Recruitment Extra December 2012 issue by Thomson Reuters

December 2012 8543V1212

recruitmentextra.com.au

Recruitment Excellence Awards 2012 2012: a year in review

The leading magazine for recruitment professionals in Australia and New Zealand

Our ever popular Recruiters’ Yearbook will be coming to you in print and online in 2013. Our essential directory of services and products for recruitment professionals will help you make the right purchasing decisions for your business in 2013. This complimentary resource has proven to be invaluable for many across the industry and this year it will be even easier to use. Just head to recruitmentextra.com.au to view the directory and you’ll find information and links to a huge range of essential resources. Why not bookmark our page whilst you’re there.

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Looking after members for over 20 years We are Australia’s leading industry fund for the recruitment sector. Q uality product options with low fees and excellent insurance cover Competitive investment performance O ver 420,000 members, looking after Australia’s leading recruitment firms S upports the Recruitment Industry and Principal Partner of the RCSA D edicated Member Education and Advice Consultants to assist you1 A warded Canstar Cannex’s 5 stars for outstanding value for the RecruitmentSuper SelectSuper product in 2012*

PRINCIPAL PARTNER OF

P: 1300 304 000 E: memberexperience@recruitmentsuper.com.au W: www.recruitmentsuper.com.au This information is of a general nature only and does not take into account your personal objectives, situation or needs. Before making a decision about RecruitmentSuper, you should consider your own requirements and the relevant Product Disclosure Statement. For a copy call us or visit the RecruitmentSuper website, www.recruitmentsuper.com.au. Professional Associations Superannuation Limited (PASL) (ABN 14 056 917 303 AFSL 222590 RSE L0000352) is the Trustee of Professional Associations Superannuation Fund (PASF) (ABN 78 984 178 687 RSE R1000429). RecruitmentSuper is a Division of PASF. 1. PASL has engaged eo Pty Ltd (ABN 53 000 013 276 AFSL 232501) to provide general financial advice, marketing and sales services for PASL. Financial services provided by eo Pty Ltd are provided under eo Pty Ltd’s Australian Financial Services Licence. Consultants are employed by eo Financial Services Pty Ltd (ABN 57 103 181 844) and are Authorised Representatives of eo Pty Ltd. * For further information on the Canstar Cannex award, please visit the Canstar Cannex website at www.canstar.com.au/superannuation

Industry focus

THE YEAR IN REVIEW Well it certainly has been a bumpy year and one that I’m sure a lot of recruiters will be pleased to see the back of. Starting off with such promise, the industry has suffered from the media negativity about the robustness of our economy. So despite it generally holding up well in this country, we have been affected by the European debt crisis, the US Presidential elections, the downgrade in commodities and shelved plans for expansion in the mining area as a response to the issues in China and their change of leadership. Despite all this our unemployment levels have held up well, our interest rates have either been cut or on hold and our banks are in great shape compared with some of their overseas counterparts. However international and local PLC recruitment companies have predominantly posted profit downgrades and we have seen retrenchments occur with some of the larger players. Meanwhile amongst the SMEs we are seeing some active growth. There are recruitment companies taking advantage of these times to grow their businesses and are enjoying good profits and increases in staff numbers. Growth may not be in the way that we have seen in the past ie pre GFC, however, there is strategic growth in sectors that are not so affected by the above areas. Queensland is a good example of the ‘bumpy’ ride. The state saw a shedding of up to 14,000 government jobs which had a massive impact on a number of recruiters who relied on the government sector for their business. Although government has in the past seemed a fairly secure sector in which to specialise, I suppose the answer is not to have all your business tied to one market. Other sectors that enjoyed good growth and appeared relatively free from downturn were IT, sales and marketing, and accounting. Accounting seems to have made a comeback as does, to some extent, finance. Areas which have not recovered seem to be office support, retail, travel and areas of the manufacturing sector. Although mining and construction have been affected there are still some areas in oil, gas and engineering that are seeing growth. Now is a good time to be recruiting for your 2013 planned growth, as come early next year we will find again that a lot of recruitment companies are 'fighting' over the same small pool of attractive candidates. On behalf of us all at Scott Recruitment I would like to offer my compliments of the season to all our clients and candidates. We will look forward to an improved 2013 for the whole recruitment sector. However my advice is that there is business to be gained out there and the smart companies are making plans to grow through acquisition and/or organically. Don’t be left behind! 

Rosemary Scott, FRCSA (Life) has spent 35 years in the recruitment industry in Australia and run her own business for the majority of this time. Rosemary started Scott Recruitment Services in 1992, as the first recruitment to recruitment company in Australasia, and now has offices in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne. All the offices in Australia are now franchised. Rosemary also buys and sells recruitment businesses.

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from the editor I’m not sure how I’d sum up 2012, professionally it’s been challenging with some momentous highs and lows. Personally it’s been full of surprises, not all of them pleasant. But if there is one thing I am sure of, it’s that we are now in the new norm. Will we ever get the lucrative days of pre 2008 back? I doubt it. What we have now though is something far more exciting, the fruit is harder to reach and takes smarts as well as sheer might to get hold of, but when we do it’s so much sweeter for it. Those with tenacity, patience and the ability and agility to morph their services into a true solution for clients will thrive in the years to come. Many are already bracing themselves for a challenge in 2013, whatever transpires it promises to be interesting. As usual every year we end with a bang by bringing the awards highlights to you in our special lift out. Our fifth year has raised the bar yet again. Every year the judges are impressed with the quality of submissions for the REA but 2012 stood out. Congratulations to all the winners and finalists once again. Finally I’d like to thank all of our contributors for sharing their expertise in 2012, our advertisers for their ongoing support and our readers for their loyalty. I wish everyone a safe and happy festive season and look forward to joining you on the next journey during 2013.

www.recruitmentextra.com.au

News

Telework a Is racism holding win-win for Australia back? business and employees

The Diversity Council Australia’s annual debate, chaired by Tony Jones, took place at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in November. Over a hundred attendees from HR and business watched a panel of six discuss whether racism was holding Australia back. Arguing for the affirmative (racism was holding Australia back) was Helen Szoke, Race Discrimination Commissioner, Australian Human Rights Commission; Jason Glanville, CEO, National Centre of Indigenous Excellence and Silma Ihram, Project Manager, Australian Muslim Women’s Association. Joe Hildebrand, Journalist, Daily Telegraph; Sophie Crawford-Jones, Strategic Sales & Marketing, PwC and Vish Viswanathan, Past President of the Federation of Australian Indian Associations argued that racism was not holding Australia back. Prior to the debate the audience voted on the statement returning an 80:20 result for the affirmative. After the debate there was a swing of 9% to the negative team, however, with a final result of 71% to 29%, the debate was awarded to the affirmative. “All panellists agreed that racism is a problem that exists and must be tackled, although they disagreed on the extent to which it affects Australian workplaces and the wider community,” said Nareen Young, DCA’s CEO. The debate also confirmed the need for a greater understanding and focus on cultural diversity at senior levels of Australian business, she added. Following the debate the DCA announced the launch of a new research project that will examine the cultural profile and intercultural capabilities at board and senior executive levels of ASX200 companies. The project will deliver industry-driven research, comparable to the EOWA Census of Women in Leadership, in order to generate a greater understanding of and engagement with cultural diversity in Australian workplaces. Through this project, DCA aims to inspire Australian businesses to value cultural diversity and the inter-cultural capabilities this can bring, and encourage businesses to source Board and executive talent from culturally diverse local, as well as regional and global settings.

On the back of National Telework Week in November both the Diversity Council Australia (DCA) and the Ai Group have commended the practice of teleworking as a felxible working option. Nareen Young, DCA’s CEO said businesses should embrace telework and other forms of flexible working to achieve substantial business benefits: "There’s plenty of research in Australia and overseas that says flexible working like telework provides significant benefits for employers and employees such as improvements to productivity and performance; employee engagement, health and job satisfaction; and attraction and retention of people talent – not to mention the environmental benefits of eliminating the commute to work. It has certainly been my experience that people can work from home very productively with the

appropriate technology,” said Young. Innes Willox, Australian Industry Group Chief Executive, added that government research had shown that workers who switch to telework are up to 40% more productive. "The world of work is changing,” he continued. “Companies are increasingly adopting flexible work strategies, including telework, in response to these changes. However, as our research found, there remain barriers to adopting telework in some sectors, especially where employees are less likely to be ‘office bound’. Businesses and their employees need more than just an internet connection to unlock the telework benefits. Our research indicates that a number of factors, including company culture, physical workplace design and technology all contribute to the success of telework.”

Talent grows NZ offering

Chandler Macleod acquires Trilogy

Talent International has announced the acquisition of Neal Andrews & Associates of New Zealand. The deal will see the company join forces with Talent International's existing team in Wellington to create a stronger offering in the local IT&T sector. Neal Andrews will head up the combined entity in Wellington and will oversee the integration of both recruitment practices.

Chandler Macleod has announced the purchase of Trilogy Resources for $4.75 million. Trilogy is a supplier of IT, Project Management and IT development contractors in Western Australia and has long term contracts with numerous customers including the Western Australian Government. This acquisition is expected to add considerable market share to Chandler Macleod’s existing businesses in these areas. On a full year basis, Trilogy is anticipated to contribute approximately $1.7 million to Chandler Macleod’s profit before tax. It will be reported within the Staffing Services segment. Trilogy staff and contractors have already joined Chandler Macleod and all customer contracts for supply will be fulfilled by the Chandler Macleod brand using existing premises and systems. As this is a purchase of assets (rather than shares), there is no debt associated with the Trilogy business. Chandler Macleod’s Managing Director, Cameron Judson, said: “The Trilogy business provides an increase in market share in the key white collar contracting market in Western Australia. The increase in experienced staff and the strong group of contractors and developers positions us for further growth in this market.”

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Contents

Inside December

General editor Lesley Horsburgh Tel +61 2 8587 7920 lesley.horsburgh@thomsonreuters.com Production editor Imogen Tear Tel +61 2 8587 7258 imogen.tear@thomsonreuters.com Submissions imogen.tear@thomsonreuters.com

Special 16 page lift out Features

Advertising Australia & New Zealand Helen Sykes Tel +61 2 8587 7462 helen.sykes@thomsonreuters.com

12 Tech Trends For 2013

Enquiries Emily Ings Tel +61 2 8587 7051 emily.ings@thomsonreuters.com Graphic design Yamin Spendlove Printing Ligare

15 Recruitment Excellence Awards 2012 Lift Out 34 2012 In Review

35 IT Recruitment Year In Focus

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Regulars

Publisher Thomson Reuters (Professional) Australia Limited ABN 64 058 914 668 Head office 100 Harris Street Pyrmont NSW 2009 Tel +61 2 8587 7000 Fax +61 2 8587 7100

5 News The latest news, events and announcements 11 What's On Our guide to industry learning and events

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14 Online Recruitment

ISSN 1835-1395 All information in recruitment extra is copyright. Material is not to be used or reproduced without written permission. No responsibility is taken for unsolicited material. Articles reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the publisher.

