The jobs market may be booming in Australia, but with it comes near-record low levels of unemployment as organisations struggle to fill vacancies.
According to the National Skills Commission’s annual skills list released earlier this month, the number of occupations where workers are in short supply jumped to 286 from 153 in 2021. While female-dominated industries of nursing and aged & disability care emerged as two of the most in-demand sectors with more than 10,000 job ads currently active and open.
It’s a grave situation but not at all a surprising one.
Indeed, more than a quarter of all Primary Health Care (PHC) nurses in Australia reported plans to leave their job in February, citing poor working conditions, burnout, limited support, and low pay as some of the core reasons.
Talent shortages aren’t just impacting healthcare either. Industries like hospitality, retail, ICT, childcare, teaching, and engineering are heaving under the pressure – a relic of three years living through a pandemic.
While the government committed an extra $1.1 billion to the TAFE sector in September to create 180,000 fee-free places and made note of the need to strengthen Australia’s tertiary education sector, these reforms will only go so far.
Smart employers need to look to the future and consider how workers—especially women—want to work.
A move to “passport careers”
Recent research released by Bain & Company, identified that firms of the future may be able to mitigate the talent-shortage fallout by adopting and offering “passport career” pathways. This includes opportunities to explore different roles within an organisation, flexibility, and on-and-off ramps as part of individuals’ career journeys.
Christina Wallace, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, notes that with wages stagnant, housing and childcare costs at historic highs and other cost of living pressures overwhelming many households, something needs to shift at work. People need the opportunity to work in a way that aligns with other competing life priorities.
“When our parents or grandparents look at this approach to work, they often see ‘flighty,’ not ‘strategic,’” she tells Time. But “the old career playbook doesn’t work anymore.”
And it especially doesn’t work for Australian women who are still shouldering a higher increase in unpaid work in the household, limiting their engagement in paid work. As highlighted in research conducted by Bain & Company and Chief Executive Women last year, women are twice as likely as men to take on most of the unpaid domestic work, and more than three times as likely as men to take on caring responsibilities.
Despite these statistics, women are still as ambitious as ever. As revealed in Women’s Agenda’s 2021 Ambition Report, 25.16 percent of 1400+ respondents cited they were aiming to achieve a promotion within the next two years, 35.7 percent said they wanted to earn more, and 25.79 percent suggested they’d be pursuing new education pathways.
These findings indicate that employers that present passport career options, will better attract women and lessen the rate of female employees jumping ship to pursue new opportunities that mesh better with their lives.
But while the appeal of non-linear, passport career pathways has grown considerably since the pandemic, the trend has been building momentum for some time.
The catalyst for Tanja Kovac’s own passport career came when she was told by doctors at age 27 to start trying for a baby due to an existing fertility concern. A young lawyer at the time, Kovac couldn’t see how she would balance kids and a career within a family-hostile industry.
“Instead of having a trajectory straight upwards, I zigzagged,” she says.
“I stepped sideways into cause-related advocacy, working for an NGO instead of trying to slug it out in in a male dominated and often sexually discriminating profession.”
Kovac’s early career choice has since seen her segue into numerous, rewarding opportunities. “I’ve worked as a lawyer, NGO advocate, political advisor & Chief of Staff and most recently as CEO. I’ve also run my own business, writing and consulting,” she tells Women’s Agenda.
“My career enables me to sit on boards, support causes and get involved in community stuff too.”
Kovac also emphasises the importance of having a “gender equal partnership” with her husband. “Our careers ebb and flow with both of us taking the financial lead from time to time,” she explains.
Coleen Mackinnon, another dynamic leader, consciously chose a passport pathway six years ago. Hailing from Canada, MacKinnon spent the first ten years of her career in senior management within the NFP sector before shifting into consulting in 2000, when she started a family.
Her passport career accelerated in 2016 when a move to Australia saw her work “singularly focus on authentically engaging men” to champion equality.
“One day a week I serve as advisor to the Consult Australia Champions of Change (Engineering group), educating CEOs on the barriers to, and best practice principles in achieving workplace gender equality, along with their critical role in leading and role modelling change. The other four days, my associate and I do deep work with senior male leaders in male-dominated industries to inspire their active involvement in driving change,” she explains.
Until recently, MacKinnon was also on the Board of Women for Election to help drive broader female representation in Parliament but left to support Independent Zali Steggall’s 2022 election campaign.
MacKinnon urges employers to think differently or lose out in a modern workforce where traditional 9 to 5 siloed roles are no longer the norm—especially for women and younger generations.
“Only 15 percent of employees are engaged in the workplace according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace. The majority are either viewing their workplace negatively or only doing the bare minimum to make it through the day”, she says.
“Providing employees the opportunity to pursue passport moves increases the possibility for self-reflection and personal/professional development and increases the likelihood they find something that fuels their passion.”
Kovac agrees. “We tell young people that they will have many careers in their lifetime, but I think there is still an odd reaction if you don’t just focus on one thing forever. We reward longevity and conformity”, she says.
“That doesn’t motivate me. I am looking for opportunities to make change and engage dynamically. Staying in one place for too long doesn’t lend itself to that kind of work.”
This piece was supported by Bain & Company
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