by Montagu Group | Apr 14, 2023 | Candidates, Employers, Montagu Group
Lets talk about the psychological contract in Technology,Digital,Finance and Accounting talent solutions?
Suki Stander: The psychological contract in the technology, finance talent recruitment process is an important part of what we do. I think its become more relevant recently. I had a candidate that I submitted to a department where are set fees. They came back and said the candidate was too expensive per hour. So I had to negotiate him down before they had seen him.Already, the trust and psychological contract was broken,because you’re negotiating my rate before you even accept my value. It’s a it’s a relevant topic because it just it literally touches everything we do and clients do and candidates do and has a conscious or unconscious effect.
Tayla Allan: Yeah, even if they don’t realize that there is a psychological contract, there is always one, it’s an unwritten rule.
Suki Stander: It’s thoughts and feelings of candidates clients recruiters. It’s a whole mix of people in In the dance that we’re dancing, who all have a psychological contract with each other, at various levels of the process. As soon as Taylor starts, speaking to a candiadte that at that very, very first interaction already it stablishes some connection via email or phone.
When we make that human connection
Tayla Allan: Once we start the process and they’re keen, it’s just a mutual commitment to each other as well. It’s not happening at the moment, so like that can mutual commitment to commit to me, like, know that I’m gonna do the best thing by you, but then you also have to do, the best thing by me as well. If you’ve got another offer, let me know.It’s a good thing that you’ve got another offer, but just let me know. Then I can give you fair representation because if I don’t know these things,how am I gonna represent you fairly to the client? We just really value being able to give honest representation and engaging in mutual commitment.Being transparent is key in good relationships.
What does it mean – psychological contract?
Adele McNiff: I looked at the definition of a psychological contract and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in the UK defines it as an individual’s expectations, beliefs ambitions, and obligations, as perceived, by employer and worker. The key word in that is perceived…I think you have to both parties, whether it’s candidate, our client be very conscious of how something could be perceived whether it’s the reality or not. It’s that perception. A candidate not being totally upfront with what they’ve got going on and it then coming out later in the process that breaks that psychological contract with ourselves as the agency and with the client because like any of them relationship, it’s about trust.It’s a lot harder to build back trust than it is to build in the first place. the thing that stood out to me is that it’s Psychological Contract.It isn’t like any other employment contract because it’s totally intangible. so it’s hard to define and that’s where constant and open communication comes in either in the recruitment process with all parties involved, all in the employment life cycle.
Our brand of business is reflected in the contract digital finance talent we enter in with you
Suki Stander: The more transparent it is. I think the not easier, but more trust can be built in that process. I know not all recruitment companies are the same and not in all internal recruiters are the same. A lot of people have been burned by recruitment agencies. psychological contract in Technology,Digital,Finance and Accounting talent solutions. That’s why we always advise, get two or three that you trust and that you know, that has your best interests at heart. It might not be find you the next job, but it might be to help you with your resume or to give a bit of advice, which is what we do. For us that’s that’s part of that’s psychological contract ,with inputting and helping and I think that expectation, sometimes you get disappointed because you you put that out there and you expect that back. Um, doesn’t always work like that but It’s just almost been in the last few months that there’s less and less of that reciprocation back and that, that list respect back for people’s time and effort that they’ve put in.
Adele McNiff: I think we’re always very conscious as well that, you know, like all of the parties, we have a huge role to clear that psychological contract. Yeah. And if we’re going to ask a candidate to commit to us, we’re committing in return to manage the processes efficiently and effectively as we can and represent them as best as we can on their behalf. that’s something we absolutely take pride in and focus on every single day. Um, it’s it’s key to to doing things with integrity as far as we’re confident.Tayla and wouldn’t you want somebody like that? To represent you to an employer?
What you can expect from someone looking after your opportunities at Montagu Group?
