Rebounding with the post pandemic workforce Paul Smith discusses how temporary workers will be the key to growth as the economy recovers

Rebounding with the Post Pandemic Workforce

Paul Smith , Joint Managing Director at Citrus Group discusses the trends that will drive economic recovery with the post pandemic workforce

In July 2020, the Australian Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg announced that Australia’s budget deficit hit almost $86 billion last financial year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the biggest blow to our nation’s bottom line since World War II. With unemployment projected to reach 9% by Christmas, the shortterm economic outlook looks grim, however Australia’s economy is starting to emerge from the nationwide restrictions in April and May, and programs such as JobSeeker, JobKeeper and JobMaker are supporting industry to take the steps to rebuild. When the economy begins to take off and consumer and business sentiment rebounds, one the of key challenges organisations will encounter is the capably and capacity to employ the right staff. As was the case after the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, employers will certainly favour temporary and contract staff, enabling their organisations to scale rapidly with limited risk . In May 2020, the Recruitment Consulting and Staffing Association (RCSA) published a report - “Leveraging Australia’s Agency Workforce to Drive Economic Recovery” - and among its key findings is that agency staffing firms “play a vital role during times of structural and cyclical economic change, where a significant level of churn in employment is experienced.”

The report proposes 4 reasons why using agency workers will be key for business in the early stages of recovery: 1.

2.

3.

4. Hiring workers through agency firms reduces the time business takes to employ that worker, and gets them generating an income immediately, rather than seeking income support. Getting people into work means a business can expand its output faster –generating income. Income from sales, means more growth and thus more employment opportunities. Potential is there for even more placements of unemployed workers by agencies –historically about 13 per cent of unemployed people are placed in new jobs by agencies, which could rise to 30 per cent after the downturn. Businesses can start to expand if they have the flexibility to access a pool of agency workers –professional, skilled or semiskilled.

The report concludes that Agencies are the experts to recruit, assess and deliver people for temporary or contract employment –for which there can be strong demand –“prior to the creation of permanent jobs.”

The advantage for both employers and for workers is that the best agency staffing firms in the country will have “all of the protections which are inherent in workplace laws such as the Fair Work Act, Modern Awards, work health and safety, workers’ compensation, long service leave and anti-discrimination legislation.” International evidence following the GFC reveals that agency workers were among the largest and fastest beneficiaries of a rebound. For example, in Germany, after a drop of about 23 per cent during the GFC, there was a 49 per cent rebound in employment for agency workers over 18 months following the GFC. During the first half of 2020, Australian agencies supplied workers to meet demand across three key sectors:

Call centres –as offshore centres closed and came back to Australia.

Also, for example, in industries such as travel where customer service was key to meet heightened demand

Supermarkets –as customers went online and demand for warehouse supplies increased

Hospital and aged care staffing and support positions Gradually, as the demand for certain roles shifts - for example, call centres and logistics - agencies can support the redeployment of staff to other areas. According to the RCSA, the agency staffing firms are “well placed to rapidly train and deploy contractors to these new jobs” which will start to emerge in the postCOVID economy. As history has shown, the agency workforce and specialist recruiters are critical to Australia’s economic recovery, and organisations will need to partner with reliable Agencies to support growth in the post-pandemic recovery.

Paul Smith Joint Managing Director Citrus Group