of the association. The board has the authority to determine the policy, practices, management and operation of the RCSA. There are currently nine
00:09:04
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members of the board spanning both Australia and New Zealand. So Adil, why have you put yourself forward and why should people vote for you? Well thank you Ross. I wanted to be able to sort of talk about this publicly I suppose and you asked me and I really am grateful for the opportunity that you asked me why did I want to be put forward, why did I want to be nominated for the board and
00:09:31
Speaker
It was something that I'd been thinking about for a while. I would say maybe more than a year, I'd thought about doing this or considering the opportunity when it arose. And there were lots of, I guess, influences and factors and signs in some ways that kept kind of pointing me towards making the decision to definitely go ahead and nominate myself and get support for that nomination to the board. The main one actually that
00:10:00
Speaker
really drives me is actually around diversity. And I have to say, it was probably Eddie Betts and the presentation at the conference that really cemented it for me in trying to really get better understanding and awareness and change around diversity, particularly cultural diversity. So it's something that I'm intimately and personally passionate about anyway.
00:10:28
Speaker
And when I look at our board as a representation, when I look at our industry as a representation, I go to many events. And I hate to say, but I'm often the one of very few brown faces in the crowd. So. Hang on. Whoa, whoa, whoa. What? What? Brown face? But Adele, your name's Adele Last. And you speak good Aussie like I do. What do you mean, brown face? Yes. Well, I'm glad you asked that too, Ross. What many people probably don't know is I have an Indian background. So yes.
00:10:57
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I was born in Australia and I have an Aussie accent. Obviously, if you haven't met me or seen me and you'd only heard the podcast, you wouldn't note that I have a multicultural background. But I come from migrant, new migrants to Australia. My parents were both migrants. They came to Australia with very little. They were not recognised for the skills and qualifications they had in their own country. They had to start again. And I've lived that experience in trying to
00:11:23
Speaker
you know, restart life in a new country and seeing how hard that is firsthand. And as well as through my program, you know, currently now I spend a lot of time with similar type people, new migrants or people who've come to Australia and studied and are really finding it hard to get that first break in Australia. So of all different nationalities, not just Indian, but yeah, as I said, something that is very passionate about, and I think it's important. Obviously diversity is a big buzzword, but I kind of hate that it is just a word. I really want to see,
00:11:53
Speaker
some change and I think we need to lead that as an industry if we're going to be talking to clients and candidates about being diverse and how important diversity is. We've got to show it in our own membership base and in our own board. I agree. I absolutely agree and that came across and hit me between the eyes when last week at the RCSA conference there was a
00:12:20
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presentation on helping refugees into work and on stage was a refugee from Iran and he was looking out into the audience and he basically made a comment about, although he didn't say it specifically, basically he inferred, wow all I'm seeing is white faces out there and
00:12:44
Speaker
you know, no surprise because it's, well, Winston Bernard is clearly not a white face and Winston's been around the whole recruitment industry in this country for a long time. She is certainly one of the most prominent non-white members, but she's very much in the minority. Yeah, I've often sat at an event with Winston and we've commented about being one of two very few
00:13:11
Speaker
women of color in fact as well. So not just having the brown face, but very few women involved as well. So yes, that's definitely one of the key drivers. A couple of the other things that are around my commitment to the industry and to the RCSA and what it stands for and what we do. I love recruitment. I am a recruiter through and through. I always have been through my career and I've been a member of the RCSA for
00:13:38
Speaker
the whole time. I've been a recruiter. I joined when I very first started and I've maintained that membership consistently because I really believe in having an association that represents us and supporting that association, both financially and physically. I've always volunteered my time for different committees and different clubs. I'm on the Count Victaz Council. I even worked for the RCSA for a short while. People may not know that. So I actually worked as an employee.
00:14:03
Speaker
of the RCSA, and so I feel like I've got an intimate understanding of the internal challenges of running an association that's member-based, that is run by committee. It's hard, it's really hard, and I absolutely have huge respect for what the RCSA do for our industry, and I can see from both sides, so I think that's a really valuable sort of view to have as a board member, and I'm really future-focused, you know? I'm still young. I know I have very gray hair, if you've seen this.
00:14:31
Speaker
I was great from a young age, so I'm younger than I probably look. But I am future focused about what this industry stands for moving forward. So I have a huge respect and was trained by what I call kind of the elder statesman of the industry. I was trained and coached and mentored by those that I have huge respect for that lay the foundation. But now I'd like to take it to the next phase of its evolution. I'd like to see
00:15:00
Speaker
where we take this industry, there's so much change, there's always been change. And I think we need to move a little faster than we have been. And I'd like to keep us future focused as well. So they're my main reasons for us. Excellent. So should I say right at this point, authorized by Ross Crennett, Ben's Road Mornington, like, you know, for electoral ads, everything's got to be authorized. So maybe I should put that disclaimer. I'm sure we don't have to, it's the RCSA. I don't know how many other people
00:15:30
Speaker
are going to nominate for the position. I'd imagine there will be an election. I certainly know of one other person that's nominated. So when does the voting start Adil? Do you know? I don't know the details. Yeah, no, I don't know the details. Just waiting for confirmation of that. There'll be, I agree with you. I believe there are a number of people that will nominate. So I'll be one of a number of people you can consider. We all need to put
00:15:58
Speaker
a description of our backgrounds out into the public. So you'll be able to read about myself and the other nominees. And, you know, if you feel like I'm a worthy applicant for your vote to represent you as a member, I'd really love to have your vote and happy to chat with anyone at any time about, you know, what's important to membership. And that's what I'm really wanting to drive as that future focus is what do our members really want and how do we get that happening straight away.
00:16:25
Speaker
Great, so there you have it. Recruitment News Australia goes political for Question of the Week this week, unashamedly promoting the candidacy of Adele last for the position of accredited representative on the RCSA National Board. So vote Juan Adele and look forward to seeing you as a member of the National Board in the very near future Adele. Thanks Ross, thanks for the opportunity and yes, vote Juan Adele. Thank you.
00:16:54
Speaker
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.