It is clear, what works for one group of profession will not necessarily work for another group. For instance, the tools and services utilised to find and recruit a receptionist is going to be different from how a CEO is sourced and recruited. In the same breath, recruiting tactics used by a small and medium size company will have little relevance to a multinational company. Adding to the challenge is having to deal with a product that can say ‘no’, is very well informed and armed to the teeth with choices.

In the last 12 months, driven in parts by the growth of social media, emergence of new methodologies and thinking, development of new services and tools, technological innovations, and changes in job seekers’ behaviour, the number of channels and methods to source talent has exploded.

The challenge for each employer is to figure out what works best for their company; figure out which tools to pluck out from the toolbox. And in the backdrop of an economy predicted to sink further, the imperatives to get recruitment right is critical.

Over the coming months we will prod, study and take a closer look at the talent acquisition landscape. We will concentrate on separating myth from reality. It promises to be a wild ride. Join us.

In the coming days we will raise the tempo and talk to more companies, solutions providers, thought leaders and industry personalities, who are redefining how to best engage and find talent in Australia.

Meanwhile, check out our previous conversations:

• ‘How to find and hire team leaders’, James Adonis (Director, teamleaders.com.au) gives us some clue.
• Kelly Magowan (Director,Sixfigures) sheds light on the behaviour of high-income earners. 
• Sourcing talent using advance internet tools is a growing trend, sourcing expert Nicole Cain (Manager, Profusion)  opens up.
• Riges Younan (CEO, 2Vouch) talks about the bold new world of referrals in talent acquisition
• Andrew Turnbull (CEO, nt3) believes interactive candidate database offers unrivalled value to tap talent.
• How do you hire staff in an industry plagued by a 46% turnover? Linda Simonsen (CEO, FuturePeople) tells us how.
• Trainer and business coach, Ross Clennett, believes good training is the key to getting talent.

If you have something to say about ‘talent’, let us know at info (at) destinationtalent.com.au

Recruitment trainers play a critical role of championing quality and best-practice methodologies in an industry whose image is often tarnished by lack of proper standards. Trainers are largely at the forefront of improving the productivity, image and overall professionalism of recruiters. Unsurprisingly the demand for training services has increased significantly.

We spoke to Ross Clennett, a personal coach, speaker and recruitment trainer based in Melbourne. Ross sheds some light on the status of the training market, critical skills recruiters lack and the services he provides.

DT: Ross, can you shed some light on your background and what services RossClennett.com offers?
RC: I finished an economics degree at the University of Tasmania and in late 1988 went backpacking across China and Russia and finished up in London and started working as a recruiter to pay for my credit card bills. I returned to Australia after 2 years and then worked for 10 years at Recruitment Solutions starting as a temp recruiter in Sydney and finishing up as the Deputy GM for National Recruitment Services. I started my own business in 2003, originally as a personal coach but recruitment was too much in my blood so I moved into recruitment training and then conference speaking. I launched RossClennett.com and my weekly ezine, InSight, in October 2007. My services remain coaching, training, and keynote speaking at both internal conferences and public conferences.

DT: Is recruitment an art or a science?
RC: It is most definitely a science. The ‘art’ comes through each recruiter bringing their own personality and style to their job. Most hiring mistakes occur when people ignore the science behind effective recruitment processes.

DT: How important is training for recruiters and what difference does formal training makes?
RC:Training recruiters is as important as training accountants, or any professional. Would you like someone ‘good with numbers’ doing your tax return without the proper training? Effective training in ANY discipline, not just recruitment, enables a person to succeed more quickly than they would through purely ‘trial and error’ self-directed learning.

DT: How big is the market for recruitment training in Australia?
RC: Not as big as it should be! There are about half a dozen full time recruitment trainers/coaches in Australia but the potential market is huge when you consider a very large majority of recruitment companies in this country employ less than 20 people and can’t afford dedicated full-time trainers internally.

DT: In your opinion what are the three main things the recruitment industry (recruiters) need improving? Do you think the recruitment industry have an image problem?
RC: Yes, there is an image problem, caused by a sector that is profitable, high growth, largely self-regulated and with very low barriers to entry. The three most important things for recruiters to improve are their;

- interviewing skills
- ‘talent consulting’ skills with clients rather than being a resume referral service
- brochures and websites

DT: You are passionate about writing good job ads, how important is writing good job ads in sourcing candidates?  What  evidence exists that good written jobs solicit more response?
RC: Writing an effective job ad remains an important recruitment skill even though, over the past 10 years, there has been a significant growth in other sourcing methods. I don’t believe the issue is about generating more response, the aim is to generate a higher quality response. I will take a 5 candidate high-calibre ad response ahead of a 60 candidate average-calibre ad response, any day. I am not aware of any formal research on job ad writing but if it exists I’d love to know about it.

