Unemployed Australians and workers on the Federal Government’s coronavirus wage subsidy program will continue to receive support beyond the planned JobSeeker and JobKeeper end date.

Key points:

• JobKeeper will fall from $1,500 a fortnight to $1,200 a fortnight in September and fall again in 2021
• People working fewer than 20 hours a week will receive $750 in September and $650 in 2021
• The JobSeeker payment will fall from $1,100 to $800 a fortnight in September

More than 5 million Australians receive payments from the JobKeeper and JobSeeker programs. The JobKeeper wage subsidy is paid to 960,000 employers, who then pass the full payment onto 3.5 million workers.

Businesses will have to prove they’re still in financial distress each quarter, down at least 30 per cent on pre-pandemic levels, to remain eligible for the program after September. The Government expects the expanded JobKeeper program will take the cost of the program to about $86 billion.”JobSeeker and JobKeeper are payments that support people’s incomes but are not designed to prevent them from going out and seeking work.”

The official unemployment rate is 7.4 per cent but the effective rate, excluding government support like JobKeeper, is more than 11 per cent. It had been above 13 per cent in recent weeks.

This year has definitely shifted for all of us. The future of recruitment will change dramatically. Meeting with candidates physically will not be as popular and we will see a continuous trend towards virtual candidate engagement. This is a great new way to build those relationships with technology and expand talent pools.

However, it is important to know who your audience is. What is the preferred communication method? In a recent Recruiting Study by Yello (2019), we learned that each generation has specific communication preferences.

Candidate Communication Preferences by Generation

For example, Gen Z’s preferred communication method is email (like most generations) — but they’re more likely than other generations to prefer video calls.

While candidates will likely be happy to hear from you in any format, you’ll want to lean toward more personalised messages — especially with a larger virtual recruiting strategy. 

We pride ourselves on our dedication to ensure candidates feel connected and focus on building effective candidate relationships!

What is your preferred communication method?

This is particularly relevant at the moment, as we see economies trending towards an uncertain future.

The hiring landscape is constantly changing. There’s more pressure on employers and staffing agencies to be on top of their game when it comes to sourcing top talent.  A huge part of this is understanding the key trends that are shaping the market; and adapting hiring practices accordingly.

1. Change in Working Patterns 

Gone are the days of the traditional 9-5; especially right now when more people are working from home than ever before due to social distancing measures. There are a number of reasons why temporary staffing is getting more popular. For the most part, people want more flexibility and working part-time or on a contractual basis gives them the freedom to balance their personal and professional lives effectively. 

Alongside this, according to a recent study from TrueBlue and Emsi, the main reason why people take on temp work is to earn extra income; followed by a desire to get their foot in the door with a company. 

Professionals are opting to work on a contractual basis out of necessity and choice. Particularly as there’s little job security in the current economy. 

2. Data-Driven Recruitment 

Another trend that hiring professionals need to keep on top of is data-driven recruitment. With more pressure to hire the right people, both cost and time-effectively, many organisations have turned to data to help them make smarter hiring decisions; and avoid unconscious bias. 

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) make this easy to do. The data captured includes: how long it takes for people to complete application forms, how many clicks on the job adverts convert to applications, how long it takes for offers to be expected, how much ROI the company is getting on their recruitment tools and so on. 

3. Candidate Experience 

Despite the soaring unemployment rate, the candidate experience remains important.  After all, people are more likely to accept an offers if they have a positive route to hire; and reputation matters in the current market.

This is especially true as there are more avenues for candidates to air their views online than ever before. Whether it’s social media, or employee review sites; people aren’t afraid to share any negative experiences with other prospective candidates, potentially putting them off applying to jobs, attending interviews, or accepting job offers. 

Ultimately, communication is key. See it as a relationship-building exercise. In order to get candidates interested in the role and brand, you need to put the work in.! If this isn’t possible, agencies can assist immensely in acknowledging applications, keeping them up to date throughout the hiring process and keeping hot talent warm. This will speed up the hiring process and improve their experience; it’s a win-win. 

4. Machine Learning & Automation 

Another trend we have seen recently is using machine learning and automation through resume screening. There are lots of areas of the hiring process that take up time and effort; with screening being one of them. ATS’s are great for this and can help make effective, data-driven hiring decisions. 

There are plenty of other areas that can be automated or that can benefit from machine learning. For example, assessment tools can help understand how well someone will fit a company and team, and whether they have the ability to do the job. We will also see an increase in interview scheduling tools that save a lot of back and forth between employers/agencies and candidates. 

