Regional businesses work together to combat workforce challenges with new ‘Local Employment Roadmap’ – from new jobs website to free HR Week workshops

Local businesses are working together to implement an 'Employment Roadmap' to address some of the workforce challenges across the Goondiwindi Region – and it kicks off this week with a series of free HR workshops by local industry leaders.

Multiple local entrepreneurs, innovators, employment service providers and small to medium enterprises have contributed to creating the ‘Roadmap’, which aims to identify a broad list of potential solutions to local workforce challenges, such as difficulty filling local vacancies and limited specialist HR support available in the region.

Goondiwindi Regional Council has supported businesses to get the project rolling, and local business Engage and Create Consulting has now been appointed to manage the rollout of the solutions identified in the Roadmap.

It kicks off with the Goondiwindi Region ‘HR Week’, which includes dedicated free workshops on great topics such as onboarding new employees, award coverage, local employment support, migration strategy and managing a team remotely. The in-person and online sessions are being hosted by industry leaders from around the region – for more information, visit: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/o/engage-amp-create-consulting-12976088209

Mayor of the Goondiwindi Region the Honourable Cr Lawrence Springborg AM said the Employment Roadmap was about local businesses working together to achieve common objectives.

“In a recent survey, 65% of our respondents reported that job vacancies were having some impact on their business, with the average reported vacancy fill time at just over four weeks,” the Mayor said.

“Council doesn’t normally get involved in individual business recruitment issues,” the Mayor said. “However, when we had multiple businesses saying, ‘we think we can achieve more working together,’ we wanted to help them get the ball rolling with the development of this Roadmap.

“The Roadmap is about local businesses identifying common objectives that will benefit our region collectively, such as increasing the awareness of local opportunities to jobseekers outside the region, and developing local business knowledge, skills and awareness around employment best practices and opportunities.”

The solutions identified within the Roadmap fit broadly into three main themes: building local capacity, marketing the region, and local business collaboration. Some of those potential solutions include appointing an HR professional to job-share across employers with no in-house HR role, developing marketing collateral and online tools to promote the region's opportunities and livability, and developing a regional migration strategy that welcomes and helps new families in the region.

One item has already been ticked off the list, with the launch of dedicated local jobs website www.GoondiwindiJobs.com.au this week to enable local employers to advertise job vacancies to potential employees across the country and beyond for no cost. There will be a free workshop about using the site this week as part of the ‘HR Week' activities.

The jobs website and development of the roadmap has been supported by kick-starter funding from the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC). Additional funding is being sourced towards more of the Roadmap’s outcomes, which include increasing the number of job applications from outside the region, decreasing job vacancy fill time and increasing the number of local businesses using local service providers.

“The labour market has never been more competitive, and we want the Goondiwindi Region to be at the forefront of attracting new talent as Australia opens up again,” Cr Springborg said.