Understanding Employer Barriers and Benefits In Taking On Disadvantaged Job Seekers [20.12.2011]

A research grant of $75,500 over two years was awarded to the Brotherhood of St Laurence to investigate the attitudes, behaviours and barriers faced by employers who to seek to employ severely disadvantaged job seekers.

Although Australia experiences relatively low levels of aggregate unemployment, it is estimated there remains up to 2 million working-age Australians who could be better assisted to take up job opportunities. While industry and government predict increasing labour shortages as the economy grows, there remain groups of highly disadvantaged job seekers who face multiple barriers, both individual and systemic, in obtaining and retaining work.

In response to these issues, the Brotherhood of St Laurence is developing the Line of Sight project, which is designed to deliver more effective approaches to assist this particular group of people. The project aims to provide an integrated service solution that can achieve higher rates of sustainable employment and training outcomes for this group than that achieved through Job Services Australia, the current major program which works to help this group gain employment. The Line of Sight project also aims to develop reliable recruitment solutions for employers who seek entry level workers, and will engage with and support local employers who have emerging labour needs. This approach is being undertaken in the belief that proactive outreach to local industries and businesses is essential in order to obtain a solid understanding of their labour and skill needs which will then inform the training delivered to disadvantaged job seekers.

In order to determine the effectiveness of this approach, the Brotherhood approached the Trust to fund research into the barriers and benefits for employers who seek to employ disadvantaged job seekers. The outcomes from the research will inform advocacy to governments on the most effective strategies which assist this group to gain and maintain employment.