Employers lean into L&D to boost recruitment, retention

As Australia grapples with a tight labour market, many employers are now turning to learning and development (L&D) strategies to enhance recruitment and retention in their organisations.

LinkedIn's 2023 Workplace Learning Report revealed that 54% of L&D professionals are now working even closer with their human resources peers in terms of talent acquisition.

It comes as Australia's unemployment rate remained at a record-low 3.5% in December, according to the country's statistics bureau, leaving employers engaged in a tight competition for talent.

And what are talents looking for? The top cited reason was the search for new opportunities to develop and learn new skills, according to the report.

One piece of hiring advice offered to employers is to take a skills-based approach, which the report said is expected to boost recruitment tenfold.

"Australian companies that hire for skills can increase their talent pipeline by 10.2x," the report said.

Upskilling for retention

But finding talent isn't the only problem for employers, as 94% of organisations surveyed by LinkedIn said they are also concerned about employee retention.

It comes as recruiting new talent is seen by 81% of employers as a more expensive process than upskilling current staff. In fact, the Australian Human Resources Institute said the cost of hiring an employee in 2022 more than doubled to $23,860 per candidate.

To keep employees, 64% of organisations said they are now "providing learning opportunities" to employees to improve retention.

The findings indicate that more employers are now responding to calls of upskilling initiatives to fill workforce gaps.

This year, 38% of L&D leaders in Australia said they are expecting more spending power, 42% said they expect their budgets to stay the same, while 7% said their overall budget is set to decrease.

"Companies that hire for skills and cultivate a culture of internal mobility by investing in upskilling and learning opportunities will find it easier to attract and retain top talent," said Georgina O'Brien, director of APAC Learning and Engagement at LinkedIn.