For your interest, we’ve collated a snapshot of current headline employment data. It may help us to all make better sense of some unusual pressures you may be seeing regarding attraction and retention of high performers and why supplementary contract specialists are the new norm.
- Yes,
high performing talent is getting harder to find. The latest
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data shows that full-time employment increased 11,800 to 8,697,600 and
part-time employment increased 11,200 to 4,014,000. Contractor and
temporary talent can fall into both these categories.
- More
people are working: monthly
hours worked in all jobs increased 1.3 million hours to 1758.9 million
hours.
- ABS data
collection shows that there are approximately 1,000,000 independent contractors – nearly
10% of the Australian workforce. (Depending on their portfolio of
assignments in any one year, contractors and temporary staff can
choose to be employed through the Interchange Bench directly, or through
their own company.)
- Casual employees – that is employees who work without regular or systematic
hours, or an expectation of continuing work – account for over 20% of the
Australian workforce. (The Interchange Bench works closely with
employers who have a large casual workforce to ensure that they comply
with tightening restrictions on the definition of ‘casual’. Call us
if you have any queries.)
- Trending: contract and temporary employees
continue to offer employers great flexibility in resourcing, enabling
organisations to hire right for skill, special projects, fixed-term or
budgetary and headcount provisions.
- Business as usual in most organisations now includes temporary and contract specialists working alongside permanent staff.
Anita Ziemer is Executive Director of Slade Group and a Director of The Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas. In a career spanning roles working in government, not-for-profit, public company and the SME sector, Anita has a broad view of the landscape of Australians at work. She was Chairman of Melbourne Girls Grammar School, a Director of Kidspot through to its sale to News Ltd, and founding director of nexthire. She has B.Applied Science and an Adv Dip Screenwriting. She was Associate Producer of Summer Coda a 2010 Australian Indie feature film.
Anita has a major interest in serving the community and has held the following pro bono positions:
- Melbourne Girls Grammar, School Council (Chairman 2011) 2009-2015
- Melbourne Grammar School, Council’s Marketing Sub-Committee 2005-2009
- Member, St Paul’s Restoration and Renewal Appeal 2003-2004
- Board Member, Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia 2002-2010
- Co-education Chair, YPO/WPO 1994, 2001-2002
- Council Member, Christ Church Grammar School 1995-2002
Executive Director
Slade Group
Level 10, 333 Collins Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Tel: +61 3 9235 5100
aziemer@sladegroup.com.au
sladegroup.com.au
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