Australia Post is beginning its usual Christmas holiday hiring blitz early, amidst fierce competition to secure casual workers during the worker shortage.
The national carrier is looking to fill 7,000 roles and has started recruitment two-and-a-half months earlier than usual.
Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Paul Graham told members of an Australian British Chamber of Commerce luncheon yesterday that it would be sourcing retirees and high-school leavers are potential employees.
“We are all fishing in the same pool, and it is an issue we saw come out of the jobs summit for every business from a coffee shop to a large organisation like Australia Post,” Graham said.
“We normally recruit between 5,000 and 7,000 people for our Christmas peak, and we are doing that now, we probably did that two-and-a-half months earlier than we normally do because we can see the strains in the market.
“And we will be tapping into all areas, we have a focus on for example with high school-leavers, so they come in for a couple of months, and we are tapping into our retirees who have not worked for Australia Post for a while and are still physically fit and very passionate about Australia Post.”
Australia Post has invested in infrastructure, such as automated distribution centres, to make up for any shortfall in employees.
“We have equipped the business much better than we did last peak, and we will actually be able to push product through a lot quicker, so we think that will help significantly.
“What we have had is almost this perfect store; hyperinflation, Covid pandemic, workforce in terms of putting people into jobs and finding people who actually want to do them, extended supply chains and people recognising that extended supply made sense when everything works well but all you need is one piece to come out of sync and your whole supply chain is disrupted.
“We just haven’t had one thing come out of sync, we have had three or four things come out of sync at the same time.
“And the cost of shipping has gone through the roof. And that’s not going to go away for the next 12 to 18 months or potentially longer.”