The plight of News Limited has been the object of intense scrutiny ever since the News of the World scandal broke in the UK last year.

Knowing full well that the brand damage is affecting the Australian wing of the corporation, hopes have been invested in a program of cultural change led by a new director of people and culture, Janine Stewart.

The move has caught the eye of the HR industry, as for the first time the director of people and culture will report directly to the Australian chief executive of News Limited, Kim Williams. “News Limited has begun a top-to-bottom transformation of its business. One of our key aims is to be the employer of choice for the best and most ambitious media professionals in Australia. In order to do this we must manage and invest in our people, and carefully devise and implement a program of cultural change,” Williams said in a statement.

At the AiGroup and National Personnel Industrial Relations (PIR) Conference this week, Fair Work Ombudsman Nicholas Wilson spoke about the watchdog’s plans and priorities moving forward. Wilson reminded delegates that when he last spoke at the conference, he appealed for employers to be alive to what’s going on in the organisation’s employee relations, and urged professionals to be careful about the risks of a corporately sanctioned ‘blind eye’, and highlighted the damage that can be done to an organisation’s reputation if a scandal breaks.

An example of this can be seen in the unfair dismissal claim currently being put to the federal court - a former Optus executive is suing the company for $14.5m for an internal culture of “bullying, suppression and victimisation” which she says led to her demise. Kerry Morrison, hired in August last year as head of sales service and marketing at the company’s Digital Media subsidiary, was allegedly told in February by Optus Digital Media lead Austin Bryant that she would be fired due to “cultural fit and behaviours in the organisation”. Morrison has alleged that the culture was known to the carrier’s HR director, and that anyone who challenged the division’s managing director was likely to be sacked. Optus has branded the executive’s claims as “unjustified” and a spokeswoman said the company would “vigorously defend” its position.

Cultural change starts with leadership

According to one CEO who has steered his organisation through a challenging cultural change process, communicating why the change process is needed should be the first priority for the leadership team. “People need to understand why it’s important, they need to understand the urgency behind it, their role in it, the organisation’s commitment to it, and also why it will be better for them in the future,” Peter Acheson from Peoplebank said. The number one downfall in any cultural change process is if the leadership team doesn’t show employees why the post-change culture will be better. “It must be remembered that what’s ‘better’for one employee could be very different for someone else,” he added.

ICT hiring within the Federal Government has been forecast to hit an all-time high in 2012 with current spending on contractors already tipping $591.5 million for the 10 months to April 201

The figures were published in recruitment firm Peoplebank’s Federal ICT Labour Hire Index, which tracks the number and value of Federal Government roles for IT contractors in Canberra for the period 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012.

ICT hiring was recorded at 1479 in December 2011, an increase of 212 points on the previous year, while the number of contracts has decreased, indicating ICT contractors in Canberra have experienced a 5 per cent wage increase since the start of the period.

In March, the index recorded a figure of 2301, double that of March 2011, which is forecasted to rise as the government ramps up the finalisation of projects before the end of the financial year.

According to the index, the numbers are set to reach 2680 by May this year which reflects continued spending on transformative ICT projects within agencies such as the Department of Human Services, the Australian Federal Police and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

Peoplebank chief executive, Pater Acheson, told Computerworld Australia that while the $591.5 million was slightly less than investment in previous years, due to the re-election of the Gillard Government, it was set to increase in the lead up to July.

“The Federal Government didn’t spend a lot on IT for a couple of years so there’s some late in demand projects,” he said. “We re-elected the Gillard government in late 2010 and they’ve got to get on and deliver some of the key projects.”

“During elections are they go into caretaker mode, nothing gets spent and of course we had that longer protracted period last time due to the election of the independents where we had a hiatus for a few weeks,” he said. “So it wasn’t until early to mid-2011 that the new government had an opportunity to start to deliver its new IT projects and that’s effectively what’s happening.

“The second underlying issue is the government’s stated initiative to service the Australian public via online self service programs, moving to much greater Web-based service and fulfilment rather than people-based service and fulfilment, so those projects are causing a spike in IT hiring, spend and investment as well.”

