Hays Human Resources - April 2007

Public Sector

Hotspots

• An emergent trend is the increase in candidates taking leave without pay; candidates appear to want to broaden their HR experience by contracting for the time taken away from their permanent role. Meanwhile professional HR candidates that have been in the industry for a number of years are seeking interesting secondment opportunities.
• HR specialists are in demand, with candidates with remuneration and benefits, IR and occupational health & safety particularly required. This demand is driven by changes in legislation and organisations are looking to offer benefits other than salary to retain and attract staff, such as training, benefits and work/life balance.

The coming quarter

An increase in temporary and permanent HR vacancies is expected over the coming months. Employers repeatedly prefer to offer positions to candidates with relevant industry and local government experience. Following recent restructures within organisations, temporary requirements in areas such as learning and development, training, occupational health & safety, organisational development and remuneration and benefits have also increased. Public sector organisations are continuing to recognise that organisational and professional development for their employees is an essential retention tool.

Executive recruitment

The recruitment market for senior level executives within the public sector is buoyant. Any executive level role that has been registered continues to require an element of change management experience and specialisation such as IR and remuneration and benefits.

Salaries

As previously noted, salaries appear to be relatively stable although employers are prepared to pay a higher salary level in order to secure a senior level contractor for a fixed contract duration. Salaries tend to be on the higher end for occupational health & safety specialist roles, particularly OH&S auditing roles. However if the shortage of candidates continues salaries are likely to increase with the demand.

Candidate trends

As previously mentioned, a current trend sees public sector employees taking leave without pay in order to broaden their human resources or industry experience through contract roles. We are also seeing an increase in candidates looking for part time or job share roles.