The Australian Pipeliner speaks with specialist recruiter at Peter Norman Personnel Kate Cuic about how work culture has shifted in the wake of the ‘great resignation’.
Peter Norman Personnel (PNP) is a recruitment agency servicing the engineering and utilities sectors, with core markets across gas, water, electricity, communications, transport and manufacturing. Kate Cuic is a recruitment manager with specialist insider knowledge of pipeline projects and spaces.
Speaking on the unforeseen nature of the great resignation that the Australian workforce has been experiencing, Cuic explains that as a result, hiring new staff and managing employee expectations has become more challenging for employers across all industries, including the pipelines sector.
“The demand for staff exceeds the availability of resources,” says Cuic.
“One of the main factors include border closures during pandemic risk management: State border closures and varied pandemic control measures led to a large exodus from city to regional areas within some states, but mostly from one state to another, in addition to the retirement of many skilled career seniors over the last 12-18 months.
“At the same time, national border closures substantially reduced the number of skilled migrants coming into the country as well as causing difficulty for internationally skilled expat Australians looking to return.
“Likewise, uncertain conditions for expiring or temporary classes of Visa-holders to stay, or go and risk not being able to return, has led to an outflow of personnel from Australia, causing an overall vacuum within the post-pandemic market which has opened up with more jobs than there are people to do them.”
Additionally, employee expectations of higher salaries and workplace flexibility in addition to part-time positions not aligning with employer needs are also having an impact.
Subsequently, the workforce has become a more complex beast – more fluid and flexible than ever before and maintaining a work-life balance has become the primary focus of employees across all industries. Prospective employees have more power to demand a more attractive salary, hybrid working conditions and a safer, more fulfilling workplace culture.
For employers, this means a greater consideration of workplace expectations and the ways in which the workforce has evolved over the last several years is necessary. It’s important to mediate a happy balance between employee expectations and company sustenance.
“It’s important that employers consider how the existing talent pool of potential employees can be both upskilled and reskilled by investing in their aspirations as a means of renewing rather than replacing personnel,” says Cuic.
“By casting wide, repositioning the expectations bar, and not drafting job requirements around ‘unicorns’, employers will have a greater chance of appealing to prospective employees who are going to bring a unique perspective to the work.
“To inspire the right candidates to join and stay in the company, employers have to look at candidates as individuals, and think critically about what employees need beyond competitive remuneration and flexibility. This is where a realistic employer value proposition has become extremely important and pitching an idealistic version of a job and workplace culture are no longer effective talent attraction strategies.”
One of the ways the pipelines industry could bolster its workforce is to better appeal to graduates and younger people joining the workforce about how a career in pipelines can provide meaning, recognition and feeling like they belong. Ultimately, this comes down to marketing the industry in a more active and prominent way, explains Cuic.
“We’ve got to get on the front foot as a community: that means people working in the pipeline industry, in schools, in mainstream media. It needs to be a lot more visible as something that’s beneficial for humankind. Pipeline infrastructure is good for the future and it is worth investing in,” she says.
Likewise, as the pipeline industry transitions towards a more greener energy future in preparation for net zero by 2050 this could also act as a drawing card for younger potential employees. The pipeline and gas sector is steadily becoming a greener sector, and the appeal for some corners of the industry are on the decline.
Nevertheless, by evolving its own Industry Value Proposition (IVP) the pipeline sector can offer recession-proof opportunities for the delivery of critical services we take for granted every day.
Peter Norman Personnel believe that there are many opportunities within the pipelines and gas sector that might not seem immediately obvious.
By emphasising the importance of open communication between employees and employers and the need to address the needs of employees, such as higher salaries, workplace flexibility and upskilling staff where possible; the Australian workforce will find its feet once again in no time at all.
For more information and expert advice on recruiting the right staff for your business, visit www.peternorman.com.au.
This article is featured in the September edition of The Australian Pipeliner.
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