31 Social Recruiting

36 The Panel 38 HR Report 40 On the Move

Movers and shakers in the industry

41 Directory

Advertising directory

News

Connected intelligence key to successful leadership A white paper released by The Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership (IECL) has challenged current approaches to leadership development in Australia and called for a major shift from individualistic approaches to leadership to a focus on Connected Intelligence (CQ). Research author and Director of Education at the IECL Dr Hilary Armstrong said CQ leadership practices go beyond the individual leader and focus on greater collaboration, quality relationships, meaningful conversations and the involvement of people across all levels of the organisation to positively affect an organisation’s sustainability. Armstrong says that while leadership development practices have changed little in the last 30 years, the context of leadership has changed dramatically.

“The CEOs we’ve worked with over the last five years have all been flagging issues with a very similar theme. We’ve been working with them to foster a collaborative and connected approach to leadership within their organisations,” Armstrong said. “For a long time, organisations have focused on individual competencies and the hero leader and their ability to singlehandedly solve problems and direct others to action. In a networked world where collaboration is the prime element, this directive and individualistic leadership style is no longer adequate. “Traditional leaders continue to operate in directive leadership styles unaware of the impact of social media and the democratisation of knowledge. The new generation has access to information like never before and they

want their voices heard. They’re entering the organisational ecosystem with different expectations, strengths and ways of connecting,” she said. “In the age of social connection, organisations can no longer afford to ignore the need for this important shift in leadership development and face their leaders being left behind. Energetic engagement mixed with discretionary effort will mean high performance and results for organisations embracing CQ,” added Armstrong. IECL has worked with Westpac Institutional Bank, ANZ, NCR Global Services and the Royal Australian Navy to develop the CQ of their leaders over the last year and intend to formalise the CQ approach and make it more widely available to organisations throughout Asia Pacific in 2013.

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7 recruitment extra December 2012

News

Corporate app stores: the future? While many large organisations see smartphones, tablets and employee-owned devices in the workplace as inevitable, the majority are not providing employees with more than basic email/calendar mobile applications to take advantage of this new mobility. This shortfall in support for employee mobility is driving employees to download unauthorised apps even though doing so could be grounds for dismissal,

according to research commissioned by Unisys. Almost half (42%) of Australian employees said that they had downloaded unauthorised mobile apps or PC software. The most common reason given for doing so – cited by 63% of respondents – was that they needed it for work purposes and their employer didn’t provide an alternative. Aside from personal email apps and websites, the most common apps downloaded by Australian employees were video conferencing tools such as Skype or FaceTime, file sharing such as Box or Dropbox and chat tools such as Microsoft Messenger or Google Talk. “The findings show that as part of their increased mobility, employees are seeking tools for better collaboration and customer service – whether or not those tools are sanctioned by their employers, ” said Rob Dewar, Vice President, Technology, Consulting and Integration Services, Unisys Australia and New Zealand. “However, their behaviour is risky because an easily available app could contain malicious code and be used as a vehicle to

steal data, spy or access a network. This behaviour can also lead to operational inefficiency and complicate end-user support if numerous employees are using too many different applications.” Dewar suggests implementing a corporate-managed enterprise app store containing mobile apps that have been reviewed and approved for use on the corporate network which would remove the need for employees to find and download their own apps. “The key for security-sensitive organisations is to deliver a compelling app suite to their employees via controlled methods, such as a dedicated app store, so that users don’t need to come up with workaround methods to access applications they feel necessary to do their jobs productively. Those organisations would do well to consult with their most innovative, productive mobile workers to determine what type of apps they require and then select or build them based on functionality and security. Of course, that approach needs to be combined with clear policies on application use and an education program around the security implications of third party apps,” Dewar added.

Accel-KKR acquires stake in PageUp People PageUp People has announced that Silicon Valley-based private investment firm AccelKKR has taken a $10 million equity stake in the company. Accel-KKR Managing Director Greg Williams, who has joined the PageUp People Board of Directors said, “PageUp People is the latest in our portfolio of premium software companies and reflects both our research and belief in growing market demand for human capital resource management technologies. Bootstrapped to date, PageUp People has nonetheless driven consistent double-digit growth rates while

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building a highly referencable customer base across Australia and beyond. We expect our investment to release PageUp People’s potential and substantially accelerate the execution of its strategic plan.” PageUp People CEO, Karen Cariss, said the company’s clients stood to benefit significantly and that the investment would enable the business to further develop in new markets and assist multinational employers in executing their corporate strategy across borders, cultures and languages. “This investment ensures our continued commitment to delivering innovation to our

existing customers. We are also going to great lengths to understand the nuances of the culturally and economically diverse countries for clients with large scale global operations. It requires more than simple language translations – our research is highlighting fundamental differences in style and execution that must be reflected in technology in order to fully engage multicultural audiences. Our Global Gateway interface was designed exactly to address these requirements and we’ll leverage this funding to further accelerate our product roadmap," she said.

News

Employee engagement impacts bottom line Employee engagement isn’t just about creating a happy workplace and a motivated workforce it also has a direct affect on business profitability. On average highly engaged organisations are up to twenty times more likely to see increases or improvements in customer satisfaction, attraction of key talent, productivity,

turnover and profit than those with a lower engagement score, according to research compiled by Professional Recruitment Australia (PRA) and AltusQ. “Employee engagement is largely the result of internal rather than external variables,” said Sonya Trau, Business Coach at AltusQ. “The difference between good and great levels

of engagement lies in the skills of people managers to not just implement policy, programs and initiatives, but to take full ownership for them being lived by the whole organisation. “Employees deliver when their environment gives them the space to flourish. Organisations should capture the heads and hearts of their employees.

From a general standpoint, the biggest opportunity for improvement lies in increasing your engagement capability in the areas of brand, vision and purpose, communication, managing capacity and workload, expectation management, coaching, reward and recognition and effective meetings,” Trau added.

Freelancer.com acquires vWorker In a move that consolidates Freelancer.com’s position as the largest marketplace globally, the company has announced the acquisition of vWorker. With a pool of 2.5 million professionals the acquisition of vWorker represents a huge boost to Freelancer.com’s user-base of 4.4 million professionals. "I am immensely pleased to announce the acquisition of vWorker, which has the absolute best reputation in the industry for sourcing the finest programmers”, said Matt Barrie, Chief Executive of Freelancer.com, “Through Ian’s incredible leadership over the last 12 years, vWorker was

Screening via social media: a legal minefield A survey on social media habits, released by Nuage Software, found that 15% of job seekers had been asked by an interviewer for access to their personal Facebook page at least once and 73% were happy for recruiters to view their social media profiles. However, Nicholas Linke, a partner at law firm Fisher Jeffries, warns that by viewing social networks employers are likely to become aware of job applicants’ age, political views, religious beliefs, marital status, race, union membership, medical

a pioneer in the development of many technologies and processes that the industry today takes for granted.” Ian Ippolito, Chief Executive and Founder of Exhedra Solutions, Inc (owner of vWorker), added “We’re elated to be joining forces with the global leader in the space. Our highly skilled freelancers will now be able to increase their earnings potential by accessing more projects, and our employers will be able to tap into a larger and more diversified skill base to get things done.” The terms of the acquisition were undisclosed.

information, ethnicity, and other information that cannot be used to make an employment based decision. Should an employer use such information to base a decision on whether to employ a particular candidate or not then they are exposing themselves to liability under employment discrimination laws. “There is a danger in knowing information about matters which may be the basis for discrimination or adverse action,” explains Linke. “For the same reason that asking questions about such matters in an interview is dangerous (or downright stupid), employers should proceed with caution when gathering information in this way as it could be the basis for a claim.” Should a discrimination claim arise, the employer will have the burden of proof to demonstrate that the decision to reject a job applicant was based on a legitimate nondiscriminatory reason.

Your recruitment advertisements can now appear on iPad Reach over 945,000* people with your recruitment advertisement placed within articles published on Australia’s award winning iPad apps^ – The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. Contact Rodney House on 0417 781 285. *Google Analytics, October 2012. ^Fairfax Media’s SMH and The Age iPad apps awarded news, media or reference of the year at the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association awards.

9 recruitment extra December 2012

News

Business Online as usual outsourcer launches Airtasker, an Australian online start-up company, has announced a service aimed at helping organisations outsource almost any task that they need done within their business. Airtasker Business connects organisations who are seeking to outsource business services with a workforce of over 35,000 Australians who are looking for work. Airtasker CEO, Tim Fung, said the Airtasker Business catered to organisations that needed a simple and costefficient way of tapping into a

large workforce to complete short-term jobs like flyer handouts, event promotions and mystery shopping. “Since we launched Airtasker about six months ago, we’ve created more than $400,000 worth of tasks and errands from individuals and business,” said Fung. “Businesses that use Airtasker can scale their workforce up or down as needed” Airtasker also provides staff for short-term projects, including promotional work, office administration, and marketing projects such as research and product testing.

AIM announces Young Manager of the Year

The Australian Institute of Management NSW and ACT (AIM) has announced the winner of its fifth annual Young Manager of the Year Award as Nicole Kersh. Kersh, Founder and Managing Director of 4Cabling.com.au, was selected from a shortlist of six finalists, who were interviewed by a panel consisting of AIM NSW and ACT General Managers, Nik Witcombe and Greg Field, Head of Operations, Brenda Tanner and 2011 Young Manager of the Year winner, Martin Keetels. Starting out as a sole trader in her parents’ garage in 2004, Kersh has grown 4Cabling.com.au into a business with a $6.5 million annual turnover, ranking 64th on the BRW Fast 100 list. AIM NSW and ACT CEO David Wakeley said, "This year’s winner, Nicole Kersh, is truly remarkable. Operating in a very challenging business environment, Nicole showed how she has clearly articulated her vision for her organisation and effectively used these key management skills to be a successful leader. We were impressed with Nicole’s commitment to leading by example and creating a working environment of trust, respect and shared vision.” The 2012 Young Manager receives a tailored learning and development program to the value of $5,000, which includes the opportunity to collaborate with an executive coach who can assist them in taking their career to new heights.

10 recruitment extra December 2012

The ICT sector has enjoyed ‘business as usual’ conditions in the third and fourth quarters of 2012, in spite of the varying employment conditions facing the broader Australian economy. Results from the latest Longhaus-ITCRA Australian Tech Index found that seven of the eight indicators measured had maintained or increased activity in the third quarter of 2012. Peter Carr, Managing Director of Longhaus, said: “Traditionally, the July to September quarter of any given year provides an important gauge of the health of the ICT sector, as the beginning of the new financial year means the renewal of employment contracts and the start of new budgets. “The CIO Poll found an increased intention by CIOs and ICT decision makers to commence new ICT and business projects. There was also a slight increase in CIO confidence for the fourth quarter of 2012, suggesting promising times ahead,” he said. However, the ICT professionals’ vacancies indicator continued to decline with ICT vacancies for September falling for the eighth consecutive month to a record low level since DEEWR began reporting in 2006. “Data regarding placements made by recruiters is more positive, albeit mixed. ITCRA’s most recent SkillsMatch Dashboard, which measured placements made by ITCRA Member recruiters in the third quarter of 2012, found that placements had been relatively steady throughout the past 12 months,” said Julie Mills, CEO of ITCRA. “While data released by other organisations has been less positive, no one reported significant increases in ICT placements during 2012, leading ITCRA and Longhaus to conclude that the ICT sector in this regard is mirroring the broader ‘steady as she goes’ sentiment in the Australian economy,” she said. With the exception of ICT placements, activity within the ICT sector continued at comparable levels to previous quarters. “The most recent, publically available unemployment figures indicate that ICT professionals have benefited from low unemployment, in comparison to most occupations,” said Mills.

