The project services hiring market is fluctuating within different industries and across all states in Australia. A recent whitepaper Talent has released, details the latest trends in project management as well as the skills and experience needed to keep businesses’ projects on track. Please find the whitepaper here.

The whitepaper features in-demand project skills, salary trends, challenges currently being faced in the project services hiring market, and trends and predictions for key project positions in 2024. It also features insights from Talent’s recruitment experts’ team.

Key findings include:

• Reduction of Project Practitioners, especially in local government, as part of an overarching strategy of reducing contract labour spend.
• The banking industry has reduced Project Mangers by 8%.
• Competition for senior roles in Project & Change has increased across all industries with applicants getting a response to less than 10% of roles applied for.
• The hiring market is correcting salaries post-the boom experienced over the last few years, however in states such as WA there has been a 5% uplift in contract rates which is set to continue throughout 2024.
• It’s estimated that by 2025, AI will power 95% of customer interactions.

Skills in highest demand are:

• Data
• Cybersecurity
• AI
• Automation
• Emotional intelligence
• Communication
• Change management skills

Predictions for 2024 and beyond:

• AI will grow in uptake
• Hybrid project methodologies are gaining traction
• Greater focus on cybersecurity projects
• Greater use of data & data analysis to improve project performance & drive efficiencies

Insights from the Talent and Avec team include:

Matthew Munson, Talent Sydney Managing Director noted, “We anticipate that the market will start to pick up again. The financial services sector, for example, had 12 months of consolidation, cost cutting and projects being put on hold. The initial signs are that hiring growth will return later in 2024 and 2025, with a number of large projects kicking off in Q4 this year.”

Steve Tompkins, Talent Head of Government Sales said, “The traditional project manager role is evolving. Enter the ‘Project Influencer’. The influencer uses EI to build human connections and understand the motivations of their team. They also use data-led logic, critical thinking, and strong communication skills to propose solutions to problems. They don’t just answer to stakeholders, they answer to their team, filling the role of sword and shield for them and fuelling a productive project team where every member feels valued and performs to the best of their ability.”

Talent Perth Managing Director, Paul Mackin Brown observes that, “As a state that plays a pivotal role, contributing around 50% of Australia’s exports, WA continues to rely on minerals, petroleum, specialised manufactured goods, and agriculture. This positive scenario presents a particularly promising landscape for ICT professionals, whose skills are, and will continue to be, in high demand across most industries in WA, especially in areas like cybersecurity, business/data analysis, architecture, and software engineering.”

Talent has been announced as one of nine leading private Australian companies recognised for their outstanding business performance in Deloitte Australia’s 2023 Best Managed Companies awards. It is the only Australian tech services and recruitment business to be recognised in the winners.

Now in its fourth year – and run in association with Google Cloud and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia – the Best Managed Companies program identifies and celebrates privately-owned and managed companies across Australia that set high standards of business performance and shines a light on the power of private businesses as innovators and major contributors to Australia’s economy.

The program uses a tried and tested framework for determining success, and winners are recognised based on achieving high scores across four key categories: strategy; culture and commitment; capabilities and innovation; and governance and financials.

Global CEO, Mark Nielsen, said the recognition was a testament to the business’ transformation over the past five years.

“Five years ago, we set out with a big hairy audacious goal of increasing our global revenue to $1 billion, which we achieved in 2023. In this time, we have strategically expanded our service offering, made difficult decisions about the right markets for us to be in, invested in innovation, consciously improved the diversity of our leadership team, and increased our ESG focus to ensure we are delivering on our vision to build a better world of work for all. Our team here at Talent is exceptional and this recognition reflects their hard work and commitment.”

Talent Global CFO, Megan Woodbury, said the organisation’s agile approach to strategic growth had been crucial in its success.

“The Talent board and leadership team are entrepreneurial, and willing to invest in forward-thinking initiatives. Continuous investment in emerging opportunities, extending to mergers and acquisitions, people investment, and technology projects has allowed the business to remain agile and respond to changing market conditions and expectations. This level of commitment to investment has been crucial for our growth in both depressed and growth markets and is a key factor in us being named a Deloitte Best Managed Company.”

