Article
STEPHEN LONG - Industry Skills and Workforce Development Manger
THA and Government – Working Together
On behalf of our members the THA put a submission to both parties in the recent election about continuing the great working relationship(s) that has been in place over the last 4 years. That previous relationship has allowed the THA to develop and implement Workforce Development strategies, including: • Trial and also put in place the Great Customer Experience program (GCE) and we are now seeing the fruits of our labour with training being in the venues and when the venues want it and its also funded by Government • Create a program of student and teacher engagement to try and build our workforce of the future and to build on the 300+ schools and 8,000 students we have engaged with over the last 2 years • Promote and see continuing uptake in School Based Apprenticeships which is a major bonus for the future of the industry, a three fold increase in 2017 – we need many more. • Enter into negotiations with employment providers - JobActives, Disability, Migrant and Not for Profits that resulted in a new Hospitality Awareness Program being developed and rolled out across these organisations We are very grateful to the incoming Liberal Government for the funding policy they have developed "taking hospitality to the Next Level" With this investment the Government will join forces with THA as the industry leader, to deliver key initiatives including the investment of $2.8 million into the THA Great Customer Experience program. The Great Customer Experience program has had more than 600 hospitality businesses involved in this initiative. The GCE will expand to assist 2,000 businesses over the next 4 years, and include industrial relations and human resource training, a core of any successful small and large business. The program has been on a journey that has taught us some important lessons and we have used those lessons to adapt the program delivery and outputs. Program Experience and Redesign The program has been difficult to rollout to many venues with a number of revisits being required to get any traction. The experience is unique – over a 12 month period the venue engagement barriers looks like this: • November to Easter – Too busy • Easter to end of June – Staff put off and taking a breath, staff on leave • July to August – Venue operators on leave • August to mid September – Taking on new staff • Mid-September to November – Staffing being settled and training on the job, school holidays and last chance to do family things before the season starts It’s a difficult industry to get traction in venues for training because: • They work their people harder, • There is an increasing clientele so customers are not generally an issue, • In urban areas a couple of good nights can keep a venue viable, • On the job training is seen as acceptable – been doing it forever • Operators are too involved in the day to day business to be able to access training options despite continually concern about skill levels The industry has a well defined ability to manage the chaos of a brutal season and to get through, worry about skills and availability of staff and then go and do it all again. How can we do more to help The logical next step is the introduction of more aspects to our offering so that we have a product that venues know they need to engage with, social issues and importantly an Employee Relations (ER) linkage. • There is scope to utilise the GCE as a hugely appropriate vehicle to help address venue education about current Workplace Relations ER practices. This would be done via a genuine ER Audit and Compliance Health check and the provision of support becoming a requirement to access GCE “Seal of Approval” status, venue staff are customers of the business. ER practitioners in the THA continue to put in place proactive management support of the employment cycle from entry to exit, and address any identified gaps that can reduce potential mitigation exposure including adverse action. o As part of the GCE process, venues will address workplace relations where, subject to genuine gap analysis that includes ER
April 2018 www.tha.asn.au
14
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online