What's on

Turning the tables

Most recruiters are happy to use social media tools to research prospective candidates for jobs, but far less take the opportunity to research the companies they represent. Mary Catania from BrightMove Recruiting Software says responsible recruiters should thoroughly evaluate their client, before introducing the organisation to potential employees. “Without understanding what you are selling you may not be fully prepared to answer all of the questions your candidate has for you during the initial interview process. Interviewing is a two-way street: the potential employee is also interviewing you to see if the job is the right fit, and you are interviewing the candidate for the same reason,” she says. Two of the resources currently available for those looking to further investigate employers are Glassdoor and the Australian-focussed InsideTrak. Both provide a platform for people to post anonymous reviews, company ratings, salary details and even CEO ratings. “InsideTrak gives job seekers a more complete view of a potential workplace,” says InsideTrak founder, Mike Larsen. “Ultimately, we see InsideTrak helping to achieve an Australian workforce better suited to their place of work and reducing staff turnover. “This type of community for the jobs market was inevitable,” he adds. “We have seen a similar model applied to other sectors – such as travel – and our social behaviour has matured now to a point where we want multiple sources of information to make the important decisions in our lives.” InsideTrak uses anonymity to protect reviewers so they can post honest, no-holds-barred opinions of their current or former employer. The site also encourages employers and recruiters to join the conversation.

What’s on

training & events calendar 2012 january • february • march • april • may • june • july • august • september • october • november • december

RCSA Workshop – Introduction to

jan Recruitment Consulting

This one day intensive workshop will bring your new consultant up to speed. Through group activities, role plays, case studies and practical exercises, participants will understand what is required to develop the strong foundation needed to be a successful recruiter.  Managing the candidates – sourcing and managing their expectations  Managing your clients – superior service and managing their expectations  Job Profiling – deciphering the role, the person and the key competencies  Sourcing – designing advertisements and methods to source that elusive candidate  Screening – telephone techniques, resume evaluation and assessments  Selecting – behavioural interviews, selection tools and reference checking  Servicing – repeat business and maintaining the relationship Friday 18th January 2013 – Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane

feb

CEO Panel Breakfast

Join us for the first and much anticipated RCSA breakfast for 2013 where a panel of Recruitment Industry leaders will share ideas, offer opinions, and discuss issues facing the industry. Don't miss out on this unique opportunity to gain an insight into your industry from Recruitment trailblazers. Melbourne – 7th February Auckland – 12th February Wellington – 13th February Sydney – 13th February Christchurch – 14th February Brisbane – 14th February Adelaide – 21st February Perth – 22nd February Sponsored by RecruitmentSuper.

YOW wows

For the second year in a row Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne have hosted the Australian Software Developers Conference – Yow! Over 1,300 ICT professionals attended the conferences to listen to speakers from MS, Amazon, Heroku, New Relic, GroupOn and Github, and authors and presenters such as Don Reinersten, Mike Lee and Kevlin Henney and Erik Meijer. Organised by Developers for Developers in partnership with Professional Recruitment Australia the conference received positive feedback from attendees. “A conference of this calibre rarely reaches Australia's shores,” said PRA Co-Director Matt Gordon. “It's a once a year opportunity for the best of the best to meet up! We are already looking forward to next year’s YOW!”

RCSA Gala Ball 2013 – Save the date! may Nominations are now open for the 2013 RCSA Awards:  PEARL Award for Professional, Emerging and Aspiring Recruitment Leaders (sponsored by CareerOne.com.au)  McLean Award for Workplace Safety (sponsored by WorkPro)  Corporate Social Responsibility Award (sponsored by FastTrack) The winners will be announced at the RCSA Gala Ball in May so ensure you pencil in the date for the industry’s night of nights. Thursday 30th May 2013, Doltone House – Jones Bay Wharf, Piers 19-21 – Upper Deck, 26-32 Pirrama Road, Pyrmont, Sydney Proudly Supported by Principal Event and Awards Partner, RecruitmentSuper. For more information on all upcoming RCSA events and to register, visit www.rcsa.com.au or call +61 2 9922 3477

11 recruitment extra December 2012

Technology watch

Tech Trends for 2013 By Nicholas Beames, CEO, astutepayroll.com

The recruitment industry is riding a rapid and massive wave of change. For the better in most part but also in some ways for the worse.

oday’s technology enables recruitment firms to reach out in ways unimaginable only a few short years ago. However, it is a double-edged sword for this technology also changes the fundamental way employers and job seekers engage with each other. Recruitment firms thus find themselves a participant in a new game of ‘piggy in the middle’ without, in most but not all cases, knowing how the game changed or how they need to change their tactics to fit in with the new rules. The new rules are all about utilising technology to reach further, engage deeper, and process quicker. In the process, data from multiple sources is used to predict, social networks are morphed into genuine talent networks, and ‘best-of-breed’ cloud

12 recruitment extra December November 2012

applications talk to each other creating a seamless whole-of-lifecycle process.

Here are the four trends that I think will be the most important for recruiting in 2013: 1. Centralised recruiting metrics that are predictive

One of the biggest trends in the HR and recruitment space is metrics and data. Whether it is for workforce planning or talent acquisition, there is a need for accurate data to make better strategic decisions. For this need, I see two major trends in today’s marketplace: centralisation and predictive analysis. Centralisation: Most organisations today have multiple solutions for storing data. Whether it’s recruitment ad data in

their job distribution solution, sourcing data in their recruiting CRM or applicant/ hire data in their ATS, there are a number of disparate solutions that contain data you need to make good decisions. The key is making sure these solutions speak to one another so you can take this data and make it all available in one central location. Data is only valuable if it is accessible to you when you make decisions –centralization is key. On top of this, recruiting data will be for the entire recruiting funnel from first click to becoming a placement in an ATS. Data will be tracked by every source used and be displayed together in order to get a full view of the recruitment funnel and understand what recruiting initiatives provide the most ROI. Predictive analysis: Once you have your

data centralised, it is time to analyse what is happening in your recruiting strategy. While there is value in providing raw data, an important value add vendors are pursuing is taking this data and providing their own analysis on top of it. The easier and more intuitive vendors can make their reporting solutions, the more valuable these solutions are in the recruiting decision making process. In addition, vendors will continue to do better at providing users with the ability to play with the data and create custom reports that are important to their organisation.

2. Social recruiting – education and value add

The value of social media in recruiting is immense. Not only does it provide a great way to engage with candidates on a platform where they feel comfortable but it also provides a wealth of new data points to evaluate a candidate.

Education

During the course of working with recruitment firms, I see that there is still a great need for education on the social recruiting basics. These organisations are looking for help anywhere they can get it and many times are looking toward vendors for this knowledge. This education will go past how to leverage the vendor’s social recruiting solutions (which I will expand on below) but more towards how to build a comprehensive social strategy, which will include utilising their solutions as well as many of the great social media marketing tools that exist in the marketplace. Most importantly, vendors will need to understand & be able to communicate the inherent benefits & tradeoffs that come with a social strategy.

Adding value

The problem today, however, is that many of the social solutions in talent acquisition technology do not necessarily add value to the already fantastic social media marketing solutions that exist in the marketplace (and should be used for any social recruiting strategy). It will be important for technology vendors to focus on adding value to the space and less on just checking the social recruiting check box on the RFP. For example, solutions such as incorporating social data for contacts in your CRM or talent network or tracking social media job clicks alongside job board clicks can provide value and fill a need in a company’s social strategy. Conversely, being able to post status updates from your recruiting technology in and of itself does not add very much value.

3. Your social network merging into your talent network: building your own sourcing database Companies are increasingly looking for ways to capture and most importantly engage with qualified candidates. Talent networks provide a tremendous way to build & cultivate these relationships and should see an evolution in 2013.

A few things I expect to happen to talent networks in 2013:

Social data: I expect social data to start being tied to candidates joining these networks. In addition, candidates can even use their social profiles to join. Targeted communication: With these candidates, communication is extremely important. Technology providers will find better and easier ways to target communications to specific populations in their solutions. This will lead to better engagement. Touch-point tracking: Talent networks provide a tremendous opportunity to touch candidates multiple times with your employment brand. Due to this, it will be very important to understand how many and specifically what recruiting actions drive conversion into applicants. Some of this data will be housed in other solutions. Community development: There has been a big push to create company owned talent communities that enable threeway communication between candidates, employers and other candidates. It will be interesting to see how this develops and if it is worth the considerable effort to build.

4. Your entire recruitment process moving into the cloud using ‘best-ofbreed’ integrated applications

Instead of spending money on aging systems, bloated software programs, maintenance, repairs, and upgrades, more and more recruitment firms are focussing on cloud-based software applications that can serve and streamline their business processes better. Cloud-based applications are faster, more efficient, and cost less. They offer more flexibility, scalability, and faster response times, as well as giving staff the ability to access information anywhere, anytime. Moving your recruitment firm to the cloud can give you the leg up over your competition, and help you prepare to take your business to the next level. The added benefit of moving to the cloud is that ‘best-of-breed’ cloud-based applications integrate, or ‘talk’, with each other. A great example of this is my

firm’s application, astutepayroll.com. The astutepayroll.com application automates online the entire process of a recruitment firm's temp and contractor business ‘from placement to payroll’. To get the placement data astutepayroll.com automatically ‘talks’ with a variety of RMS’s including but not limited to JobAdder, TRIS, and Bullhorn. In addition, at the other end the astutepayroll. com invoicing and credit management module ‘talks’ with accounting systems. This way recruitment firms get the frontend RMS they want, the astutepayroll.com ‘middle-ware’ and the back-end accounting system they want. In short, they get their cake and eat it too. With all the solutions that recruitment firms use, it will be important to make sure they all play nicely together. This includes data, contacts, process flow and many other areas. I see vendors being very flexible in terms of their API and integration options so that organisations can leverage the right technology for their situations.

In summary

While centralised recruiting metrics, social recruiting and talent networks are the three main recruitment technology trends I see, there are a number of other trends including mobile that will play a big part in innovation in 2013. The key is to understand the key problems and gaps in your marketing process today and figure out the solution you need to fix them. 

Nicholas Beames is a veteran of the recruitment industry. With a career spanning 17 years Nicholas cut his teeth in the fast paced world of finance recruitment in London before returning to Australia, at just 26 years of age, to start his first recruitment business. A decade later, in 2006, Nicholas founded astutepayroll.com and with his business partner, Marcus Webb, has grown the company into the largest online Temp & Contractor management application provider in Australia. Every day thousands of recruiters use astutepayroll.com to manage their Temp & Contractor workforce online, anytime, and from anywhere. Nicholas has completed post graduate studies in Commerce, Accounting, and Business with Sydney University and is completing an MBA with Southern Cross University. He is a Fellow of the AHRI, a Fellow of the RCSA, and a Member of the AICD.

recruitment recruitment extra extra December November 2012 13

Technology watch

Tech Trends for 2013 By Nicholas Beames, CEO, astutepayroll.com

The recruitment industry is riding a rapid and massive wave of change. For the better in most part but also in some ways for the worse.

12 recruitment extra December November 2012

applications talk to each other creating a seamless whole-of-lifecycle process.

