Hays Manufacturing & Ops - April 2007

Hotspots

• Project managers with capital expenditure experience - companies are looking to become more efficient in their day-to-day operations and plant upgrades are an important part of achieving this goal.
• CAD engineers and drafters on a contract and permanent basis to design improvements to processes and equipment in addition to designing new products - although many manufacturing roles are moving overseas, the intellectual property creation has largely remained within Australia.
• Manufacturing engineers and managers with strong lean manufacturing and process improvement experience - this is linked to the drive for continuous improvement and efficiency gains. Lean manufacturing principals are widely known to increase the profitability of manufacturing. With increasing pressure from low cost manufacturing nations those companies who remain on shore are striving to achieve optimum efficiencies.
• Equipment service based roles such as management and technicians. More and more companies are looking to create more revenue and profit from expanding after sales service agreements. Some publications even refer to this as the "service revolution". As such we are seeing increased demand for these skills and experience. Although manufacturing has been moving off shore, service departments or contracts have remained.

The coming quarter

Organisations will continue to hire in their usual ad-hoc manner with vacancy activity highest in the areas of demand highlighted above. Many businesses will act to secure high quality candidates before formal vacancies are confirmed. This way they do not miss the opportunity of a good candidate and avoid an extended recruitment process.

Regardless of skills shortages, companies still want candidates with strong local experience from reputable companies and a stable working background.

Executive recruitment

Executive recruitment within the manufacturing industry is limited. A large number of companies operating within this industry are small to medium in size and do not tend to support true executive level roles. Executive roles that do become available are often filled through internal promotions.

Salaries

Salaries are relatively stable. They have increased slightly but this is in line with inflation. Salary figures for identical roles vary from company to company.

Candidate trends

The general level of candidate availability is high. However the specific skill sets required by the industry are difficult to source. This causes a split within the market. On one side there are people eager to learn the specific skills or be trained in the role, and on the other side are the candidates with the skills and experience who require more enticement to move.