National Water Skills Audit - Australian Water Association

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Recruitment Requirements and IssuesThe organisations were asked in the survey about theirexpectations and requirements of skills when recruitingemployees into water-related roles. They were askedif they had recruited skilled employees using a 457visa. They were also asked whether new professional,paraprofessional and tradespeople are required to have awater industry specific qualification and/or experience.Table 3.13 shows the numbers of employees on a 457visa that organisations had recruited. The 457 visa isthe most commonly used programme for employersto sponsor overseas workers to work in Australia on atemporary basis. This visa allows overseas employeesto work for a period of between three months and fouryears.It can be seen from Table 3.13 that segments thatreported most commonly recruiting employees usinga 457 visa are the local and regional governments at69 per cent, and manufacturers and distributors inthe private sector, at 60 per cent. Approximately onethird of employers in the consultants and contractors/constructors groupings said that they had recruited usinga 457 visa. The three state government and the twoeducation and research respondents all said that theyhad not sourced any employees in this way.Employers were asked what types of employees theyhad the most difficulty recruiting and retaining. Theresponses are presented in Table 3.14 and presentedgraphically in Figures 3.10 and 3.11. It is very clear fromthe tables and figures that the occupational group whichis most difficult both to recruit and to retain is thatof professional engineers. This accounted for nearlyhalf of the answers with regard to recruitment andretention difficulties. The tables show that the segmentsciting professional engineers were predominantly theconsultants and manufacturers and distributors in theprivate sector. This occupational group was also citedby the public sector, particularly the local and regionalgovernment organisations.The second key group that employees highlighted thatthey had the most difficulty recruiting and retaining isthat of science/technical professionals. All but one of thesegments – manufacturers and distributors in the privatesector – said they had difficulty recruiting this type ofemployee, and all but one of the segments – contractorsand constructors – said they had difficulty retainingthem.Nine organisations claimed to experience difficulty inrecruiting managers and two in retaining them. Thisissue mostly affected the local and regional governmentorganisations, although three consultants and onecontractor/constructor also said they had problemsrecruiting managers. Retaining managers seemed tobe less of a problem overall. With regard to the trades,the private sector experienced the most difficulty inrecruiting employees, particularly contractor/constructorsand manufacturer/distributors. Retention was moreproblematic for contractor/ constructors, and cited as aproblem for two of the local and regional governmentorganisations.Business support employees were said to be difficult torecruit and retain by two private sector companies, andretention was also a problem for two of the local andregional government organisations.According to the sample, no significant problem wasreported in recruiting or retaining staff in the followingareas: science/technical paraprofessionals; engineerparaprofessionals; and operators.The organisations in the survey were then askedwhether they required their water-related employees tohave water-specific qualifications and experience, withthe response options of always, sometimes, rarely andnever. The responses are shown in Table 3.15.It can be seen that water-specific qualifications aremost required for new professional employees, withmore than half of the respondents (56 per cent) sayingthat this was a requirement for always or sometimes.This requirement drops to 42 per cent with newparaprofessional employees and falls further for newTable 3.13: Employers recruiting using a 457 visaHave you recruited skilled employees using a 457 visa?Segment of water sector Yes No % Yes % NoPublic - State 0 3 0 100Public - Local/Regional 9 4 69 31Private Sector - Consultant 5 9 36 64Private Sector - Contractor/Constructor 2 4 33 67Private Sector - Manufacturer/Distributor 6 4 60 40Education and Research 0 2 0 100Total 22 26 46 54ICE WaRM • National Skills Audit (Phase One) Report 31
