Three months ago we embarked on a study to better understand the behaviour of executives in Australia. The results from the study, involving 1332 executives across Australia, can be downloaded here.

The study offered many insights but also raised new questions; many of the findings merit further exploration. In the coming days, I will explore in greater detail many of the topics covered in the report. Without doubt this report is a first step in a journey of discovery. For now, it is my hope that the findings will trigger discussion within organisations on how they recruit, engage and manage executive talent.

Let me know what you think.    

Listed below are a few of the findings from the report.

1. Job Search Channels: While a wide range of channels are used to find jobs, a majority 23.2% of executives credited recruitment firms for delivering their last job. Who you know matters; 22.3% found their new job through personal contacts and networking. Referrals worked for 20% and cold calling delivered jobs to 1.1%.
2. Love-Hate Relationship With Recruiters: Illustrating the ubiquity of recruitment firms in the Australian employment market, a majority 64% of executives have found a job at least once in their career using their service. However, 33% have negative opinions, and only 18.66% considered recruitment firms to be effective.
3. Online Channels: Job boards delivered new jobs to 11.6% of executives. The three-way nexus between executives, recruiters and job boards is unlikely to change; a large 67% intended to use job boards in the next twelve months. Employers’ websites delivered new jobs to 3.2% of executives.
4. Social Networks & Media: Online social networks are relatively new with only a small 0.8% using the medium to successfully find a job. 35% plan to use social networks to look for a job; 28% were still sitting on the fence, while 37% planned to bypass.
5. Job Search Triggers: The majority (30%) started a job search because of financial considerations, while career(23%) and lifestyle (19%) considerations were also important triggers to start a job search.
6. Show Me The Money: A majority 87% thought pay should be increased every year. Only a small minority (7%) were willing to wait up to two years. A pay rise of 6-10% with a current employer was considered fair by 54% of executives. In contrast, 71% would expect pay rises of 11% or more from new employers.
7. What Causes Pay Rise: Pay rise is intricately related to performance. A majority 53% received a pay hike as a result of performance; 20% by changing employers. Male executives tend to be rewarded more for performance, while females are more likely to get their pay rise by changing employers or jobs.
8. Importance of Remuneration: Salary influences motivation of an executive and dictates how opinion and decisions on employers are made; 68% of executives believed remuneration package is a strong motivator in doing a job effectively. The majority (79%) thought remuneration packages are an important factor in choosing a future employer.
9. Happy with Employer, But Vigilant: In general executives were satisfied (55%) with their current employer, yet there is little loyalty; 77% of executives were ready to leave their current employer if a new and better opportunity comes along, a much higher number than the 24% who are not satisfied with employers.
10. Expectation from Employers: Reality of work life often contrasted with executives’ views of an ideal employer. Work-life balance is valued by a majority 27%, but when it comes to actually changing jobs only 19% makes a move on lifestyle and work-life considerations; financial (30%) and career concerns (23%) take precedence.
11. Short Work Tenure: Executives in Australia, on average, have worked for eight different employers since joining the workforce. Tenure with an employer is generally short. A majority 72% of executives have been working with their current employer for less than five years. Only 18.5% have work tenures between 5-10 years with their current employer.
12. Correlation Between Education & Remuneration: A correlation exists between education level attained and salary levels of executives. A majority 67% of those who earn $500,000 and above have a Master’s degree while only 34% of those who earn less than $100,000 have similar qualifications.
13. Location & Mobility: A majority 48% were willing to relocate overseas, while 30% will consider the option if an opportunity arises. Similar sentiments were displayed for relocating locally. A significant 14% of executives started job searches solely on location considerations.
14. Brand Me: Executives accept responsibility for their own career trajectory. The vast majority (90%) thought it important to promote and develop their personal brand instead of the employer’s. This desire is more pronounced amongst those in full-time roles (83%) than contractors (14%).
15. Confidence: The majority of executives (60%) were confident they can find a job within three months. Only 6% were not confident of finding a job. Given that the recruitment lifecycle for executives is longer than other job groups, it highlights the confidence executives enjoy.

