RailCorp announces specialist labour hire panel.... Report reveals NSW public sector recruitment woes.... Resources sector behind tight labour market: Hays.... Employers' talent management systems inefficient: Mercer.

RailCorp announces specialist labour hire panel

RailCorp has announced the results of its tender for a panel for manual labour.

The contract went out to tender last year for the provision of temporary rail-specific general industrial workers.

The panel includes:

• Brefni Excavation and Earthmoving;
• Chandler Macleod;
• Metro Resources Group;
• Multi Civil and Rail Services;
• O'Halloran Management Services;
• SKILLED Rail Services; and
• Swetha International.

The panel will be in place for two years.

Report reveals NSW public sector recruitment woes

Convoluted job descriptions, poor internal mobility and difficulty attracting candidates are some of the recruitment issues facing the NSW public sector.

The inaugural State of the NSW Public Sector Report said one of the big barriers to improving the public sector workforce's capability was difficulty attracting employees.

A particular problem were job descriptions for public sector roles, which the report said were often "long and bureaucratic, and in some cases incomprehensible to anyone outside of the sector".

Some 29% of the 60,000 public sector workers surveyed for the report said position descriptions often failed to accurately reflect the requirements of the job.

Another issue, the report said, was that internal workforce mobility was too low, impeded by a range of factors including hiring freezes and "the use of contingent staff".

"Transfer rates continue to fall and the number of promotions has been extremely low. When systems are properly aligned mobility is a great tool for attracting and retaining employees," it said.

NSW Public Sector Commissioner Graeme Head said he was examining all of the Government's recruitment practices, with a view to streamlining the hiring process and focusing on "recruiting for broad capabilities".

He said the PSC was looking at changing hiring criteria to ensure new recruits were a broad fit with the department they were joining, rather than screening only for a "narrow" skillset associated with the individual role.

Resources sector behind tight labour market: Hays

Salary pressure in the Australian resources sector is creating an increasingly tight labour market, according to the Hays Global Skills Index.

The index scores labour markets around the world between zero and 10 - 10 being a tight job market, and zero a soft market - based on factors like education, wage pressure and flexibility. Australia's labour market was rated at 5.9, compared with the global average of 5.1.

The report said tightness in the Australian market was primarily driven by resources sector demand for highly-skilled professionals.

"While firms in the mining and oil and gas sectors make up just 2-3% of total employment and less than a tenth of GDP, they are a major centre for skills shortages that have driven up wages," it said.

"Shortages are mostly found in the operational and technical areas associated with extractive industries, but also in accountancy and finance and other professional services for these industries."

One measure being introduced by resources companies to offset this pressure was recruiting indigenous staff from other regions of Australia, with a particular focus on the eastern states, said the report.

"To attract talent to relocate, firms need to be increasingly innovative on flexible working rosters, as well as remuneration," it advised.

The report also found Australia had good labour market flexibility in comparison to other countries, due to its relative openness to immigration, and flexible labour laws.

Employers' talent management systems inefficient: Mercer

Australian employers are using "extremely inefficient" systems to manage talent, according to a new report from Mercer.

The Mercer Leadership Report, based on a survey of 91 Australian companies, found more than 60% of local employers relied on emailed Microsoft Word documents to track talent management processes, compared with 16% who used dedicated technology systems.

Mercer Asia-Pacific leadership, diversity and learning solutions head Alison Tickner said manual systems created a heavy administrative burden for HR teams.

"It makes it very difficult to effectively track performance, the career progress of current and future high potentials and leaders, and increases the difficulty of managing and developing future talent," she said.

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