The goal of any recruitment company is to place the correct people with the correct organisation, and as the market grows and becomes more buoyant this becomes a greater challenge. In a busy marketplace with many opportunities and few strong candidates, it is essential an organisation sells itself strongly. One of the main selling points to candidates regarding prospective companies is their level of staff retention. A low level of staff turnover should relate to a happy workforce, and a happy workforce is a key goal in creating a successful company.
Australian Incentives agency AD+Inc conducted a survey of 500 SME’s where 65% of respondents said it would take up to six months to get a replacement for a key staff member “up to speed”, therefore both the financial and personal cost of replacing a key employee is very significant indeed. I’m sure the importance of retaining staff is not underestimated by any company, however the methods of achieving this vary considerably.
So what’s the secret? The answer possibly lies in one of the biggest studies ever undertaken by the Gallup Organisation, an American statistical research company who concentrate on studying human nature and behavior. Their study of over a million employees and 80,000 managers came up with an interesting finding: if you’re losing good people, look to the management. Management is the main reason people stay and thrive in any organisation, and the main reason as to why people leave. When people leave they take knowledge, experience and contacts with them, more often than not straight to the competition.
The value placed on attracting key staff should not be underestimated, the value placed on keeping them should be substantial.
“Networking”- When considered in a commercial sense, has historically centered around introductions and conversations at Conferences, lunches, golfcourses?! It was a flurry of business cards and briefcases and strategic handshakes. Nowadays, while these things certainly haven’t become archaic they are certainly playing more of a supporting act role to the nouvelle- vague of social networking sites and on-line user groups.
In the past, the elevator pitch was often discussed to prepare jobseekers, recruiters, or anyone looking to advance themselves commercially through a relationship. “You get into a lift, the CIO, the whoever of whatever is there. You have 30 seconds before they get out on their floor and you have 30 seconds to sell yourself to them”.
This is the classic example of what networking used to be. Your goals were to get in front of influential people who can help you advance your career or indeed, widen your business relationship circles. Now it appears that the focus is more on how interesting your on-line profile is, what blogs you contribute to, how many connections or “friends” you have on a plethora of social networking sites we have on offer to assist us in “business” networking. The question is now not about what would be your “elevator pitch”, it is what are you doing to maximize your “on-line presence”. Read more…
The National Broadband Network (NBN) is one of the hottest topics of discussion at the minute amongst MPs, Telecommunications companies, industry experts, and us the Australian taxpayers. On the 18th June the Senate Committee, tasked with investigating the Government’s NBN, called for a cost vs. benefit analysis of the project to be undertaken to determine whether it represented value for money for the public. In addition, many industry experts in the press have questioned the $17M of taxpayers’ money spent on the failed first tender, despite Communications Minister Stephen Conroy stating that this was “absolutely not” a waste of money.
These debates have been strongly contested by the opposing sides in the last year or so, however with the recent $11 billion deal between the Government and Telstra which a spokeswoman for the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, declared “… means the NBN can be built cheaper, quicker, with less unnecessary duplication, faster take-up of services and less overhead cabling,” it begs the question, have the Government turned the corner or is it still going to cost more money than it’s worth? Read more…
One of the most common questions being asked right now is “are salaries and contract rates going up in line with the increase in demand for IT resources?” My initial reaction is a resounding, ‘yes’, however looking a little deeper there are some interesting points of note starting to occur across the Technology Industry.
Using the relatively widespread salary benchmark reports that pop up on the internet from a variety of sources, I was surprised at how low some of the average salaries were being reported. They certainly didn’t match up with what I was seeing day-to-day but with any statistical data you cannot read too much in to it without carefully examining the small print i.e. Scope and reach of the survey and the number and class of respondents.
So digging a little deeper I used a matrix of tools to see if there really was any truth to the rate changes being reported. Using a number of major job boards and cross referencing our own candidate database information and job placement data I was able to refine my findings. Finally to add a further layer of reference I spoke to other IT recruiters and a number of my current clients. Read more…
A competency interview (also referred to as a situational or behavioral based interview) is a style of interviewing often used to evaluate a candidate’s ability to perform a role or task. It is based on the premise that past performance is the best indicator of future ability and increasingly, companies are using competency based interviews as part of the selection process for experienced recruitment. It can give valuable insights into an individual’s preferred style of working and help predict likely scenario based behaviors which may occur in the role.
Most clients these days will use a competency or behavioral type interview, and this will most likely be combined with technical questions and questions about industry experience. Interviewers will ask questions that require candidates to demonstrate that they have a particular skill or a “key competency” the firm is looking for. Candidates will be asked to do this using situational examples from their life experiences, to illustrate their personality, skill set and individual competencies to the interviewer.
Competency interviews may also feature questions that probe candidates on their knowledge of the company and industry they have applied to. This type of interview question tests candidates on their motivation and commitment to career.
