April 07 Newsletter

What’s New?

This month, Tanya Wakeling joined the Beaumont Consulting team. Here is a bit about her background:

Tanya has recently joined Beaumont Consulting in the North Shore Branch after relocating from South Africa. Tanya started off her recruiting career a year and a half ago for an owner run consultancy specialising in permanent placements. After graduating from her Marketing Degree, she spent two years working in the UK before being introduced to recruitment. Tanya firmly believes that it’s all about relationship building and being the best you can be for both the candidate and the client!

We are relocating our North Shore Office and will be opening our new offices next week in Help Street, Chatswood – watch this space!!

Build rather than buy!

According to the latest Mercer Market Issue study, employers are increasing their focus on training and developing their existing staff rather than recruiting from outside. The report also showed that across the board pay rises for current employees were higher than for new employees.

Ken Gilbert, business leader of Mercer’s Human Capital Advisory Services, said this reflected the continuing trend for businesses to focus on building and retaining their key performers, rather than pay higher rates to attract new talent.

"Today employers are still grappling with the pressures of the tight labour market but they are managing their rewards strategies more wisely. Since early 2006 the salary increases for same incumbents (same person in same role) have trended ahead of overall salary movements. This indicates that employers are managing rising costs by segmenting the workforce and offering a premium to retain those who hold critical skills or are the best performers,” he said.

Australia employees confident of job prospects

A global study sees Australian employees as among the most confident in the world of being able to quickly secure new employment if needed. It is thought that this is a reflection of the strong job market and that employers are having to move much quicker to secure talent.

That sure is what we at Beaumont Consulting are seeing, the candidates know there are plenty of jobs out there and fewer quality candidates… they are being much more selective in the companies they want us to send their resumes to and are even turning down second interviews and job offers if they are not suitably impressed at first interview stage! If you want feedback about your interview and selection process, always happy to help, just give us a call!

Something for the ladies …

Managing Director of Beaumont Consulting, Nikki Beaumont not only is a busy lady managing a successful recruitment agency but in her spare time undertakes a variety of charity work from trekking in India providing much needed solar lighting and school supplies for small isolated communities to hand making fashion jewellery and selling it to raise funds for the Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

For Nikki this is something particularly close to her heart as her father who was recently taken ill is being looked after by the lovely staff who work in the unit so she is working hard to support them by raising money to help fund new equipment etc. So far she has raised $2000 in jewellery sales and is planning a sale in Sydney soon… we’ll email you with details.

Retention Retention Retention!

A recent national report on HR priorities for 2006, which surveyed about 8,700 employers across 18 sectors, found that staff development and retention is still the top priority this year for HR managers (39%), but attracting suitable staff (23%) was seen as an increasingly important issue.

Other key priorities included enhancing performance and productivity (21%), developing leadership capabilities (10%), and managing industrial relations (3%).

The report urged employers to consider how their attraction and retention strategies reflect their employer brand, and how hiring processes impact on company goals.

"Smarter organisations are taking a systemic view and driving linkages across their management and attraction of talent," the report said.

It also stressed the need for employers to increase their focus on internal talent management strategies: "Organisations need to identify, track and manage the talent that they have, then think laterally and flexibly about how to utilise and engage their best asset."

Nikki’s Kitchen

Our very talented Managing Director has some recipes to share..

Known as a fairly decent cook, here are a couple of my quick and easy week night recipes that take me literally minutes to do, and provide a really healthy meal.

Teriyaki Salmon

Salmon Steaks
Masterfoods Teriyaki Marinade
Toasted Sesame Seeds

Remove bones from salmon, dip to coat in marinade and fry for 4 minutes each side in olive oil until lightly cooked, sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds, serve with baby potatoes and salad or a steamed vegetable.

Canadian Salmon (my trekking pal gave me this recipe...)

Salmon Steaks
Malt Whiskey
Maple Syrup

Remove bones from salmon, in an oven proof dish, soak for as long as you have time for in a good splash of malt whiskey, ideally to cover... overnight if time. Just before popping in oven drizzle maple syrup over, cook in a medium oven for 20 minutes until lightly cooked. Serve with whatever you like and a glass of Malt!

Restaurant Review

PJ Gallaghers - My New Irish Headquarters!

I decided to take a different slant this month and do a combined pub/restaurant review. As I was the only Irish ex-pat in a group of 10, it was my duty to organise the St Patrick's day celebrations this year.
PJ Gallagher's seemed to tick all the boxes. So, I gathered my posse of green revellers and we started our mission. We pushed through the heavy wooden door and I immediately knew that we had found the perfect spot. Busy but not insanely so, there was a steady babble of chatter, laughter and music. It was a really nice looking pub with wooden floorboards, a comfy lounge area and timber and stained glass fittings.

We headed up to the restaurant and God love the wait staff, they managed to find us a table to accommodate our group. The steak and mash pie (at a very reasonable $13.95) seemed to be the most popular request but I decided to go for the special - King Island steak served with Colcannon. Wow, I definitely made the right choice. The meat was beautifully tender and the Colcannon was creamy and fragrant (Colcannon is a traditional Irish dish, a concoction of mashed potato with cabbage or Kale, butter and pepper). I have to say, I was so impressed that despite the amount of hungry, wobbly people in the dining room, our food came quickly, was well presented and perfectly cooked and the wait staff were still smiling!

I shall be back again soon for more dancing, eating, drinking and a whole lot of "Craic"

PJ Gallagher's is located on 195 Victoria Rd (Cnr Lyons Rd) Drummoyne NSW 2047. Ph: (02) 9181 1229. Check out what live music is on and the up to date menu on www.pjgallaghers.com.au

Amusing facts

After chocolate and vanilla, orange is considered the world's most favourite flavour.
Alcoholic beverages have all 13 minerals necessary for human life.
Once a human reaches the age of 35, he/she will start losing approximately 7,000 brain cells a day. The cells will never be replaced.
Close to 3 billion movie tickets are sold in India every year.
The "naked recreation and travel" industry has grown by 233% in the past decade.
Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.
Bamboo plants can grow up to 36 inches in a day.
A female ferret can die if she goes into heat and cannot find a mate.

And something to ponder...

A group of graduates, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university lecturer. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said:
"If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups."

"Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups.
They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change.
Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it." So please, don't let the cups drive you...

Enjoy the coffee !!