Australian employers reluctant to roll out long-term hiring strategies in an unstable market
Kelly Services releases 2012 Salary Guide to assist employers and jobseekers navigate the recruitment process
May 31, 2012 – Kelly Services, a world leading provider of workforce solutions, has released the Kelly Services 2012 Salary Guide to help employers and jobseekers manage their way through the challenges of the recruitment process.
The guide provides employers and job seekers with salary information on a wide range of roles, offering the ability to benchmark a position or an individual against other areas of expertise or against the same in another area of the country. It also provides commentary on the employment market in each State.
Karen Colfer, managing director, Kelly Services Australia, said, “The issue of employee benefits remains one of the leading challenges for employers. The Australian employment landscape continues to be impacted by an unsteady global economy, evolving workforce demographics and changing leadership and introduction employment strategies.
“Instability in the global economy has led to a slower than expected return to confidence for the employment market, which has led to employers remaining reluctant to roll out long-term hiring strategies.
“Employers need to be expert at managing downsizing projects, retaining productivity with fewer heads or managing a workforce with an increased number of contract and part-time employees.
“The good news for employers is that the challenges being encountered across the business community are expected to ease during the latter half of 2012 as stability is restored to global financial markets, and that flows into the Australian market.
“While the workforce of tomorrow might be vastly different to the workforce that organisations employed a few years ago in terms of demographic, location and flexibility, for the first time in a long time employers will be able to take a long-term view of their workforce strategy,” Colfer said.
Commentary by State
Australian Capital Territory
* The Australian Public Service (APS) is the largest employer in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It has a huge influence on the market as there are a large number of businesses spread across all sectors which operate to service and support the Federal Government.
* The increases in the efficiency dividend savings and projected savings over the next few years have affected the recruitment behaviours of the APS and many departments have developed a “make do” attitude.
* They have reduced contractor spend and filled gaps with internal staff or by sharing workloads with existing staff. Scheduled projects have been sidelined and staff that have left through natural attrition are not always replaced.
* There is still a contract market but it is not as strong as in pre-GFC times. The ACT economy is less prone to the highs and lows of the rest of Australia due to the presence of the Federal Government. It cannot react as fast as other economies that are driven by the private sector and is steadier in nature.
* The ACT’s private sector is quite strong and reasonably buoyant. Local business has adjusted to the new savings focused nature of the Federal Government and reacted accordingly.
* The emphasis is on smart hires and finding staff whose values align with a commercial organisation.
* The private sector competes in terms of salary in the executive market but the APS with its strong enterprise bargaining agreements will always monopolise the non-executive market.
New South Wales
* Kelly believes the New South Wales (NSW) employment market is no longer the powerhouse it once was in the Australian business landscape.
* Many large corporations, particularly in the banking and financial services sector, are shedding jobs in the IT and finance departments as they continue to look for opportunities to consolidate or outsource back-office operations.
* Small-to-medium sized businesses are following this lead from the larger organisations and reducing their staff numbers, citing similar issues around low business confidence and the unpredictability of support from large financial institutions.
* At the same time the NSW Government is conducting a major review and restructure of all government departments to improve efficiency and cut costs in order to bring the State budget back to surplus.
* The 2011/12 State Budget announced 5,000 public sector jobs would be cut, pushing an influx of candidates into the already crowded job market.
* On the positive side, NSW is seeing a significant show of stability and strength in local manufacturing, especially in the mid–size manufacturing businesses, on the back of solid manufacturing results at a national level.
* The NSW construction industry is also recording encouraging signs of growth and with the NSW unemployment rate predicted to stablise and possibly even begin trending down by the end of the year.
* A falling unemployment rate will improve the supply/demand equation in favour of the employee and Kelly expects this will place upward pressure on salaries late in 2012 and into 2013.
Queensland
* While the strength of the Queensland mining and resource sector dominates the State’s employment story, the natural disasters that wreaked havoc across Queensland in 2011 continue to impact the State’s economy.
* The ‘two speed’ economy is most noticeable in Queensland where the strong Australian dollar has had a detrimental impact on the local manufacturing sector and in particular the export market.
* Tourism, retail and the property market continue to struggle when it comes to retaining profit margins and in some areas this has driven a shift from full-time to part-time working arrangements.
* Queensland’s mining, energy and resources sector continues to grow from strength to strength on the back of increasing demand from China and India. This has, and will continue to place significant pressure on the already tight labour force and increase the focus on fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) work within central and north Queensland.
* This is most notable with a number of LNG projects within the Bowen Basin. The recent changes in leadership through the State Government elections will look to drive efficiency gains with curtailed spending and the overall net reduction in government employees being the focus in the short to medium term.
* In the mid-term it is expected the 2018 Commonwealth Games will inject significant investment into the State with major infrastructure projects and tourism set to underpin an ongoing level of employment prosperity in the sunshine state.
* With the incoming government determined to reduce Queensland’s unemployment rate to 4 per cent, well below the national figure, the outlook for both employers and employees in Queensland looks bright.
* However, Kelly expects it will remain relatively volatile as a result of the high volume of movement created by the mining and resources industry and the ongoing impact this industry will have on local service oriented industries.
South Australia
* In South Australia (SA) employers remained cautious during 2011, a trend that Kelly expects to continue throughout 2012.
* Traditionally SA has been a fairly optimistic employment market, however with ongoing instability within the manufacturing, wine and tourism industries, business leaders are correctly continuing to take a “wait and see” approach.
* The wine industry, a major employer in SA, has suffered significantly due to the strong Australian dollar and their large exposure to weak European and US markets.
* As a result a number of family and corporate wine businesses are significantly downsizing, merging or closing their operations.
