The New South Wales arm of Local Government Professionals Australia has warned that the local government sector is not attracting enough younger workers.
The organisation worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in a benchmarking study that engaged 135 councils across NSW, New Zealand and Western Australia in an industry-led, self-analysis program that has raised some alarming workforce issues.
A sample of 69 NSW councils showed that only 22 per cent of employees are in the Gen Y age bracket.
Chief Executive Officer of LG Professionals, NSW, Annalisa Haskell, said that more needs to be done to promote the sector to younger workers.
“Due to a uniquely old age profile quite at odds with the Australian working population, NSW local government is failing to significantly attract and retain new staff, especially Gen Y who are twice as likely to leave a council than other generations.
“Certainly in NSW, local government does not seem to have enough prestige in the economy and the problems we have are here now and will take time to fix – it is most apparent that we need to better promote local government as a compelling career sector.”
The study also showed staff retention issues, said Ms Haskell.
“NSW is also experiencing higher first year staff turnover in this group compared to the other generations, and while NZ also experiences this issue, they have been overall better able to retain a much more balanced mix of talent.”
Barry Smith General Manager, Hunter’s Hill Council and President of LG Professionals, NSW said the collaborative and comparative analysis is of great benefit to councils.
“We can rate our performance against anonymous data from other councils with similar relevant characteristics, not just size, but demographics, geography, socio-economic factors and now service mix – we are talking to each other about it, often happy to reveal all.”
Ms Haskell says the program’s collaborative approach to improving the performance of local government now has attention in the US and the UK.
“LG Professionals, NSW is working internationally to create universal comparative benchmarks and as more Australian councils come on board it will add further momentum to drive improvement in the way we run our cities everywhere.”
