Recruitment and jobs blog

Employers want talent with the right combination of hard and soft skills to add value to their business. While hard skills detail what you can do, soft skills highlight how you do it. In many cases, soft skills are the great differentiators between top talent. In this blog, we share 10 soft skills that impress employers looking for technology talent. 1. Communication Effective verbal and written communication enables information flow across a business and its diverse stakeholders. Solution architects translate complex ideas. Data scientists communicate key data insights. Software developers explain how their products and services work. Across all jobs in technology, communication is a vital soft skill you need to master. 2. Problem solving IT Jobs exist to solve one or multiple problems faced by a business. Testers fix software. Cyber security specialists fix system vulnerabilities. Project managers address critical business problems. As such, no matter your technology specialisation, your ability to identify, approach and solve problems are key soft skills that employers are looking for. 3. Creativity Creative thinkers produce the ideas and solutions that drive business innovation. They think outside the box, approach problems differently, and yield ingenious solutions. This approach enables a business to keep pace with technological change, which is key to survival in the modern working world. It’s why major technology companies spend millions to foster a creative work environment for their teams. 4. Time Management Time management is an important soft skill to have in technology. IT Jobs are typically complex and require high cognitive ability to manage multiple moving parts. Consequently, such roles can quickly become overwhelming and damaging to both the individual and the business when not managed effectively. Employers want talent who they can trust with their digital assets. This means people who are methodical, organised and effective with their time. 5. Willingness to learn Technology talent must continually upskill themselves to remain relevant in such a fast paced sector. This means learning new skills that the business needs most. Your willingness to learn will signal what type of professional you are. A DevOps consultant with data analytics skills is impressive. As is a web designer with digital marketing expertise. Or a program manager with a finance background. Talent who is passionate and willing to improve themselves, is far more attractive to a prospective employer than someone who is simply in it for the pay cheque. 6. Leadership All businesses crave leadership skills in their teams. Good leaders motivate others through their actions boosting engagement, productivity, retention, and performance of all employees. These benefits make talent with leadership capabilities a valuable commodity for any business. If you can highlight times your leadership led to business success, this will make you look highly impressive in the eyes of employers. 7. Teamwork Teamwork is the ability to work cohesively with others towards a common goal. Employers must determine if your addition will enhance or disrupt their team dynamics. It will be a key question that determines your employability. In response, it is important to demonstrate how you operate in a team during a hiring process. Employers are impressed by people who are capable, dependable, trustworthy, honest, committed and loyal to their team. These soft skills will inform employers that your integration into their business is more likely to be seamless. 8. Adaptability The future world of work will face considerable disruption and change. The impact of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, internet of things and robotics on jobs will be profound. Consequently, adaptability is an important skill. It makes talent more resilient to change and increases the likelihood that they'll remain valuable to your business now and into the future. 9. Attention to detail Talent with attention to detail are less likely to make small mistakes. In technology small mistakes can be costly. A coding error can break key systems, incorrect data analysis can affect key business decisions, inefficient cyber-attack incident response can be crippling. In a world of increased reliance on technology and rising cyber threats, attention to detail is a soft skill that employers desperately want from the technology talent they hire. 10. Work Ethic Work ethic refers to the dedication, dependability, productivity, and discipline of talent in a job. Someone who is willing to go over and above in their position to get more done. Talent with a strong work ethic tend to be highly efficient and effective in their job, which adds to their overall value proposition. Employers want dedicated and committed talent who will deliver the best job possible. Soft skills are important in the modern workplace. They are the traits that differentiate top talent. In technology, these soft skills will give you advantage while navigating the competitive IT jobs market. At Ignite, we specialise in IT & Digital recruitment, and are always on the lookout for technology talent with strong combinations of hard and soft skills that will impress our diverse range of private and public clients.

