The Great Resignation: ‘Disgraceful’ way Aussie employers are poaching staff

An Aussie small business owner has lost half her employees in the space of a few months, describing the situation as “heartbreaking”.

Australian small business owner Coco Hou has lost almost half her staff in the space of just a few months and describes the situation as a “big struggle”.

The chief executive of Platinum Accounting said the way staff are being “poached” by other companies is “disgraceful” as the firm hits one of its busiest times of year – tax season.

The exodus of employees means her company, which was established 14 years ago, can’t accept any new clients while it struggles to fill the empty roles.

Seven out of 15 staff members have left the company in the past few months, she told news.com.au, with the longest serving employee having been there for six years.

Yet, most weren’t looking for a new job, with five poached after being approached on LinkedIn, some of whom had been with her company for as little as three months. It comes as Australian businesses nationwide face a huge labour shortage crisis.

“The accounting sector is under siege across the country. Hardworking small to medium sized accounting businesses are being attacked by larger companies raiding their workforce,” Ms Hou said.

“The biggest complaint across industry is the way in which large firms are swooping in and luring staff away with the promise of massive pay rises and lucrative career progression.

“The way in which the poaching is being done is also disgraceful. Staff are being stalked on sites such as LinkedIn and approached through cold calls and messaging.”

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Platinum Accounting founder Coco Hou is dealing with staff shortages impacting the business. Picture: Toby Zerna

Ms Hou said even though the first thing she asks about is pay when an employee resigns, her small firm can’t match the salaries of bigger firms, which are often more than $10,000 higher.

Meanwhile, even smaller firms are offering $5000 more and “unrealistic” promotional pathways, she said.

“With a large organisation, we can’t compete on pay – they are a lot more powerful financially where they can get someone and they have a big reputation and add a lot of weight on a resume, so we are in no position to compete with larger companies,” she said.

The accountant of 20 years described stealing staff over LinkedIn as “sneaky” and said other businesses don’t consider the time and money they have spent on staff only to have them ripped away.

“New employees for the first six months we are mainly investing in them and training them and then after six months they start delivering value to business,” she said.

“We have comprehensive training and development programs in place and we continually mentor our people. It is absolutely heartbreaking when large firms poach our staff.”

Five staff were poached over LinkedIn, while two opted for a career break to travel.

Transfer fee like in sport

It’s why Ms Hou has called for big business to pay a “transfer fee” if they poach staff, like when players are traded across sporting teams.

She’s proposed that a large business should fork out between 15 to 20 per cent of the annual salary to a small enterprise like hers to compensate for taking their staff.

“This kind of approach works in the sporting environment. Maybe we need to consider this type of arrangement in the accounting sector,” she said.

“This would stop some of the rampant poaching and also reward small to medium sized accounting firms for investing so much of their time and resources into the development of staff – only to have them poached from under their feet.

“The old adage that if you look after your staff, they will stay, is no longer relevant in this challenging and predatory market environment.”

Ms Hou’s accounting firm can’t compete with larger operators on salary. Picture: Getty Images

Permanent job advertisement

Currently, Plantinum Accouting has four positions open for junior accountants but Ms Hou is struggling to fill the positions with a lack of applicants.

She has also been forced to leave the job advertisement up permanently, anticipating that there are more vacancies to come as The Great Resignation – a phenomenon that saw millions of people in the US quit their jobs last year – hits Aussie shores.

“It’s so we have more candidates waiting in the pipeline in case the poaching situation gets worse,” she said.

The damage on businesses like Ms Hou’s was laid bare in June when Australian Bureau of Statistic data revealed that 31 per cent of businesses surveyed in June were finding it difficult to find staff.

Almost eight in 10 businesses reported not having enough applicants on job ads, while 59 per cent of businesses said applicants lacked the appropriate skills or qualifications.

The alarming statistics come as unemployment sits at 3.9 per cent, the lowest it’s been in 48 years.

More than a million Aussies have left their jobs in the past year. Picture: iStock

After her experience with staff being poached, Ms Hou said there were some candidates that would be instantly ruled out if they applied for a job at Platinum Accounting.

“If they have only stayed in a position for less than three months we wouldn’t look at their resume and wouldn’t give them a chance to have an interview, based on our experience of a staff member being poached by someone else after being with us for three months,” she said.

“It caused great inconvenience, so we prioritise staff loyalty and stability over other things.”

Even employers with happy staff or those who have had new employees who started recently will not be immune to The Great Resignation, research has found.

PwC Australia future of work lead Dr Ben Hamer predicts a huge “domino effect” as people hand in their resignations creating “vacancy after vacancy”, adding workers have never been in a stronger negotiating position than right now.

Aussie businesses are desperate for more job applicants. Picture: iStock

1.3 million have already changed jobs

Figures showed that almost 10 per cent of the Australian workforce quit their jobs last year – a whopping 1.3 million people, according to the ABS.

It was the biggest number of Aussies changing jobs since 2012.

But the lack of good staff could also have a knock-on effect in other ways, Ms Hou warned.

“Without staff, good trained staff, small to medium sized accounting businesses cannot do their work,” she said.

“If something is not done, the situation is going to impact on businesses’ ability to meet their tax obligations and revenue generation for the Government. The situation is very serious.”

Research showed that 43 per cent of Aussie workers are planning to search for a new job in 2022, a third will leave their roles as soon as they secure a new position and nearly a fifth will resign without another job lined up, according to Elmo Software.