Australia-Based HR Leaders Meet at ANZ Bank and Qantas

APAC Regional HR Leaders have met in Melbourne and Sydney this week to hear The Chapman Consulting Group’s Quarter 1 2011 APAC HR Update. ANZ played host to 20 HR Leaders on Monday 7 March in Melbourne, while more than 25 HR Leaders met at Qantas on Tuesday 8 March in Sydney to hear Matthew Chapman talk on the latest HR market trends across Singapore, Hong Kong, China, India, Japan, Australia and other markets across the region. Oscar Fuchs and Sarah Ettershank from The Chapman Consulting Group also participated in the Melbourne session.

Both sessions were very lively, largely due to the fact that the Australia-based HR Leaders enjoyed being in a unique community of fellow HR practitioners with strong exposure to the APAC region in their current roles. Discussion looked at the latest HR trends across the various markets including those affecting compensation, mobility, staffing, regional headquarter locations, and HR service delivery models.

As for the local Australia market, it was clear that economic activity remains strong, and the Australian HR talent market is continuing to tighten. In most cases, large amounts of HR hiring was still taking place in 2011.

Australian HR practitioners remain popular outside of Australia, especially in the stretched markets such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai. These foreign opportunities are favouring HR practitioners who are willing and able to relocate on local terms and assimilate quickly into foreign markets. In locations like Singapore and Melbourne, expatriate packages are paid generally only where a company asks one of its own employees to relocate at the company’s request. In these locations, the lower tax rate (which often offsets higher living costs) and the attraction of regional HR roles (as opposed to domestic HR roles) are seen as big attraction factors.