Welcome to the 2023/24 Talent Guide

The world of working continues to be fast-moving, constantly evolving, and unpredictable. Every year the Talent Guide survey delivers us one constant and unwavering source of truth – the talent market experiences a shift, year on year.

We levelled up our survey this year with relevant questions informed by current pain points Australians are experiencing in 2023 and projected to experience in 2024. We predicted that economic strains such as rising inflation, continuous interest rate hikes, and talks of a recession would influence what people will prioritise when it comes to their jobs – and we were right.

Before we share those insights with you, we think our story as an employer this past 12 months is one worth sharing.

If we travel back in time to last year’s guide, we learned that people are more purpose-driven than ever before, and that a personalised approach to building retention and supporting talent is key. So we listened and we implemented. A year of transformation took place here at Talentpath where we invested time in new processes, ample resources, new initiatives, and most importantly our people.

Talentpath now have an embedded HR team who have put HR practices, L&D commitment, leadership development, and culture nurturing initiatives as a top priority. We rolled out an intelligent, user-friendly CRM called Bullhorn to revolutionise the way we recruit. In true Talentpath style, this implementation project naturally turned into a partnership where we found new friends and advocates in our account team at Bullhorn.

We revamped and rolled out a brand new website, elevating our digital footprint to truly reflect who we are. It was our mission to make the digital experience for our talent and employer communities both easy and engaging from the beginning of the user journey right to the end. Your path to greatness starts on the Talentpath website – we highly recommend you explore it for yourself.

Everything we do is underpinned by our ability to change lives, and this year we experienced more heart-bursting, life-changing moments than we could count in our Tailored Recruitment Solutions projects. Our team had the most impactful time in Victoria, touching the lives of thousands of people across the disability and aged care sectors whilst helping people from disadvantaged cohorts secure fulfilling, secure careers. To find out what they did and how they did it, skip ahead to pages 40-41.

Enough about us, back to this year’s Guide.

Do yourself a favour and bookmark the featured spread on Wellbeing and Wellness. Yes, we know the word ‘wellness’ has flooded our social media feeds in the past few years, but it is more important than ever to dig deeper into what it really means for you and your employees.

This is a priority and passion for us as we work to support our communities by encouraging better, impactful health and wellbeing practices this coming year. Spoiler: It means more than just free yoga and gym memberships!

You’ll also hear our 23/24 respondents tell us they favour salary, job stability, and flexible working, with all generations ranking salary as their number 1 factor that would attract them to a new role. It’s also no surprise that 61% of respondents told us they’ve taken action in the last 12 months due to the rising cost of living, with many Australians feeling the pinch as the cost of living continues to rise. On the flip side, respondents have also said they are less likely to budge from their current roles in comparison to last year. So what should hiring managers and organisations be doing to retain and attract talent?

It’s time to start looking at what you can do within your culture, well-being initiatives, career progression models, and rewards and recognition offerings to keep your existing talent motivated and happy whilst passively attracting new talent.

We want to extend the biggest thank you to all our featured talent this year for sharing your personal career stories. After reading each one, we noticed a key theme among all the talent stories shared.

It can take just one job to truly change the course of someone’s life.

Every time we connect talent with a role and organisation that perfectly align, we do a little happy dance. For us, recruitment always comes down to the people and the lives we continue to impact through incredible opportunities, and that is why we’ve stayed true to the purpose of the Talent Guide. Yes, the insights are certainly valuable to analyse and apply to workplace practices, but it’s the stories that expose the sheer impact a new job or organisation has on a person’s life and career.

On that note, we think it’s time you get stuck into the 23/24 Talent Guide! Be ready to be influenced, intrigued, and inspired.

Jody Fazldeen and Dionne Sharp, Directors at Talentpath