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Current Client Newsletter
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Employment Still Rising
Part-time workers & immigrants now crucial to labour market
Key Court ruling should ring alarm bells for career sites
IR Update
One in five Boomers plan to never leave work
Retirement age to rise
Stop employers doing "dumb things"
Asian and Eastern Europe wages to grow much faster than Australia
All articles in this newsletter courtesy of shortlistonline.net.au, recruiterdaily.com.au; Blake Dawson Solicitors and CareersMultiList.
Employment Still Rising
Employment rose by nearly 13,000 in October, to 10.53 million (seasonally adjusted). Full-time jobs surged by 70,600 to 7.59 million, but part-time jobs fell 57,700 to 2.95 million.
The unemployment rate rose slightly from 4.2% to 4.3% as the number of people looking for work went up by 15,700.
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Part-time workers and immigrants now crucial to labour market
Part-time workers, working holiday makers and temporary and permanent immigrants are now crucial to Australia's labour force and economy, according to two new reports from the Reserve Bank.
The RBA's Trends in Employment and Labour Supply report, said that part-time jobs made up nearly 50% of the 2.5 million new jobs created since the early 1990s. Unlike full-time jobs, which fluctuated with economic peaks and troughs, the number of part-time jobs had been steadily increasing since the 1960s, the report said.
Part-timers now made up nearly 30% of all those in work - and over two thirds of part-timers were women.
The report showed that growing female participation in the labour force had provided an important source of workers, with married women in particular entering the market in greater numbers. The number of married women aged between 25 and 54 and in work had increased by more than 25 percentage points over the past 30 years, the report said.
Meanwhile, participation rates among males aged 25 to 54 dropped, which according to the RBA, could be due to men suffering higher rates of injury and disability and, to a lesser extent, taking more responsibility for childcare.
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Key Court ruling should ring alarm bells for career sites
A landmark decision by the full Federal Court in August should be ringing loud alarm bells for employers that they could face legal actions if the reality of their workplace doesn't match the statements they include on their careers websites or in letters of offer.
A full bench majority this week upheld an earlier ruling which awarded more than $500,000 to a former Goldman Sachs JB Were investment adviser, after finding the company had breached his employment contract by failing to honour provisions in its HR policy.
The original judge found that the company's "Working With Us" HR policy, which set out a wide range of information about working at GSJBW, should be read as part of its employment contracts.
The court heard evidence that the policy was given to all staff when they were offered employment and was widely disseminated within the company. The document set out the company's goals in providing a healthy and safe working environment, equal opportunity, diversity, anti-discrimination and strict policies against bullying and harassment of staff.
The full bench affirmed that in failing to adhere to provisions in the policy which said it would provide a healthy workplace, protect workers from harassment or discrimination, and follow set grievance procedures, GSJBW had breached its employment contract with the worker. (The worker was dismissed after suffering a stress condition following a long dispute with the company over the way clients were allocated.)
The employee's barrister said the case affirmed the need for employers and recruitment companies "to have a good hard look" at the information they provided on careers sites and in material accompanying employment offers.
He said if the language used on careers sites and in employment policies was "framed in the terms of a promise", and committed the employer to providing a certain work environment, they were now open to common law actions if they failed to live up to the promise.
The "promises" could include claims about encouraging diversity and equal opportunity, promoting work/life balance, preventing bullying, offering development and training for staff, or ensuring a safe workplace.
If employers are making promises to induce people to come and work for them they need to honour those promises, otherwise they may be leaving themselves open to legal action.
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IR Update
A Rudd Labor Government was elected on 24 November 2007, campaigning on the key plank of substantially amending the workplace laws of the former Coalition Government, including WorkChoices.
The new system will operate generally from 1 January 2010. However, a Transition Bill will operate in 2008 until 31 December 2009.
The Transition Bill will contain the ‘safety net’ of 10 national employment standards (operative from Jan 2010) – hours of work; parental leave; flexible work for parents; annual leave; personal, carers and compassionate leave; community service leave; public holidays; information in the workplace; termination of employment and redundancy; long service leave.
Key points for employers include:
The progress of the Labor Government’s legislation will depend on the positions taken by the Coalition and minor parties/independents in the Senate. The Transition Bill may not be passed until after 1 July 2008.
The operation of the existing workplace laws may be affected by amendments to the Workplace Relations Regulations and the manner in which the existing laws are administered and enforced under the new Labor Government.
