Australians worried about their job

Australians worried about their job

SIXTY-SEVEN PER CENT of jobseekers are concerned about their current job or career in light of the global economic slowdown. According to a recent survey of more than 10,000 Australian employees, 59 per cent of respondents are feeling less secure in their job now compared with 12 months ago – nearly double the number of jobseekers who felt this way in August (31 per cent). In terms of attitude to work for the next 12 months in light of a slowing economy in Australia, some of the feelings among respondents were:

Hoping for redundancy 2%

Business as usual 13%

Happy to keep job 15%

An optimistic 6 per cent are looking for a promotion with their current employer.

Source: SEEK

Generation Y show they can’t be trusted

THIRTY-THREE PER CENT of generation Y employees own up to revealing information about their workplace on social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook with the majority (61 per cent) knowingly doing so despite being aware of the security risk to their employer. A survey of 2700 people revealed, however, that only 5 per cent of 25-to-34-year-olds admitted to revealing information about their workplace, and older workers aged 35 years plus proved the least likely to be careless about their employers’ reputation when social networking online (1.5 per cent)

Source: Talent2

Social networking used to fill jobs

SEVENTEEN PER CENT more human resource professionals use social networking sites as recruiting, resumé verification, and applicant screening tools at least occasionally compared with 2006. Furthermore, what they report to find can be damaging to an applicants’ hiring prospects. While the research showed organisations still recruit primarily through national online job boards (48 per cent), 3 per cent of human resource professionals make social networking sites their primary recruiting source. The top reasons for using social networking sites for contact and recruitment were to:

Source: SHRM

Nurses: an endangered species

NURSES OVER the age of 55 years increased from 11 to 20 per cent between 1999 and 2005. With 14 per cent of the nurse workforce retiring every five years; and only 70 per cent of people qualified as nurses actually working as nurses, recent research paints an unsustainable picture for the Australian nursing workforce. The research also revealed that almost half (49 per cent) of Australian nurses are currently work part time.

Source: AHWI

US lawyers desire less stress

US LAWYERS would opt for shorter working hours and a less stressful working environment over higher salaries, a recent survey has shown. The survey asked 300 lawyers from large US law firms and corporations what one aspect of their job they would change, if given the opportunity. The top response, with 31 per cent of the votes, was “decreased job stress”. Following closely, with 30 per cent of the votes, was “less hours at work/more personal time”. Perhaps surprisingly, “higher salaries” was one of the least popular responses, gaining only 2 per cent of the votes.

Source: Robert Half Legal

Unhappy days are here again

MORE THAN half the Australian working population is not happy in their job. According to a survey of 1146 people more than 50 pent of workers never tell their boss that they are unhappy – preferring to resign if a better position came along (32 per cent), or likely just to resign because they were so unhappy (10 per cent) or believing that they were likely to be made redundant or terminated anyway (8 per cent).

Source:LinkMe

Gulf salaries rise

PRIVATE SECTOR salaries in the Gulf region increased at an average rate of 11.4 per cent over the last year. The UAE and Qatar topped the list of pay rises, with increases of 14 per cent and 13 per cent respectively. This was followed by Oman at 12 per cent. Bahraincame fourth at 11 per cent. Across the region, the frantic pace of growth in the construction and energy sectors escalated demand for engineers, who received the biggest average pay rises.

Source: GulfTalent.com

It’s politics as usual in the workplace

ONLY THIRTY-FIVE per cent of US organisations restrict political activities at work. Almost two-thirds of organisations recently surveyed have no written or unwritten policies on political activities in the workplace. However, 55 per cent of all US employers allow staff to take paid or unpaid time off to vote.

Source: SHRM

Death pips public speaking as our greatest fear

PUBLIC SPEAKING is feared almost as much as death according to a new survey which shows that 23 per cent of Australians fear public speaking more than death, compared with 27 per cent who ranked death as their number-one fear. The survey questioned 1206 adults aged 18 to 64 across Australia. The survey also revealed that households with a higher income ($70,000 +) fear public speaking just as much as the national average of 23 per cent.

Source: Newspoll

Firms unprepared for the economic downturn

ONE IN five UK companies had made no contingency plans ahead of the current financial crisis for managing their workforce during an economic downturn. A Global Strategic Reward survey found that 79 per cent of UK companies had contingency plans in place by the summer of 2008. This compares with 80 per cent on average across Europe. UK and continental European companies appear to have been more prepared than those in the United States, where only 67 per cent had made contingency plans. Figures vary across Europe. The most well-prepared countries with contingency plans were:

German firms 85%

Irish firms 87%

French firms 100%

Source: Watson Wyatt