Tayla Allan: I set an expectation with myself and a candidate that our psychological contract with them is always making sure there’s timely communication. Giving them updates when I have them, keeping them in the loop with what’s happening and not sort of letting them go. Well, what’s happening with this? Making sure that they’ve always got an update again like respectful treatment, like treating everyone, as equal, like nobody’s better than anybody else that sort of thing, and then you kind of want that back as well.
What is our part of the psychological contract in technology,finance and accounting solutions?
Tayla Allan: So I have a psychological contract that everything that you tell me is confidential so and I’m not going to go blurt that to the client but I am going to do my best. The best that I can to make sure that you look great on a piece of paper because that’s my job to get you that interview, and then making sure that that piece of paper reflects exactly what you can do. Honest representation key there. So you’re not being missed represented with what I do to your resume.The other one just that mutual commitment from both parties. I’m just making sure that we’re committed to each other. Like a marriag but no so intense!
Suki Stander: We tell your current story, so the client or really has a big picture when you sit down and that’s part of that trust that you give us the information and we portray the information to represent you as best as possible.You can start building that psychological trust with the client int he interview and we’ve laid the foundation for that to happen.
How to manage the agreements through the talent solution process
Adele McNiff: It’s really key for clients to manage the psychological contracts in digital finance talent process. And that’s about honestly reflecting their values what the role is about. If you have found that candidate that you really want making sure that, you feedback to them in a timely way.Make sure you get a contracts out to the minute timely way, you don’t throw a surprise in at the last minute. Sometimes we get along with through a process and there’s a global hiring freeze, just be honest. We can work with the candidate as they’re progress through other opportunities and potentially really like something down the track. It’s just it’s it’s that simple word of trust.We’ve done previous videos on and and talked about quiet quitting and quiet hiring – in terms psychological contracts in Technology,Digital,Finance and Accounting talent solutions. Quiet hiring has a lot of positives to it, but if it’s not implemented with integrity by both parties, it has the potential to go a little astray. These are great examples of psychological contracts and integrity, being strengthened or broken.
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by Montagu Group | Mar 15, 2023 | Candidates, Employers, Montagu Group
The current job market in Technology and Digital in Australia
Suki Stander: I want to speak about a little bit more of what’s going on in the current market in Technology and Digital at the moment. Not just not just the here and now, but In the economy. Candidates coming to an interview with, or actually having a conversation with you? So, I read up a little bit.
I was thinking a little bit about the the external environment actually impacting So many things like how you feel, your attitude, your resilience yourself worth your confidence, like there’s so many things that impact that and start reading up and I landed on the redundancies that’s happening in Australia at the moment like this.
Recently I read that around 85,000 people that have been made redundant in the tech industry since January this year. You can find the article here. What does that mean? It creates it creates uncertainty and creates. Fear people are scared. But also then creates caution- It’s like Oh, I’d rather stay where I’m at –Even if it’s bad, I won’t look around because maybe what I have is actually not that bad. So it just I feel like it changes the mindset of where candidates are sitting,.But also clients are being more cautious about employing the right person.
Is it as bad as it sounds?
I actually don’t think it’s as bad, like, 85,000 people made redundant this year. but if you play it off against how many people were hired, The previous two years. That was an anomaly as well. So that numb, if you compare the two numbers. Economically somewhere. They had to be a Reshift or a reset really of we over hired. For certain reasons. Online companies or convenient companies, like, Doordash bring stuff to your door and covid that was where the money went and those people that the tech, it’s tech companies, but they don’t actually specify.
A lot of the time it is the technical guys, but a lot of the time, it’s the admin or HR people as well, which is concerning because obviously, the HR people are flooding the market. And that’s a whole different conversation is like, if HR people are being let, go, and admin, people are being let go, does that mean that AI that companies are seeing that? I might take over those positions. I don’t know what the answer to that question is.
What about smaller companys?
But it’s not just technical people and the big companies, but the smaller companies that potentially didn’t grow as much as the big tech companies during covert for various reasons. They might want it to grow, but they couldn’t afford the talent because the talent prices just went through the roof. It wasn’t that much talent available. So these smaller companies didn’t grow as aggressively but they’re still grown. So they’ve taken the fold. Now, I’m going. Thank you. We will take these guys and we’ll pop them into our our spots that we have available. So it might be a little bit of a redistribution of talents and a bit of a reset in the market from where we were still doesn’t make it great. So doesn’t make it. Oh, we’re confident about everything that’s happening. Interest rates, everything that’s going up.
