December 06 Newsletter

HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT OUR FABULOUS JANUARY OFFER?

If you thought January was not the best time to recruit, think again. Below, we outline some of the reasons why this coming month could be the best time of all to get your recruitment needs organised.

And if this is not enough to convince you, consider our January Incentive : if you place a permanent vacancy with Beaumont Consulting before January 15, 2007, we will take 15% off your invoice. That is a $1600 saving on a $60K salary: what a way to start the New Year!

Why recruit in January?

While most companies are slowing down their recruiting for 2006, those in the know are ramping up now, to ensure they attract the peak number of jobseekers that will be actively looking for a fresh start in January.

January is seasonally the month when people start looking for a new job. Why? You may ask. Think New Year's resolutions: “New Year, new beginning”; “This year’s going to be different”; “I need a change”. Sound familiar?

The New Year is a time when people re-evaluate their career path, life and career goals, and plan the changes required to achieve them.

Job board traffic figures also support this January trend. Over the past two years traffic to MyCareer in January grew by 48.2 per cent, while traffic to all Australian job boards grew on average by 20.4 per cent (source: Nielsen NetRatings Market Intelligence, year on year).

Given the current skills shortage that most industries are facing, it’s also crucial to think ahead and get in front of as many potential candidates as possible.

This can also be the perfect time to take on new staff. While many might be on annual leave and some businesses closed, it’s the ideal time to recruit and train new team members to prepare them for peak times.

Top reasons to recruit in January:

Peak time for jobseekers to be actively looking for a new job
Gives you access to a wider pool of candidates and skills
Business may be quieter, so it’s a good time to recruit and train
Good opportunity to plan your recruitment needs for 2007

Article from: My Career 07 December 2006

Staff Retention

A detailed new employment trends study by Select Australasia shows employers are now more concerned about losing employees than attracting new ones.

Some 38% of survey respondents said retaining existing staff was their biggest human capital challenge.

Retention is the top issue facing Australian HR professionals and CEOs today. With 10% of your profitability directly accountable to your retention rate, it is the HR practice with the highest Return on Investment. Here are some ideas that you may be able to implement and some retention tactics for your employees:

Constant communication
Weekly or fortnightly meetings with employees within first 6 months
Introduce Employee rewards program
Give employees motivation – implement some strategies relevant to the business
Provide Child care assistance when mothers are returning to work
Provide three months paid maternity leave
Heard of Equilibrium? This is offered to all employees of some companies, who are paid for the days they work and may take as many days of leave as they wish. Gives them more of a work/life balance. This can be adapted to some employee’s positions.
Introduce a sabbatical after 5 years of employment
Put in place benchmarks, audits and methods of tracking progress to encourage employees
Tailored on and off line employee engagement or ‘climate’ surveys
Pre and post-employment expectation measures
Human Capital metrics and diagnostic tools
Risk based workforce engagement and staff retention audits
Organizational development reports by company and division
Risk profiles by key demographics and key talent groups
Retention workshops and counselling
Career and succession management advice

At Beaumont Consulting, we have been proud to have been associated with a fantastic company, previously Assessment Edge and now called Talent Edge. The people at Talent Edge are focused on “building your people pipeline through effective employee engagement, retention and succession strategies. Talent Edge provides an in-depth organisational health check and helps pinpoint areas of engagement and retention concerns. We develop succession systems that evaluate performance and potential and enable objective and proactive succession management.” For more on Talent Edge, check out their new website at www.talentedge.com.au

All about us . . .

It has been another busy and successful year here at Beaumont Consulting and we are very pleased to say that within that time we have assisted in excess of 2500 people in their quest to find suitable and enjoyable work!! Something that makes our work here at Beaumont Consulting so worthwhile is all the great feedback that we receive from clients we have worked with. We thought it would be a lovely idea to share some of this feedback with you!