“Government agencies are committed to meeting key end-of-financial year milestones on major projects,” he said. “We anticipate that several of these agencies are likely to progress their projects to the next stage in coming weeks to achieve their project targets.”

The demand for contractors is being met by the local candidate pool, Acheson said, although will be increasingly supplemented by interstate contractors, specifically in Melbourne and Sydney where the financial services sector is experiencing less activity than normal.

According to Acheson, the numbers will be steady in the lead up to the end of the financial year but will also rely on the outcomes of the Federal Budget in May.

“The big question now is the May budget and what will be in it and whether it’ll be the tough budget that’s been talked about,” he said. “If it is tough there will be a chance that projects might actually have reduced expenditure so it really depends.

“Government is acutely aware that it is unable to function without effective ICT systems, and it is investing in capability development programs that will help it keep up with constituents and serve them more efficiently.”

Acheson said demand was strongest for those with Microsoft Sharepoint and customer relationship management (CRM) skills and business analysts and IT professionals with high level government security clearances.

IT workers in Canberra are likely to face more competition for federal contracts as interstate rivals eye the nation’s capital after a slowdown in Melbourne and Sydney markets.

And even if Treasurer Wayne Swan unveils a tough budget next month, the government’s push to provide online self-service for its citizens is likely to only dent demand.

That’s the analysis from Peoplebank, Australia’s biggest recruitment agency for information communications and technology workers.

“There might be some moderation of demand if it’s a tough budget,” Peoplebank chief executive Peter Acheson said.

“But I don’t think it’s going to be cataclysmic. The outlook is pretty good.”

The Peoplebank Federal ICT Labour Hire Index, which tracks the number and value of roles for IT contractors in Canberra, estimates record spending on contractors in 2011-12.

There was growing interest in federal IT projects from workers in Sydney and Melbourne, particularly among those “affected by slower-than-usual activity” in financial services.

More IT workers coming to Canberra would keep a lid on payments made to contractors, which account for up to 40 per cent of the government’s IT workforce.

“An influx of interstate IT professionals is likely to counter the upward pressure on rates,” said Peoplebank, which estimated IT contractors had received about a 5 per cent pay increase since July last year.

The index stood at 1479 in December, a rise of 212 points on the previous year.

Preliminary estimates show the index hit a record 2301 in March, more than double the same period last year.

“On current trends, Peoplebank predicts the index will rise to 2680 by May 2012, making 2011-12 a record year for Canberra’s IT contractors” the company said.

It’s steady as she goes on the high-tech jobs front, with rates and salaries staying static, as the sector mirrors a modest upswing in the national employment market.

A job advertisement survey released last week by ANZ revealed job ads are on the rise for the third consecutive month. Figures for the year to March were up 2.8 per cent to reach their highest level since 2008.

Australia’s largest jobs site Seek recorded 226,300 ICT job advertisements in the 12 months to March 2012; an increase of 6 per cent on the previous year’s figures, while the number of responses to advertisements surged by 56 per cent.

Australian Information Industries Association (AIIA) chief executive Suzanne Campbell said the IT industry was expecting “respectable growth” of 6 per cent in 2012 and IT vendors’ hiring patterns were likely to reflect this.

The ICT sector closely followed the overall economy, with the cashed-up mining sector expected to continue spending strongly on big budget, high-tech projects, Campbell said.

News of the upturn comes after a quiet few months on the technology hiring front. According to Peter Acheson, chief executive of the Peoplebank recruitment agency, the market went off the boil in October last year, when reporting of the European debt crisis put a dent in local business confidence.

“In Australia, banks are the largest hirers of IT people and our banks started to be more conservative with hiring,” Acheson said.

“It affected the overall market through December, January and February. The market is now coming back but it’s not being led by the banks.”

Instead, strongest demand was coming from resources, oil and gas, utilities and telecommunications companies, along with the agricultural sector, which had money to spend after a bumper harvest, Acheson said. High-tech spending laggards were the hard pressed retail and manufacturing players, he added.

While the Big Four banks might be firing as many as they’re hiring, it’s a different story in the insurance sector. IT numbers are set to rise by 10 per cent at one company, Veda, this year as the firm tackles the back room work generated by significant legislative and regulatory change and continues building and deploying new products.

