Market update from Technical and Operations
Good Candidates are still out there.
There has been a considerable amount of publicity suggesting that there is a decline of quality candidates in the market at the moment. Gone are the days when an agency advertised for an engineering position and 50 applicants applied for the position, with many of them well qualified.
There are a number of factors that have contributed to this situation. A combination of the resources boom, which has attracted a large number of candidates to the resources sector, and the massive investment in infrastructure by a number of governments in different states at the same time, has resulted in a scarcity of specialist candidates.
The candidates however, haven’t gone away. Just because they are in jobs doesn’t mean they are all happy or off the market permanently. People sometimes get into jobs they don’t really like and become unhappy. There are unique challenges to living and working in mining communities which mean that some candidates might not stay in the mining industry for an indefinited period. In a project driven industry like construction, projects finish with a number of quality candidates regularly coming back on to the market.
So, with a number of regular events occurring including individuals becoming unhappy with jobs and wanting to move, and major projects finishing, it means there is always a pool of candidates on the market. While the number of candidates overall is down, there are still many qualified and experienced candidates available.
Attracting talent and being able to move quickly when talent becomes available, will be the difference between companies that are fully staffed and companies that have costly vacancies that aren’t filled. Streamlining internal recruitment procedures can be critical to the ability of a company to move quickly, and act when a good candidate shows on the market and is presented by an agency.
The ability to act quickly, both internally and externally, is increasingly becoming a key part of successful businesses in the 21st Century.