Read more on Deloitte’s Best Managed Companies list here: www.bestmanagedcompanies.com.au

The hiring market is experiencing significant change fluctuating between a frenzied candidate-short market and a more cautious employer-driven market according to Talent’s ‘More Than Money Salary Guide 2024’ which was released today. Tech and digital salaries continue to steady out but remain strong for key skillsets such as cybersecurity and AI. The report features key salaries, roles and skills that are in demand for the Australian market. You can find the report here.

The report features salaries and contract rates for key tech positions in 2024, the most in-demand tech skills for 2024, market insights from Talent’s Managing Director team and experienced recruiters, as well as hiring trends and predictions across the regions in which Talent operates across ANZ and the US. Further insights include stats on the local tech talent pool, skills trends, stats on the cost of living across multiple cities, the needs of different generations in the workforce, and the benefits beyond salary that candidates are looking for including observations on the debate around flexible working arrangements.

Key findings include:

• Salaries have increased by up to 35% across Cybersecurity, Sales & Account Services, Data Analytics, and Development roles since 2023.
• Contract rates have grown between 10-30% since 2023 for roles in Cybersecurity, Data Analytics, Cloud Solutions and Infrastructure.
• Looking at Talent’s hiring data from October 2022 to October 2023, federal and state government layoffs and hiring freezes across Australia have resulted in a 16% decline in contract hiring in this sector.
• Large companies have increased their offshoring by an estimated 10-40%.
• Demand for Project Services talent has decreased as many companies have paused their large-scale projects to save on costs.
• A Talent poll revealed that work flexibility beats out a competitive salary when it comes to what matters most to candidates when looking for a job – 35% noted flexibility as the most important, followed by 29% citing salary.
• A Talent poll revealed that 78% of workers value remote work the most when it comes to the flexible work arrangements that best align with their preferences, followed by 16% who value flexible hours, 6% compressed work weeks, and 1% job-sharing arrangements.

Demand remains high for the following skills:

• Artificial Intelligence
• Cybersecurity
• Data Analysis
• Cloud Computing
• Software Development

Matthew Munson, Talent Managing Director NSW, weighed in on the flex work debate for 2024, “For technology sales roles, we have seen the market revert to pre-COVID levels in terms of hiring for many go-to-market roles i.e., sales, sales leadership, and for some roles we have seen demand drop well below pre-COVID levels, i.e., customer success, channel/partner and pre-sales. From the job seekers perspective, there is higher demand on wanting more flexibility around working from home and general flexibility – but although this is the case, we are seeing the majority of companies are enforcing a return to the office (3-5 days per week). In a tougher market this may work, but Australia still has a skills shortage, so when the market lifts, we suspect employers that offer less flexibility will suffer.”

Simon Yeung, Talent Managing Director VIC, said there were significant changes to the national landscape, “A significant emphasis will be placed on bolstering network security, cyber resilience, and the safeguarding of cloud-based systems and data. The demand for skilled professionals in cloud computing, data science, and software development is poised to rise as businesses prioritise digital transformation. The persistent trend of remote and hybrid work setups is expected to expand opportunities, attracting talent from diverse geographical locations.”

The global technology market is evolving and growing. As a $5 trillion global industry, it has significant power in both providing opportunity to the workforce as well as rapidly disrupting the international work landscape. A sense of caution remains prevalent in the hiring market, with a number of job families experiencing slowed demand as a result of company cost cuts. This has seen an increase in layoffs, hiring freezes, and projects placed on pause across the market. However, despite a slow in hiring, there are several jobs where demand and salaries have remained high.

Cybersecurity professionals remain in high demand for the higher education sector as the Australian market continues to struggle with talent shortages. In a recent whitepaper Talent has released, the salaries, skills and experience needed to keep the sector safe is severely lacking. You can download your copy of the whitepaper here.

