Half of Australian Business Say Its Challenging to Recruit Skilled Professionals

A recent survey has discovered that half of Australian businesses find it more challenging to hire skilled professionals at the present time in compared to before the covid-19 pandemic. This mainly due to a huge competition for talent brought about by the restrictions on migration and huge demand for digital skills.

The recent surveyed which complied answers from 300 hiring managers, revealed that 47 percent believe the pandemic has increased the skills shortage in Australia.

As businesses across Australia continue to prioritise digital transformation and recovery from covid-19, attracting and retaining niche skillsets will be a top priority. At the same time, the reduced flow of foreign talent is placing mounting pressure on the limited domestic skills supply. Increased competition for talent is the reason it’s so difficult to find the right skills, according to 63 percent of business leaders surveyed, while 54 percent said it was due to rising demand for specialist skills and 23 percent an inability to recruit talent from overseas. In an attempt to solve the current problem, 41 percent of businesses are turning to reskilling their existing employees.

Although there might be no shortage of job opportunities in the Australian professional sectors at the present time, there is definitely a shortage of talent. In the meantime, until the flow of foreign talent is reintroduced back into the Australian labour market, employers will continue to be challenged by demand for specialised workers exceeding the supply.

With the huge levels of competition likely to carry on for a while, it is highly advisable for Australian employers to hire new staff based on attitude and potential in comparison to hiring simply off of their experience.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) Job Vacancies Survey, released in August 2021, the level of job vacancies was 46.5 per cent higher than in February 2020, prior to the start of the pandemic.

A recent survey that featuring the responses of 1,902 Australian employees revealed that 52 percent of workers believe they have been underpaid at least once during the pandemic. On top of this 51 percent believe that they have been paid late, which is an increase up from 48 percent which was the amount recorded in a survey taken prior to the covid-19 pandemic.

The research also showed that a total of 38 percent which is two in five workers admit that they have been overpaid. 43 percent have experienced issues with their payments such as incorrect tax or failed payments.

Problems with payroll extended to how quickly employers are resolving issues of incorrect payment. Results from the survey revealed that 43 percent of workers said their employer did not resolve their underpayment issue by the next pay cycle. Unfortantley,12 percent said their underpayment was never resolved.

The rise in incorrect payments has coincided with a time when Australian workers have already been feeling anxious about their economic security. 38 percent of respondents say that the events of the covid-19 pandemic will have a negative impact on their financial security in the next three years.

Kylie Baullo the Asia Pacific vice president of client services at ADP has said the common occurrence of pay errors is alarming, and holds deep ramifications for both employee wellbeing and the business bottom line.

“From loss of employee confidence and causing stress, to not being able to pay bills, incorrect and late payments can have a real, negative flow-on effect for individuals. For businesses, the headlines have shown there are significant financial and reputational implications for being charged with underpaying employees,” said Kylie Baullo the Asia Pacific vice president of client services at ADP.

“COVID-19 introduced the need for greater flexibility in how work is done and in the same period we saw an influx of legislative changes impacting wages, including adjustments to payroll tax, pay entitlements and support schemes like JobKeeker. Not all businesses were ready to smoothly navigate the many changes to compliance and compensation.”