Employers urged to address holiday barriers in tight market

Job shortages are denying workers time off as more companies look to offshoring to fill the gap

Elmo CEO Danny Lessem.

Staff shortages are impacting on annual holidays with a large proportion of Australian workers saying they can’t take leave because there’s no one to do their job when they are away.

A survey of 1000 workers released on Monday claims 75 per cent of Australians can’t take time off, with 41 per cent of them saying it’s about saving money or because of the cost of living; 26 per cent reporting they have too much work to do; and 15 per cent saying it’s fear of travelling because of Covid-19.

The ELMO Software Employee Sentiment Index says it’s a worrying trend for business given about a quarter of workers have accumulated more than their yearly leave entitlement, adding significantly to employers’ liabilities. It says 13 per cent of workers hold more than two months leave and the average employee now has 23.8 days of leave accrued.

Employees are also accumulating sick and carer’s leave with one third of workers holding more than the yearly entitlement for personal leave. And older workers tend to hold more annual and personal leave days: on average, Baby Boomers and gen Xers have double or triple the amount of annual or personal leave of Gen-Zs and Millennials.

Danny Lessem, CEO of ELMO Software, said business leaders needed to understand why employees are not taking leave: “Is it due to unrealistic workloads, lack of resourcing, job insecurity, or because of the rising cost of living and economic uncertainty in Australia? “Whatever the reason, it needs to be rapidly addressed by business leaders.”

The survey found 64 per cent of employees are working from home to save money, but 34 per cent say a free lunch could entice them back to the office. Of those at home, 43 per cent say it’s to save on transport costs while 30 per cent say it’s because they spend more on food when they work on site. A quarter of employees working from home would also be encouraged to work from the office if it had better technology than they have at home; to attend social events; or wellness initiatives.

In separate research, three in four companies say they are suffering skill shortages with almost half considering hiring offshore to fill the gap.

But the survey of 523 decision makers and influencers in hiring in companies with more than 50 employees revealed 68 per cent of respondents were worried about the potential stigma of offshoring.

And there’s a generational difference according to the report from the remote staffing platform, Cloudstaff Australia, with 18-34 year old business owners/managers almost three times more likely to outsource jobs overseas than the over-55s.

Cultural challenges were a major barrier, with 68 per cent of respondents believing overseas workers were unlikely to understand the Australian market and the specifics of particular industries, for example, tax rules.

Cloudstaff’s Australian head Chris McDonald says some businesses appear to have a blind spot when it comes to their options on staffing. Many perceptions around offshoring were out of date – it was now used across all company sizes and a range of skilled roles such as software engineers, accountants, auditors, rental property managers and graphic designers for example.