Ben’s message:

I was shocked to learn recently that there are approximately 22,000 homeless people in Victoria. Because I am a CEO I thought the Sleepout was an event I should participate in to draw attention to this issue and help raise funds for the outstanding work that Vinnies does in support of the homeless.

My goal is raise at least $5,000 for Vinnies.

Money raised through sponsoring us will directly assist Vinnies to provide relief to the homeless through crisis accommodation, domestic violence support, soup van services and access to budget counselling, cooking skills and legal advice.

You can make a big difference by liking, sharing, commenting, re-tweeting, and +1’ing this post. The more people who see what we’re trying to achieve, the more we can help this important cause.

Remember: the more money we raise, the more we can directly assist in helping the homeless. You can sponsor me by clicking here.

Some facts about how your donations can help:

A $5 donation buys a warm drink on a cold night.

Giving $10 provides much-needed food.

By sponsoring $50 you can provide school books and material for a disadvantaged child.

A donation of $100 will provide bedding, a meal and a fresh change of clothes for a homeless person.

A gift of $500 will pay the rent for a family facing eviction.

A donation of $1,000 will enable a survivor of domestic violence and their children to make the supported transition from a Vinnies refuge into independent housing.

Thanks

Ben

Our Prime Minister has the view that “it is not acceptable that information technology jobs…should be such a big area of imported skills.” The IT industry reacted strongly with comments like “there wouldn’t be an IT industry in Australia if it wasn’t for the fact that we could draw from overseas labour.”

The debate caused quite a bit of emotion which can happen when one party believes the other is ill-informed.

Clicks IT Recruitment has an on-hire Labour Agreement, which a “labour hire” firm like us is required to have before we can place a 457 visa holder with a client. Securing the agreement itself is a demanding process and sourcing workers from overseas is not a priority because from a recruitment point of view it takes more time and incurs more risk. Accordingly, 457 visa holders make up less than 1% of our on-hire workforce.

So, from our point of view the system seems to work ok as there is really no advantage for us to use 457 visas yet without them there would be some client requirements that we couldn’t meet.

Does the 457 visa scheme take IT jobs from Australians, or does it aid the development of technology business in Australia?
Comments welcome.

Clicks has monitored salaries for IT professionals over the last 10 years with our annual IT Recruitment and Retention Report. Each year we ask respondents for the average % salary increase paid over the past 12 months and what’s expected to be paid over the following 12 months. Not surprisingly there’s usually a small difference between what people expect the increase to be, and what they end up actually paying.

In 2009, the actual increase was less than expected due to the GFC. The following year, with the Government pumping money into the economy and interest rates very low, the opposite occurred.

So, what’s in store for 2013? Clearly 2012 was a tough year, with the actual average increase coming in at 2.86%. With this mindset present at the time we asked our clients for their 2013 prediction, it came in at 2.08%, the lowest since the series began. However, we have good reason to believe the reality will be higher. Our report shows that hiring demand has turned a corner with fewer respondents planning to reduce headcount in 2013 compared with 2012.

When we look at our internal business health measures (fill rate, order flow, time to fill etc) these too are improving. So… we’re predicting that demand will steadily pick up during the year and with that pressure salaries will build. Nothing spectacular, but the actual average should be about 3%.

Ben Wood, Managing Director

The Clicks 2013 Run for the Kids team had much to celebrate last week, coming in second place for the 15km long course event. Now in its sixth year of entering a corporate team for the event that supports the Royal Children’s Hospital, Team Clicks had over 140 entrants sporting the familiar team shirts.

“Run for the Kids is an event that is particularly close to our heart at Clicks,” said Ben Wood, Clicks’ Managing Director. “Our Chairman, Tony Beddison, was also Chairman of the Royal Children’s Hospital from 2004 up until December last year, so we’ve always felt a strong connection to the fantastic work done by the RCH team. It’s hard to imagine that our first team had fewer than 40 people, and this year there were over 140 of us.”

On the day it was great to see so many people running for a particular cause. It’s a charity that a lot of people have been touched by at some point in their lives and the Run is a fantastic coming-together for Clicks’ staff, contractors, clients and their families. Leading up to the day there was plenty of discussion among the team about training programs, running with prams, beating times from last year and more. It’s a wonderful feeling of community spirit.

