Australasian Dentist Magazine March April 2021

Category Australasian Dentist 115 E ven before the pandemic and economies around the world shut down, Australia was already leaning into a skills shortage increasing ever so slightly each year. Crucial industries like healthcare and construction were already scavenging from a shrinking pool of skilled workers, and digitalisation was becoming an inescapable reality. Post pandemic these industries are set to explode. Just like many other businesses right now, we are feeling the pain of labour shortages. Rewind 12 months and everything that’s happened since, having a looming labour shortage wasn’t one of the things people were worried about, but there is one on the horizon. A big one. You don’t need to look far to access current stats on spending. We have saved massive amounts of money which we are spending like crazy, approx. 10% more according to the CBA. This is turn has seen a significant increase in jobs with around 90% of those jobs lost returning to the market. While our unemployment rate is still not where it was pre-pandemic, we do have reason to be optimistic compared to other countries. Some data on employment figures The national unemployment rate has continued to fall, dropping from 6.8% in November to 6.6% in December, even though this is still well above the 5.2% March 2020 unemployment rate. Full-time jobs remain 1.3% below March 2020 figures while total part-time jobs are 0.6% above the level recorded in March 2020. So our employment figures are heading in the right direction. While it always a challenge to find amazing candidates, what we are facing in the coming 12-24 months will be different from previous challenges. The sudden decline in supply of labour is due to two factors. One, our borders are closed resulting in a significant drop in immigration; and two, the dramatic reduction of our temporary resident labour pool, jobs which are traditionally filled by overseas students and working holiday makers. While the latter only makes up a small portion of the dental industry, its still enough to put pressure on an already challenging market. While I know that visa extensions are being granted to people on a temporary visa, this really doesn’t make up the short fall. There are also added instances of heightened loyalty that employees have towards their employers who are on the JobKeeper program. While this may be temporary, the events of 2020 are still fresh enough that there is a sense of comradery in some businesses that may extend into the next year or so. It was reported by SEEK that jobs ads in the dental industry are up by 225% last quarter. We are now for the first time in the top 20 most in demand industries and while we are certainly not as badly affected as some other industries (agriculture comes to mind) our reliance on temporary workers was probably greater than most people realised. Whether this has an impact on wages remains to be seen, but we are seeing some higher than usual wages offered to retain employees on resignation. While our industry is not big enough or the problem severe enough to warrant any intervention from government, I’d say that as a starting point there will be a push towards traineeships by larger employers. As a recruitment agency, we will certainly be constantly reviewing our candidate strategy to adapt to the changing conditions, namely the way in which we manage data and engage with our candidates. While those strategies don’t apply to small private practice, I would recommend the following if you have a vacancy to fill; u Do not just rely on one job board (none are really performing that well) u Use social media and social networks. They can’t be underestimated. u Use the templates available to write your ad, you want yours to stand out from the others and look professional. u Get back to candidate straight away, even on weekends. u When interviewing a candidate you like, propose a timeframe at the interview for follow up and stick to it. u Don’t hesitate when making an offer. We often get clients wanting to see comparisons when they have a good candidate ready to go. At the end of the day, we can only control conditions to a certain point and rest assured that all the great minds within our industry will be working on solutions to make this journey as smooth as possible. u The big short columnists By Pam McKean, Director, AB Dental & Medical Employment Agency Pam McKean