According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the rate of unemployment in the country (as of October 2022) stands at 3.4%. While this has been accompanied by a slight slowing in the growth of employment, this most recent data nevertheless reveals that more Australians of working age are in employment than ever before.
What this means for businesses looking to expand into Australia, or to take on remote Aussie workers, is that a highly competitive market can make it challenging to find, attract and retain staff of a suitably high caliber. This is in part because Australia’s working habits and approach to remote work, contract work, and the gig economy have changed significantly considering Covid19.
Therefore, while the low unemployment rate does present some challenges for businesses when it comes to hiring in Australia, the evolving employment market does nevertheless offer a range of opportunities if enterprises understand what is required to recruit talent and retain workers.
1. Importance of employee engagement
In the current competitive employment market in Australia, understanding how to engage and motivate employees is crucial.
One impact of Covid19 is that many employees feel that they were not properly compensated for going above and beyond the call of duty during the pandemic — therefore, attractive remuneration packages, tailored to meet an employee’s skill set and expectations, are now more important than ever.
At the same time, however, changing attitudes mean that positive employee engagement is likely to be about more than money.
For instance, Australian workers are more aware than ever of the importance of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG). Many want to feel that they are contributing to an organization that takes ESG seriously and has policies and practices in place that reflect this.
Sustainability, inclusion, well-being and equity are increasingly important to much of the Australian workforce, and so a commitment to these is also likely to achieve greater commitment from employees.
2. High turnover of temporary workers
In the gig economy, remote hiring is increasingly a fact of life, so employers need to understand that even in an advanced economy like Australia’s, a high turnover of temporary workers can be expected.
There are, therefore, always new opportunities arising for companies to access high-quality staff as contractors or on temporary assignments if employers understand what is required in this space to attract these sorts of workers.
This is linked to employee engagement, and so to be able to attract the best talent and take advantage of churn in the gig economy, attention needs to be paid to staff retention policies, the creation of employee-friendly employment practices, enhanced flexibility, and greater remuneration.
In this way, there is the possibility of attracting high-grade talent that is looking to be hired for single projects, or on a temporary basis.
3. Addressing the skills shortage
Even though there is currently relatively low unemployment, Australia is still experiencing a skills shortage.
In order to attract and retain the best talent, employers need to offer opportunities for training and upskilling as part of any employment package. The chance to upskill is increasingly appealing to contractors, as they value acquiring new skills as a way of enhancing their own worth, while at the same time it also increases engagement and contributes to retention.
Any organization wanting to be competitive in the current climate therefore, needs to have a strategy in place for ensuring that remote and contract workers have appropriate opportunities for acquiring additional skills.
4. Onboarding across borders
For businesses looking to expand into Australia, and/or hire remote and contractors who are based there, opportunities to access high quality global talent abound.
However, there can be challenges involved if you don’t have experience of the legislation and labour laws in Australia, and don’t have an HR team on the ground.
For many businesses, the solution is to work with an Employer of Record (EOR).
Essentially, an EOR (sometimes known as a global professional employment organisation, or PEO) makes it highly efficient and cost effective to hire overseas staff. It is a means of outsourcing the functions that would normally be undertaken by an in-house HR department, enabling you to hire workers without having to take on HR staff or establish a legal entity in a foreign country.
An EOR will also make sure that workers are paid properly and on time, as well as ensuring compliance with Australian labour laws regarding minimum wage, leave and other benefits.
5. Payroll payments to Australian employees
One of the most important functions of an EOR is to ensure that remote workers and contractors are paid correctly, on time, in line with local labour laws, and in the appropriate currency. And while these are all relatively straightforward operations undertaken by your in-house HR department in your ‘home’ country, ensuring compliance in these areas when hiring abroad is always more challenging.
For instance, as Australian states have some autonomy with regard to employment law, it is important to know that payroll cycles can range between monthly, bi-monthly, or bi-weekly, as this Australian payroll guide explains.
However, working with an EOR will ensure that you do not breach any regulations in the payment of workers, and in so doing incur significant penalties.
6. The Great Exhaustion and how to manage it
As has been discussed, the employment landscape is constantly evolving, both as a result of the flexibility that an increasingly digital world requires, as well as the change in outlook that has been the inevitable consequence of the global pandemic.
Many people emerged from Covid19 feeling both physically and emotionally drained — a state of mind and body that the press has called The Great Exhaustion.
Employers need to be aware that in the current environment, workloads need to be constantly assessed in order to avoid worker burnout, while processes and procedures need to be in place to foster mental health and physical well-being.
In order to promote staff retention and reduce worker turnover, acknowledging that there is a demand for changed working practices and responding to this, is essential for any business looking to take on workers in Australia.
READ MORE