The Global Cycle Impact
I can understand we can that’s our setting when you just reading this and it creates uncertainty, I’ve been through a few of these in my my career globally. It’s a cycle and good candidates will always find a job. It just works that way. If you’re good at what you do, you’ll find your next position. It might be a two weeks and turn around. It might be a three week turnaround but good candidates will still find opportunities out there and the market is going to take I think it’s gonna take Maybe till September October November this year. The things just to settle back to. Oh, okay. I can see where we’re at, I can see, sort of what’s coming where we’ve come from things of settled down a little bit and maybe a bit of confidence comes back, maybe a bit of conference comes back into the market.
What are we hoping for the future?
I’m hoping that for us, it’s really just we’re here. We haven’t gone anywhere we still doing what we’re doing. We still providing the same service. There might be a need to adjust the service a little bit in terms of the questions that we’re asking. But it’s about finding great, candidates for great employers, bottom line, Yeah, that’s that’s where my head is out at the moment in terms of how do we fit into this. This environment that’s uncertainty. I think for us, it’s to provide the certainty in the little space that we can for the little bit of time that we actually working with. Again a client. This is what it is. It’s is the full picture, the good, the bad, the ugly, you know exactly what you’re getting.
Go and explore and then give us your feedback. Nothing is you have to take the job is explore. See how it fits in with your environment, your lifestyle, your current situation. We’re providing that conduit. Yeah, safe pair of hands. Eating you through. The client and the candidate really.
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by Montagu Group | Mar 14, 2023 | Candidates, Employers, Montagu Group
Quiet Hiring in Technology, Digital and Finance Recruitment
with Adele McNiff Industry Leader
Adele McNiff: So, yeah, I’ve had a couple of discussions with a number of clients over the last few weeks initiated by, then about the concept of Quiet Hiring in Recruitment Technology. It’s not actually something that I’d come across as yet. Obviously, we’re all familiar from last year with quiet, quitting and quiet firing, but not quiet hiring. I had a little look into it and there’s a really good Gartner report on it.
It’s not a new concept,the age-old concept that I think most organizations do with standard of taking, a strategic view of your current workforce and looking at how best to deploy them. The aim being to get the best results to reach the strategic goals of the organization. What was really interesting to me, and I think it’s indicative of a little bit of a mindset. We’re generally see in every in every one at the moment. The financial challenges and interest rates going up and the cost of everything increasing was just the, the very, the automatic instinct was this was a negative thing. It was good for employers, but it wasn’t good for employees.
And I don’t think that’s necessarily true, you know? For an organization it lets them deploy, their existing staff, where they’re going to get the best bang for Buck and and that’s certainly going to give them, you know, continuity of employment and, and keeping the IP in-house that this endless benefits for an organization.
As an employee, how do I have the conversation?
But as an employee, you ask, what’s in it for me. I think that really comes down to how you view it within the organization that you’re in. That the biggest con is, Is this a way to just make me do two jobs and double my workload for the same money? But I think if you that the key to it for me is making sure you’re looking at the full picture and be assertive, ask the questions. What am I going to be expected to do, is it a whole new role you want to put me in if it is? Is it a promotion if it is? Let’sNegotiate.
Is it a side step but just with different responsibilities?Does that align with where I want my career to go? What training will I have so that I can be successful in the job? Am I maintaining part of my existing function? Will I be completing the whole workload with these new functions? Do I need to negotiate?
Future-proofing with Quiet Hiring
I think it certainly got positives and we’ve been having lots of discussions about artificial intelligence and that taking away the functional aspects of people’s job descriptions and responsibilities. So there could be a great opportunity in it to add to your existing skills or diversity skills in a way that will future prove you. But for me the key is be assertive; ask the questions negotiate if you need to and just be sure, you’ve got the full picture.
