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.

Tough year? Need inspiration? What Matters Now, a free book with contributions from a range of writer/thinkers whose work I follow and deeply admired, is a must read.

A few nuggets:

There are tens of thousands of businesses making many millions a year in profits that still haven’t ever heard of twitter, blogs or facebook. Are they all wrong? Have they missed out or is the joke really on us? They do business through personal relationships, by delivering great customer service and it’s working for them. They’re more successful than most of those businesses who spend hours pontificating about how others lose out by missing social media and the latest wave. And yet they’re doing business. Great business. – Howard Mann

If we want engagement, and the mediocrity busting results it produces, we have to make sure people have autonomy over the four most important aspects of their work:

Task – What they do
Time – When they do it
Technique – How they do it
Team – Whom they do it with.

After a decade of truly spectacular underachievement, what we need now is less management and more freedom – fewer individual automatons and more autonomous individuals. – Daniel Pink

If you’re at a coffee shop, and you spill coffee on someone by accident, what do you say? You’ll be horrified and say “Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” When you mean it you say you’re sorry – it’s a primal response. You wouldn’t say “Oh my god, I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused!” But that’s exactly how most companies respond when they make a big mistake. Mistakes happen. How you apologize matters. Don’t bullshit people – just say “I’m sorry.” And mean it. – Jason Fried

When the economy tanks, it’s natural to think of yourself first. You have a family to feed a mortgage to pay. Getting more appears to be the order of business.
It turns out that the connected economy doesn’t respect this natural instinct. Instead, we’re rewarded for being generous. Generous with our time and money but most important generous with our art.- Seth Godin

A new fascinating study by the Centre for Work + Life (University of South Australia) sheds light on the link between home, work and community. The study is a comprehensive (four separate reports) look at how decisions about work are influenced by what happens at home and the wider community. As Dr Pip Williams, Project manager of the report, says: “Planning decisions about work and housing cannot be expressed independently of each other.”

Some interesting tidbits from the study:

“Not working‟ does not mean that you are not linked to the labour market. Firstly, people currently not in  paid work – for example, new mothers, full-time students or retired grandparents – are in close relationship to people who are in work: their partners, friends and adult children”

Work affects life through more than just having a job‟. For good work, home and community outcomes, people need access to a labour market that has depth: that is, offers a variety of job choices, and preferably some occupational depth and breadth.

The growth in participation in paid work is – by definition – accompanied by growth in commuting. Patterns of travel, concern about time wasted in commuting, the cost, quality and accessibility of public transport, not surprisingly, emerge as important concerns.

What makes a good job?
The report also looked at what makes a good job. 

• A good boss: who listens and responds to request for flexibility;
• Working conditions and policies that make flexibility accessible to workers;
• Good leave arrangements;
• Support for learning and education;
• Work arrangements that fit well with care options;
• Jobs that do not demand long hours, and do not overload workers;
• Partners who do not work long hours;
• Partners who share domestic work and care;
• Being married to a tradesman (who has contained hours) rather than a chef, engineer, manager or IT professional;
• Travelling to work with kids or partner;
• Jobs that do not involve long commutes.

The study is rich in data and offer lot of insights into how decisions about a job is shaped.

Dr. Pip Williams interview on ABC (Podcast)

Average job tenure is seven years in Australia, easily the lowest amongst developed economies.

Why is this so?

The author of a new report – Australia at Work – highlighted various likely factors, but honed in one factor:

“In terms of an employee deciding to leave, the critical determinant will be whether they think they can get a better job elsewhere; and their concept of ‘better’ might relate to, among other things: job security, pay, relations with colleagues, working arrangements, geographical location, use of skills, and development opportunities. Many of these things can be addressed in the employee’s current job if they have a ‘voice’ to bring attention to the issue and have it addressed. Freeman and Medoff’s (1984) ‘exit-voice’ asserts that employees who do not have a ‘voice’ in having their complaints redressed, either by themselves or someone else, end up leaving the workplace altogether.”

For an employee, it’s not surprising, that having a ‘voice’ is important. Being heard is part and parcel of being human. For an employer, no doubt, listening is paramount.

(On another note, low job tenure explains to a degree the high penetration rate of recruitment firms in Australia. The more fluid the labour market, the more the demand for third-party recruiters. Opponents of contingency style of recruitment failed to realised that much of its demand is driven by clients)

A new research by Australia Institute revealed the nature and extent of overtime work in Australia.

Some of the highlights of the research:

• A typical full-time employee works 70 minutes of unpaid overtime a day, amounting to 2.14 billion hours annually and gifting $72 billion to employers.
• Full-time employees work more unpaid overtime then anyone else (table 2)
• 50% of white-collared workers experienced unpaid overtime, compared to 24.2% for blue collared workers. (table 2)
• Male employees (49.7%) worked more unpaid overtime than their female counterparts (41%)
• Older and high-income earners work more unpaid overtime (table 5)
• Workplace culture is a contributing factor with 44% who work unpaid overtime saying that it is ‘compulsory’ or ‘expected’ (table 6)

What’s interesting is the fact that majority of workers (63.4%) would choose to work overtime because they have a strong sense of commitment and duty to their job (table 8).  In other words, many Australians are happy to work overtime without getting paid. Most companies focus a lot on remuneration to motivate staff, perhaps altruism is underestimated.

The report (pdf) is a worthy read.