Seeing a great deal of HR Contract Roles - is it just me?

[KathyC]

Is it just me? Or are HR job seekers like me looking to change roles in HR not seeing much apart from 6 and 12 mth contract roles?

I know the prospects are looking up with more job mail adverts being delivered in my in box but unbelievably most roles are contract? A huge shift in the way HR specialist are hired has occurred under our noses and are we willing to take such gambles in jumping and changing from contract role to contract role? (I am not!).

Is this a result of the ongoing (rumored) uncertain job market? Is it as a result of the current economy? Are employers not willing to commit to HR professionals partnering with them to improve people capability for more than this amount of time? If so why?

I am trying to find the answers as I go about my evenings looking here and looking their for roles that are long term, but only finding positions that do not provide any sort of long term job security.

Are we in a time where we are all sitting and waiting in our jobs for better economic times, therefore not providing enough movement in the market to open up jobs with such security?

I ask all out there are they experiencing the same? Or is it just me?

[HeidiC]

Hi Kathy,

I have noticed the same thing. I was made redundant in June and have had to go from contract to contract in this current market.

I spoke to a couple of friends in the recruitment industry about it. They told me that as a lot of HR roles were made redundant in the GFC but now that the economy is picking up, they have to quickly fill in the gaps that the redundancies created. As they are still not completely confident, they don't want to hire someone into a permanent role only to have to remove the role again (which would be very suss under the new Fair Work Act).

So, all this means for us is that the perm roles are like hen's teeth until the exec realises that they do need someone full time (and the person in the contract role will most likely get the perm role anyway).

[Jobs in HR]

The trend towards hiring people on a contract basis rather than permanent really kicked off in Australia as we came out of the recession in the early 1990's. This was mainly because so many companies had to lay so many people off and make heaps of redundancy payments. Even big high profile companies who had never previously made people redundant en masse found themselves having to do so. In some cases whole divisions of companies were axed, some of which had been recruiting like crazy only six months before.

There were several reasons that companies preferred a greater temp/contract component of their workforce. Coming out of a recession they were uncertain what the future held in terms of the strength of the recovery so did not have the confidence to employ people on a permanent basis. Many managers did not have the authority/budget to increase their headcount, but temp/contract staff were not usually treated as staff headcount. Some companies did it to avoid huge redundancy payments in the future and others did it because they didn't want to be seen to be retrenching permanent staff.

The trend has stayed with us ever since, particularly as companies have realised that they can successfully utilise quite senior people on a contract basis and they often have the option to convert them to perm staff down the track. Also as unfair dismissal laws keep changing some companies use temp/contract labour as a matter of course like a "try before you buy" basis.

As for HR jobs, from our perspective (operating Jobs in HR), in recent years there have constantly been a large number of HR roles offered as contract positions, so I don't think there are necessarily more contract HR jobs now, just fewer permanent opportunities.

On a positive note however, the overall supply of new HR jobs (contract & perm) has been trending upwards for several months now. The market is still way off where it was in mid 2008 but we are moving in the right direction!

[KimL]

hello Kathy,

It is not just you, I also have noticed a lot more contracting roles vs. perm. roles in the HR world.

I wanted a change so I volunteered for redundancy when there was an opportunity in March this year, well that was silly of me when I looked back - I knew the whole world was in GFC but didn't anticipate the job market being so tough.

I'm working for another firm now as a contractor and I do enjoy the change. Contracting or not, I think the opportunity to gain experience from different industries is more important. When the HR job market does pick up, hopefully my contracting experience will help me to secure a permanent role in the industry I want to work.