PHOTO: Jenny and Scott Richardson, who own the Bucking Bull Hotel, are among multiple local business owners having a difficult time finding new staff.
By OLIVER BROWN
THOUGH it has been proven that the coronavirus pandemic has seen countless jobs disappear, many Coonamble-based businesses say they have the jobs, just not the workers.
Employers in the region have been suffering from a labour shortage in recent years despite many believing there are plenty of people in town who could fulfil the vacant jobs.
Owner of the Bucking Bull Hotel Jenny Richardson said she is constantly looking for staff but has had few local applicants.
“I think there are a lot of people in town not working who could have a job if they really wanted one,” Ms Richardson said.
“I’ve been in contact with employment agencies and they occasionally have people sent here but this industry is not for everyone so they don’t usually stay long – I haven’t had any new staff for quite a while.”
For Ms Richardson, the workforce shortage has forced her to run the hotel at reduced hours due to not having sufficient staff to stay open like she used to.
She also pointed out the problem is not exclusive to hospitality businesses and was a source of frustration for many local business owners.
Robert Kahn, who owns many supermarkets around regional New South Wales, including one in Coonamble, said the fact that the problem was universal only made it worse.
“I have quite a few stores out in the country and I’d say Coonamble is one of my worst when it comes to getting people to come and work, especially on weekends,” Mr Kahn said.
“You also can’t hold people – many available workers are being poached by other businesses because the problem is everywhere.”
Business NSW has also acknowledged the issue is being felt state-wide, citing its Business Conditions Survey from December 2020.
Regional Manager for Western NSW Vicki Seccombe said Agriculture, Construction, Manufacturing and Accommodation and Food Services industries expressed the most concern regarding hiring challenges and skills shortages, made even more difficult when government support packages come to an end this financial quarter.
“Despite overall increases in confidence across Western NSW, 25 per cent of businesses claim they are at a high risk of failure when supports such as JobKeeper, tax relief, interest waivers and other measures conclude,” Ms Seccombe said.
“This vulnerability will hang over the small business sector for much of the year and will need to be factored into decisions about withdrawing support measures.”
Ms Richardson said the government support packages during COVID did have their benefits but also their drawbacks.
“We don’t qualify for JobKeeper anymore, but when we did it was really good for us and it meant I could actually afford to pay myself a wage,” she said.
“JobSeeker, on the other hand, is another story and has likely contributed to people not wanting to work – why would you want to come and work here when you can just stay home and make the same money?”
Mr Kahn agreed that the JobSeeker package may have contributed to the workforce shortage and said the government should be looking to support local businesses in other ways.
“Every day, we have dramas trying to find people – I’ve tried everything, from advertising in Dubbo newspapers to approaching local high schools,” he said.
“The government should be looking really hard at this and give more money to support local businesses – I’ve visited the state MP in Dubbo to talk about the issue.”
Another business that has suffered in the past with labour shortages is Coonamble Children’s Services, which closed for eight months at the end of 2019 due to a lack of staff.
They have since returned, however, and President of the childcare centre’s committee Pip Goldsmith said they now have a full staff.
“We’re on the lookout for additional casuals seeing as we’re in an industry with a typical high turnover but I’d say we’re probably at capacity with staffing at the centre,” Ms Goldsmith said.
“We also now have enough people to work with to work around study and family commitments of staff – it’s a huge relief and so rewarding because it’s been such a long road.”
Ms Goldsmith said the secret to their new success was a risky idea of the committee to change their approach to bringing on new staff.
“You need specific qualifications to work in this industry and it was proven to us time and time again that we didn’t have a talent pool available to employ the staff we need,” she said.
“So what we’re doing now is employing people that are available to work and training them to turn them into what we need.”
According to Ms Goldsmith, the committee hopes this method of providing both a childcare service as well as offering training for their staff would demonstrate a loyalty to their community and was proving to be successful so far.
At the same time, she said the business model was still in its “foundation building stage” and she was uncertain if it could be applied universally to businesses short on staff.
“I’d like to hope it could be translated to other businesses but it’s tricky – we put a lot of time and effort into it and we know every industry is different in the requirements for its staff,” she said.
Ms Richardson said training up new staff would not be a difficult process at the Bucking Bull, but at the end of the day would come down to interest and availability.
“It’s not really hard work, we’re not curing cancer here, we just need someone with an RSA – even if we could get people to just do a few hours a week, it would be better than nothing,” she said.