David Owens, an associate director of Digby Morgan’s affiliate company, HR Partners in Australia has been widely quoted recently discussing various issues currently affecting Human Resources. In this month’s Newsletter we are pleased to reproduce an interview he gave recently to the HR press concerning his thoughts on the future of the Australasian recruitment market

What do you believe have been the major developments in recruitment over the past 5 years?

There are three key issues, environmentally the persistently low unemployment rate and the fast approaching demographic squeeze are the two most telling developments in recruitment since 2001. Then there is the growing sophistication and effectiveness of technology as an enabler of talent attraction and management has meant technology now plays a critical role.

In a global context Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO’s) where an external commercial entity manages talent acquisition from the external market as well as internal mobility are becoming much more popular.

In the last five years there has been some uptake among Australian organisations of the RPO type solution, but there remains a demonstrated support of the in-sourcing of recruitment activities where specialist teams of internal recruiters act in the market to supply an ever-increasing percentage of recruitment needs to a business. In Australia, Deloitte, PWC, CBA, Coca Cola and Optus, to name but a few, have all embraced E-enabled in-house recruitment strategies focussed upon external and increasingly internal recruitment & mobility.

What ramifications has this had on HR professionals and their businesses?

Undoubtedly the effects of the last 5 years demographic and employment statistics have had a major impact on the way HR professionals think about talent attraction, development and retention, as the market tightens poor practice in this area can cost an organisation dear.

It is because of this that recruitment, for those that in-source, has increasingly been dealt with by a specialist, or team of specialists so that there is a dedicated resource to handle this specialist strand of the HR domain. Simultaneously during the last 5 years we have seen the rise of the true HR Business Partner, where the HR generalist has been stepping up to the plate from a business point of view and strategically advising on the larger scale people issues. The challenge for HR professionals has been to deliver on the strategic piece (often focussed on Performance Management and ER) whilst having enough connectivity with the "front door" to make sure the businesses future positioning is protected by a pipeline of highly skilled and appropriate talent and that the development of this talent is secure.

What future trends do you predict for recruitment?

The shortage of talent in today's labour markets is underpinning the drive towards greater flexibility in working conditions and the hyper tolerance of part time labour. We also see that there is enormous support for workplace diversity and that this has moved from theory to reality. Diversity will mean more than just gender and race but will absolutely mean age as well. In future ‘Grey will be Good’ and will get even better. Organisations will have to embrace all sections of the community as sources of talent as well as customers.

In terms of technology there is a view that on-line bidding and the electronic assessment of recruitment service providers is not good for the recruitment industry or for the quality of recruitment outcomes. Procurement professionals have drivers not always aligned with those business leaders who are truly committed to the acquisition of top talent, and sometime cheapest is not best. If you are going to assess the value of human experience and assess culture and fit the answer may not always be on-line.

To summarise, talent is harder to find and it is more discerning, internal mobility is as much a success factor for organisations as remuneration. In the future organisation effective HR management will be the greatest influence on a businesses competitive advantage, for the organisation planning to go from Good to Great the quality of recruitment processes and their integration into a full suite of talent management practices will be vitally important.

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