Diversity and inclusion in the workplace helps drive innovation, decision making, engagement, performance, retention and so much more. It's good for your business. It's good for your employees and it's good for the broader community. It is something that all businesses should be striving for in the pursuit of success. In this blog, we share five ways you can level up your diversity and inclusion strategy to reap the full value of these benefits. 1. Make diversity & inclusion a strategic priority Levelling up in any aspect of business requires a coordinated focus and strategic approach. To become champions in Diversity and inclusion, you need to make it a strategic priority in your business. Firstly, you need to define what diversity and inclusion means to you. What are you passionate about? What are you trying to achieve? What does diversity and inclusion look like for you? What goals do you have? Every business will answer these questions differently, but 76% employees agree that workplace diversity is important, and so must you. Whether it's increasing female participation in technology, or creating more opportunities for indigenous talent, the path you choose to take is up to you. Secondly, you need to formulate a strategic plan to hit these targets, underwritten by strong tactics and activities business-wide to help you get there. Are you focusing on hiring, career progression, internal culture, industry reputation or all the above? Develop a comprehensive roadmap that’ll enable you to reach the success you defined earlier. Finally, your strategy, and the activities that underpin it, must be a strategic priority across your whole business. From top to bottom, make diversity and inclusion a primary focus and be sure that you level-up and reap the rewards. 2. Make leaders accountable. Diversity and inclusion strategies tend to be driven from the top. Your leaders have a big role to play and must buy-in to enhance your chances of success. Their actions and decisions ultimately determine how diverse and inclusive your business is. If you really want to level up in diversity and inclusion, you could consider making your leaders more accountable. Add KPIs into their job remits. Create incentives that encourage diversity and inclusion. Increase the likelihood they buy-in to your strategy. Most good leaders will be doing this organically. However, if they aren't, making them more accountable for there actions is one strong way to help your business level up. 3. Upskill your employees Having buy-in from leaders is great. Having buy-in from all your employees is even better. The more buy-in you have internally, the more diverse and inclusive your workplace will inevitably be. One way to achieve collective buy-in is training. Upskill your employees in all things diversity and inclusions and highlight the value of it in their workplace. What does it mean? Why is it important? What are the organisation’s objectives? How can they contribute? What’s in it for them? Answering these questions will increase the understanding of employees, ideally shaping their attitudes and behaviours to foster a levelled-up environment of diversity and inclusion. If there are employees who aren’t willing to buy-in, they may not be the best fit for your organisation long-term. 4. Shakeup your hiring process Hiring is the gateway that determines the mix of talent who enters your business. Hire the same type of talent repeatedly and you are doomed to fail in diversity. However, by shaking up your hiring process to attract more diverse talent, your business can level up relatively quickly. A diverse and inclusive organisation must have a fair hiring process. One that is accessible for diverse talent and one that minimises any biases and discriminations that exist internally. There are multiple ways you can approach this. Understand the barriers in your hiring process that repels segments of talent. Introduce artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies into your hiring process to reduce biases. Stray away from the traditional recruitment process by dropping CVs in favour of psychometric and cognitive testing. Focus less on qualifications and more on soft skills and cultural alignment. Be more creative in your sourcing strategy to reach diverse people via niche channels. Create incentives or add quotas to ensure you bring in the diverse talent you desire. Such a shake-up could be just what your business needs to level up in diversity and inclusion. 5. Equal opportunity To reap the benefits of diversity and inclusion, businesses should aim for diversity across all seniority levels in their business. Organisations with a diverse senior leadership team are more likely to foster an inclusive workplace. They bring a larger pool of experience to solve complex problems. They inspire, motivate, and engage talent who share elements of their identity. But, how do you ensure the right people make it to the top? You need to create equal opportunity through your progression pathways. Just like your hiring process, make them clear, make them accessible and make them equitable for all employees. If an employee sees a clear path for their own career advancement, irrespective of their individual differences, they are far more likely to stay with a business and ascend the corporate ladder. When this happens, you are more likely to have an organisation brimming with diversity at each level. Diversity and inclusion should be a high priority goal for all organisations. It benefits you, your employees, and the broader community. In this blog we’ve shared five ways you can level up your business to reap these rewards moving forward. At Ignite, we’re very proud to have a diverse team and inclusive work culture. If this resonates with you, we are looking for exceptional talent to join our journey as we strive to continue levelling up our own diversity and inclusion strategy.