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by Montagu Group | Mar 5, 2023 | Employers, Montagu Group
Will a Four Day Work Week Work?
Adele McNiff:Today we are looking at the concept of a four day work week in Australia, This this isn’t an entirely new concept, but it’s come back in the news of late because I think there’s been some trials in particularly the US and the UK, which are coming to the end of. It was a six months trial period, and they’re starting to publish some of the data around that Tayla.I think that’s something you’ve been looking into.
Potential figures for a Four Day Work Week in Australia
Tayla Allan: Tiktok has provided me with a lot of information regarding the outcomes. So they came up with 73% of the workers have reported to be more happier, within their job and also outside their work. 40% reported fewer sleep problems. 64% drop in quitting and a 71% drop in reported burnout. 92% of the company said that they’ll continue with the four-day work week after the trial, and then there’s been no drop in wages in the trial, as well as workload. So, I think that in itself just says, from a candidate point of view, that just happy are in general, because they’ve got more of a work-life balance. Instead of spending five out of seven days at work, they spend four out of seven. So they are getting to spend time with their family, their friends, all of that, without an extra workload,
Adele McNiff: What do we see as some of the potential pros and cons to a four-day working week in Australia?
Tayla Allan: I mean, I think it really depends on the industry that you’re eating. It’s not not for all industries. I think it works really well for some and it’s physically impossible for others.
Technology and Finance Industry Leadership Shift
Suki Stander: I think, as well is maybe the It’s a mind shift. It’s like we had the mind shift of working from home and Covid, forced that to happen. I think it would have taken much longer for companies to say. Well, let’s do this. Let’s work from home and work from the office and have that hybrid environment or work, 100% remotely. So, It’s it’s getting our heads around. What is this look like? And is it, do we need to work more in terms of our outcomes?What is it going to be based on? How do you know that you’ve actually succeeded and completed what you needed to do in your four days.‘m doing five or so do it in from five days to four days and I did a bit of reading and I just I thought it be really interesting to understand.Why would five days a week and it actually dates back to the 1890s?
History of the Five Day Work Week
Suki Stander: People were working in the manufacturing industry and they it’s late 1890s and going into the early 1900 where they were talking about people working like a hundred hours a week in a manufacturing environment and they were lobbying to take the hours down. So, to work a 40-hour work week instead of a hundred hours working six or seven days a week. So the lobbying happened around, that was actually Henry Ford in 1926 or 1925. That was the first big well-known organization and we know we’re working 40 hour weeks that’s it. So that’s 1926 that there was a real challenge.
Adele McNiff: That’s fascinating. I didn’t know any of that and what’s interesting. You think about it, the world in 1926. It’s different from the world today and I think we are in for another shift in the way we work and what work requires others with the growth in AI and everything that goes with it. So you’ve got to think we are ready or if not overdue for some kind of structural change in what we consider a normal working week and and a move to outcomes and tayla. Like you said, for me that doesn’t work in every industry. It can’t correlate necessarily, but I think as an organization you need to be asking yourself perhaps why you shouldn’t do it, rather than why you should one of the takeaways that I took from some of the, the research and that the trial projects outcomes.
What happens when a Four Day Work Week empowers your talent?
Adele McNiff: I thought it was interesting was the decrease that they were seeing in sick leave being taken, you know, I think a mental health is becoming increasingly more important for all of us as a society, but particularly in the workplace and avoiding burnout in particular but also, you know, when I think of my answer circumstances with a young family, you constantly on the go, if you’re not at work, you’re dealing with family related things. When I personally need to go to the doctors, where do I fit that in? For example, all you know, you need to go under your six monthly dental, check having that.Working day where those practices are open. Lets you do that without having to impact on the rest of your working week. So I think that’s a positive.It gives people the opportunity to balance things a bit more in that in turn makes you feel a little more in control and a little less stressed.