Employers need to consider the impact of the Labor Government’s intended workplace laws on their:
workplace relations and people strategies; existing industrial instruments and workplace agreements; development of new workplace agreements; and implementation of workplace change programmes and restructuring.
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One in five Boomers plan to never leave work
More than one in five baby boomers plan to keep working right throughout their lives, but to attract and retain them, employers and recruiters should focus on the interesting nature of the job and flexible working hours.
These were the key findings of a survey released this week by the Australian Psychological Society.
More than half of the 1500 baby boomer respondents said enjoying work (56%) and keeping an active mind (55%) motivated them to stay in the workforce.
Income rated as a lower motivation for remaining in paid work (46%). Other factors included feeling valued (46%) and social interactions in the workplace (43%).
"Baby boomers seem to be less driven by financial rewards and more by the stimulation and satisfaction they can gain from their jobs," said APS president, Amanda Gordon.
"The survey suggests this generation are really enjoying their work and feeling positive about remaining in the workforce. Employers should consider these key motivators when developing retention strategies for baby boomer staff," she said.
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Retirement age to rise
Governments around the world are raising the legal retirement age, in a bid to increase workforce participation and reduce welfare costs, according to new research from HR consultancy Mercer.
In Australia, the minimum qualifying age for a pension will increase for women from 60 to 65 (depending on year of birth) to a standard 65 by 2014, making it the same for men and women.
Head of the Mercer Asia Pacific retirement division, Tim Jenkins, said it was now time to start looking at raising the minimum age beyond 65.
"The pension age has not been changed in 100 years in Australia, yet our life expectancy is constantly increasing – why aren’t we discussing the validity of 65?"
A recent paper from Mercer Australia called for the pension age to be lifted to 67, and highlighted the need for a shift in the public mindset on the ageing workforce, as not everyone was too old to contribute to the economy after the age of 65.
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Stop employers doing "dumb things"
Some hiring managers do "dumb things" that mean HR managers and recruiters have to work harder, according to US recruitment expert, Lou Adler. Here he outlines two common problems and ideas for preventing them.
Long delays in interviewing candidates
"Good candidates are rarely on the market long enough to hang around for your managers to act, so this is not only a wasted effort, but worse, a distinct opportunity cost," Adler says.
To avoid this problem, you need to develop a partnership with hiring managers that is so trusting that every candidate you present is seen quickly, without question.
Some managers aren't very good at interviewing
Too many first-level managers overvalue technical skills, while more senior-level executives tend to rely on gut-feelings and their intuition to assess competency. Adler says that regardless of level, everyone is biased by first impressions.
Joint or panel interviews (if done properly) can overcome this, resulting in a more objective interview and more accurate assessment. If you can't arrange a panel interview, ask your client to use the first part of the interview to review something meaningful the candidate has been asked to bring or discuss eg. a summary of their most comparable job-related accomplishments.
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Asian and Eastern Europe wages to grow much faster than Australia
Australians can expect modest salary increases in 2008 compared with the rest of the world, as pay rates in wealthier nations level off while Asia and Eastern Europe surge ahead, according to a global study.
The latest Mercer Worldwide Pay Survey shows Australian salaries are forecast to rise 4%, 1.5 percentage points above local inflation.
Globally, salaries were projected to rise 6% in 2008, 1.9pp higher than inflation.
India was forecast to have one of the highest average wage increases, at 14.1%, or 9.8pp above local inflation.
Chinese salaries were forecast to rise by 7.5%, 4.3pp above inflation, while Bulgaria (9.3%, 4.9pp above), Turkey (8.5%, 4.5pp above) and Romania (8.3%, 3.3pp above) were also at the top end of global increases.
In contrast, the United States could expect an average pay rise of 3.7%, 1.9pp over inflation, and the United Kingdom could expect a 3.1% increase, 1.1pp over, according to the report.
Steve Gross, global head of Mercer's performance and rewards consulting, said escalating salaries in some countries were eroding the cost savings of shifting operations to labour pools which had historically been cheaper.
"It is therefore essential for multinational companies to consider both current pay levels and future salary increases when deciding where to source their labour."
Short-term affordability in many countries was at risk of being offset by long-term volatility in pay rates, the cost of extra supervisors and training, as well as inconsistent service quality, Gross said
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