2011 the year of the skills shortage

2011 is expected to be a bumper year, the economy is finally getting stronger and all in all people are feeling more confident than 12 months ago. BUT according to recruiting experts Hays a shallow pool of talent in many specialist area's is the biggest threat to growth (ref here) for the 2011 Australian job market.

More evidence of expected growth in the job market hails from the resources industry currently undergoing a boom. Multiple resource projects, one example the National Broadband Network; large scale oil and gas projects and mining industry strength all point to an active and healthy moving job market.

What industries are expected to be the most affected?

The problem lies in the pool of talent to meet these needs. Hays quotes an expected skills shortage as never seen before in Australia, in roles and areas such as Engineering, Exploration, Construction, Fabrication and Exporting. Furthermore Hays views the impact of these gross shortages will permeate all industries Australia wide.

The Problem areas

Hays sees the Resources Industry as taking a hard hit with recent, very public, disasters (eg: Pike River Mine; San Jose Gold Mine). GenY'ers are most environment and safety aware, so the Resources Industry is going to need to pour time and money into improving standards and reducing incidents at all levels. Interest rates again feature high on the list as causing great impact on candidate movement, with uncertainty likely to increase caution and reduce movement. However, employers can not rely on this uncertainty to retain staff; skilled staff are more likely to be headhunted and therefore employers need to expect to meet the demand for healthy salary increases.

Advice for Employers

Employers are advised by Hays to consider the benefits of overseas talent, but Australian employers are deemed as reluctant to tap into this talent or lack the skills to do so effectively. However this may be the response that we need to make to fill the hole being left by skills shortages. Furthermore, an increasing number of skilled Australians are being attracted by international markets. Employers are being urged to use all methods available to them to attain and retain excellent staff. Methods recommended include healthy salary increases and bonus schemes, especially in light of the wages freeze in 2009 and the subsequent elaborate bonuses paid by some companies in 2010 (thanks Clive Palmer, you have set a high benchmark!). Employers will need to be looking at thinking outside the square to retain their key staff.

Advice for Candidates

The candidate market will also be affected in 2011, skilled candidates will be in extremely high demand, which will push up pay rates. An influx of overseas IT professionals is likely in line with the new NBN, which means that current full time skilled IT staff are likely to take advantage of the higher contract rates and more flexible positions expected to arise from the influx. Skilled and valued key employees are advised to be aware of the likely increases in salary ranges and bonus options available and keep an open dialogue with employers who are keen to retain them.

Social Media

One final piece of advice for employers and employees - Social Media is becoming mainstream! Employers would now be remiss not to avail themselves of the vast amount of personal information they can obtain about potential employees or indeed current staff being considered for promotion. Candidates and employees, now more than ever before, your personal life is out for all to see (footy players case in point). There has never been a more critical time to conduct yourself with professionalism - ALWAYS!

Simplify your search for the perfect Job - SMStheJOB!

Technology is often credited with making our lives easier, but if you have ever been searching for a job online, you will know that the vast amount of information available to us can actually have the opposite effect.

Apart from being overwhelming, the thing about searching for a job online these days is that there is so much to look at that you can get distracted! Instead of finding your dream job you can end up spending hours upon hours looking through the multitude of vacancies that are not quite right. I know I have been guilty of using the distraction of trolling through hundreds of jobs that seem mildly applicable, instead of actually applying for the right kind of job!

How many pages do I have to look through?

Did you know that within 4 hours a job posted on the most popular website can be over 10 pages back? Do you have time to troll through 10 pages of jobs to find your dream job? Now if you are looking for something to fill in time (or avoiding the true task at hand!) those 10 pages might be just what you are looking for, but most of us are too busy to check 10 or 20 or more pages of job ads when we are searching for our dream job.

Email alerts

Enter the email alert... the email alert is a fantastic way to notify you of job vacancies that fit your ideal criteria, but again - unless you have access to the internet immediately, these jobs end up being pages and pages back when you finally do get to an internet connection. And therein lies the rub - you have to have access to the internet to apply for these jobs (btw - have you ever filled in one of those online applications? They might make life easier for the employer, but for the applicant it can be a nightmare! More on this below...).

Smart phones

Ah the internet, don't we all love it?! I for one could not live without my iPhone (yes, if I had 3 items on a desert island, my iPhone is one of them). I love being able to check emails and quickly Google something if I need an instant answer. But the true fact of the matter is that I don't often use the internet on my phone - it is just too hard to navigate clearly. It's ok if I want a quick answer, but if I need to read a lot or fill in a form, it's too fiddly and I wait 'til I can get onto a computer. Interestingly enough - many people feel the same way; I had thought that GenY's would be more likely to use their Smart phones for job searching, but it seems (from my little surveys) that they prefer to use a full size computer for anything that requires a form to be filled in or reading more than a sentence or two.

SMS technology

SMS - loved as dearly as the internet AND more widely used (by all generations!). Did you know that there are 6.4 phones for every 10 people in Australia? and whilst I don't have any statistics to quote, I am guessing that most mobile users text. I even my Dad drops me regular SMS's!! SMS is quick and efficient and effective. One of the biggest advantages of SMS is that is it discrete!! Unlike searching for a job online - using SMS technology to find your dream job is quick, simple and private. No worrying about your current boss looking over your shoulder, no worrying about filling in a 6 page application form from the big internet job sites, no worrying about the footprint left behind in the temporary folders of your computer. SMS is totally private!

