Mobile optimisation, a shortage of ‘super skills’, continuous innovation and managing change are among the trends that will drive jobs growth in Australia in 2015, according to Hays.
“Towards the end of 2014 we saw business confidence starting to rise after the post-Federal Budget slump, which will feed through into the labour market in the first few months of 2015,” said Nick Deligiannis, managing director of Hays in Australia & New Zealand.
“In 2015 we will see labour demand improving as employers invest in full-time hires. In particular demand will be high-level skills, especially in technical areas such as IT, construction and engineering.”
Digital marketing will also be a big area of jobs growth, and as the technology and marketing worlds integrate, Deligiannis said mobile optimisation will continue to be a significant priority for businesses.
“Mobile strategies will move beyond simply having a responsive site or mobile app, and focus on mobile-optimised content and social media marketing as well, which will fuel jobs growth for suitably qualified and experienced candidates,” he said.
The top 10 talent trends for 2015
1. Mobile optimisation: There will continue to be a significant increase in demand for digital marketing professionals across the board. As the industry matures it is separating out more into specific skills areas such as content, SEO/SEM, analytics and social media and therefore experts in these areas rather than generalists will be valued. A particular area of jobs growth will be in mobile optimisation as businesses optimise their mobile site for SEO so they rank well on Google’s ‘mobile-friendly’ criteria. Companies will also incorporate mobile into all areas of their digital marketing, which will create high demand for mobile developers with iOS and Android skills.
2. Big data in the workplace: Experts agree that big data, alongside the right data mining technology, can provide unprecedented new insights and predictive patterns into employees (not just customers), leading to improved recruitment and retention strategies. In 2015, HR experts will increasingly interpret data relating to talent attraction, engagement, retention, performance and satisfaction, and use it to make strategic talent acquisition decisions.
3. A shortage of ‘super skills’: A new skills shortage will emerge in 2015. Rather than broad industry-wide shortages, which were rampant pre-downturn, the demand will become far more focused and will intensify around certain highly-skilled specialists, or ‘super skills’. Each industry and sector already has a list of niche skills that are in short supply, and this will intensify over the year ahead.
4. Understanding what drives positive gender diversity change: In 2014 many businesses asked why gender diversity targets were not being met and why strategies were failing to achieve the desired results. In 2015 some employers (unfortunately not all) will look at what they expect their employees to do when hiring and take steps to inform individuals of how their bias (either conscious or unconscious) manifests itself and impacts hiring decisions.
5. Convergence of IT and marketing: The rapid evolution of digital marketing is transforming organisational structures and the gap between IT and marketing teams will narrow. As this trend develops chief marketing officers with the management skills, operating experience, strategic mindset and vision will emerge to lead businesses.
6. Workforce restructuring: The use of recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) and managed service provision (MSP) will continue to grow rapidly among large and medium-sized-firms as they look to build stronger talent pipelines, identify and reduce risk, enhance their employee value proposition or simply manage their costs better.
MSP solutions will be in particular demand as they can deliver more control, visibility and cost savings through the management of the sourcing, engagement and administration of temporary and other ‘non permanent’ employees.
7. Construction boom and high rise inner city unit development: New apartment sales hit a decade high in Australia in 2014 while a swathe of new medium and high-density housing projects were approved across the country. The construction boom will continue in 2015, creating jobs for skilled tradespeople and engineers.
8. Doing more with less: Hiring intentions are positive for 2015, yet most departments continue to be under pressure to control costs. Innovative new strategies to attract and retain talent will therefore be required since employers cannot increase salaries in line with the level of demand.
9. Public sector flexing the workforce: With the outlook uncertain for permanent positions in the public sector, the use of temporary assignments is increasing as employers move towards hiring contractors to fill immediate needs. As the Australian government is looking to downsize its permanent headcount but still needs to deliver on election promises and programs, it will use flexible temporary/labour hire arrangements as a solution.
10. Growth of mobile employee value proposition (EVP): Job seekers and employers alike will increase their use of mobile recruiting in 2015. According to a recent website poll 73 per cent of respondents said they do their job searching mostly by desktop but sometimes by mobile, while 25 per cent said they search mainly by mobile and sometimes by desktop. As a result, we’ll continue to see employers invest in their EVP by optimising their careers site and developing their mobile plan
Source: InsideHR
