• Philip Taylor, Libby Brooke, Margaret Steinberg, Christopher McLoughlin and Tia Di Biase

30 August 2010Older workers are an important element of a diverse response to labour shortages, writes Philip Taylor and his research collaborators

EMPLOYERS HAVE adopted a diverse response to problems of labour supply, according to a survey of almost 600 Queensland public and private sector employers with more than 50 staff we carried out between February and June this year. The research, funded by the Australian Research Council and our industry partner, looked at a range of potential responses to expected labour shortages as Australia emerges from the global economic downturn.

Difficulties recruiting managers, professionals, and technicians and trades workers are of primary concern to survey respondents. Larger organisations of more than 200 employees and public sector employers are particularly worried about the recruitment of professional staff. Employers have additional concerns about the quality of job candidates and their ability to compete on levels of remuneration with other employers.

Employers generally have an optimistic outlook concerning their ability to manage workforce challenges, except regarding easily adjusting the composition of their workforce in response to changing requirements. This is a particular concern for the public sector.

When asked about their response to labour shortages important to employers are encouraging flexible working, the employment of women, young people and older people. Recruiting migrant labour currently features relatively low on the agendas of employers, 23 per cent in the private sector and 18 per cent in the public sector adopting this approach. Larger organizations and private sector firms overall are somewhat more interested in migrants but these still represent a small minority. In contrast, recruiting older workers is being considered by far more employers, with almost half in the public sector and more than 40 per cent in the private sector already targeting them.

Workforce ageing is also viewed as a looming issue by many employers. The majority of both private and public sector employers anticipate an increase in the proportion of their workforces aged 50 or over in the next five years. A majority of employers overall and three-quarters of public sector employers in particular believe that a response to this issue is required within a five-year time horizon.

Notably though, a third of public sector employers see an immediate need to act. The sector has particular concerns about an imminent loss of staff due to retirement and increased sick leave due to workforce ageing. Such employers have, unsurprisingly, taken more steps to address the issue, including, coaching and mentoring, knowledge transfer, health and wellbeing and career development schemes being most commonly applied. However, retraining for older workers has not been commonly adopted, suggesting that many employers are not interested in investing in their ageing human capital.

These findings indicate that many employers are facing a post-GFC resurgence of labour supply problems, with employment flexibility and workforce diversity as core responses. Workforce ageing is an immediate concern for many employers, pointing to the urgent need for government and industry groups to focus support in the areas of promoting best employment practice and further removing barriers to the labour force entry and retention of older workers and women. •

Philip Taylor, Christopher McLoughlin and Tia Di Biase are researchers at Monash University, and Libby Brooke and Margaret Steinberg are with the Business, Work and Ageing Centre for Research at Swinburne University of Technology

The research on which this article is based forms part of an ARC project, Working Late, examining the management of labour supply, which involves Professor Philip Taylor, Monash University, Associate Professor Libby Brooke and Professor Margaret Steinberg, Swinburne University of Technology and Professor Peter McDonald of the Australian National University as Chief Investigators.

Photo: endopack/ iStockphoto