Australasian Talent Conference
I received the final programme for The Australasian Talent Conference today, and boy am I excited.  Here’s an opportunity to hear and perhaps meet some of the giants of the recruitment/HR industry (What does one ask/say to the likes of John Sullivan and Gerry Crispin?). The conference starts on 5^th May with a range of workshops and concludes on the 7^th. You can re-visit what’s on offer at the conference here. I plan to live blog or Tweet from the event. If you are interested, it’s not too late to register. A discount of 15% for readers of this blog is still on offer; use the code ‘DES09’ here. If you do attend, please say ‘Hi’, it would be lovely to meet you.

Source of Talent in Australia
Michael Specht, recently dubbed ‘the godfather of online recruitment in Australia’, and I are collaborating on a new report/study on the sources of talent in Australia. Given the paucity of data on the subject in Australia, we aim to understand more about the most effective channels for finding talent. We are currently laying the groundwork for the study, seeking support at the same time . I’ll announce more details in the coming days. Whether you are in corporate HR of an agency recruiter, there will be an opportunity to raise your voice. Watch this space!

The Talent Debate
Industry guru, John Sumser, ignited an almighty debate in the recruitment/HR community with his article ‘mincing words’. John’s argument is that widely used nomenclatures in our industry such as ‘Human capital’, ‘Human resource’, ‘Assets’ and ‘Talent’ are flawed, can be demeaning, and implies ownership of employees by their employers. John raised a lot of thought-provoking questions, but does not provide answers. He argued in a later post that not knowing the answers and accepting that a problem exist is the first step towards redemption. What do you think. Are there better alternatives?

The Talent Code
Newly released book ‘The Talent Code: Greatness isn’t Born, its Grown’, by Daniel Coyle seems to toe the same line as previous authors (Malcolm Gladwell & Geoff Colvin) who argued that talent is not hereditary, but nurtured. In a recent interview he quoted “it’s possible to grow skills, fluency, speed, power, all the qualities that add up to what we know as talent.” More of Daniel’s view on talent here. An excerpt from the book here. Follow Daniel’s blog here. One more book, to put in my ‘must read’ pile. 

Funny Talent
In this video, funny man Kirby (actually, very intelligent man) visually explains that talent is really 10,000 hours of hard work and luck. Simple.

HR Futures Conference
26 February 2009
Melbourne 

Employment Branding summit 
7  April 7, 2009
Sydney

31 March 2009
Melbourne

The 7th annual HR Summit Sydney
1 -2 April 2009
Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre
Darling Harbour

Australian Talent Conference
5-7 May 2009
Sydney 

The sixth annual HR Summit 08
8 July
Sofitel Hotel
Melbourne

The sixth annual HR Summit 08
7-8 October 2008
Stamford Plaza
BRISBANE

• eConference list a range of HR events for 2009
• IIR Conferences list of HR events for 2009

Employers confidence 
Employers are reluctant to hire, and confidence has taken a beating (down by 19.9%), finds the latest Hudson report.  Does the collective panic masked the reality?

Do we still need recruiters?
Discussions (podcast) between BTech magazine and Kelly Magowan of Sixfigures on the roles of recruiters.

Female workers better
Harvard explores how women who are star performers tend to fare better than man after changing jobs

Expat opportunities
Skills Solutions identifies growth sectors in the Australian economy for returning expats to consider.

Google employment brand loosing its lustre?
Close on the news of Google firing 100 recruiters, a fascinating look at why staff are voluntarily leaving the company.

Rants on recruitment service
Most complaints against recruitment firms remains unreported. Still, some voices comes out in the open. Be prepared to see more ugly stories as recruiters started to compete for fewer jobs. Downturns, have an uncanny ability to weed out operators who aren’t up to industry standards.

Work trends in Australia
It is estimated that Australian workers have 121 million days of accrued leave valued at around $31 billion in wages. Australians don’t take leave; work longest hours among developed countries. A report by Tourism Australia found, ‘one third of Australian will not take one day off annual leave” this year. See Tourism Australia landmark study on annual leave. Annual leave stockpiling – The HR perspective.

Talent upgrade
A downturn is a good time to upgrade ‘talent’, says McKinsey. “Companies can maintain their attractiveness to internal and external talent by using cost-cutting efforts as an opportunity to redesign jobs so that they become more engaging for the people undertaking them”

Company culture and talent
Believing it is what separates the winners from the rest, Harvard lays down 10 rules to create better corporate culture.

Know you generation
Crucial for workforce planning, McCrindle provides a snapshot of demographic groups in Australia. See other McCrindle reports on various demographic trends in Australia.

• State of public sector ICT market
  Intermedium list 2008’s major ICT events in the Australian Public sector. The main event being the government’s acceptance of the Gershon’s report which recommended a 50% cut in spending on IT contracting staff.
• Australians love affair with Facebook continues
  Close to 4 million Australian use Facebook. Whether you sell a product or your employment brand, it is impossible to ignore a website frequented by so many Australians. What are the imperatives for talent acquisition?  
• Awards System
  Some 4000 plus industrial awards exist in Australia. Efforts to modernise the awards system is leading to fears employers wage bills will increase by 20-30% in NSW.   
• Industry sentiments
  The latest Mckinsey global survey paints a picture of doom; 44% of companies think they will reduce headcount in 2009. NSW businesses are however confident of increasing headcount in 2009. Meanwhile, Holden’s new car to generate 1200 jobs  
• Staff layoffs in a downturn
  Think twice before laying off staff, Harvard Business School warns. Meanwhile, retail and finance sector registered the largest job cuts in Australia.  Watson Wyatt looks at the effects of the downturn on HR programs.  
• Crystal ball gazing
  John Sumser’s 10 predictions for the recruitment industry