Located in northwest Victoria, Swan Hill Rural City Council recently adopted a Workforce Plan, aimed at addressing skills shortages and future recruitment.
The document provides direction for retention of older workers, attraction and retention of alternate employment pools and parent/carer responsibilities. It comprises a comprehensive range of strategies that will be implemented over the next three years.
Council’s Human Resource Manager, Lisa Faraci, said that Australia’s ageing population means that we will face increasing difficulties in maintaining the size of the labour force, directly impacting on the potential pool of employees available to Local Government.
“The range of occupations that exist in Local Government requires a variety of skills and experience, which places the industry in a vulnerable position if employees want to retire over a shorter period of time, as their skills will be difficult to replace,” she said. “Local Government predictors indicate that if the current retirement age remains constant, 38 per cent of the Australian Local Government workforce will have retired by 2011. Councils must therefore become adept at anticipating and responding to the changing needs of our communities, ensuring we have adequate and appropriately skilled staff employed in the most effective way.”
Lisa Faraci said rural Councils are worse off, as their location makes it difficult to successfully attract new staff away from major regional and metropolitan organisations.
“This combined with the significant salary packaging benefits and rewards these organisations offer, see us struggling to compete in the open market,” she said.
“We need to become employers of choice, to enable us to retain the skills and extensive experience of our older workers.”
In working towards becoming an employer of choice, Council will implement phased retirements for older workers. This offers a number of key benefits, including effective transfer of knowledge and skills and the creation of a flexible workforce, while promoting self funded retirees and assisting with the transition from full time work to retirement. As part of this initiative, Council is aiming to develop ‘individual’ phased retirement plans, which may include access to part time, casual or home work, flexible working hours, a move to project based work, or a move to a mentoring role for younger staff and apprentices.
“Council also needs to ensure staff have defined career paths, access to flexible work arrangements and opportunities to continue their professional development while continuing to be the main carer for children and dependent others,” Lisa Faraci said. “We have also implemented a number of strategies to attract and retain younger staff members, such as access to paid study leave and financial support for course costs. We are offering job share and job swap initiatives with other Councils, State Government and the private sector.”
Another initiative aimed at attracting younger staff members is Council’s scholarship program. The program upskills students and exposes them to Local Government during their studies, thereby increasing the possibility that they will choose to work in this industry upon completion of studies. Students complete specific project work during work placements, increasing staff resources during the Christmas break when various staff take leave.
Council is also seeking to recruit from alternate employment pools, such as the disabled, Indigenous and longterm unemployed.
For further information contact Lisa Faraci, on (03) 5036 2333.
