February 2, 2018 
Are you struggling to attract the right talent for an unfilled position? Or, have one of your valued team members resigned, leaving you wondering what went wrong?
Behind every business is a team of people ensuring that it continues to survive. But in times of a rapidly-changing job market, attracting and retaining employees is a challenging and important issue.
In order to help businesses understand and address this challenge, we proudly teamed up with La Camara to speak at their seminar: How to Overcome Key Challenges in Expanding and Retaining Your Workforce.
This initiative visited both Sydney and Melbourne, with the Sydney seminar taking place on February 20, and the Melbourne seminar launching on February 22.
Our Global Head of Operations, William Gaguin headed up the events and shared a presentation. Here’s a little of what he had to say.
William Gaguin speaking at the Melbourne seminar
A Snapshot of the Labour Market
In order to attract and retain employees, it is essential to understand the current job market and its trends.
Australian employment rates are increasing by 2%, with a predicted employment increase of 7.22% by 2020. What’s more, the working age population (16 to 64 years old) is also increasing. Since 1993, the percentage of the population that is of working age has spiked from approximately 64.5% to 73% in 2017.
The industry of the highest predicted growth is Health Care and Social Assistance. It is expected to climb a massive 25.1%.
How to Attract Key Talent
As mentioned, a key aspect to attracting talent is knowing the current job market, and building a strategy around these trends.
You may ask yourself questions such as “Are the skills I require in high-demand?”, “What is the level of turnover in this industry?” and “Why would candidates be attracted to my company and this role?”. Answering these questions will pave a way of structuring the recruitment process, and how to market the role to job seekers.
Consider this example. The huge boom in the number of large-scale solar and wind projects means that hiring skilled candidates (who are in high demand!) is challenging to say the least. In knowing this, companies need to be well prepared, and know how to effectively communicate the job role with candidates. For example, you may craft a clearly defined job description with a well-communicated strategy for the business (which ideally extends beyond the expected end of the boom in 2020).
How to Retain Your Team
There’s a lot of talk about reducing employee turnover by effectively engaging the team. You’ve probably heard of strategies such as creating a sense of purpose in the job role, as well as allowing employees to take ownership of their role, and outlining ways that they can make an impact. You may also enhance employee’s happiness at work by implementing benefits such as workplace flexibility, as well as opportunities for professional development.
But what about crafting some strategies to improve retention through the hiring process? By hiring the right candidate since day one, you reduce the risk of losing that employee down the track.
This is why many organisations are prioritising a good cultural fit. In some cases, the job application’s “essential criteria” outlines requirements for this cultural fit, with technical skills appearing in the “desirable criteria”.
It’s clear that the business world is recognising the importance of candidates being happy in their roles, and are recruiting with this priority in mind.
Thanks for Joining Us!
La Camara’s seminar series was a fantastic opportunity to share our knowledge with businesses looking to relish the power of their people.
It was a pleasure to join other companies such as RSM Australia, FastVisa and ARC Group in addressing such a relevant topic which we so passionately believe in!
