HRM Essay: Workforce Attraction and Retention Challenges in Australia

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the key challenges in attracting and retaining the workforce in Australia. It delves into various factors, including the aging workforce, skills shortages, economic downturns, workplace relations, and employee turnover. The essay explores the impact of legislative changes, salary dissatisfaction, and unrealistic employee expectations on retention rates. It highlights issues such as the lack of job rotation, difficulties in attracting employees in remote areas, and the importance of training and development. Furthermore, the essay emphasizes the crucial role of human resources in managing the workforce, improving business aspects, and achieving organizational goals. The study also examines the impact of factors such as salary dissatisfaction, higher job opportunities, and the absence of job rotation on employee retention. It underscores the need for organizations to maintain long-term associations with employees and implement strategies to address these challenges for business success.

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

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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.

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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

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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.
The main role of HR is to recruit the right person for the right requirement so at the time
of hiring the employee's many candidates give their wrong description and manipulate the HR so
this is the biggest challenge faced by the employees (Allui, and Sahni, 2016). The recruitment is
done by the HR but later on, it is realized that employee is not worthy for the job and it
mismatches with the requirements. So the issue or the problem arise true candidate indulges in
the wrong job and this creates the challenge in retaining the employees. Employees have very
many unrealistic expectations so this creates the issue for the employees in changing their job
and retention are not possible. It is not necessary by HR to meet up every requirement of the
employee and to give every comfort, so the employees look for the change when their
expectations are not meet up.
The workforce of Australia requires training and supporting employees to stay attracted
and retained in the job. So another issue in giving the proper training to the employees and if the
employers are not getting the work then the employees are cut off and the extra cost is not paid.
It becomes very difficult for HR to manage the job postings and to give the hike to the
employees as per their skills so many employees are also not attracted as they do not get satisfied
with the HR recruitment (Nankervis, et al., 2019).
The workforce is too important in the organizations and the whole organization depends
on the workforce itself. The overall productivity and profitability of the business also depend on
the workforce. So, the organization needs to plan the workforce in an appropriate manner. The
human resource is responsible for managing the workforce in the organization and helps them in
working properly to improve the business aspects (Connell, et al., 2015). The human resources
need several efforts to attract and retaining the workforce in the Australian business field. All the
process of the workforce depends on the human resources itself. In the field of Australian
business, several aspects are used by the human resource manager to attract and retain the
employees.
The attraction and retaining of employees are necessary for the business organization.
The Australian sector faces several issues in attracting and retaining the employees. The

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organizations of Australia achieve better performance by using the strategies to attracting and
retaining the employees. The Australian economy is too effective in the overall process of the
business and the business performance directly impacts the overall economic conditions of the
Australian country. The legislative change directly impacts the overall process of business in
Australia. There are several key challenges faced by the human resource department to attract
and retain employees in the business sector. There are several challenges that are used to attract
or retain employees. The several challenges affect the overall process of attracting and retaining
the employees.
Employee retention is the ability of the organization to retain its employees. The main
aim of employee retention relates to the happiness of stakeholders as well as employees. Some
of the major challenges faced by attracting and retaining the workforce are changes I the
legislation of workplace, economic downturn, skills shortages, salary dissatisfaction, higher job
opportunities, no job rotation in an organization and unrealistic expectations of employees.
All these challenges are directly affecting the employees as well as the performance of
the business organization itself. The workplace includes several was and regulations that are used
to maintain the different activities of the organization. So, the employees become familiar with
the legislation of the country (Ananthram and Nankervis, 2013). Then after changes in the
legislation, employees face several problems in the working process so they want to switch the
organization and change the job as per the rules. Australia is facing a major economic downturn
so this is also an important factor that affects the employee’s retention and attraction.
The overall attraction of the employees gets affected by the economic downturn. The
economic downturn affects human resources in maintaining the attraction and retention of the
employees. The economic downturn of Australia affects the overall process of the retention and
attraction of employees. The people of the organization that works in the human resources need
to attract and retain the employees so the downturn of the economic conditions distracts them to
maintain retention of the employees.
As the shortage of skills affect the overall process of retaining the employees as the
shortage of the human resources skills cannot affect the employees and faces many problems in
maintaining the attraction and retention of the employees. Several people have a shortage of

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skills in the human resources department so they cannot retain the employees in a proper manner.
This is also coming in the biggest challenges in employee retention as these people are totally
responsible for maintaining the retention of the employees. In the current business market of
Australia, the job opportunities are too high so the employees distract towards other
opportunities and leave the organization so as per the higher job opportunities; the people need
more efforts in retaining the employees as they cannot distract their mind by the human resource
people also.
The absence of job rotation also affects the people in maintaining the retention of the
employees. The employees need proper rotation in the job so the business organization needs to
maintain the job rotation in the employees so this process helps in retaining the employees in the
organization. Job rotation is one of the important factors that retain the employees. The human
resources feel easier in the retention by implementing the proper rotation of the employees
(Montague, et al., 2015).
Salary dissatisfaction is also one of the important factors that create the challenges among
the human resource people in retaining the employees (Soldan and Nankervis, 2014). Due to the
dissatisfaction in the employees, the human resources people cannot maintain the retaining of the
employees. The salary dissatisfaction among employees is one of the important factors that
create a challenge in retaining and attracting the employees. The several employees have
unrealistic expectations of employees so the organization cannot able to meet all expectations of
employees so the people in human resources affected and faces several challenges in motivating
the employees.
The proper functions of HR maintain the retention in the employees but most of the
people in HR have low skills in motivating the employees. The HR department needs to maintain
long term association with the employees to maintain their attraction and retention n the specific
business organization. The employee retention is too beneficial for the business so it is important
to maintain it to get proper profits. The HR manager needs to influence the employees for
retaining the organization. The HR department provides managers the proper tools to manage the
employee’s attraction (Nankervis, 2013).

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The motivation is important for the organizational employees and it maintains the overall
attraction of the employees. The retention of positive and motivated employees is easier as
compared to other employees. The challenges affected the overall process of the employee’s
retention. The challenges make the overall process typical for the people related to the HR
department. The Australian economic conditions fluctuated as per the process so this affects the
overall employees’ retention (Davies, et al., 2011). The Australian workforce needs the proper
support of the HR department so that they manage their work in the business process. The
challenges are the biggest problems in retention and attraction of the employees which directly
affect the organization's profits.
It becomes very difficult to attract the workforce of Australia as everyone is well
qualified to so to identify the best candidate is quite difficult and challenging. There is a lot of
pressure to fill open positions, collaborating with coworkers, and spending time on the other
activities too (Chaudhry, et al., 2013). So there the complex challenges which were faced by the
workforce of Australia in retaining the job. To attract the employees and to retain them is
challenging due to the aging workforce, union presence, workforce relations and with employee
turnover.

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