Recruitment and jobs blog

Are you looking for an innovative, flexible and cost-effective approach to your talent management strategy? In this current period of uncertainty, our People Services division is the perfect solution to help you deliver efficiency, quality and cost savings for all your people-related challenges. Recruitment and HR outsourcing is a $14.1 billion dollar rapidly growing industry in Australia. Companies are increasingly looking for external support to boost the efficiency and effectiveness of their HR and recruitment initiatives. By outsourcing these core business functions, companies can access greater candidate diversity, improve their time-to-hire, generate cost savings and experience greater talent outcomes. Consequently, to deliver these benefits, and address these current and growing needs for flexibility and agility, Ignite delivers a unique range of talent solutions to clients through our People Services division.   What is People Services? Ignite’s People Services division specialises in the design, implementation, support and delivery of tailored human capital solutions. These include end-to-end management of recruitment and HR processes and programs, candidate management, candidate assessment and analysis, workforce planning, performance management, talent pipelining and so much more. With over a decade of experience operating across Australia, our People Service team has the capabilities and resources you need to support and drive all your talent management strategies. What do People Services do? People Services complements our core specialist recruitment division, by providing clients with a full suite of HR and recruitment solutions across all areas of the employment life-cycle. From design and management of graduate and bulk recruitment programs, to the outsourcing of HR processes and initiatives, our People Services team will ensure your business can access, acquire and retain exceptional talent to help your business thrive. People Services provides companies with more comprehensive and flexible support across their HR and recruitment functions. This ensures they have the processes and resources in place to deliver optimised recruitment and HR initiatives to drive their people strategies as and when needed without the embedded associated costs. Our team provides services across all stages of the typical recruitment process: Project management – planning, assessment design, methodology, outcome, review Candidate management – shortlisting applications, referee checks, interviews, feedback Online testing – psychometric testing, cognitive testing, behavioural profiling, skills testing Video interviewing – panel interviews, question design, assessment, selection report Online assessment centre facilitation – design, management and review Administration support Scribing services In addition to this, our People Services team also provides unbundled recruitment services, charging businesses only for the services they actually need without any superfluous cost burden. Whether it be shortlisting, referee checks, interviews, online testing or scribing, our team can deliver your bulk requirements to ensure your recruitment programs run smoothly. These services and solutions, in addition to our specialist recruitment division, truly sets Ignite apart in the recruitment and HR space. Who do People Services work with? People Services has been a trusted provider of talent services in both the public and private sector for well over a decade. With a growing national footprint, our team is heavily involved with multiple Federal Government agencies and private sector clients, and has been a key contributor to their recruitment and HR initiatives for many years. We have designed and implemented tailored recruitment methodologies for each of them, and played a key role in the successful employment of thousands of candidates nationally across Australia's corporate landscape. Over the years, our delivery includes, but is not limited to: Managed over 1,500 recruitment processes Shortlisted over 40,000 candidate applications Managed over 60 assessment centres Managed over 30 graduate recruitment rounds Our ability to understand the needs of our clients, and deliver consistent high-level performance that exceeds all expectations, results in strong long-term relationships. Our breadth and depth of services are unparalleled in the marketplace, providing us with unique expertise and experience to support organisations nationally of any size within any sector in all their talent management needs. How do I get in touch with People Services? As we enter a new financial year, there has never been more uncertainty relating to the HR and recruitment needs of organisations. Consequently, If you need support or guidance navigating this uncertainty and embedding flexibility in your talent strategies, our People Services team are ready to assist you with the perfect solution to ensure you emerge from this COVID-19 period in a stronger position than ever. For more information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch: Email: [email protected] Phone: (02) 6113 7500   Author: Mark Southwood Executive Business Analyst

