News

Melbournians aged over 50 could soon be in hot demand as small businesses look at implementing new strategies to deal with staffing shortages and retention.

The Wise Workforce Project being launched by the Centre for Business, Work and Ageing at Swinburne University on 24 November is helping small businesses in Melbourne's inner-east deal with ageing workforce issues that have arisen due to labour shortages.

Damien Woods, senior consultant, from the Centre for Business, Work and Ageing, part of Swinburne University's Faculty of Business and Enterprise, said many large organisations were already positioning themselves for critical labour shortages by investing in an older workforce and it was critical that smaller enterprises also plan effectively.

"Small to medium enterprises employ a large proportion of the Australian workforce but don't have the same resources to devote to workforce planning that big businesses do.

"We are working with the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations on this project to help small businesses develop simple, practical strategies to cope with and, even thrive from, the challenges and opportunities this shift will create," he said.

The changing demographic structure of the Australian workforce is having a significant impact on the way business accesses and manages labour. Growth in the labour force is increasing in the 45 - plus age group. The demographic of the labour-force growth has changed over the past 20 years.

During 1982 - 92, 68 per cent of the growth was concentrated in the 15 - 44 age group. In the past decade, growth in this age group has fallen to 28 per cent. It is predicted that in the next decade the labour force growth of 15 - 44 year olds will drop even further to 15.3 per cent.

"Access Economics figures indicate a dramatic decrease in labour force growth from an average of 170,000 new entrants during the 1980s and 1990s to a total of 125,000 for the entire decade of the 2020s. SMEs, like big businesses in Australia, will have increasing difficulty in attracting and retaining quality staff and particularly in trades where there is a skills deficiency," Mr Woods said.

"Whereas we once measured retirement in years, we now measure it in decades. However, with the average age of retirement at just 59 in Australia, we are leaving the workforce earlier than our grandparents, but living a lot longer than them. When asked if they intend to work after retirement - something that with a traditional understanding would seem a silly question - the answer for most Australians is an emphatic ‘yes'," Mr Woods said.

"Today retirement doesn't mean ceasing work altogether, it can mean a whole variety of things, from starting a home business, to switching to part-time work, to down-shifting their current roles or to the more traditional leaving work altogether. It is more commonly a life transition where people continue to work in less stressful roles, where they can have time to enjoy their family or hobby or both."

The Wise Workforce initiative will be rolled out over the next six months and will include group workshops, mentoring sessions and a human resources work book developed especially for SMEs.

ENDS

Damien Woods is available for an interview.

For more information please contact Lea Kivivali (03) 9214 5428 or mobile 0410 569 311

23.11.2005

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