Attraction and retention of a skilled workforce is a key priority for the industries Skills Insight supports, as identified in our conversations with stakeholders, including our Stakeholder Forum. These industries are responsible for caring for our environments and animals, and produce the raw material required to feed, clothe and house the population. They also have a large proportion of their operations located in regional, rural and remote locations, presenting specific challenges in workforce attraction and retention.
While there are many examples of successful strategies and resources available, businesses can find it challenging to navigate these to find the advice needed to support their specific attraction and retention needs.
Click across the tabs to view active and completed project stages. Consultation takes place at every stage of the project.
In consultation with relevant stakeholders, Skills Insight is undertaking a desktop research project to develop guidance for small to medium business to support the attraction and retention of employees across rural, regional and remote (RRR) areas. The aim is to produce a centralised, web-based collection of tools and resources that will highlight opportunities for workforce development, together with case studies of successful place-based initiatives, empowering industry in regional, rural and remote areas to attract, retain and re-attract workers across all sectors.
Approach
The project team will collect information about current processes and examples of effective attraction and retention strategies.
A stakeholder working group will be established to participate in an industry needs analysis and provide advice on the development and implementation of the webpage. The broader industry will also have the opportunity to provide feedback on the draft webpage. It will then be submitted for review by the Department of Employment and Workforce Relations at the end of the project.
Content and scope
The final webpage will be available on the Skills Insight website to support small to medium businesses seeking to improve their workforce attraction and retention. The aim is to provide a central location with information and tools that support industry to address attraction and retention challenges by bringing together existing resources in a clear, accessible, and user-friendly format.
The scope and content will be refined with input from the stakeholder working group and broader industry consultation. Consideration will be given to:
- actions to support attraction of workers to regional, rural and remote locations
- actions businesses could take to attract workers to their organisation
- actions businesses could take to attract workers to their organisation
- take to retain workers within their organisation
- resources to support inclusive practices and workforce diversity
- case studies that display successful and replicable strategies
- avenues for industry to seek external support.
Project manager
Ngaire Stratton
Timeline
| Initial planning & scoping | March – April 2025 |
| Establishment of working group | May 2025 |
| Research and development of draft webpage | May – July 2025 |
| Working group review & refinement of draft | July – August 2025 |
| Draft webpage available for broad consultation & feedback | September – October 2025 |
| Refinement of draft with working group | November 2025 – January 2026 |
| Submission to DEWR | February 2026 |
| Publication of webpage | March 2026 |
This stage has not yet commenced.
During the development stage, key stakeholders, including subject matter experts, are engaged and consulted to gather further information and begin investigating potential solutions.
This stage has not yet commenced.
At the broad consultation stage, we present and discuss potential solutions, collecting feedback from a wide range of stakeholder across the country. It follows consultation with various stakeholders that has already taken place throughout the project.
This stage has not yet commenced.
At the finalisation stage, final checks are conducted and the outcomes of the project are submitted to the Department for consideration. Following this, outcomes are published or enacted.