How to Combat Skill Shortages in SME's

SMEs need to think differently about recruitment, retention and untapped workforces if they want to combat skill shortages.

The Great Resignation, the freeze on immigration and the push for growth to meet industries’ market demands have led to a much-publicised hole in the labour market. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports 480,100 vacant positions in May this year, an 111 per cent increase from February 2020. So what can smaller businesses do to attract and retain talent?

Become a best-in-industry magnet

Angus Dorney is the co-CEO of digital product design and engineering company Kablamo and is in the eye of the skillsshortage storm – digital talent has long been in high demand.

He says experts attract the top candidates. Kablamo, which has 65 employees, has technology leaders known for excellence on its team and that “has a gravitational effect on other talent who are keen to work with them”.

Create own-brand headhunters

Kablamo offers its employees “a referral bonus when we hire people they’ve recommended and they pass probation”. Staff satisfaction is now the company’s secret sauce for talent acquisition and endorsements account for the majority of its successful new hires.

Go the extra mile for your staff

When a team member had to relocate to Canada but wanted to stay with Kablamo, the company sped up its launch in North America, which opened up opportunities for existing and prospective staff.

Encourage and train existing staff

Canberra-based Capital Brewing has about 80 staff across its brewery, two tap rooms and Sydney office. The craftbrew boom means trained brewers are scarce so Capital nurtures connections between its hospitality crews and brew teams. Tap-room staff work in the room where the beer is produced and the brewers tell them how the beer is made, says managing director Laurence Kain. The knowledge-infused workplace brings out potential brewers from the hospitality staff. A training and assessment program is offered to the would-be brewers and candidates are paid to take the online Institute of Brewing and Distilling course.

Appeal to the whole talent pool

Taking the bias out of recruitment helps alleviate skill shortages. Hyne Timber produces and supplies timber and has more than 700 employees. It began diversifying its recruiting process almost five years ago and about 15 per cent of vacancies have been filled by women in its previously “manned” main plant.

Some of the changes Hyne made in how it recruits staff include using genderneutral language in job advertisements, sending team members to shopping centres and schools to talk to men and women about their prospects in the timber industry and assessing candidates by panels that are 50 per cent women.

Cultivating a diversity of thought and process in hiring, says Alison Newman, Hyne’s general manager of people and culture, “helps us to make the best decisions we can”.