Attracting and retaining talent: exploring human resources development trends in Australia

Abstract

Drawing from the resource based view of the firm (RBV) the argument developed in the paper is that in an environment characterized by increasing levels of skilled labour shortages organisations need to design employment systems that prioritize human resource development to enable competitive advantage. The literature review examines the issues associated with the attraction, retention and development of human resources, and the major contextual issues and debates underpinning skill and labour shortages. A research question is then framed to capture the HR priorities of Australian organisations. We examine responses from 1372 Australian human resources (HR) professionals who participated in an online survey of a national HR professional association and results are interpreted with respect to HR efforts to attract, develop and retain talent.

Our findings suggest that employers are addressing issues related to attraction - recruitment and selection. However, in critical HR development areas associated with retention such as training, job design, skill development, careers management and team building, results indicate a lower level of resource allocation. We conclude that this lack of resource allocation is of concern for Australian organisations that are struggling to compete both domestically and internationally for skilled workers.

Key Words:

• Skills shortage
• Australia
• employee attraction
• retention and development
• resource-based view

Notes

1. Awards are unique to Australia. They are negotiated between parties (trade unions and employers) and are legally binding documents specifying terms and conditions of employment. Award restructuring involves removing narrow award job classifications and the establishment of links between training, skills acquisition and wage rates.

2. The TGA required organisations with payrolls in excess of $(Aus) 200,000 to direct up to 1.5 per cent of payroll to training or be levied an equivalent amount (Smith and Freeland, 2002).