Following the whitepaper release, industry leaders shared their thoughts at a recent virtual event on what these cyber threats were and explored strategies on how organisations can best protect themselves. Cybersecurity experts Jeff Whitton and Scott Flower joined Steve Tompkins, Talent, Client Relationship Manager to discuss these strategies. Key highlights included:

• “We can’t leave people behind who can’t afford security. We really need to focus on collaboration.”
• “We need people who are capable of self-reflection. That are good under pressure, not just people who know how to tick boxes. We need people who can think creatively about what they’re seeing and how to address what they’re seeing.”
• “Students need to be made aware: if they’re working on sensitive topics, if they’re working on new technology, if they’re working on different areas of innovation, then they are a target, whether they like it or not. Threat actors want to use them as a link in the chain”
• “AI has enabled more widespread industrialisation of hacking because people can just type in, give me a code to do an SQL injection attack.”
• “Machines are learning about humans better than humans know about humans. Worrying and interesting at the same time, but that’s the sort of problems that AI is going to give us. They’re going to understand human behaviour. Better than most individuals understand human behaviour and their own behaviour.”

The whitepaper features salaries, skills needed, challenges currently being faced and trends and predictions for tech hiring in higher education in 2023. It also features insights from Talent’s Account Management team.

Key findings include:

• “Many universities are assessing their enterprise systems including ERP and cloud platforms, student systems, and cybersecurity.” – Majella Sanders
• “We’ve seen a growing shift in the importance candidates place on a sense of personal value and purpose in their work. The Higher Education industry is one that can provide a real employee community and shared purpose, which will be a big draw card in the coming year.” – Steve Tompkins
• 91% of surveyed students expect a university’s digital services to be as strong as or stronger than face-to-face offerings. (Great State report)

Talent has continued its track record of strong profit growth in the financial year to 30 June 2023. From a modest position in 2018, Talent have grown its revenue 105% from $487m to $1b in the 5-year period to 2023 growing normalised EBITDA fourfold to $27.5m. This success was underpinned by a 14% increase for contracting revenue, on top of its project delivery brand, Avec, growing by 104% year-on-year.

Employee engagement was critical in the five-year journey increasing from 52% in 2018 to a world-class 90% in 2023.  Mark Nielsen, Talent’s Global CEO stated, “Talent’s culture is centred around its #OneTeam mantra underpinned by its core values which are embedded into every area of the business.”  Nielsen further commented, “Talent’s success has been driven by organic investment in its income streams Avec and Solutions which has added real value to the service offerings Talent takes to market.”

Avec has increased its team and will continue to build out its technical expertise through partnering with, and acquiring, suitable deep-tech consulting businesses. Avec expanded its intelligent automation offering in FY23 through the swift employment of the majority of the technology professionals, engagement of customers, and contracting of suppliers from the Reveal Group.

Talent Solutions continued to grow during FY23 with a combination of embedded talent solutions for hyper growth tech scale ups, more traditional RPO solutions for midmarket companies, and MSP for enterprise.

Talent’s charitable foundation, Talent RISE, helps young people facing barriers to employment enter the workforce.  During the year, Talent RISE continued to expand operations with offices in Perth and Auckland. Talent RISE placed 75 young people into meaningful employment in FY23, which can be life changing for those starting their first job.

Mark Nielsen, Talent’s Global CEO, praised the Talent team on delivering these results. “Five years ago, we set out with a big hairy audacious goal of increasing our global revenue to $1 billion and I’m so proud to announce that we have successfully done this. Our team here at Talent is exceptional and this wouldn’t have been possible without their dedication. We have a strong culture here with a world class engagement rate of 90% which goes to show our focus and passion of building a better world of work for all.”    

Talent Global CFO, Megan Woodbury, said, “After being at Talent for just over a year, it’s evident that the passion and commitment from our teams has been a core reason for us to achieve this goal – which is particularly remarkable given the challenging market conditions. We have a culture of open and honest communication and with that, we’ve been aligned globally on what we want to achieve.”

Aligned to Talent’s goal of being a global tech services business, Talent has recently acquired Wellington based recruitment agency, People&Co. This acquisition reinforces Talent’s commitment to the New Zealand market, and supports the expansion of Talent’s core recruitment business, as well as establishing a platform for it to build out its project delivery, automation and data consultancy business, Avec in the New Zealand market.

