These of us dwelling within the Northern Hemisphere have a novel fascination with international locations within the Southern Hemisphere: their seasons are reversed and storms circulation in the wrong way. However are the folks and their financial considerations any completely different simply because their summer time solstice is in December? To get a tackle hiring tendencies within the Australia-New Zealand area, I sat down with Wealthy Lewis-Jones, Regional Vice President, APAC at SmartRecruiters. Wealthy and I share the identical December birthday, however he will get to have fun it within the sunshine whereas I undergo within the chilly and darkish.

It seems the present Australian economic system isn’t all sunshine and cuddly koalas: just like Northern international locations, Australia has been hit with excessive inflation charges, unemployment, and a labor scarcity. Nonetheless, the underlying components differ: throughout tight COVID lockdowns and layoffs, the borders closed and immigration stalled. “Numerous folks had no selection however to depart as a result of they had been on sponsored visas,” Wealthy mentioned, mentioning expertise shortages in industries like manufacturing, hospitality, engineering, and healthcare that rely on international labor. “Now hiring is hyper-competitive and Model Australia is making an effort to encourage folks to maneuver right here once more,” he mentioned.
Expertise attraction amidst a expertise scarcity
The trouble to draw expertise begins with top-of-funnel recruitment advertising and marketing actions. “The labor scarcity accelerated the necessity for firms to get artistic on the place they’re attracting expertise from,” Wealthy mentioned. “It’s not nearly going to transactional locations like companies or job boards. Companies are working tougher on their employer worth proposition (EVP) and constructing clever profession websites that provide personalised content material to extend conversions. They’re connecting candidates to related content material posted on blogs and websites like GitHub and Reddit. They’re constructing expertise communities by means of a CRM. Offline, they’re utilizing QR codes.”
This burst of creativity is facilitated by the linked ecosystem of applied sciences that make sourcing attribution doable. “In SmartRecruiters, you may observe your entire high of funnel,” Wealthy mentioned. “We act as a single supply of fact.” Meaning candidate information from job boards may be in contrast towards readers of a GitHub submit by the CTO or guests to a recruiting occasion. Firms get a direct sense of what’s working and what’s not, a theme echoed by SmartRecruiters Australian buyer Kincare. By organising customized sources and monitoring IDs with SmartRecruiters open APIs, KinCare can simply see which job boards web essentially the most hires. The insights on what channels work finest and the place enable them to optimize sourcing channels, reallocate finances in actual time, and spend extra effectively.
A hiring ecosystem drives worth
The effectivity good points from a linked expertise ecosystem transcend spending. “Recruiters don’t have to depart our system,” Wealthy mentioned, “however can proceed to plug in best-of-breed options as new challenges occur and new classes emerge.” Productiveness good points on high of non-existent integration charges make SmartRecruiters a compelling selection for more and more cost-conscious Australian companies.
“The common firm is utilizing between 5-10 integrations,” Wealthy mentioned. “In the event that they’re utilizing an HCM recruiting module, they’ve integration activation prices, annual integration upkeep prices, on-going configuration prices, and the price of a full-time guide. A expertise acquisition suite like SmartRecruiters can considerably decrease their OPEX (working bills) by eliminating these charges.”
Wealthy is an enormous fan of justifying expertise expenditures towards core hiring success metrics and their contribution to OPEX. In a single latest profitable pitch, he constructed a case that confirmed the worth again to the enterprise if the corporate elevated hiring velocity, web hiring rating, and finances. Each a minor adjustment and the best-case state of affairs yielded substantial price financial savings by getting the proper folks within the door quicker.
“Companies realized the arduous means that expertise acquisition groups are the core of a enterprise,” Wealthy mentioned, echoing SmartRecruiters’ founder Jerome Ternynck’s perspective in his ebook Hiring Success: How Visionary CEOs Compete for the Greatest Expertise. “TA groups hold folks coming in, assist rent high quality expertise, and assist retain expertise.” Know-how that helps them do their jobs higher helps the enterprise total by offering an awesome expertise.
“Expertise is essential for everyone,” Wealthy mentioned. “It’s not simply candidates and recruiters. It’s about workers getting a great expertise on inside mobility, it’s about managers being prompted to have the ability to do their job in the best means. Most hiring managers don’t like hiring. Once we make it as simple for them as doable to get folks within the door, we impression the underside line.”
The friendliest folks on the planet sitting at TA’s desk
Because it seems, making it simple for folks is core to the Australian ethos. “We’re a few of the friendliest folks on the planet down right here,” Wealthy mentioned. “However we’ve got very excessive expectations on communication. It’s a tradition of excessive contact.” When firms use expertise to create a high-touch recruiting expertise by nurturing candidates with automated processes that talk subsequent steps within the hiring journey, they’re embracing the Australian means.
The emphasis on relationships extends to the TA group and its occasions and meetups throughout the foremost cities. Talentpalooza and the Inner Expertise Awards are just a few of the locations you’ll discover Wealthy and people from SmartRecruiters. “Everyone is aware of everyone,” Wealthy mentioned. “All of them discuss to one another. When there’s one thing optimistic, it’s like a pinball machine with all the nice balls going off.”
The nice balls proper now embrace hiring groups getting their due. “I simply like to see expertise acquisition groups having extra of a voice and never simply a seat on the desk, however perhaps their very own desk the place CEOs wish to come and sit,” Wealthy mentioned. With a core recruiting system that provides them actionable information that provides actual enterprise worth, Wealthy mentioned, “Increasingly more, the C-suite isn’t just coming to take a seat, however saying, ‘how can I assist you to out? How a lot do you want?’”
Wealthy is only one of 14 hiring consultants quoted in our newest eBook, World Hiring Tendencies 2023: How Expertise Acquisition Can Adapt and Thrive in 2023 and Past.
Obtain it at the moment to be taught extra about six key tendencies impacting hiring at the moment. You’ll additionally obtain 5 checklists that will help you make higher expertise selections.