How to grow your team in a labour shortage
The Post-Covid era has seen an interesting development in the labour market – one that we haven’t seen since the pre-GFC boom.
Right now, Australia is in a Seller’s Market. Simply put, this means there is a mismatch of too many job vacancies and not enough appropriate applicants. So, if you have been struggling to find the right applicant for that hard-to-fill role, it’s likely you’re not alone.
The Seller’s Market has created strains on many of our clients, ranging from Lawyers, Office Managers, Engineers, Designers, Telesales and more – take your pick. In the month of March, Seek’s customers have posted more job advertisements than any other time in Seek’s 23+ year history. Simultaneously, Seek also had the least number of applicants since 2017.
In other words, if you are currently looking for a highly experienced candidate to fill a vacant role, then you might be in for a tough road.
I won't go into the 'why' at this stage. It's complicated, contains many theories and variables, most of which we cannot conclusively prove in this single blog post.
The focus of this article is to get companies thinking about alternatives. Unfortunately, there is no magic pill or quick fix to solve this current labour shortage. You could pay more to find the right applicant of course, however for most business owners and decision makers, we are still too early into the recovery to be making big plays with cashflow and the corresponding price increases that inevitably entails.
Instead, there’s two key alternatives to help you fill a vacancy during a labour shortage:
1. Transferable Talent
2. Graduate/Young Talent
1. Searching for Transferable Talent:
I’ll be upfront and say that this is the more complex alternative of the two. To find transferable talent, you take a role and ask yourself the question:
““Has another industry seen massive decline, or currently experience generally lower wages that would mean I could poach talent with transferable skills?”.”
This sounds relatively simple at first, however it requires you to think very laterally and explore options for additional training, which some employers can be reluctant to do.
An example of transferable talent might occur when you are looking to fill an Office Manager role.
By identifying transferable talent, you may choose to advertise for a highly experienced In-Flight Service Manager (also known as the Chief Flight Attendant in an aircraft). With some additional training, this individual would be able to keep an office flowing and moving. There are many examples like this, try to think as laterally as possible.
2. Hiring a Graduate/Young Talent:
In some cases, you need an employee that has a specific technical skill, which is not always possible to find with transferable talent. In this case, your best alternative is to hire graduates.
In my years with Melbourne HR, I have noticed that there is a general industry reluctance to taking on Graduates. In particular, higher professionally qualified workplaces tend to need much more convincing to hire young people, in comparison to less white-collar companies.
What they don’t realise, is that now is the time to hire graduates. Give your lower experienced workers a small promotion, which involves giving them personnel to train and take on. This will provide you with immense capability over the medium term.
For the eagle eyed, you would have noticed that I didn’t say short-term. Yes, graduates can be a net drag in the short term – however that’s not the point. Graduates and young talent are an investment, an investment that has a significant pay-off for you as a company. Give them time and invest your energy into young talent, and you will see them turn into lightly experienced professionals within a very short period of time.
So as you can see, there are alternatives to help you find the right candidate for that hard-to-fill role, even if we are experiencing a labour shortage.
If the Seller’s Market has left you struggling to fill a vacancy, contact Melbourne HR and we can help you to grow your team.
Call: 1300 784 687
David Simpson is the Founder and Managing Director of Melbourne HR.
Edited by Nicole Torrington, Marketing Manager at Melbourne HR.
