Average job tenure is seven years in Australia, easily the lowest amongst developed economies.

Why is this so?

The author of a new report – Australia at Work – highlighted various likely factors, but honed in one factor:

“In terms of an employee deciding to leave, the critical determinant will be whether they think they can get a better job elsewhere; and their concept of ‘better’ might relate to, among other things: job security, pay, relations with colleagues, working arrangements, geographical location, use of skills, and development opportunities. Many of these things can be addressed in the employee’s current job if they have a ‘voice’ to bring attention to the issue and have it addressed. Freeman and Medoff’s (1984) ‘exit-voice’ asserts that employees who do not have a ‘voice’ in having their complaints redressed, either by themselves or someone else, end up leaving the workplace altogether.”

For an employee, it’s not surprising, that having a ‘voice’ is important. Being heard is part and parcel of being human. For an employer, no doubt, listening is paramount.

(On another note, low job tenure explains to a degree the high penetration rate of recruitment firms in Australia. The more fluid the labour market, the more the demand for third-party recruiters. Opponents of contingency style of recruitment failed to realised that much of its demand is driven by clients)

It’s common knowledge that workplace disengagement is rife in organisations across Australia. What can an employer do?

Gallup recommends employees be asked 12 questions, as follows: 

• Do you know what is expected of you at work?
• Do you have the materials and equipment you need to do your work right?
• At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?
• In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work?
• Does your supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about you as a person?
• Is there someone at work who encourages your development?
• At work, do your opinions seem to count?
• Does the mission/purpose of your company make you feel your job is important?
• Are your associates (fellow employees) committed to doing quality work?
• Do you have a best friend at work?
• In the last six months, has someone at work talked to you about your progress?
• In the last year, have you had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

The argument goes – the higher an employee score on the 12 questions the better the performance.

The real meat of the argument is that questions be asked in the first place (‘how are you?’ works well with me). The act of asking encourage two-way interactions; any day that is better than a rigid ‘do as I say’ style. 

It seems to me that the answer to many workplace problems begins with asking questions and listening.

Are you asking questions?

Australians are a busy lot.

Majority (69%) admit to leading busy professional lives (second only to Americans).

As advances in technology continues unabated, the ‘always on’ lifestyle becomes more and more entrenched in our every day lives. Which, one would thought, would be viewed as a negative development. Surprisingly, a study by Frost & Sullivan found Australians professionals do not mind the 24/7 lifestyle. In fact, tools which rendered them to be always connected are credited for enhancing work-life balance, freedom, time-management and getting things done.

Titled ‘Meetings Around the World II”, the Frost & Sullivan study also found that Australian organisations adopt technology quickly in work environments. In fact, 59% indicated they are open to trying new ways to communicate. If you can read beyond the fact that the study is sponsored by CISCO and Verizon , two organisations who stands to benefit from increasing adoption of new collaboration tools, the study is actually a very insightful look at rapidly changing workplaces and individual work styles.

How has technology changed your work lifestyle?

Our profession is going to be profoundly influenced by a force that we pay very little attention to.

A new report by the Economist on the state of global ageing paints a grim picture.  By 2050, one person in three in developed countries will be a pensioner.  The fiscal costs of dealing with an ageing population will dwarf any other expenditure governments incurred (Listen to an audio interview with Barbara Beck).

Closer to home, it is estimated that ‘the number of people aged 65 years will increase by 111 per cent between 2006 and 2036’.  ABS predicted that one in four Australians will aged 65 or over by  2056.  There are major implications – Retirement age will probably increase. Migration will not be nearly enough to fill the gap left by retiring personnel.  Skills shortage will be a major issue, with added pressure on educational institutions to provide a steady supply of talent. Workforce participation rate will have to increase. More women may have to join the workforce. Untapped talent pool have to mined. To compound the problem, people of working age are increasingly changing how they view work. One million of us are not interested to work full-time for others.  The workplace and the recruitment of staff as we know now will promises to be very different in the near future, not least because of the ageing population.

Our profession, of course, is in the thick of the problem. Given our very being is dictated by supply and demand dynamics of labour, the absence of attention on the population bomb is baffling. (The fifth Annual Australia’s Ageing Population Summit was held this month. Not a squeak from the media)

Part of the reason why recruitment and retention is an excruciatingly challenging task in most organisations, is because the mores and needs of the workforce is ever changing.

A new study by Citrix Online (if you can ignore the fact Citrix sell solutions which allows people to work from home) found 16% of Australians are willing to sacrifice 5% of their salary in exchange for the flexibility of working from home or a remote location. A further 24% are on sitting on the fence and willing to consider a similar move (refer graph).  What employees want from employers and their workplaces continually changes. Abetted by rapid advances in technology and changing social mores, we face a future where more disruptions to the workplace status quo are likely to occur.

As players in the people business, we ought to pay closer attention to the pulse of the workforce and try and bridge the disconnect between the objectives of employers and changing needs of employees. The report is a worthy read.

Further reading: Aussies want to work from home & Telework Australia