Now more than ever, processes need to be streamlined and technology is key!

Article adapted from Augusta Henning from Smart Recruiters.

As a recruitment agency these are some of our helpful tips we have put together. These will help to ensure everything runs as smoothly as it can and that the best possible candidates are presented to you in the shortest amount of time.

• Provide a detailed job specification as well as advise any additional benefits you might provide

• Discuss from the onset what your expectations are around reference checking and skills testing, qualifications /VISA checks, drug & alcohol &/or police checks

• Along with how you would like communications to be carried out (for instance we ask email, mobile, direct line) and how often (every second day, weekly)

• Advise your recruiter who the resumes should be sent to, what the interview process will be and who will conduct the interviews (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, panel, phone interview, video conference etc) 

• Ask the recruiter who will be handling this role for you and who they should expect correspondence from

• Make it clear what your expectations are around the time frame you are hoping this placement will be made in and what happens if these expectations are not met

• Define what the cultural fit for your organisation is as well for the department this new employee will work in

• Advise soft skills that are important to the role

• Make it clear which hard skills are negotiable and which ones aren’t 

• Let your recruiter know the salary expectations you have for this role, making it clear the maximum you can afford to pay

• Advice if the offer will be subject to anything (testing, checking)

• Let your recruiter know when you will review the salary (after 6 months probationary period or after 12 months)

• Discuss your expectations around the guarantee should it be necessary

• Finally ask when payments for this service are due to ensure validity of any guarantees

It’s important to have a viable talent sourcing / recruiting process in place. This brings to mind a question about the differences between recruitment and talent acquisition which are often confused with each other. Let’s take a look at the subtle differences between the two processes that are both key to finding top talent and building out the best possible team for an organisation:

A difference of vision

The biggest distinction between talent acquisition and recruitment is the role each plays in the short and long term development of your workforce strategy. Recruitment is more focused on the processes necessary to fill an immediate need – posting requisitions; screening and interviewing candidates; finding the right talent; extending an offer; and, on-boarding new hires. It can involve stopgap measures such as working with staffing agencies to fill vacancies. Recruitment is more suitable for the “how” to get employees hired for open positions in the short and long term.

Key components of talent acquisition

Like most programs that are focused on benefiting a company on a long-term basis, talent acquisition strategies involve distinct phases. Recruitment is one of them, but there are several steps that must come before:

• Developing a strategy: This step is largely conversational and hypothetical. Acquisition specialists and other HR team members look at the business as a whole, projecting both its short- and long-term prospects in terms of revenue and growth. Broader predictions of the industry are also involved.
• Workforce segmentation: HR and talent specialists look at what departments are most in need of staff now and which of them will most likely need new talent in the near future (as well as in what order, for prioritisation purposes). According to HR Technologist, collecting data and closely analysing relevant key performance indicators will be pivotal to this step.
• Employer branding: In collaboration with the organisations’ marketing/ communication teams, the talent acquisition team devises a brand identity for the organisation (especially for social media and LinkedIn where it should emphasise the company culture and attributes that make it unique aside from its standing in the industry.
• Recruitment: This phase and its associated processes represent the raw mechanical steps of bringing in talent: lead nurturing, candidate sourcing, candidate selection, interviewing and on-boarding.
• Candidate relationship management: It’s critical to start and maintain a robust dialogue between all worthwhile candidates. For one, the hiring process for managerial and C-level roles will often take some time as high-level stakeholders across the business consider different options, so HR must keep in touch with them to ensure they don’t lose interest and pursue other opportunities. Also, it’ll be wise to stay in contact with applicants who weren’t perfect for one role but could be just right for another down the line.

Article adapted from Lesley Lyons

We are featured in the latest issue of Peninsula Living Magazine. We would like to support those that have become unemployed due to covid by providing resume and interview advice. We thought we would share some useful tips to use when updating your CV, we hope you find them helpful.

As Recruitment consultants we are often asked ‘’how long it take to read a person’s resume” and “do we have any tips” for making a good resume.

Make sure the first page is like the cover of a book, it needs to entice people to turn the page. Remember that most recruiters take 8-10 seconds glancing over a resume, so all questions need to be answered on the first page. Make sure you start with a short note or Profile, if you prefer letting the reader know about you, where you have come from, where you’re at now and what you’re looking for, soft transferable skills, WP skills and your employment timeline.

