Six Figures Blog

The Source of Talent, 09, a report tracking the hiring practices of organisations in Australia, has been released. The report, a result of surveying 409 organisations who made a total of 92,136 hires in the last 12 months, compares the effectiveness of 17 different
identifiable sources of talent.

“The study reveals clear national trends but the sources of talent vary according to regional location, size of company, types of organisation and industry sector,” said Phillip Tusing, founder Destination Talent, and co-author of the report. Job boards emerged as the most dominant source of talent, accounting for 29.64% of total hires. Internal recruiters and corporate websites also ranked highly as sources of talent, accounting for 16.78%and 10.60% respectively.

There is also a clear demarcation between employers and professional recruiters on their degree of dependence on various sources of talent. While organisations in the NT rely heavily on walk-ins, those in the ACT prefer to use internal recruiters and the rest of the
country prefer job boards.

“We are surprised by many of the findings, some in contrast to established norms within the HR and Recruitment industries. For instance, referrals are only the fourth most successful source of talent. It is also interesting that in the last twelve months social media as a recruitment source has been virtually ignored by corporate Australia,” explained Inspecht Founder and co-author of the report Michael Specht.

Besides painting a clearer picture on the methods organisations utilise to source talent, the report is intended to stimulate debate around the collection of recruitment data and encourage the better monitoring of various sources.

The report is available for free download on Sources of Talent In Australia