Table 3.14: The types of employees that employers have the most difficulty recruiting and retainingSegment ofwater sectorPublic -StatePublic -Local/RegionalPrivate -ConsultantPrivate -Contractor/ConstructorPrivate -Manufacturer/DistributorEducation andResearchManagerWhich types of employee do you have the most difficulty recruiting?EngineerProfEngineerParaprofScience/TechnicalProf1 2Science/TechnicalParaprofTrades5 5 3 1OperatorsBusinessSupport3 9 2 11 1 1 2 17 1 2Total 9 23 0 10 1 5 0 22Which types of employee do you have the most difficulty retaining?Segment ofwater sectorManagerEngineerProfEngineerParaprofScience/TechnicalProfScience/TechnicalParaprofTradesOperatorsBusinessSupportPublic -StatePublic -Local/RegionalPrivate -ConsultantPrivate -Contractor/ConstructorPrivate -Manufacturer/DistributorEducation andResearch32 3 4 2 1 210 1 11 1 55 2 1 1 1Total 2 19 1 12 1 8 1 42TotalEngineer -ProfessionalScience/Technical -ProfessionalsDifficultiesRecruitingRetaining23 1910 12Manager 9 2Trades 5 8Business Support 2 4Science/technical -ParaprofessionalEngineer -Paraprofessional1 10 1Operators 0 1Total responses 50 4832 ICE WaRM • National Skills Audit (Phase One) Report
Page 1 and 2: Department of Environment, Water, H
Page 3 and 4: Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsii
Page 5 and 6: Executive SummaryBackgroundThe Coun
Page 7 and 8: Executive SummaryFor the WSAA segme
Page 9 and 10: Executive Summarydemands. These and
Page 11 and 12: 1.2 Terms of ReferenceAppendix B. T
Page 13 and 14: 2 MethodologyThe methodology for th
Page 15 and 16: This section consists of desktop re
Page 17 and 18: Australian Water Directory. This ma
Page 19 and 20: educated at the top levels, but les
Page 21 and 22: members (at all educational levels)
Page 23 and 24: Table 3.5: Australian Government st
Page 25 and 26: priority issues within the educatio
Page 27 and 28: Ages of the employees were recorded
Page 29 and 30: Figure 3.4.1: Workforce demand fore
Page 31 and 32: Table 3.6: Estimated headcount gaps
Page 33 and 34: 3.3 The ‘Non-Urban’ Water Indus
Page 35 and 36: Figure 3.7: Percentage of employees
Page 37 and 38: Age BracketsThe organisations were
Page 39: Sources of Recently Appointed Staff
Page 43 and 44: Table 3.15: Preferences of organisa
Page 45 and 46: Table 3.16: Estimated total sampled
Page 47 and 48: Table 3.18: Projected total (non-WS
Page 49 and 50: Table 3.19: Projected total sampled
Page 51 and 52: in these three sectors, with the la
Page 53 and 54: Table 3.23: Qualifications in sewer
Page 55 and 56: Table 3.25 shows the age profile of
Page 57 and 58: 4 Analysis of Results4.1 Combining
Page 59 and 60: Table 4.4: Projected total addition
Page 61 and 62: Employment Gaps - Qualifications 20
Page 63 and 64: Recruiting and Retaining - GeneralW
Page 65 and 66: 4.3 DiscussionA survey response was
Page 67 and 68: 5 Outcomes/Issues5.1 Current Needs
Page 69 and 70: Figure 5.3: Composition of survey p
Page 71 and 72: Table 5.4 shows the combined result
Page 73 and 74: • There is a high demand for civi
Page 75 and 76: organisations such as CRCs or Inter
Page 77 and 78: 6 Next StepsThe first phase of this
Page 79 and 80: ReferencesAttikiouzel Y 2008, ‘Li
Page 81 and 82: Water Industry Capacity Development
Page 83 and 84: Appendix ATerms of ReferenceICE WaR
Page 85 and 86: 2. Lodgement Details2.1 Quotes shou
Page 87 and 88: PART A STATEMENT OF REQUIREMENT (Se
Page 89 and 90: • includes an executive summary o
Page 91 and 92:
Appendix BProject organisation char
Page 93:
Appendix CJob Family Description Jo
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National Water Skills Audit - Australian Water Association

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