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Time to get older Aussies back in the workforce: ANZ
A big four bank CEO is encouraging older Australians to return to the workforce, as the country continues to battle skill shortages led by the closure of international borders.
Time to get older Aussies back in the workforce: ANZ
A big four bank CEO is encouraging older Australians to return to the workforce, as the country continues to battle skill shortages led by the closure of international borders.
With migration ceasing, businesses around Australia are struggling to find workers, with ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott confident the solution could rest on our retirees.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there are now 57 per cent more job vacancies than prior to the pandemic beginning.
In addition, Australian Border Force statistics are showing thousands of Australians citizens are looking to set up permanent residency overseas.
According toMr Elliott, businesses should look at adding to the Australian labour market by incentivising those that have skills the economy needs to come back to work.
The ANZ CEO laid out this idea during a speech he made while visiting Australia’s biggest backpacking region, Mildura.
“We’ve been in conversations with various elements of government and state in particular, exactly around this issue, around not so much about replacing backpackers, but clearly there are some emerging labour shortages,” Mr Elliott said.
The pace of technology changes has also meant some people may have left the workforce early, Mr Elliott opined, with ANZ said to be looking at ways to lure them back.
“For a bank like ANZ to commit to retrain people, we’ve also got a really interesting program around technology.
“What we found in the data is a lot of people, particularly women, who were older and who had worked in tech in the past for whatever reason had moved out of the workforce and then somehow felt they weren’t worthy or capable of coming back.
“So, we’ve got a program to bring people back to the workforce, and it has been enormously successful. So, look, I think there are opportunities for that.”
The big four bank has found mature aged employees to be more empathetic and suited to helping customers, particularly those who have gone through hardship such as losing their job, going through a divorce or financial difficulties.
Mr Elliott also noted that the rising trend of working from home is making it easier for these older Australians to come back to the workforce.
“I suspect that one of the changes that we will experience in the economy will be the way we do things around more working from home, more flexible working, which will mean workers will be more accessible for more people,” he said.
“And, certainly, I think that would be true about people who are a little bit older. So, I actually think we’ve probably got more diversity of the workforce as a result of employers biting the bullet on workplace choice,” Mr Elliott concluded.
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