Winston Churchill is not someone oft quoted by Australians - after all Gallipoli was his idea. However, David Owens from Digby Morgan’s Australian head office in Sydney feels that right now one of his quotes might be particularly apt.

Whilst keeping everything crossed, the general feeling in the Australian business community over the last month or so has been most encouraging leading me to think of one of my favourite Winnie quotes: “This is not the end, nor the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning”

And that is what I believe we’ve just had - the end of a plummet to the bottom. For sure, it was a steep fall – six months in a virtual vacuum during which time everyone seemed to sit on their hands. Q4 2008 and Q1 2009 was, without doubt, a period in which we sat becalmed. However, we’re now well into Q2 2009 which, so far, is showing a distinct pick-up in activity and optimism.

HR management plays an acknowledged, vital and commercial role in Australian business and, now we have some collective sense that we have hit the bottom, the Australian business community has recognised that some strategic, as well as operational roles, simply have to be filled.

With many non-traditional clients keeping us busy in during the last two quarters, we now see a modest return of demand from some corners of the financial services and retail sectors - our more traditional heartland - though professional services firms are still staying out of the picture right now.

Undoubtedly, the number of job opportunities is well down on the same period last year and availability of talent very slightly easier as well. However, I would not be alone in making the observation that good candidates are still enjoying significant choice when it comes to accepting a job. In Australia at least, top talent is still hard to find.

I see some reason to be optimistic. This is a small economy with robust primary industries and the global financial crisis seems to have arrived in Australia a little later than in many other countries and, thus far, we have largely avoided mass redundancies.

Undoubtedly, we’re feeling the ‘winds of change’ (Macmillan!) and we may see demand for HR professionals in the generalist segment bump along the bottom for a while but HR is embedded in Australian business and has created a strong value proposition. Currently astute risk management and hygiene matters dominate the HR landscape and remuneration, payroll, OHS and employee relations specialists are perhaps enjoying the greatest demand.

We’d expect demand to continue to be modest for most of the rest of the year but, as discussed, the good news is that the extreme market tightness of the last six months appears to have abated somewhat. However, with demand for locally based HR professionals at best modest, there is perhaps a sense that 2010 would be a better year to consider a move to Australia. But, if you are heading our way, you will be more than welcome so drop me a line at dowens@hrpartners.com.au and let’s see what the Digby Morgan business in Australia can do to assist you.


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