Here are the four trends that I think will be the most important for recruiting in 2013: 1. Centralised recruiting metrics that are predictive

2. Social recruiting – education and value add

Education

Adding value

A few things I expect to happen to talent networks in 2013:

4. Your entire recruitment process moving into the cloud using ‘best-ofbreed’ integrated applications

In summary

recruitment recruitment extra extra December November 2012 13

Online recruitment

Year-on-Year market share for Business and Finance - Employment and Training, in All Categories Based on market share of visits to the industry. Monthly rankings for the month of October 2012 This category features online job databases, employment classified websites, employment agencies and human resource management services. It also includes any websites related to job seeking, vocational training and career development. Rank

Website

Domain

Visits

Seek Australia

www.seek.com.au

25.78%

www.linkedin.com

16.61%

CareerOne

www.careerone.com.au

5.38%

MyCareer

www.mycareer.com.au

4.48%

indeed Australia

www.indeed.com.au

4.11%

jobrapido Australia

au.jobrapido.com

3.55%

Australian JobSearch

www.jobsearch.gov.au

2.28%

SimplyHired Australia

www.simplyhired.com.au

1.92%

Job Seeker

www.jobseeker.com.au

1.62%

Woolworths - Careers

www.wowcareers.com.au

1.09%

Star Now Australia

www.starnow.com.au

0.67%

Defence Jobs - Australian Government Department of Defence

www.defencejobs.gov.au

0.65%

Fair Work Online

www.fairwork.gov.au

0.63%

Hays Personnel Services

www.hays.com.au

0.60%

Service Seeking

www.serviceseeking.com.au

0.59%

Jobs.com.au

www.jobs.com.au

0.57%

ninemsn Seek

ninemsn.seek.com.au

0.55%

WebJobz

www.webjobz.com

0.55%

Coles Group Careers

www.careers.colesgroup.com.au

0.54%

Jobs.wa.gov.au

www.jobs.wa.gov.au

0.53%

Date

Market Share

Date

Market Share

Oct-11

0.690%

May-12

0.818%

Nov-11

0.712%

Jun-12

0.769%

Dec-11

0.569%

Jul-12

0.783%

Jan-12

0.756%

Aug-12

0.776%

Feb-12

0.831%

Sep-12

0.781%

Mar-12

0.800%

Oct-12

0.845%

Apr-12

0.758%

14 recruitment extra December 2012

SPECIAL 16-PAGE LIFT OUT

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recruitment excellence awards 2012 2012 marked five years since the Recruitment Excellence Awards first launched in the Australian recruitment industry and what an impressive year it was. While most businesses have felt the brunt of a very challenging year, the quality of submissions told a very different story. Each year the judges sit down to discuss the finalists and debate who deserves to win and it’s never an easy task but 2012 was exceptional. Every judge will agree that this was the year that sparked the most discussion not only because the entries were of such an outstanding calibre but because the service and delivery models our industry promotes clearly show how far we have evolved in the last five years. I’d like to again acknowledge all the winners and finalists and indeed every business that took time to enter in this year’s awards, it’s not an easy process, which is why they stand out. Our winners aren’t simply the firms with enough resources to encourage volume votes, this isn’t

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a bums on seats system we’re engaged in, we attract businesses that are serious about what they do and being the best regardless of the economic environment. Of course there is a lighter side to the Awards; our gala dinner and this year we pulled out all the stops again and I’m delighted to say received stellar feedback! Over 200 professionals joined us at Sydney’s Doltone House for a night of celebrations, hilarious entertainment and cracking music. If you haven’t already checked out our video of the evening please do so at: www. recruitmentextra.com.au/REA

The 2012 Recruitment Excellence Awards SPECIAL 16-PAGE LIFT OUT

Our MC

Attendees were entertained on the night by Darren Carr whose act – a mixture of ventriloquism, humour and audience participation (or humiliation depending on who you were) – had many guests in tears of laughter. The hilarious and occasionally potentially inappropriate jokes kept the room captivated but it was Rob from Roseville Chase who stole the show. Darren, who claims it was his fondness of playing with dolls at age 8 which eventually drew him towards ventriloquism, has performed to a variety of clients worldwide including the AFL, Tooheys, Mazda, Hagemeyer, Wild Turkey, Westpac, Toyota, Dick Smith and Thomson Reuters. He has received numerous entertainment awards including several as ‘Australian Performer of the Year’ and in 2011 was voted the MO Award for Best Speciality Act.

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Award categories The Deloitte Recruitment Excellence Award – Best Business Management (Growth and Large)

This category recognises firms who display innovative techniques in managing their firm for successful financial results. Successful nominees will be able to show strategies that have increased sales and gross margins and/or decreased overhead expenses. Our expert panel of judges will be looking for initiatives such as innovative remuneration strategies for consultants and identification of synergies to reduce or remove unnecessary costs.

Best Attraction and Retention Strategy

Advertising and brand, induction and personal development will all be under the spotlight here. Companies will be required to provide examples of innovative advertising campaigns, their success and a route from initial hire to current employment of several staff members.

Best Boutique Agency Profiling some of Australia’s best niche operators this award will fi rmly set apart businesses with a focus on best practice. Nominees will be required to disclose client and candidate contacts for referrals, evidence of a thorough understanding of the business niche across consultants and a well developed business plan that reflects knowledge in the chosen market.

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Best Brand

This award really hones in on the brand message delivered to candidates, clients and staff. Nominees will be required to provide examples of advertising, marketing literature, and internal procedures in relation to brand communication. By allowing us to talk to a selection of your staff we will determine how the brand permeates through to the company culture and beyond.

Best Candidate Management Program

Candidates are king! This award will highlight those recruiters who have a definite candidate management plan in action, which adhered to by every staff member from reception to consultant and into management. Details of candidate feedback, follow up, retention and referrals will be just some of the information we seek from nominees.

The astutepayroll. com Award: Excellence in the Application of New Technologies

The availability and application of new technologies within the recruiting sector is changing the way we work – for the better.To stay ahead of competitors firms need to engage their community of candidates and clients in a number of ways, whilst at the same time continually streamline their internal processes to lower cost and increase margin. This award will recognize a firm whose efforts at engagement through social media and/or streamlining through the use of cloud computing applications.

The IMS People: Best Innovation Award

Profiling some of Australia’s most creative operators and organisations this award will firmly set apart businesses with a focus on innovation. Innovation is described as (1) Origination – the act or process of inventing or introducing something new; or (2) New idea or method – a new invention or way of doing something. Nominees will be required to provide a well developed business strategy that defines the innovative process or activity, evidence of the success of the innovation on the business, and client, candidate or staff contacts to support the impact of the innovation.

Best Learning and Development Plan

This category is designed to highlight those employers who are dedicated to the ongoing personal and career development of their people. Nominees will be required to show evidence of internal training material, succession planning and implementation along with external courses, coaching opportunities, mentors, buddy systems and or any other focus around development. Staff will be communicated with to evaluate the employee experience.

Best MultiNational Agency

Multi-national firms nominating for this Award will need to demonstrate a clear message across all regions, a consistency of service and delivery and examples of internal communication between branches.

The successful firm will be able to provide material that supports how procedure is implemented in each location along with candidate and client referrals.

Best National Agency

National recruiters will have the opportunity to showcase how a successful business model can flow across more than one location. Here we will be looking for consistency in service and delivery, a definitive company culture that is echoed throughout each branch and a level of quality that is upheld across the entire firm. Nominees will be required to disclose client and candidate contacts for referrals.

Best Recruitment Agency Website

Innovation, ease of use and creative flair will determine the winning fi rm of this award. Our judges will join a team of experts in this fi eld to critique the employer message, its level of information and relevance, along with quality of information.

Best Start-Up

A unique opportunity for new and young businesses to put themselves on the industry map. This award will focus on the business plan, structure and operational aspects of recently launched businesses, examining closely how goals have been implemented and the business objectives achieved.

The 2012 Recruitment Excellence Awards SPECIAL 16-PAGE LIFT OUT

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Award judges

Nigel Harse Nigel commenced his recruitment career in the UK in 1977. In 1990 he came to Australia and launched ECCO Personnel, and in just five years took the company from $7 million to $75 million in sales. The company doubled in size, turnover and profitability each and every year for four years. This Australian subsidiary of the worldwide Ecco Group was consistently ranked within the Top 3 performers. Throughout the 90s Nigel was instrumental in the creation, development and delivery of training for the Special Interest Groups within the NAPC He also served as a Councillor for five years and is a former Vice President of the NAPC (now RCSA). Nigel was appointed as a NonExecutive Director for Catalyst Recruitment in October 2001 and is a Fellow of the RCSA and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. In 2003, Nigel established the Recruitment Industry Benchmark Report (RIB Report) in response to frequent requests from industry members to find a means of comparing the results and successes of peers. Currently, Nigel is a business coach and mentor to recruitment firms throughout Australia and New Zealand.

“It was great to see so many well thought out submissions this year, the bar has been raised once again!” Nigel Harse, MDBTWO Pty Ltd

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Bronwyn Murphy Bronwyn is the owner and principal coach/trainer of BJ&M Consulting Services. The business provides its client with tools to improve the recruitment skills of Recruitment Consultants and Managers, HR professionals and Executives responsible for hiring decisions. Bronwyn is also passionate about helping companies retain staff through better hiring decisions and ongoing people management. Bronwyn’s clients include a range of firms within the professional services, IT, recruitment and international markets. A former recruitment consultant and head hunter, Bronwyn has a wealth of experience recruiting across all levels along with a sound track record in managing successful relationships. She has considerable experience delivering short courses and workshops in a class environment along with a successful history of coaching businesses at a more indepth level. To date her recruitment and training career spans over 14 years.

Paul Masters Paul Masters is a tax partner at Deloitte Sydney. He specialises in providing taxation advice to recruitment companies, particularly in the areas of M&A, restructuring and tax planning. He is the tax adviser to four ASX listed recruitment companies and numerous private recruitment companies. As national leader of the Deloitte Recruitment Industry Group, Paul indirectly oversees the services provided to over thirty recruitment companies in both Sydney and Melbourne. Paul is a regular contributor Recruitment Extra magazine and has presented on tax issues on Sky Business news.

The 2012 Recruitment Excellence Awards SPECIAL 16-PAGE LIFT OUT

Mike Beeley Mike Beeley migrated to Australia from the United Kingdom in 1989 and has spent the last 20+ years helping global and local organisations understand their Employee Value Proposition and how to market that proposition to their target audiences through traditional and emerging media. Through his ad agency, ReAgent Employer Marketing, he brings marketing disciplines to the HR profession, helping organisations to build talent pools through creative advertising and other sourcing strategies and engaging internal communications. Mike has helped organisations across all industries in the private and public sectors, showing them how to build the skills and resources to “farm” talent through employer branding and talent experience management. He is a regular speaker in Australia and overseas on how talent acquisition and retention can form the backbone of a good Workforce Plan.

Rod Hore Since 1999 Rod has been the Executive Director of HHMC Australia providing advisory and M&A services to organisations throughout Australia and New Zealand. Much of Rod’s work is with emerging private companies. Rod is an enthusiastic supporter of the Recruitment Industry and is an accomplished presenter on topics related to small business. Prior to founding HHMC, Rod had 20 years experience in the Information Technology industry in a range of sales management and leadership roles in Perth, Canberra and Sydney.

