This week I am in Australia to meet customers, conduct roundtables and release our new Taleo Research report on ROI of Talent Acquisition and Mobility. Because of its Commonwealth heritage and its immigration policy and history, Australia is an interesting blend between Europe and the US. But because of its proximity to the emerging markets ” China and India ” some organizations have operations in Sydney that are deeply involved in the growth of this part of the world.

We were lucky to have HPs Asia Pacific manager share how they have been using Taleo, especially describing the challenges that Japan represented and the hyper growth in China, where HP is hiring as many as 1,100 graduates at a time.

The recurring theme that I observed is the labor shortage. It is often more acute than anywhere else, probably due to the truly isolated and controlled population flow. The source often quoted for that is Business Work & Ageing .

Many similarities to organizations all over the world are noticeable such as the growing imperative to control contingent labor as well as agencys candidates, usage of blog and increased emphasis on the internal labor market. To this point, one of our local customers (one of the largest financial institutions in Sydney) even had the CEO acknowledge the importance of this initiative.

Yet the most important aspect is the fact that Australians are very open to strategies to bring skilled people to Australia, and explore many tactics to either make Australians come back or other foreign nationals come. As Ive witnessed here, we are really getting into a global labor market and with the internet as a tool the competition is only starting!