Time is ripe to recruit top talent
Companies making staff redundant continue to make new hires as a strategic move to cherry pick key talent while the hiring market is ripe, a new study shows.
HR consulting firm Mercer quizzed 88 businesses in Australia and New Zealand and found almost half were planning to bring in new talent while continuing to shed some existing employees.
Mercer’s Chief Executive in Australia, Peter Promnitz said employers were looking to ‘trade up’ their workforce by hiring in high quality workers in “business critical” areas.
“The war for talent is still fresh in people’s minds and we’re seeing companies managing their key talent a lot more closely in tougher economic times,” said Mr Promnitz.
Mercer carried out its research globally surveying a total of 2,100 employers. The research revealed Australia had been more sheltered from the recession than the US where 74 per cent of employers surveyed had cut job numbers in the last six months.
Australian and New Zealand companies were not out of the woods though with 85 per cent of respondents expecting a weaker financial performance for 2009 compared to the previous year.
Pay freezes and not paying employee bonuses were expected among nearly half of the companies surveyed.
The trend towards strategic hiring follows other “green shoots” research including a survey by Michael Page on the white collar employment market.
According to the Michael Page survey of more than 400 senior managers, the white collar job market had “stabilised” although it was yet to move into recovery mode.
The Michael Page survey also cited “strong leadership” as the most effective way to keep good staff.
Looking at the broader employment market, global recruitment firm Manpower released its quarterly hiring intensions survey in early June. Based on the responses of 2,806 employers across Australia, Manpower predicts “a moderate increase” in hiring of about two per cent over the next three months.
Despite the creeping improvements predicted for the job market, most individual employees in Australia remain worried about the employment market. Of those surveyed by Mercer, 84 per cent said they were worried about job security.