Clicks has raised over $20,000 for the Royal Children’s Hospital through entry fees alone since its first team entry in 2008. Sponsoring over 600 runners during that time it’s definitely an event that all
Clicksters look forward to each year.

If you have photos from this year’s event, we’d love to see them. Please feel free to post them in a comment on this blog.

“We celebrate the cultural diversity of our team”, said Ben Wood, Managing Director. “We’re very fortunate to have a number of first generation Australians in our business, myself included. The spread at lunch was a truly international affair, with dishes from Mauritius, Switzerland, India, Italy, Dubai, Ireland, China, New Zealand and the UK. And of course we couldn’t go without meat pies and a pavlova to remind us how much we love Australia.”

The Melbourne team are especially pleased to be part of Team Clicks at this Sunday’s Run for the Kids charity event – they need a good jog around the block after all that food!

Harmony Day is managed by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and coincides with the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. It is a day of cultural respect.

The message of Harmony Day is Everyone Belongs. In 2013 the theme is: Many Stories – One Australia.

Sign up here using the password clickslovesfooty and you’re ready to start winning!

Picture yourself a winner with any of these great prizes:

1st – Grand Final Party Pack
Watch the Grand Final in style with 20 of your mates with your very own brand new 60” TV while enjoying a feed and a few coldies. We’ll even throw in an esky so you don’t have to leave the room during the game. Total prize value $3,000

2nd – GoPro HERO3 Black Edition
A GoPro is the latest in adventure video equipment for boarders, skiers, bikers, drivers, divers, base jumpers or even footy game watchers. You’ll never have to miss another great sporting moment again! Total prize value up to $500

3rd – RedBalloon Voucher
Choose your own adventure with a $250 RedBalloon voucher… Fly a plane? A spa treatment? Or maybe a hot air balloon ride? You decide!

We’ll also be giving away a Hoyts double movie pass to one lucky tipster each week. The weekly prize won’t just be for the person at the top of the ladder: it could be a draw of everyone who tipped 8 for the week, the person who picked an upset, or the person who has picked 7 in each of the last 7 rounds!

We’ll be announcing the weekly winner every Monday at 12pm* accross our social media channels, so make sure you’re following us on  LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or Google + to see if you’re the winner!

If you’re the winner you can claim your prize by responding on any of our social media pages by 6pm the same day, otherwise the prize will jackpot and next week’s winner will win TWO double movie passes!

Sign up here using the password clickslovesfooty and you’re ready to start winning. See you at the footy!

Click here to read the full terms and conditions.

A recent Ipsos* poll for Reuters shows that conditions are ripe for a shift towards optimism in the market. Some 81% of those surveyed agreed that 2013 will be a better year than 2012, and 53% agreed that the global economy will improve in 2013. With heighted positivity perhaps we will see budgets released for major project initiatives (music to project managers’ ears) and some investment in areas that have been earmarked but as yet not actioned. Some of these areas for growth might include software and services, social media initiatives, collaboration tools, cloud technology and big data.

As an organisation that specialises in placing people into technology jobs, Clicks has a genuine interest in the twists and turns of the Australian and world economies. The forces that dictate confidence in the market directly impact the strategies of our clients, both in terms of the availability of budgets and the subsequent hiring approval levels.
Reflecting on 2012, it is interesting to note that despite the negativity in the media and the general word on the street being one of pessimism, Clicks in fact grew as a business. This is of particular interest in a time where companies are shedding staff, off shoring and generally cutting costs. We are proud of our success in proactively marketing talent to businesses and strengthening relationships with our clients: all critical contributors to finding work for good people in a tough market.
So what do the cards hold for 2013?
With the population’s growing appetite for new and innovative ways to interact with business, we foresee growing demand for improvements in the way banks and credit unions interact with their customers: in particular the usability and functionality of payment systems. This growing demand should result in business and technology initiatives in 2013.
If we think more generally about business’ commitment to deliver strong share market returns, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that companies need to work out how to make their existing products more profitable and create new and profitable products. Essentially companies are interested in new and innovative ways to sell more to their existing database of customers and take market share from their competitors. The battle for business will be huge in 2013, and we see this translating into initiatives around customer acquisition and business intelligence functions. Consider too the increasing need for governance and security around big data collection and usage and the resulting drive for resources with these valuable skills.
Another major initiative across all sectors this year will be the use of social media. This will have both and internal and external flavour, and skills will be needed to monitor, translate, develop and govern across the ever-expanding social media platform. The result: project initiatives with a need to go to market!
My prediction for “in demand” skills for 2013 are:

