A large survey of Australian businesses conducted by the National Institute of Labour Studies at Flinders University and the National Centre for Vocational Education Research reveals some interesting findings about the significant ways in which employment patterns have changed in the last 20 years.
They found that since 1992:
There has been a significant shift away from full-time, permanent jobs, particularly for men:
- Only 20% of all new jobs were for men employed full-time on a permanent basis
- Growth in permanent jobs had been concentrated among individuals aged 45-59
- Labour hire has been growing rapidly and now comprises over 3% of all employment
In 1992, 70% of all jobs were full-time and permanent and this form of employment was ‘standard’. However, in the 2000’s non-standard forms of employment have been growing more rapidly than the standard form. For example, between 1992–2005, total employment rose by 32%, but full-time permanent employment rose at only just over half that rate—by 19%.
This trend should have implications for recruitment practices.
Traditional recruitment practices
In the 1980’s, 1990’s and earlier the norm was for employees to be employed on a permanent, full-time, enduring basis, with CVs and cover letters being the most popular ways of applying for jobs and interviews the most common recruitment technique. This is quite a laborious process, but quite appropriate as employers were hiring people they intended to work with for a long period of time and employees were willing to spend time updating CVs and crafting cover letters. Employers also relied on the information provided by the applicant and perhaps a handful of referees.
While these techniques remain popular today, their appropriateness may be questioned, particularly for part-time and casual jobs. It is also becoming increasingly apparent that the Internet social media have altered the recruitment world, with employer’s easily able to question claims made in CVs but doing online searches and online job applications becoming more popular. As discussed in our blog Selecting Job Applicants in the Age of Social Media, sites like Twitter are now being used as recruitment tools.
Today’s recruitment practices
In this ever-changing, fast paced world of work, one of the most reliable and practical tools for recruitment purposes is psychometric testing. Psychometric testing can reveal a significant amount of information about a candidate in a short time. A one hour assessment can reveal cognitive ability, personality characteristics, work values, skills acquired, tendency to be honest/embellish, to name just a few abilities and behavioural tendencies.
RightPeople has a wide range of research based, tried and tested assessment tools that are continually evolving. Our packages can be tailored – longer and more detailed assessments for permanent staff, higher level assessments for managerial roles or shorter, skill-based assessments for part-time or casual roles. An employee to be hired for one specific purpose (e.g. data entry) can be given a clerical skills assessment to ensure they have the right skills set to perform the job. For longer term jobs psychometric testing can be the first step in ensuring a candidate has the right values, attitudes and ability to be considered for the next step in a recruitment process.
Once the candidate has completed the assessment a report is compiled and tailored to the specific role and needs of the organisation and can be emailed within a short time, to help ensure that the recruitment process is streamlined.
Want to know more about our assessment tools? Contact RightPeople today.
