THE ECONOMIC SENSE OF
EMPLOYEE LOYALTY Migration expert Monica Gruszka believes employers should seriously consider the benefits of skilled visa programs.
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mployee turnover has long been a significant concern for employers in the construction industry. This is even more critical now as the impact of COVID-19 market fluctuations and government funding boosts has stirred up demand, creating a healthy pipeline of projects in both the construction and the infrastructure sectors. Traditionally, construction has been among the industries where large number of workers are likely to change their employer rapidly. In its Labour Turnover Factsheet for 2020, the Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) ranked construction as the fifth industry with high employee
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ROADS SEPTEMBER 2021
WITH CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES STRUGGLING TO RETAIN THEIR WORKFORCE AMID MARKET FLUCTUATIONS AND SURGING DEMAND, ROADS & INFRASTRUCTURE SPEAKS TO MIGRATION EXPERT MONICA GRUSZKA ON WHAT A WIN-WIN SCENARIO FOR EMPLOYEES AND EMPLOYERS COULD LOOK LIKE. turnover rate, noting that 10.1 per cent of workforce in the industry had changed employer at least once in the year to February 2020.1 The arrival of COVID-19 has further complicated things, with companies dealing on one hand with an influx of projects, and on the other hand, border restrictions impacting skilled workers’ abilities to re-locate and fill the gaps. A surge in housing demand has seen the industry face an unprecedented skill shortage. The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ housing finance data in July showed that the number of new mortgages taken out for construction of dwellings in May 2021 was 89 per cent higher than it was in May last year.2 Similar situations prevail in the infrastructure sector. Peak industry bodies Roads Australia and the Australasian Railway Association called on the Federal Government in June to update the Priority Skilled Occupations List to include specialist skills critical to the delivery of major road and rail construction projects. This led to the decision by the Federal Government to expand the Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL) to include occupations such as electrical engineer, structural engineer, geotechnical engineer and transport engineer. With demand for skilled workforce showing no signs of receding and
with companies continually looking to lower their labour turnover costs, migration expert Monica Gruszka believes employers should seriously consider the benefits of skilled visa programs for their businesses. As Principal Director of Sydney-based Gruszka & Associates, Gruszka has helped many construction companies find loyal employees through the programs and says she has seen first-hand the benefits for both employers and employees. “If you look at the history of why the temporary skill shortage visa program was first introduced, it was specifically designed to address labour shortages where businesses most struggle to find locally available workforce. Small businesses are the backbone of the Australian economy, and the skilled visa program was introduced to ensure that businesses can continue to function,” says Gruszka. “If an employee knows that they could become permanent residents of Australia and benefit from incentives such as Medicare, superannuation, sick leave and annual leave, that increases the chance of businesses retaining the workforce they have trained and supported. From the employee’s perspective, the permanent residency and the chance to become a citizen of Australia is the dangling carrot. It’s a situation where everyone wins.”
