As some employers brace for the need to deal with staff who refuse to return to the office when government workplace guidelines are relaxed, others plan to offer even greater flexibility as they try to retain and attract employees.

The state governments’ planned lifting of work-from-home orders coincides with a growing skills shortage in many sectors, including accounting, law and IT, and rising staff turnover. Last week Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said more than a million workers started a new job in the three months to November 2021, an increase of 10 per cent on pre-pandemic levels.