Is this the solution to the labour market shortage?
19 September 2022 at 2:50 pm
In the wake of the federal government’s Jobs and Skills Summit, there’s a simple answer to the Australian labour market shortage that no one appears to be considering, writes Graeme Innes AM.
Employers are facing a labour market with record low unemployment, a national skills shortage and an increase in job vacancies across both the public and private sectors. It is a situation that government and employers are finding challenging, so challenging that early this month the federal treasurer convened the National Jobs and Skills Summit to secure solutions to workforce issues for the long term.
As the fastest growing employment sector in Australia, the care sector is feeling this impact more than most. Recruitment and retention of staff have proved highly problematic during the pandemic and that trend has remained stubborn.
The solution however has been with us all along. We have 113,000 job-ready Australians who are likely to have lower absenteeism and higher productivity than most that are ready and willing to get into employment.
What is this seemingly unicorn-like talent pool that is severely under-utilised in the Australian labour market? They are closer than we think; it’s people with a disability.
The reality is most Australians are experiencing record lows in unemployment, but not all. Despite Australia’s job vacancies at record highs, the unemployment rate for people with disability is double that of working-aged people without disabilities.
Unemployment rates will always fluctuate based on economic conditions, yet the ingrained barriers faced by people with disability are likely to be pervasive until we actively do something about it.
The care sector itself is yet to fully embrace leading the employment of people with disability, although it is absolutely primed to do so.
The first question I ask senior people in such organisations, what’s the percentage of people with disabilities that you employ?
For me, the answer to that question is a key measure of the effectiveness and inclusiveness of an organisation. But it is more than that. Employers hiring people with disability understand the economic benefits of ensuring their workforce represents their consumer or client base and they understand that people with disability are often more loyal, reliable and give greater discretionary effort than their non-disabled peers.
What we must recognise however is that employment of people with disability cannot be entry-level only, we must reflect that diversity and contribution through our workplaces, from junior positions through to executive and board levels. The care sector must lead the way and be the example of how corporate Australia and government must shift towards greater inclusion.
Employers in our sector can make an immediate difference in what is a pressing social justice and human rights issue, create more diverse workplaces, improve their productivity, and make a tremendously positive impact on those we care for.
So, while recruiting in an increasingly competitive and at times, mystifying market, it could do you, your organisation, your teams and our nation a great deal of good to tell a person with a disability that they can “start on Monday”.
