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Australia losing overseas hiring race
We all know Australia needs more nurses and doctors. We certainly wouldn't mind acquiring more skilled workers. The question is, Australia is in shortage of skilled employees, what are we doing wrong?
We look at the factors as to why Australian companies are losing out to their Asian counterparts in the race to attract international candidates. Results show that Aussie businesses don't advertise the job opportunities sufficiently well to attract foreign applications.
What are the foreigners doing
International recruiter Robert Half conducted a survey which found that less than a quarter (23%) of Australian companies actively recruited employees from overseas. In comparison, neighbours Hong Kong and Singapore are beating Australia to it, with more than 50 per cent of companies actively recruiting globally.
Regions targeted by Australian companies that actively recruit internationally are:
- Asia (49%)
- UK (38%)
- New Zealand (21%)
- Western Europe (21%)
What does this mean?
These results also show that Australian companies are not capitalising on the opportunities global recruitment brings, particularly in light of Australia's current skills shortage extending from skilled tradespeople to processionals in the accounting and financial services area.
While there is a realisation within corporate Australia that internal job fulfilment must come from beyond our borders, the results show that we have not bridged this gap as yet in attracting the world's best by promoting our economic outlook and high liveability conditions.
We can still do it
The good news is that there is a window of opportunity to attract people now given the economic slowdown in the UK and the US. The research shows that there are potential employees looking to move to Australia and take advantage of its buoyant economy.
Reasons why Australian companies are not actively recruiting from overseas are:
- lack of local knowledge of local legalities (19%)
- lack of local industry network (18%)
- difficulty in obtaining work visas(12%)
Processes companies need to take
There are a number of strategies that companies can easily adopt in extending their recruitment practices overseas, says David Jones, Robert Half Managing Director Asia Pacific.
Internally, these could include encouraging staff to inquire about overseas transfers with their direct reports, via global intranet sites and company noticeboards.
Externally, it could be broadening hiring programs to tap into international media, keeping up to speed with visa requirements and changes to programs, thinking outside of obvious locations such as the UK and the US as well as collaborating with Government funded programs.
The main vehicles Australian companies are using to attract international candidates are:
- using online job boards (40%)
- industry associations (37%)
- using their own websites (27%)
Globally online job boards (39%) and internal transfers (22%) were the most popular mechanism to attract foreign talent.
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