• HTML5 developers – t
  he “m.” sites will disappear in favour of a single instance responsively designed website
• Mobility experts – people are expecting to be able to do all of the day to day tasks they have historically performed from their desktop computer from a growing range of mobile devices.
• Security Specialists – including cybercrime, compliance and governance experts
• Business Intelligence / Analytics experts – including Data and CRM (Sales force) specialists
• Payments specialists – particularly mobile / retail / commercial banking (eg google wallet)
• Electronic Content Management Specialists – Filenet, EDRMS and SharePoint
• Integration specialists
• DBAs with strong modelling experience

Like any sort of prediction none of us can be absolutely certain of what the year will bring. With 12 years’ experience in the IT recruitment industry I can, however, be certain of one thing. There will always be a need for people who are outcome focused, team oriented and enthusiastic in embracing change. After all, change is the only thing we can ever be really certain of.

Clicks’ Managing Director, Ben Wood, said “I’m delighted that over 95% of our clients have given us their vote of confidence. We have traditionally enjoyed a strong result, however it’s especially meaningful given the challenges some of our clients have faced over the last 6 months in a difficult market. We felt it was fitting to show our appreciation for the time our clients kindly gave to provide us with feedback, so the team voted to make a donation to a charity. The Cancer Council does vital work, so we’d like to say a special thank you to every client who responded.”

The Clicks team also received especially positive rankings in the areas of our ability to understand our clients’ business and technical requirements, as well as timeliness and communication.

If you are seeking a new IT staff member contact us at 1300 CLICKS or info@clicksrecruit.com.au.

Another important shift, is the prominence given to your “activity” at the top of the page. This is a deliberate move by LinkedIn to make your profile more ‘social’, recognising that whilst your classic resume content (experience, education, qualifications, etc) is important, it’s only half the story. People are also equally – sometimes more – interested in who you know and what you have to say, and the new design takes this into account. In essence, LinkedIn is trying to promote activity and interaction across the network by creating an environment that rewards active users. The recent launch of “Endorsements” feature followed the same motivation.

Some of the other changes to your profile include:

• A new tool to show you how you relate to your network based on experience and skills
• New editing tools and customisation tools for your profile
• New content available to you on other people’s profiles

To see a sample of the new profile and request an early invitation to have your profile updated go here:
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/sample

To read LinkedIn’s announcement go here:
http://blog.linkedin.com/2012/10/16/meet-the-new-linkedin-profile/

If you can’t hold back the excitement and want the full live demo, got to the 23rd minute of this video:
http://blog.linkedin.com/2012/10/16/meet-the-new-linkedin/

Here’s a good article with tips:
http://www.inc.com/marla-tabaka/linkedin-profile-changes-new-tips.html

To learn more about the “Endorsements” feature go here:
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/sample

We’ll be back with more tips as the new profile rolls out…

Damien Cheney
Web Intent | Online business success
www.webintent.com.au

There were 140 attendees from leading financial institutions, with guest speaker Steve Tucker, CEO of MLC.

The speech by Steve Tucker gave a very interesting insight into the way in which wealth management institutions, particularly MLC, are engaging with the government with regards to the Superannuation reforms and Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms. Steve also spoke of the innovation and changes that have affected the market, from the way in which people utilise their super contributions to the speed and volume of transaction and information flow that the bank handles every day. The importance of the role technology currently plays and will continue to play in shaping the future direction of the organisation was encouraging and impressive.

Clicks is proud to be associated with the American Chamber of Commerce, MLC and NAB both as a sponsor and preferred recruitment provider. The event was a great success; both informative and enjoyed by all attendees. We would like to thank all who were involved.