01/01/2009 Simon Lusty

These are uncertain times for everybody and accurate market intelligence is important in making the right decisions for your business.

This economic slowdown is slightly different to others and requires a considered and strategic response from organisations.

Overall we see a general ‘cooling’ of the market – not a collapse. We haven’t seen any major retrenchments in marketing for some time now.

The global financial crisis has posed questions and left many wondering what will happen to their companies in the future. It can be scary. But in our industry I don’t see this kind of uncertainty or fear.

We are better placed than most industries and I expect employers to proceed with caution as opposed to reducing staff numbers.

Organisations have spent nearly five years looking for talented people and they don’t want to give them up just yet. A downturn can be the ideal time to add to an organisation’s talent pool. Locally, staff turnover has been high, which has been largely employee-driven, but this might scale back as employee confidence in the market subsides.

What we will experience in the coming months is some ‘churn’. Over the past few years organisations have struggled to find great people and due to workload pressures have compromised on their ‘exact fit’ when it comes to hiring. 

Some organisations will let average staff move on but hire great people as soon as they appear. It’s difficult to find good people and companies are aware of this.

However, if the day of reckoning does come and people have to be laid off, I think it should be approached with caution.

Too often, I find companies mismanaging the process of downsizing for a number of reasons:

• They do it in stages, which is disruptive to the workplace
• They do not communicate what the long-term vision of the company is and why downsizing has been undertaken
• It is not done in a respectful and considerate manner
• There is no counselling or support system provided to the staff released

This can have far-reaching implications for the company and the people who are retained by it. They don’t feel safe especially when the management is not transparent about the changes.

Overall, the outlook for the marketing, communications and creative sectors looks positive. Employers are still hungry for talent, especially digital specialists. The digital sector is booming due to its targeted efficiency and measurement, which is attractive to businesses in uncertain times. The demand for convenience-based digital lifestyles for the time-poor are driving demand in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Companies are adapting to the volatile labour market by recognising the importance of talented contract staff and the ability to scale up or down as workflow dictates.

Creativity-led organisations see the use of contractors as competitive advantage – a channel for allowing fresh ideas in the organisation.

Over the next year organisations which have worked hard to source talent over the last 12-24 months will be focused on holding onto them with a mix of salary increases and non-monetary benefits such as flexible work practices.

Flexible working has become the number one retention strategy in Australia and is sought after by employees who as little as two years ago cited career development as their favourite non-monetary benefit. Employers who implement a flexible working strategy over the next year are likely to find themselves in a strong position. 

When seeking talent, employers still don’t use the online medium to the same extent as candidates and will potentially be missing out on hiring opportunities. In all major cities with the exception of Perth, there is a significant gap between employers and candidates’ use of online sourcing strategies. This is generally due to the time it takes for employers to work through volumes of inappropriate applicants.

Top recruitment strategies for employers are word of mouth/referrals followed by recruitment agencies. Recruitment-based social networking, which is suggested as the next great pipeline, is still in its infancy with no more than 4% of Australian employers and 7% of candidates using this strategy. The creative industries always have an edge and are expected to be one step ahead. The rise of digital roves this to be the case.

Simon Lusty is the regional director, Australia and New Zealand, of Aquent. Aquent recently released the fifth edition of the Aquent Orange Book – a salary survey and industry monitor of the marketing, communications and creative industries in Australia and NZ.