* Growth in the local automotive industry has been sluggish in recent times on the back of ongoing speculation about Government support. However a recent $1 billion investment commitment from Holden and a guarantee that
The guide provides employers and job seekers with salary information on a wide range of roles, offering the ability to benchmark a position or an individual against other areas of expertise or against the same in another area of the country. It also provides commentary on the employment market in each State.
Karen Colfer, managing director, Kelly Services Australia, said, “The issue of employee benefits remains one of the leading challenges for employers. The Australian employment landscape continues to be impacted by an unsteady global economy, evolving workforce demographics and changing leadership and introduction employment strategies.
“Instability in the global economy has led to a slower than expected return to confidence for the employment market, which has led to employers remaining reluctant to roll out long-term hiring strategies.
“Employers need to be expert at managing downsizing projects, retaining productivity with fewer heads or managing a workforce with an increased number of contract and part-time employees.
“The good news for employers is that the challenges being encountered across the business community are expected to ease during the latter half of 2012 as stability is restored to global financial markets, and that flows into the Australian market.
“While the workforce of tomorrow might be vastly different to the workforce that organisations employed a few years ago in terms of demographic, location and flexibility, for the first time in a long time employers will be able to take a long-term view of their workforce strategy,” Colfer said.
Commentary by State
Australian Capital Territory
* The Australian Public Service (APS) is the largest employer in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It has a huge influence on the market as there are a large number of businesses spread across all sectors which operate to service and support the Federal Government.
* The increases in the efficiency dividend savings and projected savings over the next few years have affected the recruitment behaviours of the APS and many departments have developed a “make do” attitude.
* They have reduced contractor spend and filled gaps with internal staff or by sharing workloads with existing staff. Scheduled projects have been sidelined and staff that have left through natural attrition are not always replaced.
* There is still a contract market but it is not as strong as in pre-GFC times. The ACT economy is less prone to the highs and lows of the rest of Australia due to the presence of the Federal Government. It cannot react as fast as other economies that are driven by the private sector and is steadier in nature.
* The ACT’s private sector is quite strong and reasonably buoyant. Local business has adjusted to the new savings focused nature of the Federal Government and reacted accordingly.
* The emphasis is on smart hires and finding staff whose values align with a commercial organisation.
* The private sector competes in terms of salary in the executive market but the APS with its strong enterprise bargaining agreements will always monopolise the non-executive market.
New South Wales
* Kelly believes the New South Wales (NSW) employment market is no longer the powerhouse it once was in the Australian business landscape.
* Many large corporations, particularly in the banking and financial services sector, are shedding jobs in the IT and finance departments as they continue to look for opportunities to consolidate or outsource back-office operations.
* Small-to-medium sized businesses are following this lead from the larger organisations and reducing their staff numbers, citing similar issues around low business confidence and the unpredictability of support from large financial institutions.
* At the same time the NSW Government is conducting a major review and restructure of all government departments to improve efficiency and cut costs in order to bring the State budget back to surplus.
* The 2011/12 State Budget announced 5,000 public sector jobs would be cut, pushing an influx of candidates into the already crowded job market.
* On the positive side, NSW is seeing a significant show of stability and strength in local manufacturing, especially in the mid–size manufacturing businesses, on the back of solid manufacturing results at a national level.
* The NSW construction industry is also recording encouraging signs of growth and with the NSW unemployment rate predicted to stablise and possibly even begin trending down by the end of the year.
* A falling unemployment rate will improve the supply/demand equation in favour of the employee and Kelly expects this will place upward pressure on salaries late in 2012 and into 2013.
Queensland
* While the strength of the Queensland mining and resource sector dominates the State’s employment story, the natural disasters that wreaked havoc across Queensland in 2011 continue to impact the State’s economy.
* The ‘two speed’ economy is most noticeable in Queensland where the strong Australian dollar has had a detrimental impact on the local manufacturing sector and in particular the export market.
* Tourism, retail and the property market continue to struggle when it comes to retaining profit margins and in some areas this has driven a shift from full-time to part-time working arrangements.
* Queensland’s mining, energy and resources sector continues to grow from strength to strength on the back of increasing demand from China and India. This has, and will continue to place significant pressure on the already tight labour force and increase the focus on fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) work within central and north Queensland.
* This is most notable with a number of LNG projects within the Bowen Basin. The recent changes in leadership through the State Government elections will look to drive efficiency gains with curtailed spending and the overall net reduction in government employees being the focus in the short to medium term.
* In the mid-term it is expected the 2018 Commonwealth Games will inject significant investment into the State with major infrastructure projects and tourism set to underpin an ongoing level of employment prosperity in the sunshine state.
* With the incoming government determined to reduce Queensland’s unemployment rate to 4 per cent, well below the national figure, the outlook for both employers and employees in Queensland looks bright.
* However, Kelly expects it will remain relatively volatile as a result of the high volume of movement created by the mining and resources industry and the ongoing impact this industry will have on local service oriented industries.
South Australia
* In South Australia (SA) employers remained cautious during 2011, a trend that Kelly expects to continue throughout 2012.
* Traditionally SA has been a fairly optimistic employment market, however with ongoing instability within the manufacturing, wine and tourism industries, business leaders are correctly continuing to take a “wait and see” approach.
* The wine industry, a major employer in SA, has suffered significantly due to the strong Australian dollar and their large exposure to weak European and US markets.
* As a result a number of family and corporate wine businesses are significantly downsizing, merging or closing their operations.
* Growth in the local automotive industry has been sluggish in recent times on the back of ongoing speculation about Government support. However a recent $1 billion investment commitment from Holden and a guarantee that