DT: Can you tell us more about your upcoming workshops, how do they work? And why must recruiters sign up for it?
RC: I have a two day, 4 workshop, program in Brisbane on Wednesday 4 February and Thursday 5 February. People can register for the whole program or for just one or more workshops. More details can be found at http://rossclennett.com/upcoming-workshops.html

My response to why recruiters should sign up is simply to say; if you’re interested in improving your results, then come along, if you aren’t interested in improving then stay away! No matter how long you have been recruiting for I promise you will learn at least one new thing that will help you in 2009.

Ross can be reached at ross@rossclennett.com

Meanwhile, competition for graduates is heating up each year; graduate vacancies rose from 9.8% in 2003, to 11.2% in 2008. Often employers’ problem includes the inability to fill graduate job vacancies.

If you are an employer or a recruiter, the odds are you will be involved in hiring or be in contact with a graduate(s) looking for a job. Given graduates constitute the bulk of new human capital joining the Australian workforce each year, it is important to better understand their behaviour. Below are a few resources.

Graduate recruitment resources:

• Gradient’s recent report – Change by Degree – provides myth busting insights into the behaviour of graduates.
• How much do graduates earn? How much do you need to pay? Graduate Career offers a yearly report on graduate remuneration trends in Australia.
• Members of the Australian Association of Graduate Employers pool resources together to better understand graduates behaviour. The group produce a yearly report on graduate employment destinations. Also, Ben Reeves’, CEO of AAGE, presentation on graduate behaviour.  Graduate Recruitment Industry Awards Winners, 2008.
• Virtual graduate recruitment fair – highly appropriate strategy to reach out to a digital generation.
• NAGCAS (National Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services)  has a wide range of resources on graduate careers development.
• Itinerary of graduate career fairs across Australian universities
• EOC has been in the forefront of graduate recruitment. Careers & Employment Expo is a yearly event targeting graduates across Australia.
• Sydney Talent is an interesting joint initiative of Sydney University and the business community to harness graduate talent. Universities will increasingly cash in on the human capital they helped produce.
• Graduate Opportunities is a career guide for graduates. Includes, snippets of major Australian sectors employing graduates.
• Niche job board targeting graduates – Graduatejobs . Juniorjobs targets entry level job seekers, including graduates.
• SEEK has 2,100 graduate vacancies. All the generalist job board have dedicated graduate sections.

Of late sourcing has gained increasing prominence in Australia (Sourcers have their own social network) as companies compete for the best talent. The explosion of channels to find candidates and a deluge of data accelerated the importance of sourcing. Today, sourcing is a fast maturing stand-alone profession in the talent acquisition business.

We spoke to Nicole Cain, Manager, Knowledge Acquisition & Market Intelligence at Profusion, to set the records about sourcing straight.

DT: Firstly can you tell us a bit about your professional background and Profusion?
NC: Profusion is an Executive Search, Recruitment and Human Capital firm, specialising in Banking and Wealth Management. Based in Sydney we work with clients across Australia and Asia, North America and Europe. Established by four founding partners in late 2004 Profusion has enjoyed a period of sustained organic growth, ranking No. 26 in the BRW 2008 Fast Starters.

Prior to joining Profusion I spent close to 10 years in professional services both locally and in the U.K. as a librarian and business researcher. Looking to expand my horizons and sensing an increasing demand in the search and recruitment market for experienced researchers and information managers, I joined Profusion in August 2007 to lead the newly created research team. As Manager – Knowledge Acquisition Market Intelligence, my role is to identify key talent in the market and ensure that relevant market intelligence is shared and disseminated effectively across the business.

DT:Sourcing is a fairly new field/profession in the recruitment industry, can you shed some light on what exactly sourcing entails? How does sourcing add value to the talent acquisition game?
NC: Sourcing is about applying a variety of research techniques to identify potential candidates. At Profusion we follow a well defined research methodology to support our specialists on assignments. Our process includes combining many of the tried and tested techniques such as mining our candidate database, telephone research and generating referrals through existing contacts, with the latest in online search techniques.

By investing in a dedicated research and sourcing function Profusion has enabled its specialists to be more focused on fulfilling the needs of both candidates and clients through ongoing relationship management and business development. Combining the tacit knowledge acquired throughout the recruitment process with that provided by the research function results in a collective of market intelligence which adds value not only to our business but ultimately that of our clients.