Do you have a future-proof talent strategy? Alarmingly, only 16% of business leaders are ready to address the talent problems they face today, let alone the talent problems they’ll face tomorrow. A future-proof talent strategy is one where a business has the people, processes and skills they need to thrive in the future world of work. A future filled with opportunity, change and disruption. In this blog, we share how you can future-proof your talent strategy. Future workforce planning A future-proof workforce must be underpinned by a strategic workforce plan. A comprehensive roadmap that details the steps your business needs to take to succeed long-term with their talent strategy. To develop a strong future workforce plan, you need to answer three key questions: Where is our workforce now? Where does our workforce need to be in the future? How do we get our workforce there? To future-proof your talent strategy, you need to first understand your current position. Undertake a detailed analysis of your current workforce. Assess each employee and create a skills map that highlights your strengths, weaknesses, and gaps. Secondly, you need to understand the key current and future trends affecting talent within your business and broader industry. These include the political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors that’ll shape your future skills mix. For example, a tightening regulatory environment in finance will see demand for governance and compliance talent increase. Rapid advancements in technology for professional services companies will see demand for tech talent soar. Understanding what pressures will drive your business long-term will allow you to estimate the steps you need to take to future-proof your talent strategy. Just remember that much of the future working world remains unpredictable, and many skills you’ll eventually need don’t yet exist. Nonetheless, this research will put you on the right path, but you’ll need to constantly adjust your future workforce plan as time unfolds. Combined knowledge from questions 1 and 2 will inform your approach to question 3 – How you will get there? This question refers to the strategies and tactics you’ll employ to reach your future talent goals. Targeted Upskilling and Reskilling Programs The most effective strategy to future-proof your workforce is upskilling and reskilling current employees. In dynamic sectors (e.g., technology, engineering) where the goal posts for skills are constantly shifting, you must create a work environment that encourages continuous learning. According to PWC,  39% employees fear their job will become obsolete in five years without upskilling or reskilling. So much so that 77% of employees are ready to learn new skills or completely retrain. The beauty of ‘building’ your workforce is that you can curate and nurture particular skills you’ll need most in the future, and not be reliant on ‘buying’ talent in increasingly scarce supply. Refer to your future workforce plan and create training programs that push you closer to your talent goals. Focus on your skill weaknesses and gaps, but also don’t neglect your current strengths. As demand for skills evolve, so too must your workforce to maintain your competitive edge. If you consistently deliver targeted, creative, and engaging training programs for your employees, they will be far more prepared and ready for the future working world. Embrace technological change Undoubtedly the most disruptive force facing your future talent strategy is technology. It has the potential to simultaneously create, destroy and augment jobs in Australia’s workforce. According to the World Economic Forum, AI technology will create 97 million jobs and replace 85 million jobs – a net gain of 12 million jobs. If this proves to be true, it’ll mean that future jobs and skills will look very differently to what they do now, but the demand for human workers will endure. As such, organisations must embrace technological change and ensure their workers have the skills to remain relevant and valuable in the future. This means upskilling and reskilling to work alongside technology to enhance individual productivity and organisational performance. Any future talent strategy that doesn’t consider the impact of technological advancement on workers is doomed to fail long-term. However, organisations that account for technology in their talent plan are more likely to future-proof their people. The future world of work will be filled with opportunity, change and disruption. Some businesses will thrive, others will struggle. Your fate will be determined by how well you future-proof your workforce moving forward. At Ignite, our Talent Solutions team specialises in future training programs. We help upskill and reskill your team in critical future skills like cyber-security, data science and others to ensure your business has the people, processes and skills you need to succeed now and into the future.

Hiring is like spinning plates. Just as the spinner manages plates on a pole, the recruiter juggles candidates through a hiring process. To be successful in either profession, you need focus, attention to detail and a unique set of skills. You need a strategic plan in place to reach your goals. You have a small margin of error where simple mistakes can be costly. In this blog, we discuss how can you effectively manage talent in your hiring process and keep the plates spinning? Plates, like candidates, come in all shapes and sizes. Some break easily and others require more attention. Some breaks are tolerable, and others are devastating. Any professional plate spinner will tell you that success is highly dependent on the type of plate you spin in the first place. Spin the wrong plates from the outset and watch them crash out no matter what you do. When it comes to talent, all businesses are looking for the expensive china. Yet, with no strategic hiring plan in place, too many are wasting precious time, money and effort focusing on the everyday crockery instead. In this market, businesses need to be targeted in who enters their hiring process. Look beyond the CV and be more proactive and creative in who you identify to enter your hiring process. Once you know who you’re targeting, the challenge becomes developing an effective hiring process that’ll give you the best chance of hitting your key objectives. The best hiring processes are all underpinned by a well thought out and repeatable strategic plan. A plan that outlines the structure of your hiring process and keeps talent engaged and satisfied throughout. You need to consider the following questions: What is your key objective(s)? Who are you targeting? How will you source them? How will you screen them? How will you assess them? How will you interview them? How will you negotiate with them? How will you onboard them? Each question represents a key stage of a typical hiring process where any plate could begin to wobble or fall. The more thought that goes into a comprehensive and harmonious hiring plan the better chance you have of executing it successfully. An effective hiring process must focus on optimising the talent experience. In a competitive market where talent has more options and bargaining power