In The Hiring Line - Employers Can Break Skills Drought

The Age

Tuesday February 14, 2006

IAN PORTER, MANUFACTURING REPORTER

EMPLOYERS are going to have to change their attitudes to hiring and training if they are to ensure their businesses remain viable.

Job sharing, training employees and attracting back "boomerangs" - baby boomers who have retired - are some of the things employers are going to have to tackle to ensure they will have the skilled workforce they need, according to a leading industrialist.

But training alone will not be enough, former Mitsubishi Motors chief Tom Phillips told a meeting of the Institute of Chartered Accountants yesterday.

"We are told there is a nurse shortage in South Australia, but that's not right. There are enough nurses in South Australia, they are just doing other things," said Mr Phillips, who is chair of the South Australian Training and Skills Commission.

Similarly, he said 50 per cent of graduates from the Tertiary and Further Education system were no longer working in the areas in which they trained.

"We need to make these roles more attractive," said Mr Phillips, now a consultant with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

Mr Phillips said that, as Australia's demographics change, employers are going to have to accept that they will need to employ more older workers who have the necessary experience but who might not be able to work 40 hours a week.

"Employers will soon have no option but to work harder to retain or retrain older workers," he said.

"Employers might have to offer mature workers two days a week or three days a week, or work 9am to 1pm each day. That could be attractive to experienced people.

"Otherwise they are going to run out of the skills they need to run their businesses."

Mr Phillips said there were good reasons why employers should consider hiring more mature workers.

He said they incur less job turnover, with the disruption that involves, they take less sick leave, have fewer accidents, exert a steadying influence on younger employees and they are more productive.

But employers are also going to have to start thinking about training for the future.

"It's changing from an employer's market to an employee's market.

"Poaching other people's experienced staff does not work in the long run. It just makes it more expensive for everyone.

"Doing nothing is not an option."

© 2006 The Age

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