SMStheJOB competitors

So you have probably all used Seek, or MyCareer, or Jobs Jobs Jobs - they are all well known sites in Australia, I have used them myself AND I have used SMStheJOB. These sites are well established and well known by employers and job seekers alike, BUT they all have the same disadvantage - how do you find the needle in the haystack? How can an employer be sure that THEIR vacancy is being seen by the best applicants when they appear 10 pages back in a search?

SMStheJOB advantages

Do you know what I love about SMStheJOB compared with the others? Ease, simplicity, efficiency: you simply upload your resume once, fill in the job alert with your criteria (ie: industry, job type, location) and then the alerts come automatically as short text messages to your phone. Wait though... it gets better... if you like a job, you simply send one SMS back and SMStheJOB will forward your application and resume on your behalf! Seriously, how simple is that? I have filled in some of those online apps before - got sick of it halfway through and gave up - how many of us have done that? How many employers have missed out on great staff because they made the application process to messy?

Are you currently looking for a new job?

If you are currently on the search for a new job, if you are always on the lookout for your dream job, if you want to leave your current hated job, we highly recommend you give SMStheJOB a go. It is a free service, it is quick, efficient and simple!

GOOD LUCK!

Is your vacancy getting seen by prime candidates

Once upon a time, if you had a vacancy you advertised it in the Wednesday or Saturday paper, but now there are so many options available it can be a little overwhelming for an employer! The problem for most employers is that we are conditioned with the Wednesday/Saturday habit and we tend to think that we still have to advertise our vacancies with the big player.

In theory, there's lots of support for this idea - more job seekers, more traffic and therefore more likelihood of filling our vacancy. The problem most of us forget is that more seekers and more traffic actually just equals more noise. The ultimate goal is to find the ideal candidate, not the most candidates.

Savvy candidates

Savvy job seekers are the ones who are more likely to research your company, they are more likely to be across technology, more likely to have any up to date resume, more likely to use different tools available to them; these are the type of candidates an employer would love to have chasing them down! The job seekers who are savvy, intelligent and think outside of the square, not the ones who follow the pack like sheep.

How to improve your chances of finding the perfect employee

The best way to improve your chances of finding a dream employee is knowing where to look! The average job seeker will obviously use the normal job boards (ie: Seek, My Career, Jobs Jobs Jobs etc). A smarter job seeker is going to use avenues that give them advantages over the average job hunter - ie: they will use SMStheJOB, LinkedIn and/or Networking. So as an employer, you want to be reaching this audience, the ones who are smart enough to use the best tools available for job hunting!

Why SMStheJOB?

SMStheJOB is quick, effective and private. Our job seekers use this service as it is simple to search and apply for jobs, private and efficient. Once job seekers have uploaded their resume and job search criteria applicable jobs are sent via an SMS and SMStheJOB gives the applicants the ease of being able to apply with one simple text message!

Who should use SMStheJOB?

ANY employer who is looking for that stand out candidate! Whilst it can make sense to use the big player - are you sure that your job vacancy is being seen? If your vacancy is more than 2 or 3 pages back (which can happen within a few short hours of your posting) you are more than likely getting applicants who have time to waste or who are desperate for a job - are either of those in your key criteria? SMStheJOB is very simple for employers, you buy job ad credit and place your vacancies as and when needed. It is a very cost effective option to open more doors and reach savvy applicants! If you are reluctant to change from the old Wednesday/Saturday habit, why not use SMStheJOB as a complimentary method?

Don't just reach more applicants - reach more SUITABLE applicants!

Now is the perfect time to advertise with SMStheJOB

It's that fantastic time of year! We are getting into holiday mode, we are all considering our New Year's resolutions AND few of us are tied to the computer as we're too busy socialising!

So if you have a vacancy, NOW is the time to try SMStheJOB.com.au. Job seekers register their preferred position and location, upload their resume and when their interest is piqued by an SMS alert they send an SMS back to apply for your vacancy!

It couldn't be easier for the employer or the job seeker. It is a simple, quick and effective way to get your job vacancy seen by genuine job hunters. Unlike email, SMS technology attracts current interested parties (not job seekers who registered for an email alert 3 years ago and haven't updated their status). The nature of SMS, being a phone technology, means that our subscribers are far more likely to keep their profiles up to date. The benefit to employers is that you know the people seeing your vacancy ad are genuine about their job "seeking". You are looking at people who are really looking for a new job, not just browsing at what the current industry is paying!

Even better is the speed of response our advertisers enjoy - because your vacancy is going directly to the mobile phone of interested parties, it is actioned in a much shorter time frame than a email alone. We don't always have access to the internet, but everyone has their mobile phones with them, just about all the time! Many of our job seekers say they love our SMS alerts as they are still able to look and apply for jobs without their current employer twigging - unlike using the computer on company time, using a mobile for a quick SMS is not even on the radar!

Here are just some of the key industries we have heaps of job seekers registered for at the moment:

• Hospitability (lots of waiters and bar staff)
• Construction
• Retail (great time of year for retail!)
• Logistics (lots of drivers)
• Admin
• Health professionals
• Sales
• Cleaners

One of the other big benefits of advertising your job vacancies with SMStheJOB - we'll save you money! You register as an advertiser for FREE and only pay for the job vacancies you advertise, plus our rates are cheaper than our competitors! So not only do you have a targeted, captured and genuinely interested audience, you save time and money!

What are you waiting for? Now is the time to give SMStheJOB.com.au a go! Register here and don't forget our Free Ad Referral Program - let your unsuccessful applicants know about SMStheJOB.com.au and when they register with us, you get a free job ad credit! We think it's a win/win for all parties!