Future Employees
I was actually talking to a client this morning about this. The whole concept of a four-day working week and he read something quite interesting. We were discussing the fact that the study so far would have predominantly been with existing employees, because they’ve only done it for six months. And so those employees already knew what their five day working week salary was. So somebody new coming into the organization, who’s perhaps getting told that they’re going to get paid a five-day a week salary, but only have to put those hours into four. Is there a risk of it’s a slightly cynical view? But is there a risk that they start questioning? Whether they really are getting paid for a five-day week or has the salary been reduced in turn for the client is somebody asking for an increased salary because they’re worried that they might not get any paid, a full FTE salary. So I think there’s a lot of background thinking, for organizations that needs to go in around.
Adele McNiff: How are you transparent with salaries and that parity and people, you know, now that the legislation has just changed and there’s no longer any, it’s not legal to have a confidentiality clause around salaries in contracts.
Adele McNiff: You’ve got to be absolutely above board with those elements because people will talk and you can then end up with a lot of discord if it’s not being managed very transparently and very honestly. So it was just a really interesting perspective.
Australia’s Four Work Day Week
Suki Stander: Mmm. Absolutely. And I think it’s again if there’s a lot of thought that has to go into this, it’s not. Are we going to do it tomorrow? I was part of a networking webinar, where they an Australian company, it’s a clear recruitment company that implemented a four-day work trial. They called it a trial because they was they wanted to see how it actually works for the employees and when they were asked. So on the fifth day when the employee doesn’t work, what happens then if they get a phone call from a client because you know, our world doesnt stop.
Suki Stander: The expectation was you will take that call and I think that was down to culture because I want to take the call, I’m happy to take the call while I’m actually on my fifth day. So there’s a much bigger conversation than just going to four days a week. It’s the impact and the background that has to be looked at is huge another study that’s actually answer in Australia and I think it’s the nurses union that’s lobbying at the moment to look at the four-day work week for them.
Suki Stander: Because that’s a that’s a market that’s currently the can’t necessarily tap into, but they’ve done research. And if they can go to a four-day week that potentially would open up that market for them. That the mum that’s now a full-time, mum could become a part-time, mom and actually work and be able to juggle the day. Like you said that our juggle life and and work. So, Listen, I don’t think there’s a black and white answer to it for us.
KPI’s of the Four Day Work Week
Adele McNiff: I mean we all know how expensive is Yeah. So and I agree I think you have to go right back to the beginning and look at people’s position descriptions. Are you measuring them on outcomes rather than you know functions of a role you’ve got to think about how that feeds through to professional development discussions. And you know, perhaps remuneration reviews, you’ve got to really put some thought into it, but I certainly think. as a way of engaging your workforce and also,differentiating yourself in the candidate market, it’s definitely something that’s worth looking at.
Tayla Allan: Absolutely having a four-day week would spark a lot of interest for people out there especially the ones that are in an office environment with no flexibility or anything like that. A four-day week would be their dream.
Adele McNiff: So I think it’s a very interesting topic and I don’t think it’s one that’s gonna go away anytime soon and it will ebb and floor a little. I think it’s people try it for some, it works for others. It doesn’t. But we love any thoughts and have no aspects. We haven’t considered please give us your views.
Tayla Allan: If you’re in a four-day week at the moment,what is it like? Let us know. Spill the tea.
To watch the full discussion check out the video @MontaguGroup on Youtube.
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by Montagu Group | Oct 10, 2022 | Candidates, Employers
Digital and Inforamtion Technology Trends for 2022
Every year, Gartner identifies technology trends that are critical to business.
This year, the list comprises 12 strategic trends that will enable CEOs to deliver growth, digitalisation, and efficiency.These trends will position CIOs and IT executives as strategic partners in any organisation.
Here’s the list of 12 Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2022
- Trend 1: Data Fabric – a flexible, resilient integration of data sources across platforms and business users. This makes data available everywhere it is needed regardless of where the data lives.
- Trend 2: Cybersecurity Mesh – Enables best-of-breed, stand-alone security solutions to work together to improve overall security. This moves control points closer to the assets they are designed to protect.