I am deeply indebted to our sponsors – Peerlo, Australian Institute of Management (AIM QLD/NT); Graduate College of Management, Southern Cross University; and Dutton Direct, – without whose support this study would not exist.

Tags: AIM, Dutton Direct, Executive Monitor 2010, Executive Recruitment, Gradudate College of Management, Job Boards, Peerlo, Recruiters, sixfigures, Southern Cross University

New data from Graduate Careers Australia sheds interesting light on the graduate employment sector.

2009 wasn’t a super year with the GFC affecting graduate recruitment intake. Only 79.2% of graduates were in full-time employment within four months of completing their degrees (down from 85.2%). Despite the downturn graduate salaries grew, with the median starting salary perched at $48,000 compared to $45,000 a year ago. Around 30% of employers have sourcing difficulty in certain disciplines. 

Interestingly, one in five graduate found information about their job on the Internet. And yet posting resume on the Internet is also the least successful method of finding a job. It’s interesting that Print continues to be a rather effective channel to find a job.

Things are looking up, with 21% of employers planning to increase the scale of their Graduate Program in 2010. 

Additional data available here & here

Tags: Graduate Careers Australia, Graduate Opportunities, Graduates

I attended Atlassian’s Open House party last night. 300 plus people turned up.

Few observations:
A strong employment brand alone does not guarantee a steady flow of talent. Organisations who attract talent does so because they work hard at it.  Universally recognised brands are often the ones rolling up their sleeves.

Talent needs to be farmed, there is really no shortcut. You buy an engineer a beer with the knowledge you might need his skills a year from now. You invest time and money on uni students because they will join the ranks of productive citizens someday. Much of recruiting is giving first and taking later. At times it looks like karma at work. Atlassian founders are alumni of  UNSW programs. I ran into young UNSW students enjoying generous scholarships donated by Atlassian. Reaching out early is key. The good news is technology and an increasingly connected world makes it much easier. Perhaps, just-in-time recruitment thinking is not being utopian; it’s close to reality in many organisations, than imagined.

Met a couple of developers who hailed from various parts of the world – Germany, Brazil, USA and Thailand. When 457 visa is used the way it is meant to, good comes out it. 52% of engineers in Australia are born overseas. Some sectors by default requires a borderless talent strategy.  More than we realise, decisions at the policy level will greatly dictate talent movement and the fortunes of many organisations (and nations).

The likes of Joris Luijke admit they face great challenges to find good engineers (“it’s like pulling a tooth out”, I am told).  Acknowledging a problem is part of the journey to recruitment success; it forces you to take a deep look at the solutions available. Joris posses an acute sense of the staffing challenges faced by growing organisations, and he’s sharing his wisdom in Melbourne come November.

Have a look at our population map (page 3). Sarah Nguyen is Gen Y. Be prepared to see her generation taking a central role in the workplace (she believes majority of HR professionals are female. Data anyone?), if not by influence then by sheer number.

Red Oak beer is smooth. Atlassians are good host. When’s your Open House? Some pictures using iPhone.

The beer queue is long

but is worth the wait

Without doubt, the most popular person of the evening.

The basement opens out to a garden – perfect setting for beer, food and chat.

Food glorious food

Lesson time – Atlassian’s presentation on company history

Listening! Recruitment speaker Ross Clennett at the receiving end.

Wall of fame (or infamy) – media coverage of recruitment @ Atlassian

Eight down, 24 more engineers required.

Is this how they make software?

Brain food (No Harry Potter stuff here)

Talent Advisor – Sarah Nguyen

And the band played on

Tags: Atlassian, Joris Luijke, Recruitment, Ross Clennett, Sarah Nguyen

A new friend tweeted – “you are the person I think of when I am after statistics”.

