Resources executives are more likely to switch jobs for a good leader and pay over a waning allure to change the world — according to two talent scouts — as critical minerals roles lose popularity to gold.
Acacia founders Abbi Vermey and Laura Grierson say their Subiaco white-collar recruitment firm has had a 128 per cent increase in gold and copper roles over the past financial year, while jobs in lithium and rare earths have remained relatively stagnant.
It comes as metals commodities and critical minerals ride out a marked switch in fortunes, but also reflects the firm’s reported drop in exploration stage roles as support for the junior end of the market stays low.
With prices finding new highs and the economic outlook more uncertain, the pull of a job in the once less favourable gold space was now far more appealing, according to Ms Grierson, who said job security was also higher on the agenda.
It compares to different work motivators of several years ago, when lithium prices were on the up and the prospect of a new and growing industry had more allure.
“The big focus was, ‘I want to be a part of the global transition and the change’. It was much more aspirational,” she said.
“People are very willing to work for gold companies now. Whereas for a while people were saying, ‘I don’t want to be a part of gold, how is that helping us shift and move forward?’”
Fellow director Ms Vermey said the desire to “get into critical minerals and change the world” had fallen down the priority list and the focus was on money and even sign-on bonuses.
“People are more expensive than ever,” she said.
With a mismatch between roles available and executives to fill them, the pair said some job changers were calling for prospective employers to pay out their long-term incentives they would be leaving behind in order to make the move.
“They’ll say, ‘That’s my equity on hand, and I expect that as a sign-on for me to move’,” Ms Grierson said.
With the pandemic well behind them people were also more likely to move overseas for a job, Ms Vermey said, with roles in Africa, South America and the Middle East taking up a lot more of their work.
“They (companies) all apologetically just want Australian expertise and pay anything to get that. There’s definitely more mobility. So the talent in terms of Australia producing technical people, is going to become tighter and tighter.”