Job hotspots identified in the October-December Hays Quarterly Report include Recruitment Advisors, who are in demand across Australia's HR sector. The continual increase in demand for internal recruiters has led to a candidate shortage. In addition, the needs of Australia's booming resources and mining industry have seen the recruitment teams within resources organisations grow significantly. This has drained the talent pool and therefore other industries are struggling to find talent.

Solid HR Generalists with strong industrial relations and employee relations experience are also in high demand. According to Hays, employers want candidates with experience in EBA negotiation or re-negotiation where possible as well as a keen interest in ER knowledge to ensure that new HR employees are well rounded in their knowledge.

Overcoming skills shortages
The Hays report indicated that employers are looking at innovative recruitment methods such as social media networking to attract talent. There has been an explosion of social networking activity in the HR industry. Inherently a reasonably small community anyway, professionals are making network contacts, and while they are not translating into recruitment opportunities it is a good tool for general networking.

They are also recruiting candidates from agency backgrounds for internal roles, which was previously a harder transition to make. We are also advising employers to focus on the cultural fit of candidates rather than industry knowledge, which can be taught to the right candidate.

When candidates with the specific IR skills initially required are unavailable, employers are considering candidates that have worked with the interpretation and application of existing EBAs or who have contributed to EBA renegotiation rather than driving it.

The coming quarter
Hays expect to see a continued large volume of contract, temporary and permanent roles. Fixed-term contracts are being used to secure available talent immediately for a fixed period since temporary employees are regularly leaving assignments to accept permanent roles. The volume of permanent jobs remains steady, driven by attrition or restructure rather than expansion.

Executive recruitment
We have seen more activity at the executive HR level (for roles $150,000 and above) in the past six weeks than in the past six months. This is largely due to attrition, with a number of executives changing roles and generating replacement recruiting needs. Strong IR and change management skills are also sought.

Employer trends
Employers are becoming slightly more flexible in their requirements once consulted about the candidate short market. Salaries are being forced up in all industries, particularly in Queensland and Western Australia due to competition with the mining and resources industry.

While there will always be candidates that apply to advertisements, quantity does not always equate to quality, nor is it representative of what is in the market. The good candidates are happy to be contacted when opportunities arise.