Veda CIO Tony Kesby said the company’s IT shop was taking on staff in all areas: “from project managers and business analysts down to code cutters”.

“We’re growing and growing strongly,” Kesby said.

New hires would be split between permanent positions and contract roles, he added.

The latter have long been a feature of the project-driven IT sector – and in these uncertain times there are more of them on offer than ever, courtesy of a market left jittery by the cold winds of the GFC.

Chief executive at the publicly listed employment group Clarius Kym Quick said many companies which had been appeared immune to the GFC had upped their quota of contract staff nevertheless.
“They’re still reluctant to hire permanently, just in case,” Quick said.

“The work is still there but the nature of engagement has changed.”

While recruiters were experiencing a steady pipeline of work, hiring levels had not returned to pre-GFC levels and were unlikely to in the near future, Quick said.

“A lot of companies are moving forward with essential projects but holding off on things that are less mission critical.”

And while some CVs can still command a premium – think impeccably credentialed project managers and SAP consultants with resources sector experience – long gone are the sellers’ market days when techie types could leave a job at lunchtime and have another lined up to start the next morning, on more money.

According to Peoplebank’s March 2012 quarterly salary survey, remuneration levels were static across all sectors of the industry. Current Sydney annual salaries for project managers ranged from $90,000 to $160,000, while developers could expect to earn between $80,000 and $110,000. In Melbourne, salaries ranged from $100,000 to $160,000 for project managers and $55,000 to $130,000 for developers annually.

“In the last 12 months there have been less unrealistic demands regarding salaries,” Quick said.

THE growth in the adoption of cloud services is prompting an evolution in the skill sets required by IT departments, hiring experts say.

With many labour-intensive tasks automated or managed by a cloud services provider, traditional skills required to manage servers and hardware are no longer as essential for business.

The trend has seen roles such as that of IT engineer move from building and managing IT infrastructure to becoming more like a business analyst and servicing internal clients.

Peoplebank chief executive officer Peter Acheson said there would be a need for “higher order” roles around data analytics and business intelligence analysis.

“I think you will see this evolution from IT being less focused on bits and bytes — so fixing things, supporting networks, supporting IT systems, those types of things — to doing analysis of the data that comes out of the IT software.”

Mr Acheson said desktop first-level maintenance positions would shift to cloud service providers that would still require such roles.

Real Time Australia director Gary Taylor said a cloud-based IT department would feature a blend of versatile permanent staff and contract resources engaged to deliver specialised outcomes.

Can you imagine interviewing for your next job from your living room, car – or even the beach?

See Peter Acheson’s comments on the increasing popularity of digital interviewing in this month’s Business Review Australia.

Click here to view the online edition of Business Review Australia.

Peoplebank’s investment in gender equity includes progressive targets for women in management and leadership roles, as well as a planned development program – Women in Business - that runs across Peoplebank’s offices in each of Australia’s major capital cities.

Over the past year, the Women in Business program has encouraged women to participate in Peoplebank’s Future Leaders program (60% of program participants are now women), as well as in formal mentoring (63% of mentees are female) and with access to female-specific networking and training such as the Women in Management Diploma.

The program builds on provisions addressing barriers to women’s advancement: including up to 30 weeks’ paid leave; external resources for women transitioning into and from leave and on-site support as required (in one office, this takes the form of a breastfeeding-friendly room).

The company also provides broader workplace flexibility, with staff – including a member of the Leadership team – taking advantage of opportunities to ‘dial up and dial down’ via flexible hours and working from home work arrangements.

Peter Acheson, CEO of Peoplebank comments, “We’re focused on achieving organisation-wide gender equity: firstly, because it’s the right thing to do. Additionally, though, this program makes good business sense: because it is stimulating innovation and helping us attract and retain talented female employees.”

Acheson comments that a female-friendly workplace actively fosters women’s engagement (that is, the employee’s genuine focus on and enthusiasm for their workplace, work and fellow employees – a lead indicator of employee productivity and loyalty).

“Peoplebank’s female employees’ levels of engagement have risen by 10% in the past year.
This is manifesting as a rise in the number of women who return to work with us after maternity leave, either full time or with flexible work arrangements,” Acheson says.

