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

Australian Computer Society’s (ACS) latest report paints a favourable employment picture for IT professionals.  By and large, IT professionals are faring well with  24.7% of respondents experiencing some form of unemployment at some stage in the last five years – down from 29% of respondents in 2007.

An interesting finding from the ACS report is how IT professionals rate the effectiveness of different channels to find jobs. Respondents were asked to rate, on a scale of 1 to 4 (1 being the best),  the best source of jobs from four choices – recruitment agencies, newspapers, networking/word of mouth and the Internet. Judging from the graph below (the report does not provide respondents exact numbers or percentages) the Internet ranked highly as a channel for finding jobs. It’s interesting that word of mouth and networking are rated low by a significant number of respondents, while recruitment firms are ranked higher.

A similar study in 2008 by Hudson found jobseekers in Australia, on average, use more than five different channels to find a job. With the majority using popular channels like job boards, print media, recruitment firms and corporate websites.

Obviously, other channels to find jobs exists.  Social media alone offers a world of new possibilities. Factor in different types of professions, industry sectors and regional variables, and it’s not difficult to imagine that numerous channels for finding jobs, those not identified by existing studies, will exist.

In the recent Sources of Talent  report 20 different channels to find talent was identified. It would be interesting to see how each channel performs from the perspective of a job seeker. As information on employment opportunities become pervasive and easily accessible, job seekers’ behaviour will increasingly be scrutinised (at least by me).

(Note: SEEK’s Satisfaction & Motivation Report and CareerOne’s Hunting the Hunters also provide useful information on job seekers’ experience).

Tags: ACS, IT professionals, Recruitment, Source of talent 2009