Human Resource Management - Australia Workforce

Australia as a migration country is going through large demographic change, so the size and composition of labour force is also changing. With a huge number of people approaching retirement age over next few decades, and fewer young people don't active to seek for work add talent flight as results in a shortage of labour to meet future demands. As a consequence, in this situation HRM is becoming more and more usefully to Australia organisations. It is able to predict the demand for labour and how to supply it, in terms of both numbers and competency sets of employees (De Cieri et al. 2008). HRM can help shape our field. Some of the more obvious ones include globalization, work-force diversity, changing skill requirements, corporate downsizing, total quality management, reengineering work processes, decentralized work sites, and employee involvement (Agha Sadarrudin, 2001). In addition, HRM is facing a new challenges what recruiting and retenting employees in current labour market for organisation. One particular area where organisation fell down, when compared to the US, was in the area of workforce management (De Cieri et al. 2008). HRM as a key area plays in determining the effectiveness and competitiveness of Australia. In order to understand the challenges facing HR today, it is necessary to analysis the characteristics of the Australia workforce, the human resource environment and the competitive challenges companies face (De Cieri et al. 2008).

First of all, to illustrate the characteristics of the Australia workforce, will analysis the composition of labour force which involved two factors in Australia: internal labour force and external labour market. The labour force of current employees is often referred to as the internal labour force. And the external labour market includes persons actively seeking employment. According to official statistics, the Australia resident population in June 2004 was 20.1 million people and there were 10.4 million people in the labour force (De Cieri et al.2008). So the labour force just account for a half of total population will result in shortages of available employees. In addition, Australia organisation is also experiencing a shortage of talented persons due to more competition from local organization even global organization. If talented persons flight, the firms will lose competititive capability and intellectual property. As more and more organisation know this which cause a war for talent on a global scale.

Secondary, the aging workforce is one of the characteristics of the Australia workforce. Australian population is aging due to increase life expectancies and a low level of fertility, which has resulted in proportionally fewer children in the population. More than 80 per cent of the projected growth in the labour force between 1998 and 2016 will be in the age-group of 45 years and over (De Cieri et al.2008). As a consequence, when older employees faced retirement, will results