“We say it each year, but the entries continue to improve. Agencies are clearly articulating their strengths and developing more sophisticated responses. It is a pleasure to review the submissions and the industry should be proud of the quality of the finalists and winners. Well done to everyone who participated.” Rod Hore, Executive Director, HHMC

Ross Clennett Since 2003 Ross has been an indemand expert on recruitment and the recruitment industry in Australia. As a professional recruiter, between 1989 and 2003, Ross screened over 80,000 resumes, interviewed over 3,000 people and successfully placed over 1500 people in work. Over this time he worked in London, Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne. He has been professionally recognised by the designation, FRCSA (Fellow) awarded by the Recruitment & Consulting Services Association (Aus & NZ). Since 2001 Ross’s opinion pieces and skill development articles have been regularly published in recruitment industry magazines and on specialist recruitment websites, both in Australia and around the world. In 2011 and 2012 Ross was a national finalist in the RCSA’s Outstanding Contribution Award given in recognition of, amongst other criteria, to a person who has raised the professionalism of the industry through their contribution.

“The standard of entries continues to improve each year and as a result the credibility of the winning agencies is greatly enhanced. It’s great that so many agencies are both aspiring to, and accomplishing, excellence in our industry.” Ross Clennett, FRCSA, speaker, trainer, coach

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here’s what our sponsors had to say “Lesley and the team at TR have once again excelled. As an organisation we attend many events and look forward to the REAs the most. The opportunity to meet with industry peers in a relaxed, honest and friendly environment is always welcomed.” Event sponsor

Stefano Masiello, CXC

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“ITCRA is always thrilled to recognise excellence and best practice and it was especially rewarding to do so again this year. What was even more pleasing was the number of ITCRA Members who were finalists and who were their section winners. As always the awards were a fantastic social event and lots of networking and partying well into the night!” Julie Mills, ITCRA

“astutepayroll.com had a blast at the awards night. The MC was one of the funniest I have ever seen. The whole night moved along at a great pace and we really look forward to next year’s bash.” Nicholas Beames, astutepayroll.com

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“Bibby was proud to be a part of the 2012 REAs recognising excellence within the recruitment industry. Congratulations to all the nominees and the winners and thank you for a wonderful night!” Brendan Green, Bibby Financial Services, Australia

The 2012 Recruitment Excellence Awards SPECIAL 16-PAGE LIFT OUT

“This is our fifth year of sponsoring the REAs and each year the finalists just keep getting better and better. I would like to congratulate all the finalists and also thank Thomson Reuters for another outstanding night of entertainment and fun. We love the recruitment industry!!!” Paul Masters, Deloitte

“It is a credit to Lesley and the team that the REAs are cementing their place in the Australian and New Zealand recruitment industry. We are very happy with how the quality of responses improves each year - IMS is proud to continue its association with Innovation in the industry.” Amit Somaiya, IMS

“Congratulations to all the winners of the Recruitment Excellence Awards 2012! A great evening to network with the industry and see the outstanding achievements being recognised and rewarded.” Michael O’Donnell, Fairfax Media

“RCSA would like to congratulate all finalists and winners – it is important to see excellence in our industry receive recognition.” Steve Granland, RCSA

“The evening was a great festival of talent. It was a showcase for some of the finest companies in the industry, and those serving the industry. We really enjoyed meeting so many of the industry’s best companies, and firmly congratulate all the winners on their honours. We look forward to being involved next year, and throughout the year with other industry events.” Ben Hutt, Tempurer

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recruitment extra would like to thank everyone who made the 2012 Recruitment Excellence Awards Gala Dinner such a success. Once again congratulations go to all our winners and finalists: Deloitte Recruitment Excellence Award GROWTH Category Winner:

Hender Group

Finalists: Trilogy Constructive Recruitment

Deloitte Recruitment Excellence Award LARGE category Winner:

Talent International Finalist: Finite

Best Start-Up Winner:

HorizonOne

Finalists: Recruitloop Alcami Aspect Personnel

Best Recruitment Agency Website Winner:

M&T Resources

Finalists: Ochre Recruitment FuturePeople

Best Brand

The IMS People Best Business Innovation Award Winner:

Recruitloop

Finalists: Firebrand Launch Recruitment

Winner:

Firebrand Talent Search Finalists: FuturePeople ManpowerGroup M&T Resources

Best Boutique Agency Winner:

Firebrand Talent Search Finalists: Launch Recruitment Ochre Recruitment

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Best National Agency

Best Learning and Development Plan

Talent International

M&T Resources

Winner:

Finalists: Bluestone Recruitment Finite Frontline Recruitment Group M&T Resources

Best Multi National Agency Winner:

ManpowerGroup Finalist: Greythorn

Best Candidate Management Program Winner:

Greythorn

Finalists: Itcom

Winner:

Finalist: Kinetic Recruitment

Best Attraction and Retention Strategy Winner: M&T Resources Finalist: Aspect Personnel

The astutepayroll. com award: Excellence in the Application of New Technologies Winner:

Futurepeople Finalists: Aquent

The 2012 Recruitment Excellence Awards SPECIAL 16-PAGE LIFT OUT

Doltone House, Sydney

The 2012 Recruitment Excellence Awards SPECIAL 16-PAGE LIFT OUT

Doltone House, Sydney

The 2012 Recruitment Excellence Awards SPECIAL 16-PAGE LIFT OUT

Social Recruiting

How many words is a moving picture worth? By Richard Spencer, Director, TWOSocial

ne of the most significant changes brought on by our greater use of social media is the divergence in the content we now consume and by far and away the two biggest winners are photos and videos. As individuals we produce and consume a prodigious volume of still and moving imagery, as anyone with a Facebook profile will attest. Our newsfeeds are dominated by photos from friends and family which, for many, means that we, as one Canadian recently put it, can now look at photos of our friend’s lunch rather than just reading about it! But there is no denying that imagery shares better than any other form of content through social channels, yet as brands we have been slow to capitalise on this trend. Running a focus group recently we showed the participants the logos of the main social networks and asked them to name the ones they knew. We had many and varied answers for Facebook, LinkedIn, Wordpress, Flickr and Tumblr, as you might rightly expect. But we only had one answer for YouTube. YouTube does video and everyone uses it. There are 11 million videos viewed on YouTube each month in Australia alone and, on average, we watch 10 hours of YouTube hosted footage each month in this country. Around the world, this figure becomes more than 4 billion hours of footage a month or more than 1 trillion videos watched each year. In some degree of context, that is the equivalent of 140 views for every person on earth each year. Across other social networks, the equivalent of 500 years of YouTube video are watched every day on Facebook and at least 700 links to videos are shared every single minute on Twitter. Over 50% of all videos have been rated or include a comment and 100 million people like, share

31 recruitment extra December 2012

or comment on a video every week. But none of these outlandishly large statistics are the reason that you should consider using video to promote your business to both candidates and clients. That reason is that not only is YouTube the third most visited site on the web (behind only Google and Facebook) it is also the second largest search engine (behind only Google), processing three billion searches each month1. When we visit YouTube we spend on average 17 minutes and 35 seconds on the site and we clearly spend a great deal of time searching for interesting videos2. With half of the population of Australia watching a video on YouTube each month and the huge volume of search activity undertaken every day, it is staggering that video is not used more aggressively in recruitment. I will accept that at this stage a video job ad would still be an unusual format to choose, although this might not be a bad thing and production would almost certainly be more cost effective than a traditional press ad. However, the potential to communicate culture, brand, diversity, behaviour, fit, employee benefits, social situations or any other soft factor are far stronger in video than they would be in print. If you need more convincing take a look at a couple of channels recommended by Hire Rabbit, namely, youtube.com/ lifeatgoogle or youtube.com/kpmggo to see how well this medium can work in a recruitment environment and indeed how many people a YouTube channel can reach. If you do decide to pursue video, here are some simple tips to help your film cut through the chatter. First, make your video relevant. As with all social networks the quality of your content is paramount. What you want to film may not be what your audience wants to know, but there is almost certainly some common ground you can use to create content that people will want to

watch. Reference ‘The Wizard of Oz’. We all like to see what’s going on behind the curtain! Secondly, don’t expect one video to fundamentally change your referrals. Creating video content requires commitment, and YouTube rewards recency in its search results, so try to create and regularly upload new content. And thirdly, if you do create great content don’t be afraid to tell people about it. The search capability is very important, but then so is directing your audience to your film and asking them to rate it. Ratings and views are also relevant factors with regards the value placed on the content by both Google and YouTube. Finally, if you do choose to create video content and post it to a YouTube channel, you should also embed that content on your own website. The metadata you upload with the video and the richness of the content will also help your SERPS ranking for your primary website. 

1 Reelseo.com Source: All YouTube facts sourced from youtube.com/t/ press_statistics 2 ComScore

Richard Spencer is a Director of TWO Social, a specialist Social Media agency. As well as being a regular media commentator, Richard advises organisations on how to maximise their opportunities across Social channels. Prior to founding TWO Social, Richard was Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Interactive with TMP Worldwide, Global Head of Marketing for Michael Page and has been working in digital communications since 1996.

Head to Head

Rod Hore, HHMC and Nigel Harse, MDBTWO reflect on 2012 and predict activity for the New Year

Concerns, but plenty to look forward to in 2013 Rod: Well Nigel, we sit here again and reflect on the year that has past. I’d like to think everyone is a little wiser after living through the changes that have torn through the industry. What are your major impressions of the year? Nigel: The evidence from 117 recruitment firms suggest that the record results of 2011 will not be matched in 2012. Looking at the results for the 2012 calendar year, my concerns continue to grow because the trends we monitor suggest the market has been slowing all year. Profit for 2012 is likely to be well down on 2011, which was a record year. Recruitment is primarily driven by two factors: either the number of permanent placements made each week or month, or the number of temp or contractor hours processed through the payroll. Permanent placements have been under pressure all year: the data to September show permanent placements are down 18%, which is a significant drop on last year. Although this drop has been somewhat offset by a rise in the average fee for placements many firms will be down by 10% in perm revenue. This downward trend is being mirrored within the on-hire, temporary and contractors sector with hours processed through the payroll down in all three quarters this year compared to 2011. To the end of September these transactions are down 10% on last year.

32 recruitment extra December 2012

Rod: It is not surprising to me that perm placements have retreated from their high levels. My discussions with agency owners and managers show that agencies have realised that the “easy” full-fee jobs are not coming to them as often – if a placement can be filled by just putting an advert on a job board then the clients will find a different way of filling that job to reduce costs – and clients have a lot of options in front of them such as PSAs, in-house teams and RPO. This change is significant for the industry and not all agencies have reorganised their business to reflect the change. Nigel: That’s true but there is still a considerable volume of work around. If perms continue to be under pressure, at some point next year I would expect to see temp and contracting hours halt their slide and start growing again. A slowing perm market tends to push up demand for more flexible staffing solutions, generally around six months later. The resurgent market trend is driven by the impact of head-count freezes: staff become tired, they get sick, there’s too much overtime or urgent projects may arise and so it means more temps and contractors are needed to smooth out some of the bumps in the business cycle. Tell me, is any of this having an impact on Mergers and Acquisitions? Rod: There is a lot of M&A activity. Interest in the Australian & New Zealand recruitment industry is still at

"There is a lot of M&A activity. Interest in the Australian & New Zealand recruitment industry is still at a high level. There are a whole range of local companies that are seeking to consolidate their position by filling out their geographic coverage and sector coverage."

a high level. There are a whole range of local companies that are seeking to consolidate their position by filling out their geographic coverage and sector coverage. Internationally our countries are seen as positive and stable and that attracts interest from Asia and Europe. The downside is that many of the sellers are not as strong or profitable as they might have been before the GFC and so their expectations are not always being met. Owners who are selling their business can take some time to understand the realities of the current market where

Head to Head

buyers are cautious and have a very clear understanding of risk. Our advice to these owners is to seek advice early so that they have time to plan and are more aware of what they need to do to maximise their potential value. Nigel: There is a bright side: when the market tightens up, there’s a chance for those who do well to truly shine. In a tightening market, the recruiters who survive on volume alone will find it really tough. So they really need to focus on improving their efficiencies in order to grow their profit, but unfortunately most are not very good at this. All indications suggest to me that the market next year will continue to be quite tough. There’s absolutely nothing on the horizon to indicate that the European financial fiasco will be resolved and the North America situation will take some time to become clear. Onshore of course we have a slowdown in the resources sector and the impact of all of these factors is clear to see. But it’s not all doom and gloom, we have been through much tougher times and the tightening market is simply an opportunity for recruiters to GET BETTER at what they do, rather than do more. Rod: This period is certainly putting some pressure on the industry’s leaders and managers. The best see change as an inevitable part of life. While they don't value change for its own sake, they know that success is only possible if employees and organisations embrace new ideas and new ways of doing business. Organisations with good managers will outperform the others. And it is not just their recruitment smarts, it is the whole package – doing the standard things like critically monitoring cashflow, providing genuine leadership by hiring,

"It’s not all doom and gloom, we have been through much tougher times and the tightening market is simply an opportunity for recruiters to GET BETTER at what they do, rather than do more."

