Guide advises fairly tight rein on pay will continue though demand for skilled staff remains high
While recruitment specialist Hays sees the rest of the economy set to start hiring in the coming financial year, the outlook for transport and logistics is continuing stability.
Hays believes recent surveys and data show volatility due to the transition from the mining investment boom is dissipating, leading to greater confidence on the recruitment front.
“After a few bumpy years and the fading of the mining investment boom, it seems that employers now feel more positive about hiring in 2014-15,” Hays Australia & New Zealand managing director Nick Deligiannis says in the foreword to the 2014 Hays Salary Guide: Salary & Recruiting Trends report.
“But as recruitment activity increases, that old threat of a skills shortage again looms.
“It’s quite a paradox; for some job functions there is still a surplus of candidates yet in others, often those that require highly-skilled and experienced professionals, there is a shortage of suitable talent.”
Some of these observation hold true for what it describes as the ‘logistics industry’, particularly for those with skills in working with “highly sophisticated automation systems such as SAP APO, JDE and Manugistics” along with those with expertise in enterprise bargaining agreement negotiations and managing relationships with unions and those the warehouse sector with leadership skills and who are familiar with demand and planning.
But stability will rule generally in the sector as managers continue to focus on productivity, efficiencies and cost savings.
“Evident in all logistics employers, this focus marginally reduced or kept salary levels stable over 2013-14, and it will also ensure salaries remain steady for the 2014-15 year,” Hays analysts say.
Since the last report, 62 per cent of the logistics industry had seen an increase in pay of less than 3 per cent, 29 per cent an increase of 3-6 per cent and 1 per cent an increase of 6-10 per cent, while 8 per cent had no pay rise.
Survey respondents indicated a minor shunt downward of intentions to increase pay next financial year by less than 3 per cent unchanged, no increase growing to 12 per cent and increase of 6-10 per cent falling to 24 per cent.
Staff at a lucky 1 per cent of respondents can expect a pay rise of more than 10 per cent.
The expectations of prospective staff were broadly in line with that of employers, with positive divergence seen at the no rise, 6-10 per cent rise and more than 10 per cent rise sections
In transport, multi-skilled middle managers have been shielded or even boosted as companies sought efficiencies.
‘A number of senior positions were filled and employers focused on recruiting strong operational managers with industry experience and strategic planning capabilities,” the analysts say.
“This is a welcome shift following the previous decline in express transport freight.
“But an amalgamation of managerial roles in transport, as well as warehouse, was seen at the middle management level, which added to the responsibilities of the remaining managers.
“Candidates who accepted this situation retained their position and job seekers who used this to their advantage were the successful applicants.
“Recruitment within bulk freight meanwhile was seen from the retail industry, where there is a shortage of skilled candidates with extensive exposure to retail transport operations.”
Also evident has been salaries in Western Australia and Queensland becoming more aligned with other states within supply chains as a number of mining-support companies made redundancies and cut backs and recentralised functions.