Beaumont sourced excellent tax candidates for our firm this year in a tough market. Beaumont clearly understood my requirements and kept me up to date with their progress in the course of the search. Beaumont respects my time by doing all of the ground work and only recommending high calibre candidates to me. I am always confident of an honest, informative and professional approach when dealing with Beaumont ." Raewyn, Tax Counsel, Barclays Global Investors.

The Talent and Careers (T&C) team from TOWER Australia have been utilising the services of Beaumont Consulting since 2002. Beaumont Consulting work hard to understand TOWER’s business and culture so they can find the highest calibre candidates who will fit into our organisation. We give them roles confident that they will endeavour on our behalf to identify the best candidates. Kerry, Talent & Careers Manager, Tower Australia.

Leanne from Beaumont Consulting has always been a delight to work with. She is always professional and ethical in her dealings with clients and candidates. She understands our business needs so we employ most of the candidates that are referred to us. The quality of Leanne's referrals is really impressive; she is focused on quality rather than just pushing for numbers. We need more consultants like Leanne in recruitment. May, Team Leader, AXA

'IQPC first partnered with Beaumont earlier this year and have been consistently supplied with first class candidates ever since. They were very quick to understand our unique role requirements and organisational culture and they clearly work hard to pinpoint candidates with the right 'fit' as well as skill set. Their commitment and enthusiasm to meet our needs have been evident throughout the year and we look forward to working with them as one of our preferred suppliers in 2007'. Graham, HR Manager, IQPC

"I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Kath. She is extremely organised, professional and understands the culture of our company perfectly. Kath is always willing to help and her "can do" attitude and sense of humor are a breath of fresh air". Belinda, Recruitment Team , ING

Community and Charity News

As most of you will be aware, Beaumont Consulting is proud to support Camp Quality , a charity dedicated to helping children suffering from serious illness, and we were extremely proud to be able to present them with a donation this year on behalf of our clients.

We also now have association, through our Business Support consultant Emily Wheeldon, with the Baphumelele Children’s Home in South Africa .

Baphumelele Children's Home provides a home and place of safety for children who are orphaned, abandoned, abused or neglected, mainly as a subsequence of HIV.

The home aims to provide orphans with a stable, loving and permanent home. It also serves as a place of safety for children in crisis 24 hours a day. Children are sometimes brought to Baphumelele by the police or social services as a temporary place of refuge for a few days or a few weeks; others have been in Baphumelele's care for years.

Baphumelele is located in the township of Khayelitsha (meaning “new home”), located 20 kilometres southeast of Cape Town . Initially an informal settlement in the late 1970s, Khayelitsha has grown into a community of over one million residents.

Khayelitsha is one of the most marginalised and poverty-stricken townships in South Africa . Many residents live in self-constructed wooden or corrugated tin shacks, without access to clean water, electricity, or sanitation. Basic education and health care facilities are lacking. The unemployment rate in Khayelitsha officially stands at a staggering 50%; in reality, the figure is unfortunately higher. Khayelitsha has one of the highest incidences of HIV/Aids infection in all of South Africa – this in a country that the United Nations Aids Foundation recognizes as having the second highest HIV/Aids rates globally (behind India).

Reliable estimates suggest there are as many as 14,000 orphans in Khayelitsha, the majority as a result of the Aids pandemic. Whilst some 27% of adults are HIV positive, amongst expectant mothers this figure may be as high as 40%.

A large part of Baphumelele's ongoing income is from donations by many supporters, individuals, corporations, support groups, dedicated fundraisers and others. Donations come from many parts of the world including South Africa , North America, Europe and Australia .

Each and every donation is used for Baphumelele and NO moneys are paid to trustees, volunteers, fundraisers or organizers of any description whatsoever. The child caregivers at Baphumelele receive a small salary (which is still below the generally accepted minimum income) after having worked for years as unpaid volunteers.

For more on this fantastic organisation, we urge you to visit their website on http://www.baphumelele.org.za .

Quote of the month

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world. " Mahatma Ghandi