All eyes are on Australia’s biggest employers, who are rationalising their recruitment needs amid the uncertainty created by COVID-19. In particular, Australia’s banks, who’ve played a key role in minimising the economic damage for Australia over the past few months, are now facing crucial hiring decisions of their own to ensure a quick and effective recovery. The banks currently employ about 450,000 people in Australia, and have traditionally been a major contributor to full-time administration and support services employment across the country. However, the emergence of current employment trends, accelerated by COVID-19, is forcing banks to reassess their employment mix and evolve their recruitment strategy to accommodate various stakeholders and drive organisational success. This article identifies the top five current employment trends of 2020 within the banking sector, as the industry begins to emerge from the shadow of COVID-19. 1. High Demand for digital specialists COVID-19 has accelerated technological investment and innovation by forcing banks to quickly transition towards digital offerings to continue serving customers. Banks are increasingly moving away from physical branches in favour of digital products and services to conserve costs and meet changing consumer expectations. In the last three months alone, the big four banks have closed approximately 400 branches. This online push has resulted in strong demand for digital specialists across IT areas such as security, cloud and infrastructure. NAB has demonstrated this push by growth in its cloud engineers’ team, which has grown from 7 to 1,300 in just three years. Moving forward, banks will continue to invest in technology systems that optimise customer experience and boost their internal capabilities, creating numerous job opportunities for CX and UX designers. With digital specialists already in short supply across Australia, banks are likely to use their superior financial positions to attract top digital talent and gain competitive advantage in the digital banking space. 2. Data is increasingly driving decision-making   Data is increasingly the mechanism underlying most decisions for financial institutions. Banks rely on data for executive strategic decision-making, operational decisions, product and service decisions and even recruitment. Data collection, data analysis and data usage have become core competencies all banks require to be successful in the marketplace. Consequently, this has triggered huge investment in data management systems across most banking functions, creating huge demand for data specialists. Data specialists in demand include business analysts, data analysts, credit analysts, data translators and data scientists, which you’ll now find across most banking departments at all levels of seniority. ANZ recently demonstrated this by promoting its head of data and automation to its executive leadership team. Actions like this highlight the value banks are placing on data, which is set to drive demand for data specialists over the next several years. 3. Compliance and security concerns intensifying Over a year ago, the Royal Hayne Commissions revealed systemic issues across the big banks that initiated a spike in demand for compliance and security talent. Even now, banks remain firmly in the spotlight of financial regulators, as Australia’s financial regulatory environment continues to tighten. To ensure that banks avoid further reputational damage with their customers, demand for talent with experience in risk management, compliance, legal, fraud and money laundering has never been greater. Furthermore, as banks adopt more complex IT systems, which carry huge amounts of sensitive financial data, cyber-security is a growing concern for institutions driving demand for IT security talent. These concerns around regulation and security are set to increase post-COVID, creating new opportunities for relevant professionals. 4. Increased use of contingent talent Employment within the banking sector has traditionally been dominated by permanent workers. However, as banks move into a more fast-paced online environment, and deal with the economic consequences of COVID-19, the need for improved internal efficiencies and flexibility in their employment mix has never been more important. This has already resulted in a stronger appetite for contingent talent. Banks are increasingly outsourcing non-core functions, particularly in areas such as technology and data. Contingent staff enable banks to access highly qualified and flexible specialised professionals capable of filling short-term employment gaps and resolving business problems as they arise. In the current economic environment, these capabilities are essential to combat the unpredictable challenges of COVID-19 and uncertainty around hiring needs of an organisation. As banks are increasingly exposed to the additional value contractors can provide, this transition away from permanent workers is expected to increase.  5. The traditional banking role is changing These five banking employment trends will shape recruitment activity across the finance sector over the next few years. As the industry emerges from COVID-19, banks will be looking for exceptional talent with strong capabilities in digital, data and security/compliance to support their transition into highly competitive and dynamic digital environments. They will seek out a more diverse employment mix by reducing reliance on permanent workers in favour of flexible contingent talent. Finally, they will change the nature of traditional banking roles by seeking out more hybridised, data driven and customer-focused talent to deliver organisational success. These employment trends will influence the hiring decisions of banks moving forward, which will ultimately determine the rate and effectiveness of their recovery from COVID-19. Author: Mark Southwood Executive Business Analyst