"Too many people are being seduced by social media when what they need to do is work out a marketing strategy that includes social media as well as a range of the traditional marketing activity."

mentoring and motivating staff, and getting the strategy right by questioning existing service offerings to ensure the organisation provides a service that clients want. Nigel: That’s so true, great service starts at the top! Rod: Two great examples that are testing managers at the moment are technology and marketing. Moving from old technology to newer technology is becoming nonnegotiable for many agencies if they are to meet the expectations of their clients, candidates and staff. But so often we hear of managers making this big decision by ringing a few mates to see what they use! This is a serious project that will absorb a lot of time and cash and the requirements need to be clearly defined to enable a proper evaluation to be undertaken. Great project management is then required to ensure the project is successfully run within budget constraints. I include marketing as a management “challenge” because too many people are being seduced by social media when what they need to do is work out a marketing strategy that includes social media as well as a range of the traditional marketing activity. Jumping headlong into a series of ill-conceived and unmaintainable social media activities has more potential to harm the business than doing nothing at all. Despite all my whinging I am positive about the future. The changes impacting the industry are good for it. Nigel: Even after 35 years in the industry I have to agree that change is good, well it is for those who rise to the challenge!

Nigel Harse, MDBTWO Nigel commenced his recruitment career in the UK in 1977. In 1990 he came to Australia and launched ECCO Personnel, and in just five years took the company from $7 million to $75 million in sales. The company doubled in size, turnover and profitability each and every year for four years. This Australian subsidiary of the worldwide Ecco Group was consistently ranked within the Top 3 performers.Throughout the 90s Nigel was instrumental in the creation, development and delivery of training for the Special Interest Groups within the NAPC He also served as a Councillor for five years and is a former Vice President of the NAPC (now RCSA). Nigel was appointed as a NonExecutive Director for Catalyst Recruitment in October 2001 and is a Fellow of the RCSA and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. In 2003, Nigel established the Recruitment Industry Benchmark Report (RIB Report) in response to frequent requests from industry members to find a means of comparing the results and successes of peers. Currently, Nigel is a business coach and mentor to recruitment firms throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Rod Hore, Executive Director, HHMC Australia Rod was born and educated in Western Australia and works with organisations throughout Australia and New Zealand from his base in Sydney. Rod has 20 years, experience in the Information Technology industry undertaking a range of sales management and leadership roles. Since 1999 Rod has been the Executive Director of HHMC Australia Pty Ltd providing advisory and M&A services to global, locally listed and private organisations in Australia and New Zealand. Much of Rod’s work is with emerging private companies, providing advisory services to owners who are seeking to define and achieve their growth ambitions. Rod is an enthusiastic supporter of the Recruitment Industry and is an accomplished presenter on topics related to small business.

recruitment extra December 2012 33

Mergers and Aquisitions

2012 in Review By Richard Hayward, Principal, HHMC Australia

012 is arguably characterised as a year of uncertainty in the recruitment industry. For many recruitment companies it was a mixed year, while some businesses saw growth others will look back and see that they were at a lower point than a year earlier. Anecdotally, what many business owners have said in discussions with HHMC is that they were unsure of what each new quarter would be like. Their own clients were uncertain about future recruitment plans quarter by quarter. While economic data, including unemployment rates, has mostly remained positive in Australia, the uncertainty about global events throughout the year appears to have translated to a generally slower recruitment market in many sectors. Employers are more cautious about recruitment decisions and in using temporary and contract hires for extended periods. The impact is felt to varying degrees depending on location and the market sectors serviced by recruiters. In addition, several states' respective governments have announced major spending cuts that have had a very measurable impact on those firms providing services to them. As we near the end of the calendar year the level of caution and uncertainty is as high as it has been during the year with media attention focussing on a slowdown in China, the on-going problems in Europe and the risks to the economy in the USA from the socalled â&#x20AC;&#x153;fiscal cliffâ&#x20AC;?. However, it is not all bad news, profits are still being made and the more challenging environment has helped to bring about changes to the way companies do business in recruitment. Recruiters are creating (and investing) in innovative ways of working with and acquiring clients and candidates. Nimble and flexible recruitment businesses are adapting to technological and social communication trends to speed up their delivery models and improve productivity. Some recruitment businesses

34 recruitment extra December 2012

have added off-shoring and outsourcing capability to increase their sourcing ability and reduce costs. It may be that perception of uncertainty may continue for some time and adapting and dealing with those conditions will be a continuous challenge for management. M & A Market The potential to add growth through strategic acquisitions always remains a viable option for well-run businesses. 2012 was quite an active year in M & A activity with a large number of public announcements of transactions completed and many other smaller deals that went under the radar. Many are still underway. Publicly listed companies such as Chandler MacLeod Group announced sizeable acquisitions during the year in AHS Services Group and just recently Trilogy Resources. Humanis Group also announced two acquisitions â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Gnomic Exploration Services and DLA Consulting. Larger private recruitment firms such as Talent International and Peoplebank also made substantial acquisitions in 2012 as did several others. It is reasonable to assume that for many of the larger organisations the pipeline of potential strategic acquisitions will continue. From both our professional experience at HHMC and again from anecdotal evidence, activity by small to medium recruitment companies in this area has been quite high during 2012. Many sellers are motivated by the desire to move on to other personal goals after lengthy careers in the industry. Some of these are lifestyle changes toward retirement or to pursue other directions in business. There is no doubt that the recruitment industry is demanding on time and energy and business owners eventually know that it is time to make an exit. The next few years will continue to see a generational change in ownership of a large number of smaller agencies. In other circumstances the driver for SME

activity is the desire to take the business to a new level and rapidly accelerate growth via a targeted acquisition. Examples of sensible acquisitions this year include those companies adding capacity in related market sectors, complimentary services or geographic expansion. For organisations that have reached a greater critical mass adding market share with acquisitions of similar type and leveraging back-office and operational savings has helped achieve growth targets. 2012 also saw a return in potentially interested buyers from overseas; from predominantly UK, European and Japanese based organisations. While they hadn't gone away entirely in recent years, this year does seem to have seen an increase in investigation and research (and a few acquisitions) from larger offshore companies. In almost all cases a major contributing factor in their interest in the Australian and New Zealand markets has been the 'flatness' of their own market and the better prospects offered here. So while there were challenges faced by many in the industry throughout 2012, on a global scale our overall economy and opportunities remain sound. HHMC wishes recruitment extra readers a very enjoyable festive season and a prosperous New Year. Richard Hayward is a principal of HHMC Australia, a specialist Merger & Acquisition consultancy focusing on the recruitment industry. Richard has an extensive background at senior level in the recruitment sector having worked with international, national and smaller local companies for over a decade before joining HHMC. His clients, as either buyers or sellers, include companies ranging from blue collar industrial, ICT, banking & finance, accounting, business support, and operations recruiting businesses.

Opinion

Click to zoom

the IT recruitment year in focus After a year punctuated by highs and lows in the jobs market, Managing Director of Ambition Technology, Andrew Cross, reviews the trends and events most likely to influence IT recruiters in 2013.

rom an IT perspective, the 2012 jobs market has been quite a rollercoaster. Good to average monthly recruitment activity has been interspersed with great, and then terrible levels of activity, making it difficult for IT recruiters to understand the real state of the employment market. This seesaw in demand for ICT professionals has come largely as a result of the challenges experienced by the finance and retail sectors. However, it seems that overall market uncertainty has been responsible for the low level of senior and executives appointments throughout the year. When looking at candidates, the IT skills shortage has continued throughout 2012. The concern for the industry is that the shortage comes as a result of falling university graduate numbers, combined with an aging working population. With more professionals leaving the industry than joining, more recruiters and clients will need to look beyond Australia’s shores to fill those top positions. Corporate Australia’s focus matching exact skills has also had an impact on the perceived number of available IT workers. Rather than incorporating on-the-job training as part of remuneration package, businesses are relying on workers to upskill themselves to be considered for roles. So how did recruiters meet these challenges in 2012? 2012 the year of big data! Not quite. The use of statistical data to analyse potential candidates’ skills and leadership traits didn’t significantly improve or change throughout the last 12 months. While recruiters continued to measure

35 recruitment extra December 2012

the basics, such as time and cost to hire and annual retention it is a far cry from the complex currency that can be created via big data sets. However, this is expected to become a focus for many recruiters in the coming year as more embrace software packages and modeling tools that will make data analysis easier and more time efficient. Social media recruiting While contract work dominated the IT jobs market in 2012, a significant amount of permanent roles were available, largely through the increasingly recognised channels of social media. Throughout the year social media continued to be a buzz word associated with recruiters who consider themselves to be innovative and ‘switched on’. While many organisations now have a legitimate footprint in social media, very few have an articulated and measurable social media strategy in place. The challenge for most recruiters in the coming 12 months will be to establish measurement tools that determine return on investment for social media recruiting. Cash crunch Salary has been a big talking point this year, with many IT workers staying in dead-end roles out of fear they’ll have to settle for a lower salary if they jump ship. Ambition conducted research during the year that found more than a third feel there is no opportunity to progress in their current role but stay to maintain their salary. An uncertain jobs market is keeping talented IT workers from exploring their employment options. Workers also have seemed unsure of their worth and have been unable to challenge employers on their salary and professional development.

The talk has increasingly been turning to employers having to fork out to keep top talent, and with an optimistic outlook for 2013, they may be right. A new value proposition for recruiters Throughout 2012, one thing has become very clear, Australia’s recruitment sector must redefine its value proposition for both clients and candidates. Traditionally, recruiters have relied on their candidate databases, bank of resumes and profiles to set themselves apart from competitors. However, the proliferation of social media use has given clients direct access to our best assets. In the coming year, recruiters will need to focus on speed of response when working with contract or temporary sources. For permanent positions, the real value will come from the accuracy and integrity of candidates and their background information. Overall, I believe 2013 will be a good year for both corporate Australia and the recruitment sector.