Cybersecurity professionals remain in high demand as the Australian market continues to struggle with talent shortages. In a recent whitepaper Talent has released, the salaries, skills and experience needed to keep our businesses safe is severely lacking.

The whitepaper features salaries, skills needed, challenges currently being faced and trends and predictions for key cybersecurity positions in 2023. It also features insights from Talent’s Account Management team, as well as anonymous insights from cybersecurity professionals across ANZ and the US.

Key findings include:

• There’s significant demand for cybersecurity talent due to recent high-profile cyber incidents
• There’s a shortage of qualified and/or skilled cybersecurity talent – Research has revealed that 60% of global IT and cybersecurity leaders struggle to hire qualified cybersecurity candidates
• Seniors and specialists are in high demand – A Head of Digital at a retail client notes that they are seeking to hire “Cyber Architect and Cyber Consultant professionals who possess technical depth and are able to consult and talk business risk to the internal stakeholder. These are quite senior roles which I see are in short supply within the market”.
• Salary expectations from candidates are high, even if they don’t necessarily have the experience or qualifications to command these higher salaries

Skills in highest demand are:

• Cloud computing security
• Offensive security
• Security operations
• Artificial intelligence

Predictions for 2024 and beyond:

• Regulation will increase
• AI will present new risks
• Digital fraud will rise
• Employee training will be a priority

Insights from the anonymous cybersecurity professionals include:

• “If I’m hiring tomorrow, it’ll be a junior / mid-level person with a couple years of technical experience with the right attitude and mindset. Good generalists are hard to come by.”
• “Currently I lead a team of level 1 and 2 security analysts and over the past 6-9 months I’ve had to hire. Given what we do, we tend to look for entry to mid-level experience to fill these roles, and cost is a big factor. What I’ve found is that those entering the market with little to no experience (or at least relevant experience) are commanding more in terms of salary. This is putting pressure on the profitability and competitiveness of the services we deliver.”
• “A great communicator will achieve more than a brilliant tech in some cyber roles.”

Insights from the Talent and Avec team include:

Michael Megally, Avec General Manager, “Cybersecurity can’t all be left up to your IT team. You can build the biggest cyber defence in the background, but your people are your biggest vulnerability. Training your people is the biggest defence you can have for cybersecurity.”

According to our Sydney cybersecurity recruitment expert, Elliott Howard, large consultancy firms and banks rolling out cyber graduate programs to grow internal teams has had a strong impact on salary expectations. “While these programs have had a positive impact in increasing the pool of cyber candidates in the market, they have also resulted in candidates with only a couple years of industry experience asking for very high salaries which does not correlate to their experience. However, strong competition for cyber resources has meant that these less experienced candidates are able to attract the higher salaries and rates, resulting in enterprise sized companies with large cyber teams and strict salary bandings struggling to match these salaries. They have therefore been unable to attract candidates, resulting in vacancies and extended periods of time to recruit.”

You can download a copy of the report here.

Talent has announced it has acquired Wellington based recruitment agency, People&Co, effective immediately. The acquisition comes off the back of a highly successful financial year for Talent with the business cracking $100 million in gross margin and boosting EBITDA by more than 10% to $27.5 million.

This acquisition reinforces Talent’s commitment to the New Zealand market, and supports the expansion of Talent’s core recruitment business, as well as establishing a platform for it to build out its project delivery, automation and data consultancy business, Avec.

Speaking on the acquisition, Mark Nielsen, Global CEO, Talent, touched on the strong business and cultural alignment between the two companies. “When the opportunity to acquire People&Co arose, we believed it would be great fit for Talent. In addition to significant growth potential, we recognised a strong affinity in terms of culture and vision between the two organisations, and our shared commitment to the New Zealand market.”

Sam Collins, Managing Director, People&Co, will be joining the Talent Group as part of the acquisition will be responsible for scaling Avec’s business in New Zealand. “It’s a new era for the People&Co brand and for me personally. We are excited about the opportunities Talent and Avec will deliver for our sales team and our customers, candidates and contractors. Our culture that we have built is aligned with Talent’s which was a non-negotiable, and we resonated with the growth mindset of the leaders and their teams,” Sam said.