When COVID-19 rapidly unfolded across Australia in March, our contracts and compliance team were faced with the mammoth task of transitioning our contractors to work-from-home (WFH) arrangements. With hundreds of contractors working across the country, it was critical that we facilitated a quick and seamless transition to minimise any disruption for them and our clients. Our Contracts, Compliance and ACT Office Manager Sharron Bright said “this was a massive task. We realised the importance of being on the front-foot due to everything happening with COVID-19. Consequently, we set a very quick turnaround to minimise any business disruption”. The process of transitioning contractors to new working arrangements is quite extensive, requiring significant coordination, communication and administration efforts across a range of stakeholders. All contractors were: Required to complete a work-health safety (WHS) assessment form Undergo assessment and approval of potential risks in their chosen remote workplace Informed of all incident reporting procedures Supplied with signed agreements indicating to our clients that they were WFH ready. In just ten days, this process was successfully completed. Hundreds of assessment forms distributed, assessed and signed off. The effectiveness and efficiency of this process ensured that each contractor was ready to transition to a safe working environment when instructed to do so by their employer, many of which are still working-from-home today. Sharron said “this was a combined effort between the contracts & compliance team and consultants to ensure each assessment was completed correctly and all contractors were ready to work-from-home. Everyone was very accommodating through the process and appreciative of the correspondence they received from the broader team”. We would like to thank everyone for their huge contribution in facilitating this transition. Contractor care is an integral component of our organisation showcased by the impressive delivery of this process. Author: Mark Southwood Executive Business Analyst

Ignite has been featured by CIO Advisor APAC Magazine as one of the top staffing and recruitment service providers in the Asia-Pacific region. We understand the success of an organisation is very much built on its most valuable asset – people. That’s why, for over three and a half decades, we have been committed to providing our clients, candidates, contractors with expert guidance and talent management services across the Asia-Pacific region. Our highly experienced recruitment consultants leverage an extensive candidate database to access the highest quality talent for our clients across a number of key industries, including IT and digital roles. With understanding of both the human and digital side of talent management, we provide clients with a complete solution to cater to all their talent needs. For more information, click here to read CIO's full article.  

To use contract staff or to hire permanent employees, that is the question. Whether you’re trying to fill a new role, planning to scale up, down or sideways, understanding contract vs employee pros and cons is absolutely essential.  With contracting on the rise and the gig economy disrupting the way we work, this decision has never been more complicated. Contractors offer a range of benefits for employers, as does hiring an employee on a permanent basis. Both options also have their downfalls. Below we’ve listed the major benefits and disadvantages of hiring contract vs permanent employees to make your life a little easier.  There are obviously a few other options such as freelancers and consultants but for now we’re just focusing on the main two forms of hiring. Benefits of permanent employees  A major pro of a permanent employee, is that they are generally more devoted. They’ve persevered through the rigours of the interview and on-boarding process which means they identify with your culture and are already committed to your vision. Through training, your culture is further entrenched as your employees become increasingly dedicated to your mission.    As they spend time in the office, permanent employees tend to develop strong bonds with other staff and enjoy the familiarity of routine hence strengthening their commitment to the role and the company.  With training, staff can move their way up the organisational hierarchy. They can apply their deep understanding and loyalty to the company as they move into a leadership role.  When you scale and you need more staff, they’re there to help.  You don't have to deal with the stress of constantly hiring new employees.  Employees cost less on a per-hour basis. If your goal is growth, permanent employees are essential.  Benefits of contractors  The best thing about hiring contractors is the flexibility. You can scale up or down, depending on the companies’ activities and your requirements and you can respond to changing business demands easily. Contractors are often available immediately and the hiring process is much quicker and easier than with permanent employees. Once on-boarded, contractors swiftly bring in the skills you require and which your team may not possess. You get the skills you need, at the time that you need them and only while you need them.  Because they are perpetually selling themselves as candidates, contractors are more likely to up skill more often and tend to be more current and up to date with the latest technologies. Plus, each time they work with a new client they add new strings to their bow.  Contractors tend to have a slightly different mindset. They are more accountable for their deliverables in a smaller window of time so they are more efficient and productive within that window.  You can off-board a contractor without the fuss or HR processes required with a permanent staff member.  Although contractors cost more on a per-hour basis, they are usually more cost-effective when you take into consideration the various costs associated with permanent employees. For example, contractors don’t require: training, sick leave, holiday leave etc.  