A typical competency based interview will last for one hour. At most major firms, competency interviews will also be standardised. Consequently all applicants can expect to be asked identical questions.
What are Competencies?
A competency is a particular quality that a company’s recruiters have decided is desirable for employees to possess for a particular role. During interviews and assessment processes competencies are used as benchmarks that assessors use to rate and evaluate candidates. Read more…
While it may be a little colder down south, things are certainly heating up in the Melbourne IT Market, with massive growth in the number of IT jobs across the board.
With two of Australia’s most prominent banks based in Melbourne and many head offices, and shared services teams it seems that if you’re in IT then Melbourne is the place to be.
Recent confirmation that the NBN (National Broadband Network) head office will be based in Melbourne, means an expected 25,000 positions will be generated during the projects lifespan. With majority of these jobs being IT centric, particularly in infrastructure fields, Melbourne will become a goldmine for the IT job hunter. Inevitably IT professionals from around the country and abroad will be called upon to lend their skills down south.
Since its launch date in May 2003 LinkedIn has acquired 70 million members in over 200 countries with a new member signing up approximately every second. 50% of its members are in the Unites States while 3 million are in India and just over 1.5 million are in Australia.
LinkedIn has changed the way we communicate, network and do business. It has become a fantastic tool to build communities and network with those who share similar interests. ‘Most people use LinkedIn to “get to someone” in order to make a sale or form a partnership.’(Guy Kawasaki) Where would we be without LinkedIn and the networks we have built?
Whilst LinkedIn has been remarkably successful we are now starting to see the issues involved unfold.
Shortlist, among others have, presented stories in recent weeks regarding LinkedIn in relation to recruitment lawsuits and have suggested that everyone will be on LinkedIn within five years.
Shortlist recently told the story of how an American technology recruitment company would be suing one of its former employees for communicating with at least 20 of the company’s contract employees using LinkedIn in their new role.
Read more…
With this week’s announcement of the 4th generation iPhone and the recent release of the iPad, Apple now looks well placed to lead the pack in the mobile computing world. Finally adding mulit-tasking, respectable push email services and document editing abilities, these two ultra desirable personal products can now seriously compete with the likes of the Blackberry’s of the business world (although I’m still baffled and annoyed by the lack of Java support!). In recent years, this technology has revolutionised mobile office functionality, to the point where it is very easy to work and communicate when on the move. Proving their popularity, it is almost impossible not to see these devices in the hands of every commuter on their way to and from work. Here at Ambition we are a recruitment company, therefore staying connected and contactable to each individual client and candidate is essential to our successful business, and these devices are radically increasing our service levels.
So where do we go from here? Originally published in a 1965 paper by Intel co-founder Gordon E Moore, Moore’s Law states that the number of components in integrated circuits used within any electrical device had doubled every year since these circuits were invented. Amazingly this law has proved precisely accurate to this day, allowing all electrical devices to shrink in size yet increase in power on a regular and predicable basis. While it remains hard to envisage what electronic products we will all be communicating with and utilising in the years to come, it is clear that they greatly increase our abilities to service our client and candidate requirements.
Read more…
The past few years have heralded what would seem to be the new era of off shoring here in Australia. Numerous large Australian corporations made the big decision to off shore a lot of their IT functionalities to various countries such as India and China in an attempt to capitalize on cheaper labor costs in those countries. I aim to explore the impact of such decisions in the Australian ERP market place and who is really affected by it.
The decision to off shore IT functionalities by Australian corporations created an influx of candidates primarily within the technical space. A lot of developers got relinquished back into the market place as companies off shored any ERP development work that they had. The combination of a decline in the Technical positions available, coupled with the increased number of candidates in the market resulted in not only a reduction on salary expectations but also an increasingly competitive job market amongst technical consultants. Luckily, and unlike their technical counterparts, Functional Consultants were not greatly affected by this as businesses chose to retain their consultants due to the necessity for them to work closely with business users and stakeholders on a regular basis. Read more…
1. Find a Mentor.
A recent study found that 4 out of 5 promotions are given to candidates who have a mentoring relationship with a senior colleague in the company.
2. Results / Statistics
While not every promotion is based upon statistics, those who keep a log of their measured results are more likely to be rewarded.
3. Acquire Certifications / New skills
One of the best ways to be considered for promotion is by showing the initiative to acquire new skills that are critical to the organisation.
For more information go to www.ecertit.com.au
4. Customer Service
Excellent customer service will be recognised and appreciated in all organisations. If your manager hears good feedback about your work and customer service, you will be forefront of their mind when promotions are being made.
5. Don’t get involved in Office Politics.
6. Volunteer.
Employees that go above and beyond the call of duty are more likely to be considered for promotion than those who are difficult and refuse to be flexible. Read more…
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