Dr Ray Johnson, Managing Director at Agricultural Appointments a recruitment agency in Melbourne, Australia who has over 30 years experience in the Agricultural industry explains that there have been big changes in recruitment over the years.
Skill shortage
"The online advertising of jobs has seen big changes, for example Linked In has had a big impact, but the biggest problem in recruitment in Australia at the moment is the skill shortage, trying to find the right candidate is a huge issue."
"We supply people from Farm Manager level up to CEO and Directors, but the bulk of our work is in the mid ranges, such as technical marketing, sales development, product managers etc." said Ray.
Unemployment in the Melbourne area is only 5- 6% and the agri sector has always had a skill shortage, so there are more jobs than candidates. When you combine the low unemployment with a shortage of skilled candidates it really becomes hard to find good candidates according to Ray.
Brett Price - Sales Director and Dr Ray Johnson - Managing Director.
"We have always recruited a small number of people from overseas, mainly in the technical skills area, it has been said that there are 4 agronomy rolls for every agronomy graduate in Australia. We operate mainly in the regional locations which adds a degree of difficulty as nowadays most agronomist graduates want to work in the major urban areas or in cities, but Australia is a big place and a lot of the jobs are in rural areas."
"It used to be that people would go where the work was, but these days people want the social interaction and internet connectivity, restaurants and night life. If they already have those rolls in an urban environment then they are very difficult to coax outside.
In general the agricultural wages have not risen in proportion to other sectors in Australia, this is another factor as to why there are not the number of graduates in this sector. The agribusiness also has a bit of a job to do in catching up with other professions with benefits and working conditions.
Positives
The Australian mining boom is past, the industry which is taking off now is the agriculture industry. This is due to population growth and increasing food demand and for Australia, the proximity to the fast growing Asian markets.
"Agriculture is reaching record production levels and is on an upward trajectory the future looks bright for Agriculture," according to Ray. "Australian exports of beef are around ten fold more than 5 years ago, lamb is also at record levels all industries are firing on all cylinders at the moment!"
Agricultural Appointments is a specialist recruitment firm for agricultural, food and wine sectors, although most of the business is in agriculture and agri business. Company employees come from the agri business sector, so that they come to recruiting side with the necessary skills. "Each will have a certain area of expertise which they will focus on, what we find is that to really recruit effectively you need to specialise in a certain area, for instance we have someone who specialises in the more corporate multinational agro chemical companies and people who specialise in livestock etc. I specialise in the animal nutrition and livestock feed side of things," explains ray.
Ray added that it is essential to get out there and network, to go to events and conferences and work closely with universities and attend the carriers days to meet and advise the students.
For more information:
Dr Ray Johnson Agricultural Appointments
Tel: +61 3 9866 6899
Email: ray@agri.com.au
www.agri.com.au