Sunday 21 October 2012

Australian employees over qualified

The increasingly global employment market will underpin an Australian brain drain if HR doesn’t put in place appropriate retention and engagement strategies, a recruitment expert has predicted. Randstad Australia’s HR manager Jane Bartrum told HRR the September data from the Randstad Workmonitor revealed a number of concerning employment trends.

Nearly half of all Australian respondents to the global quarterly survey believed they were overqualified for their job. However, 84% of employees in China believed they “hold expertise above and beyond their current position”. Bartrum warned this could see Chinese workers looking to move into Australia for career opportunities. She said while the Federal Government had changed conditions for the Living Away From Home Allowance (HRR 517) “there will always be a market for skilled migration in the workforce”. 

The data revealed many Australians believed they were overqualified for their role and most believed the workforce will experience a major brain drain in the coming years. Nearly 60% of local workers thought there will be a shortage of highly qualified staff within the next three years, and the same number believed businesses will suffer shortages in certain fields. Bartrum said despite international economic difficulties “local talent continues to look at long term career opportunities abroad”. She said local talent in their 30s were looking to move into global brands chasing the opportunity for international transfers. 

“HR needs to be thinking about succession planning and engagement strategies more.” She said HR should look at the language and needs of the “more mobile” younger workforce if they wanted to mimimise turn over and maximise the skills and enthusiasm of their workforce. She said younger workers increasingly looked to management as “coaches” and didn’t want to be “told what to do”. “It’s a challenging time for employers to find a happy medium for an engaged and productive workforce,” she said.

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