Numerous studies have confirmed that companies with highly engaged staff typically deliver better business performance. For instance, Aon Hewitt’s 2011 global study found that high-engagement companies’ profit margins in 2010-11 were 22% higher than average, while low-engagement companies’ profits were almost 30% lower than average.

“There’s strong evidence that the smart business strategy is to improve the workplace for employees, and this means, in particular, improving opportunities for women,” Acheson adds.

Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) Director, Helen Conway comments that Australian business leaders understand the citation is a major drawcard in the war to attract and retain the best people.

“The leaders of the organisations on this list recognise there is a competitive advantage to be obtained by employing a diverse workforce,” Ms Conway said.

“They are attracting women into non-traditional roles where there are skills shortages, reaping the rewards of increased retention rates, and realising the benefits of flexible work practices.”

Peoplebank has been voluntarily reporting to EOWA on its gender equity policies since 2006. The recruiter’s inclusion in the 2012 EOCFW citation list enables Peoplebank to use the “Employer of Choice for Women” logos for the next 12 months on marketing and other business documents.

Some experts estimate that 25 to 30 per cent of people have added some sort of embellishment to their CV.

The truth is elastic and nowhere does it receive a better stretching than in the world of the curriculum vitae.

And with the economy continuing to putter along in neutral, recruitment specialists predict that almost a third of us will do some lily gilding in the process, either on paper or online.

Embellishments and omissions are par for the course in the land of CV spin, say recruiters, who routinely plough through the sort of puffery that turns junior accountants into finance directors and barmen into hotel managers.

Peter Acheson, chief executive of job agency Peoplebank, estimated 25 to 30 per cent of people had added some sort of embellishment to their CV.

But is the surge in social media sounding a death knell for those who want to bluff their way into plum positions?

Professional networking site LinkedIn is now used by 150 million professionals worldwide, including some two million Aussies.

With the LinkedIn profile fast supplanting the paper CV, are many of us brave enough to post porky pies about our experience for the entire world to scrutinise?

LinkedIn regional managing director Cliff Rosenberg said the shift is scaring people into greater honesty.

“The transparency of the online profile means that people are more aware of what they put in it. Authentication is more transparent and it’s more likely to be checked. A lot of self-policing and policing goes on with LinkedIn, versus the paper CV, which may only be seen by a few people.”

Acheson agreed. “You’re not as likely to get away with untruth or embellishment. This was not the case in the past but things have changed a lot in the last three or four years. It’s still possible to fool the process but it’s become harder,” he said.

For those still game to give veracity a bit of a nudge when outlining their ‘course of life’ (as curriculum vitae translates from the Latin), ‘date fudging’ is the most frequently occurring phenomena. Not as tasty as it sounds, it refers to the way in which those two years you spent backpacking can be expunged from the record, or a disastrous stint at Company X wiped out, by bumping up the number of months and years you worked at Company Y.

Taking yourself off the credits of a project that was a high profile flop and signing on to one which won the corporate equivalent of a swag of Oscars is also commonplace, particularly in the high tech sector, Acheson said.

“If a project is well known and a great success, there may have been hundreds of people working on it. Many may have been at the company but had nothing to do with it. And for dud projects, no one wants to be associated with them.”

Awarding yourself an honorary degree or two is another popular way to make your resume stand out from the crowd. This can be as easy as Photoshopping your name and the dates you wish you’d spent on campus onto someone else’s parchment, said Geoff Stockton, founder of Melbourne based Personal Risk Management Group, which charges companies between $150 and $800 to check out the bona fides of potential joiners.
Those who partied their way through several years of accounting or arts law, and have the straight fours to prove it, can also redeem themselves on paper. A little close work with a razor blade and photocopier and a lacklustre academic transcript can become a glowing reflection of late nights hunched over the books.

What most often undoes the dodgy degree holders is lack of attention to detail, former police inspector Stockton warns.

“A fake parchment can contain errors. The course may have been called a different name, or not existed during the dates specified, or the vice chancellor signing it may have changed,” he said.

As for impeccable references, in times gone by write-your-own was often the way to go, for those with access to a typewriter and company letterhead. These days most employers prefer to speak directly to a referee, so many who aren’t confident of a good rap from their manager get a mate to do the honours instead.

