Key Challenges in Attracting and Retaining the Workforce in Australia

Running Head: HRM
0
Managing human resources
2/6/2020

HRM
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Key challenges in attracting and retaining the workforce in
Australia.
The workforce in Australia is around 11.9 million. There are a huge number of
employees in Australia in which two-third of the employees are employed full time. In Australia,
the ratio of the females who are working is 46% which is good than the other countries. There is
a majority of the workforce in Australia is young jobseekers who lies between the age of the 15
to 24. The workers who are the age of 45 years or more are 39% who are working in Australia.
The labor force in Australia is very much so the workers belong to both full-time employees and
part-time employees (Santhanam, et al., 2017). In Australia, the unemployment is also increasing
with time which was found 5.3% in the year 2019. With time the HR of the companies has to
face many challenges in retaining the workforce of Australia. The major challenges which were
seen are in the aging workforce, union presence, workforce relations, and the employee turnover.
The HR was facing the challenge not only in retaining the employees but also giving them the
benefits for the long term (Dhakal, et al., 2017).
The major challenge which the HR faces is that there is a shortage of skills in the market
so it becomes difficult for them to find the right talent for the right job. The normal working
hours in Australia are very large so people over there are difficult to retain and attract as they
want to work in a short time period of working hours (Nankervis, et al., 2012). There are many
challenges that were brought by the Federal government of Australia which creates many
challenges for HR. the technologies and the work practices are changing with time so the
challenges have been faced by HR in securing the skilled workers and to keep the pace of the
skilling workforce.
As per the author, the major challenges which were faced by the HR in the companies are
a shortage of the skills in the market, aging workforce, reluctance to reside employees remotely,
economic down strum, downsizing the workforce, workplace relations, union presence and
legislations (Nankervis, et al., 2016). The major challenges related to the workplace challenges
which were faced by the HR due to the change in the workplace legislation, skills shortage and
economic downturn. The employees are difficult to attract when they have requisite skills. The
workplace challenges are dominating due to the change in workplace legislation.

HRM
2
The common challenge in Australia which was found by HR is a lack of experienced and
qualified employees especially in remote areas. There is a lack of skills in the employers
especially in the sector of skilled trades and engineering. The working conditions are not flexible
due to which many employees do not retain in the job so the major issue and the challenge
related to the flexible working place. The lack of financial resources is another major concern or
the challenge due to which different salaries are offered to the employees and thus results in
increasing the competition among the staff (Nankervis, et al., 2019).
The challenges faced in attracting the staff in the remote areas or in the small town as the
activities and services offered over there are few. In remote areas of Australia, challenges that
were faced are lack of senior management, an aging workforce, etc. the consistency of the
employees is the other major concern as the issues faced in regards to this relates to unionization,
maintain the work-life balance, non-standardization work, etc. The workforce challenge relates
to the union presence and with the changes in the legislation (Nankervis, et al., 2016).
Employee turnover is a major issue in retaining employees in Australia. Due to the low
paid wages, the morale of the employees is getting down. There are several other issues that have
enhanced in the companies due to Employee retention such as the poor relationship with the
employee-manager, lack of clear career path, absence of recognition, etc. In Australia, the
competition among the youth is high so HR has to face certain challenges in retaining with the
employees (Chatterjee, 2013). They face the issue as the job opportunities in the developed
country are high so there is the cut-throat competition in attracting the employees. It becomes
difficult for the employees to retain for a longer period due to the availability of lucrative offers.
The major challenge in employee retention relates to the high expectation of the salary by
the employees and when the employees don’t get satisfied with the salary slab then they either
quit or switch on to some other companies. The budget of the organization is not that much and
the expectations of the employees are very high which creates the issue of salary dissatisfaction.
Nowadays the employees want to explore their skills so they also switch their job with a fixed
time period as they got bore with the job (Nankervis, 2013). The job rotation among the
employees is very common in Australia and this also creates the challenges for HR to attract and
retain the employees. The employees look for other avenues when their job is not rotated so job
rotation is essential with the specific time period to attract and retain the employees.