Effective recruitment and retention in a competitive job market an Australian experience

1
Effective recruitment and retention in a
competitive job market -an Australian experience

• ESITO Industry Forum
• 16 October 2008
• Tom Emeleus

2
Overview

• The Australian Electrocomms and EnergyUtilities
  industries
• Recruitment issues and strategies
• Retention issues and strategies
• Recruitment retention at EnergyAustralia A
  case study
• Further information
• Questions

3
Overview of the Australian Industry

• Electrotechnology
• 9000 new enrolments p.a.
• Predominantly electricians
• Public provider still dominates
• 460000 people employed
• Industry apprentice retention rate 60
• Most drop-outs are associated with very small
  employers.
• How are apprentices chosen?

4
Overview of the Australian Industry

• EnergyUtilities
• 1200 new enrolments p.a.
• Enterprise RTOs and partnerships with public RTO
  dominate
• Increasing role of private RTOs
• Contractor-employed apprentices increasing
• Growth in demand
• EA alone has 8bn capital works program for the
  next 5 years
• Age profile 50 gt45, nearly 50 lt35
• Challenges for specialisations and leadership
  roles

5
Recruitment Issues

• Government-declared skill shortage area
• Overall reduction in net market entrants 2015
  will have 15 compared to 2006.
• Trend against trades/VET as a viable option
• Industry reliance on VET compared to the
  community
• Higher academic skill requirement in electrical
  trades
• Gen Ys poor perception of our industry
• Shortfall of technical trainers and assessors
• The changing nature of powerline trades.
• Inflexibility of traditional apprenticeships
• Community perception that skills portability is
  poor and the industry is dangerous

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Recruitment strategies

• Recruit close to home
• Share recruiting efforts with competitors
• Increase diversity
• Mature age
• Women
• Other under-represented groups
• Language, literacy and numeracy courses for
  existing industry workers
• Pre-apprenticeship courses
• Intermediate qualifications to commence working
  faster

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Recruitment strategies (cont.)

• Recognition of Prior Learning. Be flexible.
• Mapping for common pathways eg electrician to
  lineworker
• Benefit of experience and mentoring
• Promote careers rather than jobs. Deliver genuine
  career pathways
• Use existing apprentices as role models
• Link mathematics to the real world
• Open days.
• Boot camps
• Target the right influencer in schools
• VET in schools

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Recruitment strategies (cont.)

• Seek out and utilise all available publicity
  opportunities
• Pay rates. Mature age rates. Provide promote
  opportunities to supplement apprentice income
• Better targeting of apprentice applicants
  profile the best workers in your part of the
  industry and look for more of the same.
• Government assistance to target problem areas

9
Retention issues

• Competition from other sectors
• Perceived lack of future opportunities
• Educational
• Financial
• Employers lack or awareness or insensitivity to
  personal issues
• Lack of high quality mentors, trainers
  supervisors/managers
• Lack of varied work experience
• Language, literacy and numeracy barriers during
  apprenticeship
• Poor sense of community leads to low morale

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Retention strategies - Apprentices

• Apprentices
• Mentoring programs
• Individual pairings (rural)
• Apprentice teams (urban)
• Further educational opportunities
• Tutorials for mature age apprentices during early
  theory components
• Diversify their experience
• Competency based progression
• Use them on meaningful and productive work
• Allow flexibility in programming and if possible,
  apprentice input to cater for preferences.
• Use Apprentices in training signs

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Retention strategies (cont.)

• Recognition seek out industry community
  awards
• Promote a training culture in the workplace
• General
• Further educational opportunities
• Career paths
• Flexible learning solutions for ongoing learning
• Often preferred by mature aged existing workers
• Self paced
• Consistent
• Ease of access and 24/7 availability
• Target and develop potential trainers

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EnergyAustralia - overview

• 1.5million customers
• 500 000 poles
• 40 000km cable
• 52 depots
• 5200 employees
• 570 apprentices

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Recruitment at EnergyAustralia

• Indigenous pre-apprentices program
• Targeted career fairs and school career nights
• Open days. General Careers advisors
• Traditional advertising publicity opportunities
• Internal promotion
• Recruitment techniques
• Pre-selection test, including samples.
• Application forms
• Traditional interviews
• Psychometric testing
• Group Assessments
• Physical capability analysis v traditional
  medicals
• What works?

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Recruitment at EnergyAustralia (Cont.)
Where did you hear about EA?
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Recruitment at EnergyAustralia (Cont.)
Why did you join EA?
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When you were considering an EA Apprenticeship,
what else did you consider?
Recruitment at EnergyAustralia (Cont.)
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Retention at EnergyAustralia

• Utilising low-level competencies to increase
  productivity - apprentice crews contributing to
  the capital construction effort
• 2nd year apprentice crews
• A mix of permanent and seconded trainers
• A very strong focus on safety
• Purpose-built facilities and customised training
  program
• Opportunities for further education
• Reward and recognition
• Pastoral care
• Promoting a sense of community

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Further information

• Industry Skills Council EE-Oz
• www.ee-oz.com.au
• Reports
• Skilling Retention of Australian
  EnergyUtilities workers (phases 1 2)
• EE-Oz 2008 environmental scan

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Energy Australia Apprenticeships

• Questions?