9 Australian Recruitment Statistics to change your perspective on how to hire your new staff

Average hiring cost per new staff member is around $5,000

Industry based surveys in Australia have shown that the average of hiring an entry to intermediate level staff member is just under $5,000 per staff member. This figure includes any of the direct costs of hiring, which includes job board listings or recruiter fees, as well as the productivity time lost to fill the position, training and onboarding costs.

In these surveys, entry to intermediate level roles included roles such as graduate positions, trades and production, customer service or administration roles.

Generally it takes an average of 68 days to fill a position.

In similar industry surveys, it has been shown that in Australia it takes an average of 68 days to fill a vacant position. That’s nearly 3 months!

The hiring time for new roles has nearly doubled since 2010. In Australia it can be hypothesised that this is due to a tighter employment market, making it a job seekers market rather than a hirers market. It puts the emphasis on employers doing more marketing and reaching more candidates in more places to find the right person. Competitors are snapping up employees quickly, so you have to move fast and wide.

Clearly this time brings about substantial impacts to a business. The increased time generally means a decrease in productivity for the existing team and often a decrease in revenue for the business.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the Candidate experience in 62% of companies.

In one way or another, AI and software is helping change the candidate experience. More than 60% of companies in Australia are using AI tools to speed up the hiring process and to take some of the work out of the process by pre-screening candidates before they even talk to them.

AI isn’t limited to software that analyses CV’s. Today’s tools include Chatbots that engage Candidates through automation and screening questionnaires, social media tools that thoroughly analyse the social media content of a Candidate to get a picture of their real life, and social media tools that engage Candidates directly on the platforms themselves.

Don’t underestimate the power of AI even if you still prefer the one-to-one Candidate experience. Implementing some level of AI may actually improve the experience for your Candidates and thus bring you a bigger and better Candidate pool.

Industry targets of 50 to 60 applicants per job

This varies for the type of role you’re trying to fill of course, but typical industry targets are suggesting that you need 50 to 60 applications for each position you’re trying to fill. In Australia this is typically the threshold required to find the perfect Candidate.

This does vary for the position you’re looking to fill, and sometimes you can see on job listing sites how many applications there has been for a particular competitor role. This can give you a guide for how many maybe you should target.

Are you not hitting the target numbers? Do you think something is a little off? Maybe it’s time to revisit your Candidate acquisition strategy or maybe your employment branding strategy.

Highest priority roles are in operations, sales and IT

Looking to fill a role in operations, sales or IT? It’s likely that your competitors are too. Across industry research, it has been shown that the highest priority roles that companies are looking to fill come from those sectors.

LinkedIn data is in line with this, suggesting that operations is the number one priority role that companies are looking to fill.

Aligning your recruitment strategy with the knowledge of the higher priority roles can lead to faster times to fill for your open vacancies.

Australian job seekers rate work-life balance number one.

Particularly in professional roles, Australian job seekers are prioritising work-life balance over a higher rate of pay.

The challenge here for employers is to find out what exactly ‘work-life balance’ means to each individual Candidate. It’s not the same for each person as their lifestyles and life circumstances are different.

Extending this, notionally employers think that women value work-life balance much more than men, but actual recorded data suggests differently, with the balance being considered as a key component for men and women alike.

75% of Australian workers are open to a change of position.

Whilst this may come as no surprise, when you think about the numbers, that means that three quarters of the Australian workforce are seriously open to changing their positions. This represents a big risk for employers.
The numbers on LinkedIn alone show the reality. 78% of professional Australians have up-to-date CV’s and more than 70% have current and completed LinkedIn profiles. Clearly this represents a risk in retention rates.

Ultimately what this means is that employers have to work harder to attract and keep employees, with employers considering all manner of incentives and offerings to keep employees engaged.

Referrals still preferred by 82% of Australian employers.

Uniform across all types of roles and industries, Australian employers still prefer employee candidate referrals to any other source of applicants.

Industry research has shown that no less than 82% of Australian hirers will give preference to an internal staff referral over any externally sourced candidate. This is princely due to trust. Trust between the employer and the staff member, and trust between the staff member and the referred candidate.

The referring employee does not want to ruin the trust they have with their boss (and risk losing their job!) and they also do not want to risk the trust they have with the referred candidate, their friend (and risk losing their relationship!).

It’s this trust that helps employers know that they are getting the best Candidate possible, which is why 82% choose to give preference to referrals.

Employment branding tools desired by 57% of Australian hirers.

If there was no limit on money, nearly 60% of Australian hirers would utilise the best employment branding tools they could to attract and maintain the best candidates. It’s important for every hirer to not underestimate the power of an employment branding strategy.

Ultimately it’s more than just for one hire, it’s a long term strategy that involves proper branding of acquisition platforms, optimised candidate experiences, different marketing strategy and bringing existing team members up to speed on how they too can spread the word of a great reputation their employer has.