Mining engineer

When asked to nominate the hardest job to fill, the group director of recruitment firm Randstad, Steve Shepherd, replies without hesitation, “mining engineer”.

Other recruiters agree. “There are currently over 1000 mining engineer jobs being advertised on employment job boards,” Michael Page International associate director Nic Chambers says.

Research firm Mercer says engineers’ salaries grew by 5.9 per cent in 2010-11, compared with average salary growth of 4 per cent.

“There’s a bit of a reluctance to just keep paying,” Mercer principal Anthony Shippard says. “Employers have seen enough boom and bust cycles to see that continuing to pay through the nose isn’t the longest term prospect.”

Although miners and mining services companies are looking overseas, Shepherd says there’s a desire to develop local talent as a more sustainable fix.

Mining services provider NRW has more than doubled its staff to 3800 in less than two years. It employs more than 50 engineers and is looking for more, its general manager, human resources Janette Woodham says. It has sourced “excellent candidates” from the United Kingdom, Europe and South Africa, but Woodham says the company will expand its graduate recruitment program to build the skills for future leaders from its workforce.

Project managers, infrastructure

Road and rail rebuilding efforts in Queensland after the devastating 2011 floods are driving the need for project managers with experience in infrastructure construction. That demand is heightened by a shift in the mining industry’s priorities, IBISWorld senior analyst Ian MacGowan says. In terms of total employment, the mining boom has been “a little bit of a ghost”, he says. “The boom has been driven by prices not production. Now we’re starting to see the flow-on of investment into the industry to expand operations, facilities and production.”

What this means is that demand for project managers of road, rail and port infrastructure is about to go through the roof as mining’s infrastructure investment comes on stream.

Smaller companies, such as BRW Fast 100 alumnus Martinus Rail, with its 12 staff and revenue of $6.1 million in 2010-11, are going to have to get smart. “It’s going to be tough,” chief executive Treaven Martinus says.

The company designs and develops rail components and also manages construction of specific rail infrastructure, generally for state government passenger projects and freight projects for government and mining clients. “We’re facing a huge shortage of project managers,” Martinus says.

One way around this is to recruit outside the rail industry. “[We’ll consider] anyone from project managing or engineering, not from a railway background, and train them up to our particular needs,” he says.

The company does not have the budget for a formal program, so most training is done on the job. “[New employees] jump into jobs but are overseen by a senior project manager,” he says. “After six months they then go and run similar or smaller projects on their own.”

Early childhood teachers

Legislation brought in at the start of 2012 will boost demand for childcare workers in general and for degree-qualified early childhood teachers in particular. Progressively, over the next five years, all employees in the industry will need Certificate III-level qualifications (usually acquired through TAFE) and at least one university-qualified teacher will need to be present at every childcare centre.

The chief executive of non-profit childcare provider KU Children’s Services, Christine Legg, says: “There’s been a shortage of early childhood teachers for a while, way before this National Quality Framework was introduced.”

The problem, she says, is pay. Early childhood teaching degree graduates can teach children aged 0 to 8 years, that is, in a childcare centre or in the first three years of primary school. The union for early childhood teachers says that those who go into childcare earn on average 20 per cent less (about $14,000) than their counterparts in schools.

The largest private childcare provider, Goodstart, has 15,000 employees. “Over the next few years we will need to recruit about 500 early childhood teachers,” chief executive Julia Davison says. The company will be able to train workers to certificate and diploma level through its own Goodstart Training College and for those that wish to do a degree, Goodstart will offer flexible working options.

Underground electricians

Listed mining services company Mastermyne, based in Mackay, provides all underground services for clients such as Xstrata and Rio Tinto. The company employs about 1100 workers at 13 coalmines in NSW and Queensland. It turned over $164.8 million in 2010-11.

The company is in dire need of electricians with experience working underground. “I would say that we could give 40 jobs to underground electricians at this time, if they magically appeared,” human resources manager Vivienne Gayton says.

Mastermyne receives plenty of applications from domestic electricians but due to the high-risk nature of the underground environment, these “cleanskins”, as they’re known, are “unconsciously ignorant” of the extra safety and other knowledge needed.

So the company has invested $1 million in the development of a four-week training program held in Mackay and Brisbane called Myne Start. Domestic electricians that the company believes have the aptitude to work underground undertake the program, while being paid.

The cost to the company, per employee, is about $20,000 but the workers pay back $11,000 of this once they are in the mines.

“They have to invest in the process,” Gayton says. “The people that we do get are people that are really committed to making the transition.”

Gayton says companies in the mining sector need to “take more responsibility in the way they recruit their employees”. This includes investing in training. “I think the worst thing that people can do is continue to compete for the same pool of labour and continue to push wages to unjustifiable levels.”

Senior digital marketers

Universities may churn out communications and marketing graduates at a rapid pace but a Facebook page and a smartphone does not make an experienced digital marketer.

“What you’re generally looking for in this area is people . . . who have done the theory and the study but have done good demonstrable practical experience,” recruitment company Randstad director Steve Shepherd says.

Supply is thin but demand is also boosted as companies realise “we need to get into this internet thing but we don’t really know how to do it”, Shepherd adds.

Sydney-based digital agency HotHouse put on 15 employees in two months at the end of 2011.

“We’re seeing a massive increase in spending,” the agency’s executive director, Rob Olver, says. “Every client is in some way shape or form changing the allocation of their budget.”

The positions filled were across the board from web and smartphone application developers, to user experience architects (the people who decide the look and feel of a website or application) and creative staff such as video producers.

The company’s most effective recruitment strategy has always been internal referrals.

“If a HotHouse person can identify another person, they’re usually fantastic hires,” Olver says.

“The best results we’ve had here are people who have got core competencies and have a flair about them and then we do a lot of on the job training,” he adds.

“Digital is so new that it’s actually quite difficult to find anyone who’s done it before.”