- Trend 3: Privacy-enhancing Computation – Securing the processing of personal data in environments that are not trusted.
- Trend 4: Cloud-native Platforms – Technologies that allow you to build new application architectures that are resilient, elastic, and agile—enabling you to respond to rapid digital change.
- Trend 5: Composable Applications – Making it easier to use and reuse code, accelerating the time to market for new software solutions and releasing enterprise value.
- Trend 6: Decision Intelligence – Modelling decisions as a set of processes, using intelligence and analytics to inform, learn from, and refine decisions.
- Trend 7: Hyperautomation – A disciplined, business-driven approach to rapidly identify, vet, and automate as many business and IT processes as possible.
- Trend 8: AI Engineering – Automatic updates to data, models, and applications to streamline AI delivery.
- Trend 9: Distributed Enterprises – A digital-first, remote-first business model to improve employee experiences, digitalise consumer and partner touchpoints, and build out product experiences.
- Trend 10: Total Experience – Business strategy that integrates employee experience, customer experience, user experience, and multiexperience across multiple touchpoints to accelerate growth.
- Trend 11: Autonomic Systems – Self-managed physical or software systems that learn from their environments and dynamically modify their own algorithms in real time to optimise their behaviour in complex ecosystems.
- Trend 12: Generative AI – Learns about artefacts from data and generates innovative new creations that are similar to the original but do not repeat it.
Watch Gartner’s video now, and see how three trends—generative AI, cybersecurity mesh, and decision intelligence, will propel strategic change.
Knowing the different trends and their impact will be a key focus for business in the future. With a tight integration between most of the trends, varying combinations of technologies are likely to be required to compete at various times in the business growth cycle. Selecting the priority trends will revolve around CIOs and IT leaders understanding their organisations’ short-term and strategic business objectives.
Read the full article here: Gartner Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2022
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by Montagu Group | Jan 19, 2022 | Employers
Staff shortages in 2022
On Jan 4, 2022, Financial Review posted an article, Staff shortages will take three to five years to fade: KPMG where they say hundreds of Australian business leaders cite staff shortages and warn it will take up to five years to recover.
The latest KPMG survey of 400 chief executives, directors and business heavyweights found that almost 70 per cent believe acquiring and retaining talent is their key worry, amid negative net migration and soaring COVID-19 case numbers.
Immigration skill sets and staffing
Whilst there have been assurances from the federal government about skilled worker migration being ramped up, KPMG chairman Alison Kitchen said she expected omicron outbreaks will temporarily worsen the pain of labour shortages.
KPMG chief economist Brendan Rynne said the challenge posed by labour shortages was caused by both a lack in “volume of people … and also the skill sets that we’re chasing”, pointing to almost two years of closed borders and foreign residents returning home as causes.
In the past 12 months, net overseas migration has fallen by nearly 100,000 people – a negative trend – which, although borders have since reopened, Dr Rynne expected to continue.
“As we now come out of that, what you’re seeing is that with net overseas migration being negative for last year – and I’m anticipating it is going to still be negative for this year as well – there’s a lot of pressure being put on [both] permanent migration and temporary skilled migration,” Dr Rynne said.
“There’s an acknowledgement [by the federal government] that there needs to be a ramp-up in net overseas migration[but] it’s tricky in terms of the timing of opening up borders as well.
“There’s still this global health pandemic we’re dealing with, so it’s managing the rapid escalation of migration with some overarching health concerns.”
Dr Rynne also acknowledged that a rapid jump in migration could also dampen wage growth – an issue under consideration by the Reserve Bank – but believed this would be offset by improved productivity.
Staff shortages have also worsened since the survey was completed in November, as thousands of new daily cases across the country force workers into isolation.
Also, the survey showed that upskilling existing staff to meet increasing demands for digital transformation will continue to be a concern until 2026.
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Click on the link to read the full article:
https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/staff-shortages-will-take-three-to-five-years-to-fade-kpmg-20220104-p59lpy
