Skills gap: a top recruitment trend

 Skills gap: a top recruitment trend

Skills shortages in Australia's gas industry will reach new heights as competition from mining employers heats up. Hays Oil & Gas Regional Director Simon Winfield says this shortage of talent is the top recruitment trend that will dominate the market in 2011.

Salary pressure, overseas recruitment and a project's location are amongst the main issues that will dominate this year. But none are more pressing than the emerging skills shortage.

Across Australia there are a number of gas projects that are moving ahead with development, fuelling high demand for staff in a number of areas. Service providers in particular are ramping up their recruitment activity. Many are in the initial stage of building capability with a permanent workforce, but they will soon supplement this with temporary assignments.

Current planned LNG projects alone could account for in excess of 12,000 new staff. Altogether there are, and will be, a lot of jobs beating at the door of candidates in an effort to secure their skills.

It is not just gas projects that are gaining candidates' attention. Opportunities are also coming from the mining and resources sector, where roles are available on high profile projects, and where employers are prepared to compete fiercely for the top talent based on salary. When all the current and projected staffing requirements are compared with the availability of domestic talent, it's clear that the shortage of skills will reach a height never before seen in Australia.

Employers across resources, mining, oil and gas will all be competing for the same people, and the ability to overcome skills shortages will become the defining characteristic of the employment market in 2011.

This shortage of specialist skills is also the catalyst for many of the other issues expected to dominate in 2011, such as salary pressure.

The global financial crisis-induced salary slowdown is a distant memory and the salary expectations of employees are rising on the back of the strong Australian dollar and job numbers. Meanwhile, employers are responding to the emerging shortage of skills with a greater willingness to review salaries. Headhunting is also adding to salary pressure, as is the willingness, as noted above, of resources employers to compete for talent based on salary.

Engineering consultancies are seeking candidates with local experience and either local accreditation or eligibility for accreditation, and they have started to increase salaries for such candidates as competition between the design houses rises.

Hays also expects to see the prominent return of counter offers this year, as companies dig deep to retain their top talent.

Another issue that will receive attention in 2011 is recruiting from overseas. Despite widespread agreement that employers will need to recruit migrants to head off the growing list of skills in demand, there remains much reluctance about this particular strategy for helping to overcome skills shortages. Hays have noticed employers pulling away from the notion of international recruitment.

Perhaps it is previous experience that put them off. Or perhaps it is a fear of regulatory requirements or of the cost – yet recruiting from overseas is not difficult and it is not costly.

It can be an uncomplicated process that, properly done, yields very good results. For example, Hays has recently been working with employers to extend their searches to include international candidates. Many national or international recruiters – including Hays Oil & Gas – will meet, interview and assess candidates in an overseas location through their office network. Once they have a shortlist of suitable candidates, employers can elect to go to the destination to interview groups of screened candidates, or utilise video conference facilities for interviews.

Hays also expects the process of employing overseas skilled candidates to become easier in 2011, particularly given the announcement in late 2010 that the Federal Government is planning a new visa for the resources sector. Further developments in this area are expected as employers are forced to become more serious about this recruiting strategy in the face of growing domestic skills shortages.

One final trend to watch in 2011 will be the impact of a project's location on its ability to attract the top talent. For example, many candidates consider Gladstone to be far more appealing than Karratha. This means employers operating in locations that are generally not on a candidate's top wish list will need to work hard to make their project, salary, benefits (including rosters) and lifestyle stand out.