than usual, creating an experience that positively differentiates you from competitors is key to success. To do this, you need to align your hiring process with the features and benefits that relevant talent wants the most. Talent wants respect, honesty, communication and feedback from employers. They want to feel like they’ve been fairly treated irrespective of if their application is successful or not. With this in mind, be honest in ALL your interactions, be quick in ALL your responses, be constructive in ALL your feedback and treat ALL candidates with respect. Pay the appropriate attention to each plate or watch each plate fall. An effective hiring process also needs to be agile. Plates won’t spin forever and are more likely to fall the longer you keep them spinning. In this market, take too long and the highest quality plates will be spun by someone else. Talent, just like employers, tend to want to move through a hiring process quickly. Talent is understanding of a business doing their due diligence (interviews, assessments, reference checks etc.), but they won’t sit on their hands for too long. This doesn’t mean you should rush your process; it simply means be prompt in your decision making and don’t leave talent waiting. Otherwise, you risk missing out on talent with skills that are increasingly challenging and expensive to re-find. Spinning plates is a complex task. As is managing talent through a hiring process. A successful hiring process requires a well thought out end-to-end strategic plan that optimises the candidate experience. This can be achieved by building strong relationships with prospective talent and having an agile and effective hiring process. Your ability to do this will determine if the plates keep spinning. At Ignite, we have established a recruitment process over four decades to help our clients find the talent they need to be successful. We specialise in IT & Digital, Business Support, Engineering, Government, Professional Services and Information Management recruitment. If you need support in your recruitment process, our teams can help.

A healthy workplace benefits everyone. From senior to junior, board to graduate, everyone has an important role to play. In this blog, we discuss the importance of health and wellbeing at work and explore the key roles that managers and employees have in creating and maintaining a healthy work environment. What is a healthy workplace and why does it matter? A healthy workplace is one that safeguards the mental health and physical wellbeing of all individuals within it. They have strong internal cultures where people feel included and inspired to want to come to work each day. They have strategies and tactics in place to help manage and minimise the anxieties that individuals uniquely experience. They are supportive environments for all employees irrespective of seniority and individual differences. A healthy workplace is good for everyone. For individuals, it positively correlates with improved health, happiness, productivity, motivation, job satisfaction and performance. For companies, it boosts team morale, talent attraction and retention, internal engagement and bottom-line performance. According to PWC research, every dollar spent on creating a healthy workplace can, on average, result in a positive return of 2.3 times. Not only this, but the more that organisations do to promote health and wellbeing has a positive snowball effect in the broader community. The Role of Managers Managers wield the power and influence that shapes the experience, health and wellbeing of employees. They create the policies, drive the strategies and make the decisions that affect how employees think, feel and behave. At it's core, management is about supporting people to be their best in their respective role. This is very difficult to achieve outside of a healthy workplace.  Consequently, commitment and buy-in from senior managers is crucial to any successful corporate health and wellbeing strategy Small changes can make a big difference when trying to create a healthy workplace. A discounted gym membership, nutritious snacks, vivacious plants, natural lighting, an informal conversation or a more collaborative workspace can all elicit a healthier workplace. In most cases, these are decisions that can only be made by a manager. Take a step further and managers have the power to develop specific training, adjust work models (flexibility and work-life balance) and provide access to professional support (internal or external) in a concentrated effort to boost employee health and wellbeing. Research by AIM highlights just how important open and effective management is. 72% of Australian workers have left a job due to poor leadership, citing poor communication and emotional intelligence as key reasons for their departure. Why? Because such inadequacies impact the mental health and physical wellbeing of employees. When this is compromised, employment at a particular company quickly becomes untenable. The Role of Employees Employees also have an important role to play in a healthy workplace. After all, they make up the components that allows the machine to run. When these components aren’t working correctly the machine tends to breakdown. Every individual will most likely face their own unique mental and physical health struggles at some point in their career. They can be unforeseen and unpredictable. Consequently, as an employee, you are ultimately responsible for looking after your own health and wellbeing. To do this, ideally with help from your company, you need to enhance your understanding of all thing’s health and wellbeing. Learn how to identify when you or someone else is struggling. Learn constructive ways of navigating challenging times. Learn how to find the professional support you need when you need it. By upskilling yourself in these areas, you will boost your resilience to health and wellbeing issues thereby doing your bit to create and maintain a healthy workplace. This learning could also give you the ability to recognise and support someone else who may be struggling. While it's not your place to diagnose or counsel someone, there are certainly things you can do to help. A simple chat about how they’re feeling can go a long way. A referral to an expert is a courageous contribution. Sharing your own health struggles can remove feelings of isolation. Temporarily alleviating some of the burden in their role could be a difference-maker. These actions all contribute to a healthier workplace. The machine works best when all components are working together and supporting one another. In this blog we’ve highlighted the important role that each employee plays in workplace health and wellbeing. Managers must use their power and influence to promote health and wellbeing, while employees must support themselves and help others by upskilling. When all employees perform their role the outcomes of a healthy and positive workplace benefit everyone. At Ignite, we understand the importance of health and wellbeing. We work with clients and candidates who value a healthy workplace, and we make lasting employment connections that ensures people work with organisations that care about your health and wellbeing.

