Businesses struggle to do more with less as Australia’s labour shortage hits an all-time high

It may be the start of a new financial year, but it seems like Australian companies will still be feeling the struggle of the nationwide labour shortage for quite some time to come.

As the nation begins to climb slowly back onto its feet after the latest wave of COVID-19 and a greater lack of skilled workers than in previous years, Australian businesses continue to feel the lingering after-effects that these burdens have had on both the nation’s economy and the capability of its workforce.

This in itself has led to the paradox of Australia hitting an unemployment rate of 3.5%, one of the lowest in nearly 50 years; meanwhile, almost a third of Australian businesses continue to shut their doors, share workers and raise prices to keep afloat, or put out desperate calls for labour that, by and large, aren’t answered.

How can this dilemma be explained? And, more importantly, what can Australian businesses do with such an ominous state of vacant labour to keep themselves above water?

Where have all the workers gone – and how are businesses handling it?

Much of the state of the national labour market can be attributed to the unavailability of temporary workers, who are now no longer plentiful enough to fill unskilled and low-income positions in nationwide businesses. This has been a particularly severe hit on industries that are reliant on a steady stream of short-term working labour, such as the agriculture and civil industry sectors, construction, commercial retail, and transport.

And since such a large chunk of the Australian economy has always been reliant on these hands-on transitory positions to off-set the smaller percentage of longer-lasting, higher-qualified, and often digitally-based roles in different sectors, this too could soon lead to a rapid wage surge and an increase in general goods and services costs by companies trying to keep up with the workers who aren’t there.

If nothing else, this dim state of affairs means that the Australian labour shortage is here to stay. And as such, it’s become a matter for businesses not just to manage themselves with lessened labour the potential of future wage hikes, but to make the most of the position they’re in and provide themselves with a port to get through the storm.

How can companies keep up with the impact of the national labour shortage? By using business management software

Instead of spending your time and energy signalling for workers who might never arrive, it’s a good idea instead for businesses to be able to prepare and forecast for a future financial year that will be far different from what they’re used to. With fewer workers, companies must take advantage of those employees they have, and to find a way to compensate for the lessened amount of labour that is affecting their former business practices.

The easiest way to do this is to find a business management solution for your work processes that will off-set the effects of lower productivity that your fewer employees might be having on your business.

A cloud-based business management software solution like Assignar, for example, can be a huge benefit to businesses in keeping track of their operations. This can create more accurate forecasting and job insights without the benefit of the large work staff you might no longer possess. While the jobs industry continues to struggle with the lack of equipment and machinery, increasing material cost, and productivity losses that come from the labour shortage, a simple business management and operations solution like Assignar can be used to make up for a radically different working process by gaining insight into your total labour distribution and to make detailed reporting that allows you to look ahead instead of retrospectively.

Using Assignar to take charge of your business management solutions

Assignar business management software is able to manage crew and equipment, scheduling and job assigning, time tracking and field data, and real-time reporting for business analytics as part of its cloud-based system. This means that by using Assignar, you’ll be able to easily take charge of your operations by automating tasks to improve efficiency, thus freeing up time for employees to focus on more important tasks.

With the civil and infrastructure sectors needing to grow their workforce by 43.4% to meet the projected labour demands of the coming work pipeline over the next two years, it’s time now for businesses to totally optimise their operations to not be caught-off guard by this demand while still struggling within the current drought of both labour and resources.

So if you’re still feeling the chill of the Australian labour shortage like a bad cold that just won’t go away, remember not to panic: using a trusted business management software like Assignar means that companies can tackle productivity at the resource level, and will be able to do much more with less.