The best thing about a contractor is, if they're amazingly impressive and you don't know how you ever lived without them and if they really enjoy working with you too, you can always offer them a permanent role! Cons of permanent employees  If you need to scale down, letting go of staff can require lengthy, time consuming and costly processes. Although their hourly rate is less, the downside of using permanent staff is that you’ll need to invest in ongoing training and development which is less expected from contractors. You also need to provide superannuation, long-service leave, staff engagement, holidays, sick leave etc. But, of course, you will reap the returns on these investments, so long as your staff stick around.  Cons of contractors   For the various reasons provided, contracting staff are simply not as loyal to a company as permanent staff. As the very nature of their role is transient, they may leave you at any moment for a better opportunity. Contractors cost more per hour. Some training is required, even if it is just to get them up to scratch on the company and its unique processes. This can be particularly time consuming if you have several contractors coming and going.  Situations in which contractors are best  Contract staff are great for shorter projects that don't require a lot of supervision but require specific expertise you and your staff may not have. This way you don’t have to spend time and money on training. A contractor is best for:  Seasonal projects - if you forecast a busier time, contractors are a great way to fill the gaps until things get quieter.  Specialised expertise - marketing, copywriting, web design, administration, IT etc.  Maintenance - when equipment needs maintenance this can be done when needed.    Situations in which permanent employees are best Obviously you want permanent staff who are going to become a future investment to your business.  Permanent employees are great for:  Projects that require close supervision.  Developing long-term relationships with your clients.  Incarnating your culture and your business knowledge and essentially becoming walking advertisements for your company.  Becoming your biggest advocates.    There you have it, folks. To contract or to permanent - that is the question.  Hopefully we’ve made the answer a little simpler for you!   

If you're tossing up whether or not you should use a recruitment agency to hire a new employee, we’re here to set the record straight. Below are five major reasons not to use a recruiter. We should know. We are recruiters! You want to utilise the network closest to you  Recruiting someone within your network means you can trust candidates and you know for sure they’re legitimate. They may not have the exact soft or hard skills you’re after, but they probably live in your area so you’ll be able to rideshare with them home. If your dad or sister can’t take the role, your childhood neighbour will no doubt do a fantastic job. Just remember that you won’t ever be able to fire them because your mum will never forgive you. Why would you use a recruitment agency with thousands of vetted candidates on their database when your neighbour’s hairdresser’s dog sitter is available to start immediately?! You love learning irrelevant facts about random people  What are you up to this weekend? Heading to a bar with friends? Quality time with the family? Well, you can put a big fat line through those ideas if you’re DIY recruiting. You’ll be spending the weekend reading the CVs of candidates who are not at all qualified and are very eager to tell you fun facts about themselves that have nothing to do with the job you posted. The good thing about the internet is that you have access to everybody. The bad thing about the internet is that you have access to everybody. And everybody will be applying for your job ad, whether they have the requisite skills or their only evident skill is ambition.  You’re after some peace and quiet    If you’re recruiting for a niche role, especially if there’s a skill shortage in that area, chances are the aforementioned situation won’t be relevant to you. Sought after candidates are much less likely to apply for jobs via platforms like Seek. Knowing they’re in demand, they often sit tight knowing a recruitment agency will find their dream job for them. This means your social media callout for candidates might very well be met with the online equivalent of crickets and tumbleweeds, as you scream desperately into the void. Fun!  You love to live on the edge  Don’t have time for spin class? No biggy. If you hire an unvetted candidate your heart rate will remain above 100 bpm while you try to ensure this new stranger in your building doesn't run your company into the ground.  Statistics show 85% of candidates lie on their CV. Good recruiters run their candidates through a range of tests to make sure they are who they say they are. They test for high-level technical skills and soft skills, as well as checking such things as their police records, social media accounts and, say, if they have a history of embezzling money from their employers. And where’s the excitement in that?!  You get your pick of unemployed candidates  The thing about DIY recruiting is that you get access to all of the unemployed candidates who are desperately looking for work. That’s great, right? It is. Except, well, many of the very best candidates are working in organisations they don’t love so they can pay the mortgage until the job they do love comes along. The good news is you’re helping one candidate pay the mortgage. Although, you can't entirely be sure they’re not just using you until their dream job comes along. But the other good news it that there are plenty more candidates with mortgages to choose from when the one you just recruited abruptly leaves you!  So, should I use a recruiter?   If you like your weekends, dislike great amounts of stress and hate upsetting your mum, then, well, in that case, you should just ignore this blog entirely and find yourself a great recruiter!