How Australia compares to other countries in combating talent shortages

The “anywhere economy” is set to aid Australia’s challenges in boosting productivity, cost-of-living pressures and an ever-growing talent shortage.

Earlier this month, DocuSign released new research into the “anywhere economy”, highlighting how Australia fares on productivity and economic growth in comparison to other countries. The research, undertaken by think tank Economist Impact, gauged sentiments and experiences among consumers and executives in our country and the US, Japan, France, Germany, Ireland, the UK, Brazil, Mexico and Canada.

According to the research, as the anywhere economy expands, productivity is set to grow by 9 per cent in Australia from 2021 to 2030. This figure is slightly behind global counterparts in the developed world, such as the US (10 per cent) and the UK (12 per cent). This theme carries through to Australia’s economic output, with GDP growth from 2022 to 2030 averaging 2 per cent, the research said.

When it comes to geographical and accessibility barriers, the research noted Australia leads in female workforce participation among the 10 countries surveyed. For context, the anywhere economy is set to bring an additional 25 million women into the labour force by 2030 across the 10 countries surveyed, supporting an estimated 60 per cent female labour force participation rate (LFPR). Australia is well ahead of this figure, with an LFPR of 62.1 per cent as of 2021, with this expected to reach 65.7 per cent in 2030.

Further, 62.4 per cent of Aussie execs said the anywhere economy had positively impacted the diversity of their workforce, while 74.1 per cent agreed that the anywhere economy has had a positive impact on their ability to hire from a wider pool of candidates.

Respondents were also asked to share their sentiments on how the anywhere economy and the rising cost of living have impacted their workplace set-up.

Almost 25 per cent of Australian execs surveyed reported their offices moved from large cities to suburban or rural areas — the largest percentage among the 10 countries surveyed (17 per cent on average).

More satellite offices are also being leveraged, with one-third of execs saying they have invested more in satellite offices to support workers over the past five years. Twenty-six per cent of Australian executives have jumped on the trend.

Compared to global counterparts, Australia ranks low in digitalisation investment across R&D expenditure and cyber security reinforcement, the research flagged, noting only a third of Australian executives surveyed selected “investment and spending, and innovation” as one of the top three areas impacted by digitalisation in their industry in the past decade. By comparison, over 40 per cent of execs across the other countries said it was one of the top three areas of impact.

Cyber security practices are also seemingly falling behind, with only 22.1 per cent of Australian executives saying they have significantly increased their cyber security practices — falling behind global peers such as the US (32.9 per cent) and the UK (36.3 per cent).

In a similar vein, just 15 per cent of Australian execs said they’re significantly increasing their use of artificial intelligence to automate processes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Aussie companies are also lagging behind peers in research and development (R&D) spending: Australian business expenditure in R&D is estimated to increase by 41 per cent between 2021 and 2030, falling just short of the US (44 per cent) and UK (51 per cent).

“The anywhere economy presents enormous opportunities to combat the growing challenges of productivity, cost of living, and talent shortages we’re seeing in Australia right now,” said Paul Cross, vice president of customer success, APJ, DocuSign, commenting on the findings.

“And while Australia has proven to be an exemplar in leveraging a diverse workforce, there is more to be done from a digitalisation perspective to drive long-term productivity — and in turn, economic growth.”