DT: In general, in your experience, what are the best sources of candidates?
NC: Definitely referrals. Being specialists within Financial Services our consultants have built a solid network of trusted contacts. As a result we receive a high level of professional referrals and direct approaches by prospective candidates. It would be fair to say that referrals equate to approximately 40% of actual placements, closely followed by advertising response at 25 - 30%. The remaining 30% are generated through proactive research and by tapping into our existing pool of candidates and contacts i.e. people we already know.

DT: Is monitoring and participating in social networks a daily part of your work? In your experience, how effective are social networks in finding talent?
NC: As a relative newcomer to executive search and recruitment I have embraced the emergence of new media and have incorporated it into our research methodology as a vital part of the sourcing process. In terms of the demographic of our target market, LinkedIn has been the most effective networking site for identifying and connecting with talent in Financial Services both locally and overseas. Our specialists are provided with tailored training on how to effectively search professional and social networking sites to identify and connect with talent and build their professional profile online.

Part of our strategy to support candidate acquisition has been the creation of an online ‘virtual’ talent manager to represent Profusion across numerous digital touchpoints such as LinkedIn, FaceBook, Friendster and Xing. Candidates, both new and existing can make direct contact with our online talent manager to obtain career advice, find out about job opportunities, or be put in touch with the most appropriate specialist (if they don’t already have an existing relationship). Whilst still in its infancy, our online talent manager also drives additional traffic to our website and increases awareness of our brand across new media. Over time we expect to see an increase in traffic to our website and direct approaches to our online talent manager as we invest time in developing her presence and building her networks.

DT: Do you use job boards to source candidates? How do you rate them in terms of finding talent?
NC: Profusion carefully allocates its advertising spend across a range of generalist and industry-specific job boards. Specialists will utilise respective job boards depending on the role, industry sector, geographic location and level of seniority. For example a role for a financial planner may be advertised on Seek and MyCareer; a senior banking role in Singapore might be advertised on efinancialcareers; and a role for a senior IT professional might be advertised on JobServe and SeekIT.

From time to time we may trial a new or niche job board or explore alternatives for advertising jobs such as sending alerts about roles out to our networks via status updates on LinkedIn. Whilst we haven’t yet placed anyone in a role from a LinkedIn status update the activity alone promotes awareness of our brand and expands our network.

In terms of the overall effectiveness of the various job boards in finding talent we monitor and track the source of our candidates on a regular basis via our CRM and Google Analytics to ensure our advertising spend is directed in the right areas.

Nicole can be reached at nicole.cain@profusiongroup.com

Admittedly anxiety rules the roost - those who still have jobs fear they will be the next to get the chop. Those who already lost jobs worry about their prospects in an increasingly grim economic environment. Professionals in the finance sector, in particular, don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

In a time of uncertainty what feels good is certainty.

As players in the talent acquisition game, the downturn is a great opportunity to make real our claims of ‘adding value’. By being calm, honest about the situation, being generous with our time (Hire an extra person to man the phones) and offering options/alternatives (rather than just saying we don’t have jobs) we can help reduce the collective anxiety among job seekers. In return we get to improve our industry’s image, add value and fulfil our roles as ‘solution providers’ regardless of the economy.

Clients, faced with the difficult task of running profitable businesses with less people, needs help too. Grappling with the human costs of an economic downturn, employers are anxious about damaging their employment brand. Perhaps, a visit or a call without expecting anything in return is due.

Of course, we don’t have all the answers, but that shouldn’t stop us from doing what we can. Normal business is not enough.

People remember those who look after them when times are hard.

Seth’s books sold millions, and his blog is one of the most popular on the web. Credited for coining the phrase ‘permission marketing’ and widely regarded as one of the brightest marketing visionary in the world, any marketer worth his salt would want to work with someone like Seth (myself included).

Seth’s employment brand is strong. He does not need to work hard to attract talent.

And yet, Seth wrote what could possibly be the world’s most detailed job advertisement. Of course, the issue is not the length of the job ad, but the time and effort invested by Seth to explain the job opportunity; the respect he shows to applicants he is targeting. Remarkable, given the job in question is for a six month internship.

Meanwhile, our industry is notorious for churning out badly written ads.

As John Sumser puts it: “Badly written job advertisements set a very bad starting point for a relationship with a prospective employee. By not crafting the ad to make the most of the candidate’s time, the company is saying, in effect, shoddy performance is celebrated in our company. Join us if you aspire to mediocrity“

It is amazing that an industry whose fortunes largely depend on attracting talent through job advertisements will invest so little time and effort. Badly written job ad harms the employment brand, increases the workload (shifting through thousands of irrelevant resumes) for advertisers and frustrates job seekers. No one wins.

