August 03, 2008

JOBX grows

JOBX has just recently added some very exciting domains to its list of site. Whilst we are still designing the format the sites will contain more jobs and some very interesting information for job seekers.

The two URL's are:

www.job.com.au
www.jobs.net.au

These are a great addition to the already interesting www.jobx.com.au. We have however been told that some people think this has connotations of non related career site. What do you think?

June 10, 2008

Please can we give you a pay rise?

Pay A new salary survey in New Zealand's has released results for the top paying jobs in the county. This could be useful for those of you finishing year twelve deciding what course to study.

The Hays Recruitment survey covers 11 sectors and hundreds of jobs, tracking pay increases and comparing New Zealand wages with their Australian counterparts.

According to Hays New Zealand managing director Jason Walker students after jobs that are in demand should look into IT, construction, engineering, accounting and finance and law.

Walker says Australian wages are 25% higher on average than New Zealand, but because New Zealand companies are smaller workers recieve a wider range of work experience. IT in particular is an industry to keep an eye on because even although jobs are indemand the number of IT students dropped after the dotcom crash and there is not enough supply to meet demand. Canterbury University computer science associate professor Tim Bell, says that demand is so high, students are getting job offers before they even graduate.

Experts say demand for workers in the IT sector is high and students who train in the field can have their pick of jobs and secure big pay packets. Figures released last week by Hays Recruitment backed this up and workers in specialist fields could earn as much as $150,000.

The legal and accounting sectors are also growing with the Hays survey showing pay packets in these areas range from $45,000 to $140,000. In construction, quantity surveyors were in high demand with maximum salaries climbing to $120,000 in Auckland and engineering specialties had pay packets topping $110,000. Furthermore there is a international shortage in engineers and their skills are sought after in almost every country around the world.

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No Autographs Please

Yup we are officially famous. Check out this video on blipTV about the launch and benefits of JOBX NZ for recruiters, job seekers and companies. It gives you a quick overview on what makes JOBX distinct and the anorexic X spinning around is pretty too.

May 27, 2008

Tell him he's dreaming

Dreamjobs_getty_082907 Powerful men in the most sought after, highly regarded jobs in country revealed their dream jobs to the Financial Review recently. For some reason being a teachers appears to be the most popular choice, but, I am sure were they to swap their currnet salary checks for a $50 grand per year teachers salary they would be singing a different tune.

DREAM JOBS

  • Telstra executive Phil Burgess would like to own a book store.
  • Fund manager Peter Morgan to teach high school students or a junior soccer squa
  • Bank of Queensland CEO David Liddy to be the coach for the Brisbane Lions club in the Australian Football League
  • Computershare CEO Stuart Crosby to not have to work at all.
  • Coca-Cola Amatil, ANZ Banking and Singapore Airlines director David Gonski to teach modern history.
  • Cochlear CEO Chris Roberts to be a teacher as well.
  • Advertising and media buying sector stalwart Harold Mitchell to breed horses in the mountains
  • Jetstar Airlines CEO Alan Joyce to own a pub.
  • Singapore Telecommunication director John Morschel to be a ski instructor

HR Departments Taking a Shot in the Dark

Shot_in_the_dark A report released last week by Chandler Macleod shows even although internal HR departments insist they are becoming more accountable and efficient, this is not actually the case. The results were obtained by interviewing 166 employers throughout Australia and the results are surprising to say the least.

They postulated the cost to the Australian employer is about $15,000 and 80 days per hire which seems ridiculously high. In addition, it was found only 4 % of the employers interviewed had a retention strategy.

The study found the overwhelming majority of companies used reactionary recruitment strategies, in that all funds and time was focused on filling immediate vacancies as they arose rather then following long term strategies. 

Latest research has provided evidence that sound recruitment practises minimise costs, and although this seems to be a topic discussed at a board level it is not being carried through to HR departments

General Manager for Talent Management Services at Chandler Macleod, Sue Healy feels companies are not being creative in their recruitment practises.

"There's a whole range of strategies that could be used but I think [employers] still stick to the agencies and stick to the job boards."

As for HR departments being more scientific and accountable the report showed 65% of companies sad they had no structure to measure critical recruitment metrics including retention, quality of hire, and cost and time to hire.


May 06, 2008

Bonus Babies

Babies_lots A new scheme will be put before the Productivity Commission tomorrow whereby women could receive 6 months paid maternity leave with full pay.

One catch is this proposed scheme will cost the government $3.5 billion to deliver, a cost too expensive to fund through the current tax system. Former senior public servant Julia Perry has drawn up a proposal that covers the cost with a combination of government money and taxed  earnings.

Under the scheme, 0.5% of employees wages will be extracted and added to the $1 billion the government pays to fund the $5000 baby bonus for working women.

This will also benefit fathers and allow them four weeks paid paternity leave. Furthermore, the woman's employer would get a subsidy to employ someone to replace her while she's on leave meaning that even smaller business will be able to adopt this scheme.

This plan sounds pretty flawless and it means that women are able to breastfeed and support their babies through their most formative years. It also lessens the fiscal pressure placed on young families which is particularly important considering the current economic climate.

The risk for government is real though as taxing the population at a higher rate is sure to cause a bit of a backlash and may not help with the approval ratings.

Electric Shock-er

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A conference between Iemma and members of the Labor Pary over the weekend, cemented the fact that Iemma wants to privatize state electricity while his party does not.

This was followed by a rather humiliating interview on 702 yesterday with Adam Spencer where Iemma appeared not to understand any of the questions directed at him. When asked why had had the meeting when he had no intention of listening to the party members, Iemma went on about electricity in 2014. He kept on and on with this and must have he quoted the 2014 energy shortage stats about 50 times.