Though flattered, I never really see myself as a statistician. It doesn’t matter that I worked in marketing for the last seven years, some see me as a numbers man because for a variety of reasons that’s the way they experienced my work and brand. Yes, there are many who sees me as a marketer, some may know me as a blogger, some as a cricket tragic, and so on and so forth.

The truth is we are who people think we are. It doesn’t really matter what you think of yourself. What matters is people’s experience with your brand or service, and what they think of you as a result.

Much of the friction in our industry – job seekers vs. recruiters, agencies vs. employers, social networks vs. job boards, the list goes on – can be traced to the disconnect between people’s perception of one another. For no fault of his a good recruiter is dismissed because the client he is targeting, as a result of previous bad experience, thinks recruiters add little value. Scorn is poured on an employer for daring to dictate how they do business, because it contraststed with how some recruiters think business should be done. Last week I listened to an entrepreneur’s plan for a new job board. But, before he even launched, many already don’t like what he is trying to do.

It’s not always fair, but that’s the way it is sometimes. People view you and your company, and life in general from their own past experiences.

So what to do if others already have an unflattering opinion about you (assuming you are not at fault)? Two different paths exist. Re-educate people and try to change what they think of you (e.g. we do recruitment differently, here’s why). Which is not impossible but can be a very lengthy and expensive task (remember, millions are poured into advertising daily to try to change perceptions). Alternatively, try to delight someone else who does not already have an opinion of you.

I’d go for the second option. What about you?

In April Michael Specht and I embarked on a journey to try and understand the various sources of talent in Australia. A survey was conducted tracking the hiring practices of 409 organisations who made a total of 92,136 hires in the last 12 months. The final report compares the effectiveness of 17 (20 if we do not band some sources together) identifiable sources of talent.

The data revealed clear national trends. Job boards emerged as the most dominant source of talent, accounting for 29.64% of total hires (see graph). The data gets interesting when we hone in on factors like region, company size, type of organisation or industry sector. How companies in the ACT find talent differs from how the larger states like NSW or VIC conduct their sourcing. While not addressed in our study, it’s likely the health of local economies dictate how sourcing is conducted to a large degree.

Graph: Sources of Talent, 09

There is also a clear demarcation between employers and professional recruiters on their degree of dependence on various sources of talent. Besides, things aren’t always what they seem. It’s interesting that gaps exist between what’s thought to be a successful source and the reality. That very little hiring is attributed to social media even though it’s rated highly as a channel for sourcing is testament to the mismatch between perception and reality (Gerry Crispin’s in his foreword points to a similar trend in the US).  Many of the findings in the survey contrast to established thinking within the HR and Recruitment industries. It’s also illuminating sources with high potential, such as alumni hiring, remain largely ignored (Also, refer Dr. Ian O. Williamson’s article on alumni strategy, page 19).

The study has limitations. In hindsight, we felt there are instances where we aren’t as clear as we ought to be with our questionnaire. Also, our classification of organisations does not entirely mimic Australian Bureau of Statistics’ method , and is fodder for naysayers. We would have liked the sample size to be larger and evenly spread across the 27 industries we monitored, even though at times it felt like we bit more than we can chew.  

Where to from here? I hope the report will stimulate further discussions in Australia and beyound. If anything, the study highlights the importance of monitoring and collecting recruitment data. Discussing the state of data collection, which remains poor as revealed by the study, will be a positive step forward. While national averages tell a story, sometimes they hardly matter at the individual level. Beyound the national numbers there are still many stories to decipher. Over the coming days, I will explore each source of talent in more details. 

Overall the whole project is a journey of discovery. To have access to hiring data and learn how corporate Australia recruits their talent is a privilege. I am extremely fortunate to be able to work with Michael Specht. I am also grateful to our sponsors and partners who made this project possible. Please visit their websites – JobAdder, JobGenie, NT3, Page Up People and PeoplePulse .

I look forward to your feedback. Download the report here (name and email required).  

Tags: JobAdder, JobGenie, Michael Specht, nt3, PageUp People, People Pulse, Recruiter Daily, Source of talent 2009