Kara Smith, Country Manager, Talent New Zealand commented. “We are incredibly excited about the acquisition of People&Co. Talent’s commitment to further expanding and investing in Aotearoa is an exciting time for all our team members, clients, candidates and contractors, and this growth begins a new chapter for us.”

Sam and Kara will work closely with Talent Wellington’s Managing Director, Nik King-Turner, Talent’s Global CEO, Mark Nielsen, and the wider Talent team, focusing on the growth of the New Zealand company.

People&Co is a proud Māori-owned organisation, and a member of the All-of-Government (AoG) External Recruitment and Consultancy panels. Through co.star they offer OD, HR and business consulting to individuals and organisations looking to drive change or results.

Talent has taken out two wins in the 2023 APSCo Awards for Excellence; Best Brand and RPO of the Year.

In the Best Brand category, Talent was recognised by APSCo for excellence in upholding and communicating its brand values; Lead the Way, Strive for Better, Give a Damn; and delivering exceptional experiences for contractors and clients through resources.

In the RPO of the Year category, Talent was recoginsed by APSCo for excellence in promoting and demonstrating a commitment to best practice in the RPO sector. Talent’s outsourced recruitment experts showcased their commitment to designing, building and managing Talent Acquisition functions that differentiate their clients from their competition.

Talent Managing Director, Marketing, Chloe O’Toole, commented on what this award means to the company. “Over the past five years, our brand has undergone a transformative journey, driven by our values: Lead The Way, Strive For Better, and Give A Damn. These values have become much than words on a page. From delivering exceptional experiences to contractors and providing hiring managers with resources for building successful teams, to our work supporting young people who face challenging employment barriers, our values guide everything we do, and we are so proud to have this recognised.”

Tom Mackintosh, Talent Solutions Managing Director, commended the team on their brilliant work. “Our deployed Talent Acquisition partners do the research and put in the work to design, build and manage Talent Acquisition functions that differentiate our clients from their competition. It’s about so much more than outsourcing for us, we become part of their teams and take on their challenges as our own.”

Talent RISE is pleased to announce that $86,569 has been raised in the 2023 ‘Step Up Challenge’ fundraising initiative which is aimed at helping young people with challenges to finding employment. These vital funds will be used for three life-changing initiatives. These are:

• Tech Academy: The Tech Academy will fund a group of young people through work placements and training to acquire invaluable skills and experience, providing them with a clear pathway into tech roles – a pathway they never thought possible.
• Paid Internship Scheme: Paid internships can be life-changing but are often impossible to secure for the young people we work with. This scheme will fund internships which provide critical experience to help young people gain confidence and secure employment.
• Equal Access Program: This program will support young people from refugee, asylum seeker, or Indigenous backgrounds by covering the cost of training (alongside RISE work readiness support) to provide a platform for future security.

Over 300 global employees from Talent and Talent RISE volunteered their time on September 8^th for the Talent RISE global ‘Step Up Challenge’ initiative. The initiative enters its second successful year running. To date, Talent RISE has raised $194,047 and has helped over 1,000 young people with coaching, mentoring, training and secured meaningful employment for 75 young people.

Karen Graham, Talent RISE CEO ANZ said she humbled with the outpouring of generosity shown. “It is incredibly heart-warming to see our team members rally together with friends, family and clients to help raise $86,569 to help young people facing barriers to employment. Our Talent RISE team are extremely excited to be able to launch these three life-changing initiatives and know the huge impact that they will have on helping fight youth unemployment here in Australia and New Zealand.”

Launched in 2014, Talent RISE is the charitable foundation of Talent – a leading global technology and digital recruitment specialist. To date, Talent RISE has engaged more than 3,000 young people through workshops and mentoring and has successfully placed over 400 into meaningful employment.

According to the ABS, the youth unemployment rate in Australia decreased to 7.7% in June 2023. This figure however remains too high and is more than double that of the general population of 3.5%.

According to Stats NZ, in the March 2023 quarter, the seasonally adjusted proportion of people aged 15-24 years who were not in employment, education, or training (NEET) was 10.3% down from 11.1% last quarter.

