Workout: Kittle joins Heidrick & Struggles

IBM data analytics and cloud expert Graham Kittle has joined executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles.

EXECUTIVE search firm Heidrick & Struggles has bolstered its global technology services and global industrial practices with the appointment of IBM data analytics and cloud expert Graham Kittle as a partner in its Sydney office.

The firm has also appointed Warren Harding as a partner in Melbourne and Perth, enabling it to expand its services to the resource sector, serving oil and gas clients in the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

Kittle brings international strategic consulting and technology industry experience, having worked with PwC Consulting, NCR Teradata, Lexmark and IBM’s global business services division. Harding was a managing director with Accenture Australia, where he led the energy industry portfolio covering conventional and coal-seam gas. He previously consulted with Cap Gemini, PwC and Deloitte in Asia.

Welsh for Skillsoft

ONLINE education provider Skillsoft is teaming up with international management consultant Jack Welsh to deliver a series of programs on leadership development capabilities.

Welsh, who Fortune magazine dubbed manager of the century, will address a broad range of needs to enable learners to gain prescriptive information in action-based leadership development programs that equip managers with the core skills required to better lead. Skillsoft said Welsh’s style of management training was focused on practical business experience and not classroom theory. Learners would access the Welch Way resources through a cloud portal optimised to support tablet devices, promoting flexible workforces.

Need grows for pros

RECRUITMENT firm Hays has found in its latest Quarterly Hotspots report that accountants, site managers, structural engineers and administrators are four of the professionals sought by employers as various projects get under way across the nation. Hays Australia & New Zealand managing director Nick Deligiannis said there was optimism across several industry sectors and as the end of the financial year approached, a need for more senior finance staff, and temporary assignments for technically strong qualified accountants were likely to arise.

“Confidence is growing in the construction and property market, with employers talking of hiring plans and candidates looking for new exciting projects,” Deligiannis said.

He said in engineering the main areas of activity had been around infrastructure development and increasing capabilities in regional locations. In the public sector, Deligiannis said there had been an increase in employment for technical roles within both state and local governments.

Faults with finest

PROFESSIONAL services provider CEB has undertaken research on company high-performance and leadership programs and has found that 60 per cent of organisations are not transparent when it comes to identifying talent. CEB’s head of professional services, Samantha Hickey, said while high-performance programs were essential for developing strong leadership, they could create an “us and them” mentality between staff members if not implemented effectively. High-performance programs were identified as a weakness in many companies, where human resources managers lacked confidence in their delivery or were dissatisfied with them. “Many organisations struggle to implement successful HiPo programs because they lack an objective approach to selecting participants and fail to communicate the program’s objectives to both the participants and other staff members,” Hickey said.

She said the objectives of a high performance program should be visible to all staff members and should clearly define the criteria for experience and competencies required of participants.

Staff should also be made aware that being identified as a high performance staff member was not a permanent label, as the specific competencies in demand would change as the business evolved. She said the secret society mentality which high performance programs created could be damaging. Hickey said management could also be too scared to tell those who had not made the grade, creating further relationship breakdowns.