Management level talent shortage reaches ‘extreme’ level
The talent drought for senior positions in the marketing and sales industries has reached an extreme level, a report by a recruitment firm has suggested.
According to the Clarius Skills Index, there was a 4,900 job shortage among senior marketing, advertising and sales organisations in Australia during the last quarter ending June 2012.
This compares to a shortfall of 3,400 managers in the previous quarter, prompting recruitment firm Alliance to change an index its uses to measure job shortage from ‘very high’ to ‘extreme’.
Alliance Recruitment executive GM Paul Barbaro told Mumbrella that it was good news for highly paid executives, but bad news for employers.
“The best piece of advice I could give to any employer of a marketing or sales organisation is love them or lose them,” he said, adding that the marketing industry has been one of the worst hit in the wake of the financial crisis.
“As a result of the deflated retail climate, organisations are desperate to get a marketing edge and create sales. Anyone that can generate income and create wealth across all sectors is in high demand,” said Barbaro.
“However, high calibre candidates simply don’t want to move. Their view is ‘better the devil you know’. They also understand that creating sales is a pretty challenging thing to do in this market.”
Barbaro said it was too early to determine the impact changes to the Living Away From House Allowance – a tax perk for foreigners – would have on the job market.
“Given that LAFHA is still in place, it’s difficult to see what effect it will have just yet. But it is probable that LAFHA going will make it even tougher for employers to find good senior people from overseas.”
Reforms to LAFHA were announced by the government earlier this year, but the implementation of the new rules has been put off until October.
i work at a multinational marketing conglomerate
there is no shortage of applicatiosn from people in the UK or elsewhere looking for jobs in marketing in Australia
The LAFHA tax change hasnt stopped talent trying to come here, i think mainly because the economy is even more shite over there
maybe in 15 years when europe gets its act together it might change
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Shortfall? There’s plenty of marketing talent in Australia. The bigger problem is that their experience is normally limited to one category, and most companies will not risk investing in someone who doesn’t have excatly the right experience. I mean how many Auto marketers are now working in FMCG or vice versa?
I may be wrong, but I haven’t seen too much category switching.
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What a load. There’s some brilliant people out there but no-one’s willing to look at them.
The problem with the Australian marketing and advertising industry is its unwillingness to look at candidates outside very narrow parameters or from other industry sectors. Talented people who could look at things from a different perspective or offer a fresh approach, which can invariably differentiate a company or products from its competitors.
People are pigeonholed far too easily. Why someone from an industrial background is not considered for a FMCG role is baffling. Whether you’re selling zinc coated bolts or prescription glasses or breakfast cereal, the basic fundamentals and understanding your target audience remains the same.
Additionally why a creative team with predominately B2B experience isn’t looked at for digital or B2C is equally perplexing, as being creative in the B2B space can be challenging as you often don’t have the budget of the other sectors.
Instead companies and agencies (recruitment agencies especially – probably because it’s easier, they can place someone faster and get paid quicker) are only interested in seeing candidates from within a specified sector. This can often lead to people doing the same thing only at a different company making one campaign hard to distinguish from the other.
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Completely agree no-one important!
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Well said no-one important, it blows my mind how narrow minded these decision makers are, if you can prove your intelligent enough to deliver results for one category, I’m pretty confident the risk of your brain exploding when spending a few weeks learning about how the channels and arrangements differ in a new category is very low. Who knows, maybe your experience in another category may bring some new thinking to tired old ways….Wake up hiring managers!
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