Over the years, the Talent and Talent RISE global team has volunteered over 50,000 hours to giving back to charities and community projects and are proud to add the ‘Step Up Challenge’ to the list.

As an Australian-founded business, Talent’s Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) is an important first step in the reconciliation journey. Talent’s mission is to bring real value to people and organisations by building highly skilled and engaged teams, rethinking technology solutions, and improving lives by creating a strong sense of belonging. To truly impact lives for the better, Talent understands this begins with embracing our responsibility to take positive steps towards reconciliation.

Talent is extremely proud to have their first Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) endorsed by Reconciliation Australia. Throughout this plan, and future plans, the business is committed to establishing and maintaining a deeper understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across Australia.

Whilst Talent acknowledges that are they in the early stages of our reconciliation journey, the business has taken some fundamental steps to initiate the journey, including becoming members of Supply Nation and creating a RAP working group. The role of the Reconciliation Working Group to date has been to formulate, oversee, and review the Reconciliation Action Plan, and on an ongoing basis they will implement and evolve the actions contained in this plan as we progress in the reconciliation journey. The Reconciliation Action Plan Working Group includes representation from across our varied business units, a range of staff levels and geographic locations.

Talent’s RAP artwork was created by Jordan Lovegrove, a talented Ngarrindjeri artist known for his captivating contemporary and abstract art.

Talent Solutions, the advisory and embedded talent acquisition line of Talent, has today announced a new partnership with Makosi, the global leader in on-demand audit talent.

The partnership will facilitate in helping clients address the current skills shortage being experienced across Australia and New Zealand in the accounting and assurance industry.

Talent’s General Manager – Solutions, Tom Mackintosh commented as follows, “We are thrilled to work with Makosi to continue to help our clients with creative workforce solutions. The collaboration will help alleviate the current challenges faced by the accounting and auditing industry.”

Founder and CEO at Makosi, Darren Isaacs, explains that accounting firms around the world today are facing many impacting side effects due to the shortage of talent in the audit and accounting industry.

“We all understand there is a real serious problem happening when it comes to resourcing in the accounting industry but getting your hands on great talent is just part of the equation. Making sure the talent is trained and equipped to be a part of your organisation is something that is commonly overlooked but very important as it relates to establishing continuity, improving quality, and keeping cost down.”

“Developing this relationship with the Talent Solutions team is exciting for Makosi as it allows us to complement each other with our services and provide a complete set of services.” Added Isaacs.

Makosi partners with accounting teams around the world to deliver high-quality variable workforce solutions, including audit, assurance, and advisory services. Makosi use leading edge technology to drive efficiency and transparency to hiring, onboarding, and project management.

Talent has today announced Meagan Jeffery will be joining the company as Global Chief Information Officer, effective immediately.

Meagan will work closely with Talent’s Global CEO, Mark Nielsen, and the wider Talent team, focusing on building Talent’s technology function, leveraging enablers such as data and AI and also provide contractors and customer with the highest level of service.

Meagan joins Talent following an extensive career spanning more than 25 years in the technology sector. She has held roles in retail and investment banking, superannuation, insurance broking, energy, utilities, and federal and state government. In recent roles she has advised and supported boards, CIOs and IT executives with strategic planning, digital transitioning, and sourcing of technology services.

Having worked in Australia, South Africa, and the UK (London), Meagan is cross-culturally sensitive and able to provide effective, hands-on leadership and motivation to teams with varied cultures, work ethics and social customs.

Commenting on the appointment, Meagan Jeffery, said “It’s an honour and exciting for me to be joining Talent and an exceptional team. I’m looking forward to the challenges and opportunities this role will bring. It will be our mission to rethink technology and strive for digital transformation to make a real impact to the organisation and our customers. I am also fortunate that with Talent I can continue CIO advisory services and maintain my board career.”

Talent Global CEO, Mark Nielsen, said he is thrilled on having Meagan join team Talent, “As we continue to take Talent to the next level, I am extremely excited to have someone of Meagan’s calibre join our global team. Our goal is to ensure we build out a world-class technology infrastructure that supports the step-change we are going through. Not only will Meagan bring her expertise to the Talent business but to our Avec service line and our customers.”