Andrew Cross has more than 16 years’ experience in recruitment and employment trends in the UK and Australian technology sectors. He is also a trained lawyer with a specialisation in employment issues and has in the past served on the board of ITCRA.

The panel

Deb Loveridge

Jane Beaumont

Managing Director Asia Pacific at Randstad

CEO Rubicor Group

While 2013 is set to be another challenging year for the industry, I believe the top three challenges ahead will be around commitment to strategy, employer branding and innovation.

What do you believe will be the top three challenges for the industry in 2013?

1. Commitment to strategy In our industry, very few organisations commit time to working on their strategy. Vital tasks such as mapping new markets, analysing productivity, tracking competitor activity, understanding candidate markets and new sourcing channels can all be forgotten amid the daily stresses of business. However key strategic issues need to constantly be addressed. Throughout the new year make it a habit to ask yourself some of the following questions – what problems must we solve, what’s our current reality, what’s happening in the external environment and what does the internal environment look like – as these will inform the strategic choices which will drive your business into 2013 and beyond. 2. Employer branding The new year will see the importance of employer branding continue to grow, with companies becoming increasingly eager to distinguish themselves in a noisy and competitive marketplace. This is especially true in an Australian context, with the relatively steady unemployment rate proving somewhat of an anomaly when compared to elsewhere in the world. The strength of the labour market means that, across most industries, the demand for top talent and wage pressure are both high. In this environment, investment in your employer brand can provide the bargaining power needed to attract talent. While financial health, job security and career development will remain key drivers for job seekers, if you are unable to pay the highest salary in the market, then a strong employer brand can provide a compelling proposition for potential employees. 3. Driving innovation Being more innovative in your recruiting strategy can give your organisation a sustainable competitive advantage by enabling you to hire and place more people. Keep in mind as well that innovative people want to work for innovative companies – where they get to be involved with new projects, hear about new ways of doing things and where new ideas are appreciated. While on the face of it these people might seem harder to manage, if your business can effectively foster an innovative spirit you will find faster ways to deliver to clients, build deeper networks from which to source specialist skills and forge new beneficial partnerships. Deb is the Managing Director - Asia Pacific of specialist recruitment & HR services company, Randstad. Deb was a founding member of the company back in May 1988 when it was just one small office in Sydney known as Select Appointments. Randstad is now a Fortune 500 Company and one of the world’s largest HR services providers, specializing in executive recruitment, HR Solutions and temporary and permanent staffing across a wide range of specialist industry sectors and professions.

36 recruitment extra December 2012

1. Remaining truly relevant – By this I mean delivering a top class service that adds measurable value to our clients. In addition to global and local economic concerns, we have to contend with in-house teams, RPO and managed solutions, social media, job boards, and procurementled recruitment – all of which can affect decision-making and erode margins. To succeed we must be able to demonstrate value over and above what these alternatives offer. This means we have to be specialist consultants who have relationships with talent pools that others cannot reach. And we must behave like professional services partners. This will be a real evolution for many. 2. Embracing social media as a day-to-day business enabler to enhance consultant productivity and branding – Few recruiters use social media effectively in engaging with passive talent to develop talent communities or in brand building. This is such a new and fast evolving technology that it may seem hard to keep pace, however it is the way of the future. Traditional media such as job boards still have a role to play, however cost and speed are rapidly marginalising them. If we want to reach our target audiences quickly and effectively we must learn how to engage and do it well. 3. Sourcing, developing, nurturing and coaching the right talent for our own businesses so that we can remain a strong and viable industry. Over the years we have allowed our industry to be generalised as transaction-focused which diminishes our value. Too many of us are seduced by a good story from a candidate recruiter whom we take to personally, rather than one who has the real qualities to act as a professional services consultant. We have to invest in training and development to ensure their success. Many of us have a journey to go on to make the transition. Jane is Chief Executive Officer and an executive Director of the company. She joined Rubicor Group in September 2006 as Chief Operating Officer and was promoted to Chief Executive Officer on 1 April 2009. Jane has over 32 years’ recruitment experience in the UK and Australasian markets. Prior to Rubicor, Jane spent five years with Manpower as Vice President Sales responsible for business acquisition and strategic sales. In 2001 she took on the role of Managing Director for Spherion’s recruitment group in the Asia Pacific. After Spherion was acquired by Ross Human Directions Limited in June 2004, Jane spent two years as Managing Director for the group’s recruitment businesses as a board appointee.

The panel

Chris Sandham Managing Director M&T Resources Gosh, I wish I had a magic glass ball to see into the future, but here are my three predictions for next year. It’s not going to get any better (soon) Well, not in the short term at least. The nature of our industry is that we’re highly reactive to clients’ business environments. So for the last 18 months, what we’ve gone through is similar to what our clients have experienced – a very challenging economy that has deterred confidence in the market. I personally believe that we won’t see an upside in any particular client segment before April. Until then, clients will be holding back on investing in major programs of work.

What do you believe will be the top three challenges for the industry in 2013?

Agencies need to look at themselves in the mirror The second challenge that I think the industry must confront is more internal-facing. Specifically, recruitment agencies need to be able to really examine how efficient they are as a business so that they can fully capitalise on the upswing in confidence when clients start recruiting again. Do you have the right review and assessment processes in place? Are you assessing the right metrics? Are you hiring and grooming the right people in your agency right now? Will the technology you’re using now, or are considering using, be the right one in time to come? The world’s economy is forcing all business managers and owners to think about these questions. And as we know of the recruitment industry, asking these questions and getting the right answers once will not be enough because in 12 months, it’ll all be different again. To me, these questions are perpetually in my mind. Shortage is still there, though in different areas The growth of mobile and ever more importance placed on customer experience due to the rise of iOS and other mobile operating softwares has seen a shift in skillset demands. The reality is, there is a shortage of people with the skills in these areas here in Australia. This will test our ability to not just attract people from overseas, but also how we can make the process as seamless and efficient as possible. I think we will see more overseas candidates not just from the traditional Europe channel, but also from the Asia Pacific. But remember, for as long as we remember, there has always been a skills shortage of some sort due to technology change, and agencies have always just had to adapt. The only slight difference is that today, technology plays a much more pervasive role in all our daily lives, across more people than ever before. Chris uses his extensive IT recruitment experience spanning more than 18 years to drive smarter recruitment practices at M&T Resources. Under his leadership, M&T Resources has achieved strong annual growth, gained new PSA clients and continued expanding into the Asia Pacific region. M&T Resources won three awards at the Recruitment Excellence Awards 2012 and won “Australia’s Favourite IT Recruiter” title at the SEEK Annual Recruitment Awards 2011.

recruitment extra December 2012 37

HR news

HR REPORT recruitment extra's monthly update on the latest news, reports and opinions on whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s happening in HR nationally, trends from overseas and briefs on the activities of equal opportunity organisations, employers, EO tribunals and agencies and governments. Reporter: Jane Dillon

Female appointments to ASX down Female appointments to ASX200 boards have gone backwards, according to Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency Director Helen Conway. Conway said the October 18 figures released by the Australian Institute of Company Directors figures showed just 36 women had been appointed as directors to ASX 200 boards this year. This compared to 68 appointments in 2011 and 56 in 2010. She said more than 25% of ASX 200 boards still did not include any women. The figures reveal the percentage of women on ASX 200 boards is 15.1% Conway said while the ASX Corporate Governance Council's diversity recommendations had helped drive change, she was concerned that momentum had "stalled". In January 2011 the ASX Corporate Governance Council introduced diversity recommendations for all ASX listed entities. The recommendations included setting measurable objectives for achieving gender diversity; and disclosing in annual reports the measurable objectives for achieving gender diversity and progress towards achieving them. "EOWA urges companies to adopt the recommendations of the ASX, and set numerical targets for the appointment of women to leadership positions. Over time, this will drive growth in the female talent pipeline, and bring about cultural change so that gender equality is simply seen as business as usual," Conway said. An EOWA spokesperson told HRR there had been "some progress in recent years". She said EOWA did not advocate mandated quotas preferring organisations set their own targets. "Quotas can have unintended consequences â&#x20AC;&#x201C; for example women attaining seniority can be marginalised as 'tokens'," she said.

Govt boards set example Keeping the gender diversity debate alive, Prime Minister Julia Gillard sent a tweet from a summit in Laos on November 5 saying: "The AsiaEurope meeting covers more than 50% of the world's population and there are only 9 women around a table of 52. JG". Two days later the Federal Government unveiled a program designed to support women in leadership roles on government boards. Westpac CEO Gail Kelly, Telstra chair Catherine Livingstone AO, and Women Leadership Institute Australia chair Carol Schwartz AM will join other captains of industry in Boardlinks. Unveiled by federal finance minister Penny Wong Boardlinks will facilitate training, mentoring and support for women seeking board membership. The program is designed to appoint more women to board positions in government, giving them the necessary board experience required for the transition to the corporate sector. Boardlinks documents said the government had set a minimum target of 40% women on government boards by 2015. As at June 30 women held 35.3% of government board positions. Westpac reaches 2014 target Westpac has already reached its 2014 target of having women in 40% of leadership roles. In its full year financial results, released on November 5, Westpac said women filled 33% of leadership roles in early 2010, and that increased to 40% by 30 September 2012. Westpac said many improvements sparked the increase, including detailed business unit action plans; strengthened HR processes, including recruitment and talent management; regular pay equity reviews; and women's increased participation in leadership development programs. The company said its women's participation in leadership programs increased by 27.5% in 2012.

'Go home' day confronts overtime Go Home on Time Day took place on November 21. Employees were urged to switch off at 5pm and go home on time, as part of an initiative of the Australia Institute's. Designed to make employees think about a healthy work-life balance, Australia Institute managing director Richard Denniss told HRR the initiative should make employees question why "working lots of unpaid overtime has become an indicator of commitment rather than a solution of last resort". Denniss said unpaid overtime affects 2.2 million employees each day and accounts for 6% of Australia's annual economic activity. A 2012 Australia Institute survey of 1,500 employees found half blamed working overtime for not seeing enough of their family or eating incorrectly. He said some sectors fared better than others, but banking and IT were "particularly bad". However the problem wasn't limited to "above average income earners working the most unpaid overtime". He said there were also "real problems among some of the lowest paid workers such as cleaners". He said the purpose of the day was to start a conversation. "In the beginning a lot of people asked what 'on time' meant. Now people seem to understand the significance of not knowing what 'on time' means, and why individuals find it hard to raise the subject with their colleagues and managers."

38 recruitment extra December 2012

HR news

OHS attracts salary premium

Sign on bonuses for employees

Brisbane-based HR professionals with expertise in OHS are drawing a salary premium, data released from recruitment consultant Robert Walters has revealed. Its third quarter HR job market update said HR salaries had stabilised but overall "all levels of OHS professionals with specialist niche areas were highly sought after, as organisations sought to manage risk and build skilled teams". OHS salaries in Brisbane were almost double the salaries of Melbourne and Sydney-based colleagues, which a Robert Walters spokesperson told HRR was because recruitment was driven by mining, engineering and the state government. "Premiums offered in Brisbane are usually related to site based roles, and these don't happen enough in the Sydney and Melbourne markets to make a difference." The report said the "poor economic conditions" in Brisbane meant "there was a shift towards recruiting more specialist and niche roles within HR and OHS, who could help improve productivity and save costs". Economic uncertainty in Melbourne saw employers maintain a "careful" approach to HR recruitment. Organisations tended to favour long-term contracts over permanent employment, the study found. Most hiring activity took place in financial services (insurance and banking), professional services (legal and management consulting), technology and telecommunications employers. Sydney saw an increase in HR employment, specifically for HR practitioners with business or OHS skills.