1)  Don’t be tempted to use images or fancy software.
2)  Optimise your resume with keywords used in the job’s advertisement.
3)  Customise your resume to the job description.
4)  Unprofessional email address. Miss_HottyHotPants@hotmail.com seemed fun at the time, right?
5)  Irrelevant or outdated information, every word needs to help you get that job.
6)  Show achievements, quantify outcomes you created, describe projects you delivered.
7)  It doesn’t matter how many pages as long as the first page answers most of the hiring managers questions. Subsequent pages should give lots of depth to each role you have had, be easy to read and clear about your duties with these organisations.
8)  Stick to simple bullet points – not too many though, and not big chunks of text.
9)  Don’t underestimate the power of a covering letter. Address it to the Recruiter/Manager, appeal to them directly and personally again using key words from the job ad.
10)  List any achievements i.e. made budget each quarter for so many years etc.
11)  List the contact details of your referees at the end.

Take advantage of all the templates that are available online, most of them are free you just need to download them and enter your details.

You’re in control of your future career prospects. Your Resume should be 90% there and 10% should be the slight adjustment you need to make for each individual job you apply for. 

Let’s hope you make good use of these tips!

Congratulations Pricilla Carlessi, our Temp of the Month for June.

Pricilla is one of our temporary staff members that continues to receive outstanding feedback from the host employers. We even had one company ‘s HR Manager ask for another ‘Pricilla’ as they were using her as the benchmark for another employee.

Pricilla has been a temp with us for sometime now and even taken 2x Temp of the Month Awards last year. It is very rare to be afforded this recognition once but to be awarded it three times shows how consistently fantastic she is!

We would like to say a big Congratulations and Thank You to you Pricilla. You well and truely deserve it. Keep up the good work!

Kim Seeling Smith recently released an article stating that 20 to 30% of employees would like to be able to work from home as their primary location. The statistics show the same figure for those who see their primary location as the office environment. Then you’ve got a middle portion who sort of fluctuate between the two.

I think one of the opportunities for organisations here is leaders who can manage that hybrid environment well. It will also be a time to focus a lot more on attracting and retaining great talent. We have had many conversations with clients & candidates alike and it’s definitely a mixed bag. Take the image of one of our staff, heading for a swim at lunch, now that’s living!

As we at PP are well and truely settled back into the office, we do understand some companies need to adapt. Take this video as a great insight in how your company can adapt.

We really enjoyed listening to Dorie Clark, Author, business professor, and coach. She learned to be a master at reinvention after she lost her job after 9/11. In the years since, she’s written a number of books, including one called Reinventing You. It’s one of a few she’s written on business, entrepreneurship and branding. She’s also a communication coach, and she has taught at the business schools of both Columbia and Duke. On this episode of Hello Monday, Dorie and Jessi chat all about making a good Plan B, how willingness to learn is a key to success, and why you shouldn’t wait until things seem dire to plan for what might come next.

Author Dorie Clark on Plan B: “You can reinvent yourself into almost anything.”​

Quick question, don’t overthink it: what’s your Plan B? That idea for what you’ll do without your job or what you can also do on the side. This is definitely a hot topic at the moment!

Here are some highlights…

On branding yourself: “When you are creating content, you’re putting something out into the world. That is the way that people who do not already know you personally can get a better sense of who you are as a person.”

On using social platforms: “What you’re trying to do is give people a lens into your thinking and how you see the world. And when you do that, they get a better sense of your personality and what you might be like to work with.”

On launching a side hustle quickly: “What is the thing that you can do as rapidly as possible? It is typically performing some kind of professional service. It could be coaching. It could be consulting. It could be a service that you happen to be good at, like photography.”

On what makes a good entrepreneur: “I think that entrepreneurship is something that is a constellation of different skills. It is a lot more about willingness to learn and to try than any kind of natural disposition.”

On the importance of timing: “The truth is you can reinvent yourself into literally almost anything as long as your runway is long enough. The problem that a lot of people have is that they assume that things have to be an all or nothing proposition. They assume that, oh, well, I’ve decided I’m not happy in my current career, so obviously, I’m going to quit my job and then suddenly find another job. In a down economy, it often takes a while to find another job, and it can be very, very hard, especially if you’ve built up a certain level of seniority, to find another job right away at that same income level.”

On networking, a tip: “Oftentimes, people underestimate their own ability to be the host of something, but it is actually such a low bar. And people appreciate it so much if you are the host and you invite them.”

Reinventing You: A step-by-step guide to reinventing you Are you where you want to be professionally? Whether you want to advance faster at your present company, change jobs, or make the jump to a new field entirely, the goal is clear: to build a career that thrives on your unique passions and talents.

Article Published by Jessi Hempel Senior Editor at Linkedin News.