Australia’s labour and skills crisis is worsening, with businesses struggling to fill nearly half a million jobs amid a mismatch between people’s expertise and the work available across the nation. There were a record 480,100 job vacancies in May–more than double the number at the start of the pandemic and up 14% from the previous three months.

The rising vacancy rate comes at the same time as Australia’s unemployment rate continues to fall, with the jobless rate at a 48-year low. This means there was nearly the same number of people looking for work as there were jobs.

With so many job vacancies available, employers are wondering how best to attract and retain good workers. There are several strategies business owners can put in place in order to attract the right talent and retain their team.

Strengthen The Workplace Culture

Consider your workplace environment. Do you team feel included in the day-to-day activities that are going on, or are they isolated in their individual departments, only interacting with one another.

educating time to ensuring all of your team have time to intermingle in a non-task related context allows for them to get to know one another better and fosters an overall better workplace culture.

Offer Flexible, Family-Friendly Policies And Programs

Companies should focus on becoming employers of choice. Offering flexible, family-friendly policies and programs has become the expectation of great employers. Consider the workplace and what employees need. Listening to employees through surveys and focus groups will help. Although finding good talent is important, retaining great talent helps even more.

Hire Based On Company Values

Often, companies are not hiring based on core values. They look for skills and experience, but do not consider if the candidate is a good fit for their culture. As a result, they end up with disengaged, low-performing and unhappy employees. To find and retain good talent, they need to start hiring based on company core values and do more to invest in their employees’ overall development.