The chances of getting away with it are higher if he or she can talk the talk of the organisation or industry they’re supposedly representing and can be reached on a landline, Stockton said – although few go to the lengths of a seemingly high-level candidate he once encountered who was eventually rumbled for setting up a company, office front and dedicated phone number, in order to vouch for his own credentials.

As some industries continue to soar and others search desperately for new ways to stay afloat in an increasingly competitive marketplace, one business sector is experiencing slow, steady growth in Australia.

Despite economic challenges, a new study released today shows that the business and resource sectors are continuing to invest in IT projects

Despite economic challenges, a new study released today shows that the business and resource sectors are continuing to invest in IT projects.

Peoplebank, the nation’s largest IT recruiter, surveyed more than 50 IT sector roles in Australia’s big cities to determine the key capital trends in each market, publishing the results in the March Peoplebank Salary Indexes report.
“CEOs realise that IT is a driving force for business growth, said Peoplebank CEO Peter Acheson in a media release. “Despite the global economic uncertainties, businesses are going ahead with IT projects where they can be confident of gaining multiple, high level business benefits.”

Each city included in the survey reflects different sector strengths that are impacting companies’ pursuance of IT projects. In Sydney and Melbourne, for example, the strong utilities and telecommunications sectors has reduced their IT activity, while the resource-rich regions – specifically Perth and Adelaide – have seen an increase in IT demand. Perth, in particular, has seen salary increases of up to 10 per cent, but the other aforementioned cities’ IT job salaries have remained unchanged this year.

Brisbane’s IT needs have been hindered by the impending State and local elections, but as a whole, “we should see demand levels [rise] in the second half of the year,” Mr Acheson said.

Though salary levels are below where they were this time last year, Mr Acheson told ITWire that the demand for skilled workers is absolutely still there.

“There are still some areas in very strong demand, or where there is a shortage - for example good SAP people. Companies that are starting SAP projects know they will struggle to find good candidates, and if they do that they will have to pay them well,” he told the IT website. “Also anyone in cloud computing or monetising websites is in strong demand.”

While this imminent growth is good news for IT recruiters, employers are acting cautiously and becoming much more selective in their hiring process.

“As a consequence, we have more candidates available for each new role that comes up, which exerts a slight downward pressure on salaries and rates,” Mr Acheson said. “This pressure, combined with an overall mood of caution has meant that most IT salaries and rates remained stagnant last quarter.

“However, business’ overall willingness to invest should [increase] once the current constraints – such as Brisbane’s forthcoming elections - have passed.”

Unless you have SAP skills or cloud experience it’s time to mothball any lingering hopes you may have had for a pay rise this year.

The Peoplebank Salary Index for March, which is released today, shows that the pay on offer for around 50 different IT roles is pretty much flat – and it’s expected to remain that way for the rest of the year.

Peter Acheson, CEO of Peoplebank, acknowledged the ICT jobs market; “Is relatively flat compared to this time last year,” when there was a strong demand for IT skills putting pressure on salaries and contract rates. Fast forward 12 months and it’s an entirely different landscape.

“From October-November the steam came out of the IT market and we are now in a pretty much steady state market,” said Mr Acheson. He said that many organisations had slammed the brakes on their hiring plans at the end of 2011, partly because of dwindling confidence about the economy and the possible fallout from Europe.

Although the market had come back “pretty strongly” since the third week in January, “we’re not about to come back to boom times overnight,” he said.

IT salaries would likely be pretty flat or experience some modest increases for the remainder of the year, although Mr Acheson said he wasn’t expecting any reduction in rates or salaries which was experienced in the GFC.

“But there are still some areas in very strong demand, or where there is a shortage - for example good SAP people. Companies that are starting SAP projects know they will struggle to find good candidates, and if they do that they will have to pay them well.

“Also anyone in cloud computing or monetising websites is in strong demand,” he added.

According to the Peoplebank report demand in the two major markets, Sydney and Melbourne, is being moderated by a slowdown in activity in the financial services sector. Brisbane meanwhile is feeling the effect of the State election which has many organisations holding off major new projects.