‘Look outside box’ when hiring
Australia’s peak body for business has launched a campaign urging employers to “look outside the box” and hire older people and other vulnerable people such as stay-at-home mums, indigenous people, the unemployed and those with disabilities. Employer guides encouraging employers to expand workforce participation was released last week.
Australia’s peak body for business has launched a campaign urging employers to “look outside the box” and hire older people and other vulnerable people such as stay-at-home mums, indigenous people, the unemployed and those with disabilities.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) last week released the first of a series of employer guides encouraging employers to expand workforce participation by employing outside the box when they next recruit.
Workplace Relations Minister, Bill Shorten, told business leaders at the launch in Canberra the industry needed to think “laterally and long term” when it came to employment.
“We can no longer afford to run a business model that says only certain people are welcome in our business as employees,” he said.
“How do you expect to have the customers of the future in your operation if you don’t reflect it in your employees?”
According to the ACCI, 35% of the Australian population not in the workforce now was made up of groups such as stay-at-home parents, people with disabilities, early retirees and other disengaged people.
Chairman of ACCI’s employment education and training committee, Peter McMullin, told The Herald Sun Australia needed to bolster its flagging participation rate by increasing the workforce participation of people.
“Hiring someone from outside the traditional pool of workers isn’t about taking a risk or an act of charity,” he said.
The new ACCI publications will be made available to employers through the chamber’s network.