Demand for skills in Australia’s Federal Government is soaring but supply of available talent is struggling to keep up. Departments and agencies are looking to attract and retain top talent with hard-to-find skills they desperately need. In a candidate short market, employers need to understand what talent wants the most and align their EVP accordingly. In this blog, we share 10 benefits that Federal Government talent wants the most. 1. Work-Life Balance The most popular benefit that government talent looks for is work-life balance. They want clear separation between their professional life and personal life, and seek out employers who enable them adequate time for both. This means they don't want to work late nights and through the weekend. They want to do their job and live their life away from work. Delivering and communicating this benefit in your EVP is what government talent want the most. 2. Job Security Job security refers to the long-term stability and sustainability of a particular position. Safety is a fundamental human need that secure employment satisfies because it directly determines the quality of life individuals and families are able to have. Jobs and companies that don't exude stability and security (e.g. high turnover, leadership changes, poor reputation) are unappealing to government talent seeking job security. 3. Open and Effective Management Management significantly influences the employee experience. Good managers attract top talent whereas bad managers repel them. In Government, open and effective leadership is even more crucial because teams are typically working on complex and important projects that impact many. Openness and effectiveness are two qualities that government talent look for in leader, which is why communicating these through your EVP is important in talent attraction and retention. 4. Colleagues and Culture Employees spend more time collaborating with their colleagues than with their own families, making culture and colleagues a valid component of the employee experience. Strong culture motivates and good colleagues inspire, both making work far more palatable. These features also correlate with improved mental health, physical wellbeing, productivity, engagement and performance which are highly sought after attributes that benefit all parties. 5. Flexible work arrangements Flexible work arrangements are opportunities for talent to stray away from traditional working models to accommodate their needs. Flexible hours, compressed work weeks and job sharing are notable examples. Demand for flexibility has unsurprisingly boomed in recent years with many professionals forced to work remotely during COVID-19. In response, some government agencies have already adopted more flexibility into their working models to appeal to talent. This is a key point of difference for some agencies when attracting and retaining talent who value flexibility. 6. Salary and Compensation  Salary and compensation refers to all financial benefits offered by a company. From base wage to bonuses, superannuation to commission, government talent wants to make money for the work they do. Traditionally, government agencies have struggled to match the financial compensation offered by private sector counterparts. Yet, the remuneration an agency is willing to offer remains a key part of an effective EVP in the government space. 7. Challenging and purposeful work For about a third of government talent, the challenge of government work itself and the purpose behind it is extremely important. Government agencies and employees undertake a broad range of complex and impactful work. This includes health, tax, education, defence, welfare, employment and much more. As such, some talent are highly motivated by these challenges which gives them a strong sense of purpose in the work they do. Communicating the importance and challenging nature of a particular position is a great way to persuade these people. 8. Inclusivity and diversity Many government workers value an inclusive environment that accepts people from diverse backgrounds. After all, Australia is a multinational country where the government is tasked with representing everyone within it. Communicating a clear commitment to diversity and inclusivity is an attractive benefit for talent seeking belonging and cultural representation in their public sector career. 9. Training and development Training and development refers to the ongoing learning that a company provides to upskill or reskill their employees. This could be any form of structured training, coaching or mentoring programs. Simply put, entities willing to invest in the development of their staff are perceived as far more valuable than entities that don’t. In a candidate short market, training is a useful way to build your talent when buying the right talent is more challenging. Furthermore, training also helps engage talent increasing their likelihood of joining or staying at a particular enterprise. 10. Career Progression Most employees, to varying extents, want to rise the hierarchal ranks within their respective agency or department. Promotions usually mean more money, more responsibility and more benefits which have already featured in this blog. Departments and agencies that present clear pathways to progression for all talent are more attractive to individuals that harbour high levels of professional ambition. If you want to attract and retain top government talent, understanding what these people want is crucial in building an effective EVP. We've shared 8 areas of focus that could help you reach you recruitment objectives moving forward. At Ignite, we specialise in Federal Government recruitment and can help you find top talent you need to help you thrive.