Market Update
The skills shortage rolls on unabated. Not just in Australia but globally.
In the tech sector, the lockdown has accelerated the digitisation of the world, and demand for tech staff has sky-rocketed. With the unstable COVID situation in most of Asia, South America, and parts of Eastern Europe, many employers are looking to hire onshore where previously they had looked offshore. Unsurprisingly demand across Europe, North America, and here is outstripping supply. We took a brief from a US company the other day, where they were originally recruiting in California but moved the role to Sydney to hire more cheaply.
Worryingly, we’ve seen the first instance of mid-level technical candidates being offered a sign-on bonus. Elsewhere, we’re seeing good candidates deluged with opportunities. For example, a support candidate secured 5 interviews with different employers within 24 hours of becoming active. And a Software Engineer we headhunted (who was not actively looking when we first called him) received an offer for $10k more than he was looking for from another talent competitor before he attended our customer’s first interview.
Apart from salary, WFH is still at the top of many candidates’ wish lists. We’re now seeing it affect retention. We’re speaking to candidates who are actively looking for new roles as they have been forced back to the office (lockdowns aside). Offering WFH 4 or 5 days a week is one of the few weapons in the hiring managers’ arsenal. Oh! And if you want to attract females, then WFH is doubly important.
Salary Snapshot
This month we have updated our Salary Snapshot for the first time in more than a year. Why so long? The market was volatile and we were struggling to get an accurate read. Yes, it’s an inflationary market at the moment but we have worked on so many roles lately that the Balance team was really clear and confident on the accuracy of this new Snapshot. It’s accurate today – next month? Maybe not so much.
For those interested in our methodology: Little known fact, I have a statistics degree. And this snapshot is NOT based on rigorous statistical method – we didn’t poll 1000 workers with each skill set.
So how did we do it? The entire team sat around a table for 2 hours and we went through every role in the list. Over the last couple of months, we have worked on all of them and as a result, have spoken to dozens and dozens of candidates in each category.
Candidates tell us their current salaries and ‘perks’ and they tell us what they believe they are worth. We tell them what our customers are willing to pay. They tell us what other employers are enticing them with. We negotiate with them. We get an understanding of their bottom line. We know what they finally accept. Our Snapshot reflects real-world conditions today.
If you are seeing anything strange in the market – like an oversupply in a particular area or some crazy salaries and incentives, we would love to hear about them.
You can have a look at Balance’s Salary Snapshot here.
And why not look for your next role? Check out our open roles here.