Workplace flexibility: avoiding the rural talent drain

In looking at the most recent Census, there’s a surge of millennials leaving state capitals for country communities, according to independent think-tank Regional Australia Institute.

The Big Movers 2023 report found an additional 54,000 millennials headed for the regions during the latest Census period (2016-2021) compared to the previous period (2011-2016). The report also found that regional Australia saw a significant increase in overall net migration from capital cities of 166,000 people - almost triple the net gain of the previous Census period.

The shift marks a reversal of the trend in Australia which has typically seen regional/rural young people moving to the cities, says Penny Williams, associate professor at the School of Management at Queensland University of Technology.

“Certainly in Australia, there has been an increase in migration of workers to regional areas during COVID and subsequent to that,” says Williams.

Hybrid work offers larger talent pool

For city-based employers there are two ways to view this data, she says.

“One is from the perspective of understanding how to manage a hybrid workforce and retain workers that might be wanting to move and live regionally. On the flipside, employers can recognise that people are able to work from anywhere, which gives a larger labour pool to draw from.”

To help retain and attract talent by accommodating those looking to live away from the cities, some organisations have successfully set up satellite offices or hubs for people working largely from home, says Williams. “They can go into the hub for teamwork activities, meetings and to collaborate, and this also addresses some of the social isolation that comes from working remotely.”

The introduction of new technology that some workplaces use to help manage remote workers can be helpful, she says, but warns against surveillance methods.

“Some can be really useful, like instant messaging for instance that enables people to ask questions they’d normally ask to the person sitting beside them; some can also be a bit problematic - like keystroke tracking or video surveillance. The risks of those are in impacting employee privacy and reducing the trust employees have in you. That has a negative impact on satisfaction and motivation.”

Managing performance in remote workers

Rather than surveillance, the best way to encourage employee performance in remote working situations is an already tried and tested method, says Williams.

“It really does come back to the old-fashioned ways of managing performance in relation to outputs, setting good, realistic expectations in discussion with employees, and holding workers accountable for their outputs against those expectations.

“The discussion should include how often the employer expects them to come into the office, practical aspects such as office setup, how often they are required to meet with their supervisor, and how those meetings will occur. In making those decisions, it needs to be an open conversation with the employee.”

There’s a great deal of research to suggest one of the reasons people like to work from home or remotely is actually to be more productive, she says. “They tend to use the time they would normally spend travelling, for example, to get more done and with less interruptions.”

Advantages to enabling remote work

By enabling people who want to live more rurally and work remotely to do so, there can be many advantages, says Williams.

“You've probably then got people who are also happier in their work because they're able to have the work-life balance they're looking for and they're living in a place they enjoy.”

Williams notes a key aspect to employers ensuring they don’t miss out on talent is understanding why people opt to move away from the city, establishing whether it’s feasible to offer more flexibility, and institute more hybrid working.

“Can you allow people to work from home a couple of days a week or work shorter hours? Can you provide some financial support to stay, such as higher wages or subsidised housing? I know an employer that was paying towards an employee’s petrol costs and for tunnel and tolls, in order to keep them.”

Faster productivity in new recruits

There is really no substitute for time spent in the office training and learning from colleagues though, she says, but it does depend on the work.

“There is some research showing that of the people who were starting a new job, and doing so remotely for example during the pandemic, a lot didn't stay, or they took a lot longer to become productive because they were trying to learn the job in isolation on their own."

She notes some organisations running large graduate programmes recruiting those with an interest in working in regional locations actually structured their programmes so recruits come spend some time initially in city offices.

“They’d spend a couple of weeks together as a cohort to learn, and the company would pay for their travel and accommodation costs as part of the overall training. Doing so meant they got those people more productive more quickly.”