Today, it appears support for his proposal is growing.Furthermore it seems the NSW electrical systems is about to collapse and the state government is trying to palm off its decrepit investment, ebay-style, before it costs them anymore money.

One bonus is that Steve our resident JOBX pom said that the privatization of electricity in
Britain forced prices down due to increased competition which can’t hurt.

The first obvious problem with privatization is Global Warming. If the government is in control of electricity, they can be held accountable by the public, and be forced by tax payers to pursue greener options. If it is in the hands of private enterprise, and the primary consideration is profit, this will not be the case.

The second casualty is likely to be the workers. With privatization comes cost cutting. This usually starts by making the organisation less labor intensive and cutting jobs. 

Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union energy division president Allen Drew told the Newcastle Herald yesterday that the government could not guarantee jobs.

"Private companies will find ways and means of getting rid of people, like putting them in mundane jobs," Mr Drew said.

"The oldest guys will be worst affected."

The government retaliated saying that private bidders must maintain local and regional employment. However, if they can get cheaper labor elsewhere, why would they?

Tell me what you really think

Newspaper The online publication, Human Resource Magazine has come up with some surprising and controversial statistics on the Australian workforce. Results came from surveys of workers and are likely to be pretty representative due to the use of large sample sizes.

Human Synergistics found 70% of the generation X workforce in Australia are dissatisfied with their work conditions. The survey included more than 250,000 workers across 1,500 organisations and revealed some of the areas where generation X are discontent. Workers felt they did not have enough organisational support, lacked career prospects within their current role and were disatified with co-worker relationships.

A James Adonis survey showed one in five managers hate their employees. They found more than 20 per cent of managers did not like, respect or enjoy working with their employees. In additiont 39 per cent of the managers surveyed did not fell they were very good at being managers.

The study also asked the managers if they believed their organisations are “employers of choice”, and 41 per cent of managers responded that they were not.

A Onetest survey found 70% of Australians employees prefer male bosses. A survey of 4,300 Australian workers revealed that while 68 per cent of workers are happy to work for either a man or a woman, those who had a preference mainly preferred a male boss, regardless of their own gender. Respect for bosses was high overall, with more than 90 per cent saying they respected their current boss (findings quite contradictory to the previous survey.)

LinkMe found more than half of Australian companies are turning their backs on environmentally-friendly initiatives. According to a survey of 1,000 Australian employees, 35% said iit was time the government instituted laws to ensure that bosses participate, while 25% believed managers do not care about environmental issues at all. Furthermore, 33% reported that environmental initiatives are never even considered or discussed in their workplace.  

 67% of accounting firms doubt the loyalty of generation Y staff. According to recent recruitment survey by Link Recruitment more than 90% of managers consider generation Y to be different from their generation X counterparts. Many believe 18–27 year olds have unrealistic expectations about salary entitlements and pace of career progression.

 A recent Seek survey found that about a third of Health care workers demand ethical workplaces. Medical staff questioned believed good company ethics would significantly improve their current workplace. According to a recent satisfaction and motivation survey, nearly half of respondents only intend on staying with their current employer for a year or less, while 18 per cent plan to stay on for three months or less. These findings are significant especially and suggests that the current drought of nurses and carers could get worse

 

May 05, 2008

Extra Extra read all about it

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Today the results of the ANZ Job Advertisement Series for April were released which measure the number of jobs advertised in the major daily newpapers and internet sites covering the capital cities each month.

Historically the report has proved to be an extremely good indicator of future labour market conditions and thus, is extensively relied upon for forecasting employment growth.

The results were as follows.

  1. The number of jobs advertised online and in metropolitan newspapers increased by 3.1% in April to an average of 275,390 per week. This is an increase from March and is more then 20% higher then the previous year.
  2. Newspaper ads increased in comparison to last month but are showing decreasing numbers over time.
  3. The number of internet job ads increased by 2.2% in April averaging 255,456 per week. Astoundingly this is 20% increase from a year ago.

Although results suggest a growing trend in the number of jobs advertised, the ANZ Deputy Chief Economist, Tony Pearson said the number of job advertisements are at similar levels to January 2008.

" We would expect this to foreshadow a slowdown in the monthly trend rate of growth in employment," Mr Pearson said.

He said these findings are consistent with other economic indicators which show a general cooling in business activity. There is evidence that tighter financial controls imposed by the reserve bank have started to act to moderate domestic demand. This combined with ongoing difficulties in global financial systems has meant that businesses have become more cautious about taking on new workers.

 

457 Visa an unpopular choice

Visa About seven months ago, in the dying days of the Howard Government, a bill was passed affecting the nature of the 457 visa . This last bill has proved to be extremely unpopular with immigration organisations, employer groups and companies of all sizes

The 457 visa is a temporary, long-stay visa, whereby overseas workers are sponsored by Australian companies in order to fill a perceived skill shortage. The costs involved are only a few hundred dollars per person. The changes pushed through by Howard place more conditions of business, including a training provision which requires them to  allocate funds for employee development.

A number of employment organisations are against this bill with the IT Consulting and Recruitment Association (ITCRA) stating many of their members do not have the funds to meet the new provisions. This is resulting reduced sponsorship of overseas workers and decreased opportunities for local businesses to fill their skill shortages.

The latest from the federal government is that no changes will be made to the legislation and the policy adviser for the The Recruitment and Consulting Services Association (RCSA) Charles Cameron was extremely disappointed with the result.

It seems unlikely that a large company will be unable to provide or at least set aside funds for training, however it is likely to be smaller employers who suffer the most. It also sucks for those people hoping to be sponsored and relocate to Australia. Furthermore, it may have the flow on effect of directing skilled migrants to other countries where visa situations are more favourable. Only time will tell.