A recruitment service recently introduced to Australia is turning the existing model upside down. Instead of the recruiter receiving a bonus on successful placement, the employee can receive the bonus. Recruitment start-up Sofee said their business model relied on an "unlock fee" of $345 per candidate, which worked out to be around 3-10% of recruitment agency costs. According to Sofee, recruiters charge up to 25% of an annual salary for each successful job placement. Sofee CEO Paul Christy told HRR its model meant "employers avoided paying a premium to recruiters" and they could "instead take a fraction of that cost and put it towards a sign-on bonus for employees". Christy said in addition to rethinking recruitment premiums, the service was transparent for prospective employees. "That's one of the ways Sofee is different to other job sites; transparency. Candidates want to know who and what they're applying for. To date the reaction to this feature and model has been positive from employers and the candidates," he said. Christie said Sofee was "delighted with the response to date". He said 500 to 1,000 candidates had been registering each day during its launch phase "which is quite telling of the appeal of a sign-on bonus". Employers pay a $345 fee per CV they want to unlock. However, during its launch phase Sofee will waive this fee.

Parliament locks in historic equal pay rises

Apprenticeship boost 'good move'

Higher wage supplements for 150,000 social and community services sector workers under their landmark pay equity case were safeguarded by Federal Government legislation passed by parliament on October 31. The Governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s action came after Fair Work Australia's June 2012 decision and equal remuneration order to deliver pay increases of between 19% and 41% to SACS workers. The percentage-based increases will be phased in from the first full pay period after 1 December 2012. The Government said the increase has been fully funded and accounted for in the Budget. Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) said it supported the bill as a "critical step in addressing the pay inequity that undermines the effectiveness of community services in Australia". ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie told HRR it had "long been concerned that poor pay undermines the sector's ability to attract and retain workers vital to delivering effective community services.â&#x20AC;? However, ACOSS was critical that the legislation did not go far enough. It said the legislation did not address "the adequacy of commitments to fund services directly; and the adequacy of funding for services funded jointly between the Commonwealth and state or territory governments". It said the legislation did not clarify whether "the supplementation funding [services] receive will cover the cost of equal pay within their government-funded services". It said further work was needed including an "independent processes of audit or evaluation" of supplementation funding "to ensure that the value of the equal pay decision is maintained". Australian Association of Social Workers CEO Glenys Wilkinson told HRR it applauded the governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s "long awaited funding increase for a sector that has traditionally been underpaid". She said the government now needed to develop a national community sector workforce strategy to recruit and retain skilled people; introduce a national accreditation scheme for the community sector to lift the skills and qualifications of the workforce; and introduce specific measures to attract skilled staff to remote and rural Australia.

A Federal Government incentive payment to employers of apprentices is a necessary "kickstart" to the ailing residential building industry, Housing Industry Association (HIA) communications director Greg Weller told HRR. Skills minister Chris Evans unveiled plans in October to double the incentive payment for 21,000 plumbers, electricians, carpenters and other construction tradespeople employed by SME businesses. However, the window of opportunity to receive the additional $3,350 payment in two instalments is only open between December 2012 and February 2013. Weller told HRR the turnaround to get employers on board for the incentives was "challenging" but should be well received as employers were "desperate to see something happen". Evans said the incentive was needed because "conditions in the sector are set to improve into 2014 and 2015. This will see the demand for construction skills grow again. These reforms ensure we deliver the right skills, in the right areas, at the right time." In addition to a bonus payment for employers of traditional apprentices, employers of adult apprentices (aged 25 years and over) will receive a one-off bonus payment of $4,000 in place of traditional weekly payments. "This increases the support to an apprentice in the traditional trade from $9,500 to $12,850," he said. Weller said the additional support would help employers cover the cost/benefit of apprentices. "Employers don't usually see productivity returns on an apprentice in the first 12 to 18 months of an apprenticeship," he said. "This incentive will help with that burden, while helping prepare for the forecasts of an improved residential building sector," he said.

HR Report is an independent fortnightly new service published by Thomson Reuters. The service is available in paper and email format. For further details visit: www.thomsonreuters.com.au/hr-report-email. recruitment extra December2012 39

On the move

ON THE MOVE 



Levander joins Recruitment Systems Recruitment Systems has announced the appointment of Col Levander to their team. Levander, who has a career spanning over 14 years, joins Recruitment Systems as APAC Sales and Solutions Manager. He has experience in contractor management, talent acquisition, sourcing programmes, and recruitment technology solutions including vendor management, business process outsourcing and recruitment process outsourcing.

“It is with great pleasure that I announce that Col Levander has joined our team,” said Neil Bolton, CEO of Recruitment Systems. “Col is a significant enhancement to our collective skill set. He brings local, regional and global expertise and a pragmatic approach to building and delivering recruitment technology solutions that will significantly benefit | our customers.” “I am genuinely excited to join Neil

Mitchellake Group bolsters global presence Mitchellake Group has tripled its headcount over the last 18 months across its offices in London, Australia and San Francisco. Some key hires across the group include: Nick Dean (Sydney) – Previously with FBI in London and Sydney, Dean will focus on senior digital assignments across the agency and enterprise sectors. Astley Milne (Sydney) – Previously with Perceptor in Sydney, Milne will cover the start-up and innovation markets. Jonathan Jeffries (Melbourne) and Kevin Griffiths (Sydney) – Previously with Ethos and BMS respectively J effries and Griffiths are responsible for executive search services under the new global executive search brand, Lake Republic. Commenting on the groups’ recent

40 recruitment extra December 2012

hires Page said, “We are excited to have hired some of the industry’s leading senior recruiters to join our longstanding team and help us continue to grow our market share. Lake Republic has a highly specialist focus on senior regional and global search exercises within the digital transformation and emerging technology disciplines. We have already completed a number of assignments for both Australian businesses and overseas enterprises looking to enter the local market” “Lake Republic compliments our strategy of providing global access to the best talent across the markets we serve. Our dedicated teams of researchers in Australia, US and Europe are able to support our delivery across these markets.” Page further confirmed the groups’ continued expansion plans for a second US office as well as a presence in Asia.

Bolton and the team at Recruitment Systems, as we share a passion for recruitment best practice and excellence in the industry,” said Levander. “I have worked with a wide range of technologies targeting the sector over the years, and TRIS is one of the few that has the genuine potential to fundamentally transform recruitment processes through its efficiency and ease of use,” he added.

New executive management at Manpower ManpowerGroup Chairman and CEO Jeff Joerres has promoted two ManpowerGroup officers to serve as Presidents of the company and expanded their leadership roles to cover additional markets. Joerres is transferring his President title to both Jonas Prising and Darryl Green. Both executives will continue reporting directly to Joerres, who will remain Chairman and CEO. In addition to being responsible for the Americas, Prising now oversees Southern Europe and will work directly with ManpowerGroup country leaders in all of these regions. Green is responsible for the Asia Pacific, Middle East and now Northern Europe regions. Hans Leentjes continues as ManpowerGroup President of Northern Europe, driving the region's performance and will report to Green. "Both Jonas and Darryl have consistently delivered against ManpowerGroup's financial goals, possess exceptional knowledge of global and local talent markets, and reinforce the behaviors that define ManpowerGroup's culture," Joerres said.

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1300 287 678

61 3 9412 1212

Learning & Development

Online Recruitment

Recruitment to Recruitment

Learning Seat

Lifestyle Careers

Lime Resourcing

www.learningseat.com

www.lifestylecareers.com.au 1300 886 032

www.limeres.com.au 02 9220 7300

PBC / Hogan Assessment Systems

MyCareer

www.peterberry.com.au 02 9967 9666

www.mycareer.com.au 1300 799 337 Part-Time Online www.parttimeonline.com.au 02 9440 7700 PositionsVACANT www.positionsvacant.com.au

Tel: 03 5977 1577 Email: ross@rossclennett.com Website: www.rossclennett.com

Payroll Solutions

Sydney:

02 9221 2700

Melbourne:

03 9670 7720

Brisbane:

07 3220 1388

Perth:

08 9322 8900

Talent Managers for the Recruitment Industry

Recruitment Surveys PeoplePulse www.peoplepulse.com.au 02 9232 0172

Recruitment Software Bond International Software www.bondadapt.com 02 4226 1600

Recruitment to Recruitment Online Recruitment Careerone www.careerone.com.au CouncilJobs Online www.CouncilJobs.com 0412 412 981 JobAdder www.JobAdder.com +61 2 9955 1555

Performance Coaching

cvmail www.cvmail.com.au 1300 795 235

Ashworth Recruitment Consulting 3W\ /WG

www.ashworth.com.au 9223 4900 Barton Mills Recruitment www.bartonmills.com.au 02 9262 5544 – Sydney Office 03 8676 0511 – Melbourne Office Hughes Recruitment www.hughes-recruitment.com 02 8020 7004 Intercruit (WA) www.intercruit.com. 08 9388 2720

. Secure Online Recruitment Software laccement.

1300 253 213 www.datasavvy.com.au

e-HRM www.e-hrm.com.au 1800 449 500 ISYS Search Software www.isys-search.com 02 8078 1100 Resourceware International www.resourceware.com.au +64 4902 5655 This Planet www.thisplanet.com.au 07 5450 1599

Recruitment Software

3 hats www.threehats.com.au 1300 045 422 Perform Zone www.performzone.com 1300 045 422

Make better connections The shortest bridge between order and invoice is a single database. Let FastTrack transport you to improved workflow and increased productivity. Call 1800 063 555 today enquiries@fasttrack.com.au

Recruitment Software

Testing & Training (Candidate) Hogan Assessment Systems www.peterberry.com.au 02 8918 0888

Testing & Training (Candidate)

Myprofile Pty Ltd www.myprofile.com.au 02 9389 2800 Onetest www.onetest.com.au 1300 137 937 TestGrid www.testgrid.com 1300 878 473

04 0201 4237

www.skillcheck.com.au

Superannuation

Want to get noticed in our business directory?

Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading industry super fund for the recruitment sector Call 1300 304 000 www.recruitmentsuper.com.au

Call 02 8587 7462 or email helen.sykes@thomsonreuters.com

ACTIVATE

DON’T LET

ACCOUNT

LINK WITH

WITHIN

INVOICES PAID

CASH-FLOW STEAL CHRISTMAS!

No one likes a Grinch, and cash-flow is responsible for many an empty stocking. So this Christmas we are proud to partner with earlypay™; Australia’s newest and most innovative invoice finance offering.

Now you get the most powerful online timesheet and invoicing system in the industry, with peace of mind knowing your invoices will be paid within 72 hours*. There’s no lengthy setup or hidden costs.

As our gift to you we’re waiving all setup fees for new accounts in December - strictly limited time. Give earlypay™ a call now on (02) 8116 4745 and get cash-flowing this Christmas and beyond.

AUTOMATE YOUR WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT. ONLINE ANYTIME.

BECAUSE YOU’VE GOT BETTER THINGS TO DO *earlypay™ is a wholly-owned product of CMLPayroll Pty Ltd. Terms and conditions apply. Offer to approved customers only. Copyright © 2012. ‘astutepayroll.com’ is a registered trademark of Astute International and used under licence. All rights reserved.