Finding, Funding, Engaging and Retaining Employees

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Introduction – Our research has found that one in four business owners is reporting that their top issue is the challenge of finding new employees, funding them and retaining current employees – particularly in the new environment that many businesses find themselves in.

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Overview – Bill Lang will take us through the employment market situation and trends as well as research conducted by Small Business Australia. Malka from TMG will take us through some great tips for finding new employees and retaining existing ones. Kara from MAS Australia will take us through finding government funding for training and employment. And then Debra will takes us through elements of workplace training that works.

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Panel introduction – Kara works with MAS National. She’s based in Adelaide and has a national marketing and sales role as well as a state management role. Malka is the founder and the CEO of the TMG, which is The Malka Group College Australia. Deborah also works with TMG and leads everything to do with clients, in this case being employers and student engagement.

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Employment market situation and trends – Bill Lang

“If I take risks like hospitality-related businesses, in particular, just significant issues around being able to access employees, given that there’s a lower pool of potential employees available. But secondly, a preference increasingly among some employees for potentially more stable sources of employment, given that they’ve now experienced what can happen in particular sectors based on the management of the pandemic over the last two years.”

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Your staff is as important as finding and retaining your customers – Malk Lawrence

“One of the things that’s really important is understanding your business and understanding the type of person that your business needs. What often happens is we’re desperate for staff and we’ll grab anyone and that can actually do more harm to your business than waiting and finding the right person.”

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Where do I find my next employee? – Malka Lawrence

“The days of advertising on Seek or Indeed, and getting a lot of employees, those days have gone, even Seek will tell you. So your next employee will be found through your partnerships, your networks, social media, job boards, and importantly, also colleges.”

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Key motivators for employees to stay in their current role – Malka Lawrence

“The management skills of your managers, whether it’s one manager, whether it’s two managers, whether it’s five managers, unskilled managers cause a lot of stress and are the major cause of reduction in productivity, performance, and staff leaving.”

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Retaining existing employees – Malka and Bill

“Taking your time to discover what your employees need, what your existing and new employees need is incredibly important because retaining staff, whether it’s a new employee or an existing employee is going to make a big difference to your business. They’re going to understand your business, they’re going to have that relationship with your clients and you’d be surprised with skilling and upskilling, how quickly even a new employee builds those relationships, understand your business.”

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Funding training and employment: Finding Government sources – Bill and Kara

“There are billions of dollars made available to employers, not just for existing employees, but for new employees and most people that are in business actually aren’t aware of the fact that they exist.”

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How we support businesses – Kara and Bill

“What we can do is actually come out and sit with you were a free service, and have a chat about your business and what it is that your business wants to achieve. So it could be, you know that you are having challenges finding people to meet the growing demand of your business. Well, we can actually partner with companies like TMG and look at doing pre employment programs.”

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Elements of workplace training that works: Role of the 3 R’s – Debra Peker

“It’s a wonderful thing to be able to say to new people coming on board, we will invest in you, join us and we will put you on a traineeship, you will both learn at the same time as working full time or part-time with us and grow with the business. So it’s a very attractive way of enticing new people into the organisation.”

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Training that works meets 4 criteria – Debra and Bill

“We link the job requirements with the work they’re doing with the training that we’re providing to the staff. And that makes them upskilled faster in the job role that they’re doing and makes them incredibly useful to you from the get-go. What we can do for you is assist you with both the onboarding, as I’ve said, and also address things like compliance requirements, regulatory requirements, practical imperatives of the business.”

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Government funded qualifications in the workplace – Bill and Kara

“I really would encourage businesses to reach out to us and have a chat because you never know until you talk to us what is happening in your business that we can help you potentially find some some funding.”

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What qualifications are available and where to find them – Bill and Kara

“The qualification has to match the individual’s job role for them to undertake that as an apprenticeship or traineeship. So, have a chat with us and we can give you some suggestions of what qualifications would be relevant.”

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Questions and Answers – participant questions answered by the panelists