The irony is most people who write job ads (advertisers) lay the blame on job applicants or the advertising medium, mainly job boards.

Only 47% of Australian, compared to 71% of Indians, who participated in the study, felt they are well equipped to face the challenges of a global business environment. With an overall score of 3.7 Australia is placed under the ‘nearing readiness’ category. On a more positive note Australians executives scored highest in areas of social responsibility, inclusion and diversity.

69% of survey participants have working relationships outside of their countries. The challenge is to ensure the Australian workforce will be prepared for an increasingly globalised business scenario.

Take the skills readiness test.

However, I have taken out the second half of the presentation (recruitment trends and shift in the behaviour of candidates), VIDEO clips and all proprietary data associated with my previous employer, so you might find the presentation a bit disjointed. I’ll post the missing parts as new stand-alone presentations at a later stage. As usual, requests for copies of the slides can be directed to info (at) destinationtalent.com.au, otherwise the presentation is on Slideshare to view.

For a country grappling with skills shortage, having roughly 5% of the populace living and working overseas is a huge drain of precious human capital. Nevertheless, the flow continues. Ingrained in our culture, travelling and working overseas is a ‘rite of passage’ for many Australians. As travelling becomes easier, and with the rapid globalisation of trade and business, it is likely that Australians will continue to leave the country in search of better opportunities and adventures overseas.

A study by Frank Lowy institute found, as a group expatriate Australians are better qualified and well paid; 45% have a post-graduate degree compared to 9% of the Australian workforce back home. One third of Australian expatriates congregated in global cities (London, HK, LA, NY, San Francisco, Singapore, Berlin) and are employed in knowledge based industries. Dubbed ‘gold- collared workers’ Australians working overseas are highly qualified and in demand.

It is a mystery why very little attention is paid to this valuable and easily accessible talent pool.

Progressive recruitment firms, mostly with multi-national reach, have started cashing in on cross-border movement of talent. The UK-Australia traffic in particular is proving to be lucrative. A rash of new providers - career event organisers, recruitment firms, job boards, global candidate database, migration agents etc - are starting to pay attention. However, in general, most employers and talent service providers are oblivious, or have no strategy to effectively mine the overseas talent pool.

Opportunities abounds. Every employers ought to have a deliberate expatriates strategy. For a start, there should be a special section dedicated to assisting returning Australian on every employer’s career website. Job boards can choose to become helpful gateways to opportunities by investing more resources. HR practitioner and recruiters have little excuse to remain passive, tools to connect and reach talent beyond our borders are readily available.

For those willing to stray away from the beaten track, there is a treasure trove of talent waiting to be mined.

Other resources
Michael Fullilove, Expats – Time to use them wisely
Lowy Institute report on Australian diaspora
ABS – Australian Expatriates in OECD countries
CEDA – Australia’s Diaspora

• Best of the best service providers, 2008
  Previously we highlighted the best talent solutions providers in Australia (Here and here). Below are the new winners.

Human capital Magazine Awards (gold medal winners)
Preferred career development & training providers - rogenSi
Preferred recruitment agencies - The next Step
Preferred online job boards - SEEK
Preferred incentive/teambuilding providers - Accumulate
Preferred migration & mobility service providers - KPMG
Preferred HR technology & software providers - Frontier software .
For a complete list of winners check out Human Capital Magazine
Seek also won Frost & Sullivan’s Best Practices Awards

• VIDEO
  This Video explains ‘how to measure the lifetime value of an employee’
• State of the global economy
  McKinsey latest report found not all companies are desperate, but the job market is shrinking.

• Tis the season for giving
  Niche job board operator Expatjob is offering a 15% discount on all job postings/resume database access (current price list).  The offer is valid till 24 Dec. Contact Phone: +61 8 9388 7696 E-mail: sales@expatjob.net

• Disabled workers continues to get a raw deal
  Workforce participation rate of disabled Australians continues to be low, in spite of the increase in the numbers of new graduates. Pathway 9 conference will explore the problems.

• Word of mouth most effective job search method
  Yet another study points to the effectiveness of referrals in job search. 30% of Australians found their job through word of mouth. Of course, the talk doing the rounds is the automation and monetisation of word-of-mouth.

• Recruiting SAP talent in a downturn
  A panel discussion on the challenges of hiring SAP professionals in Australia. Apparently, experience counts more than education when hiring SAP professionals.

• Recruitment blogs/news
  You might want to subscribe to Thomas Shaw’s new project – aggregated HR/Recruitment content, predominantly Australian.