Millennials, Gen Z, we're mad if we think we're going to be able to get them to sit in an office 9-5.
- Jo Palmer
BUSINESSES need to start thinking more about how to attract and retain workers - and one of the first places to look is away from home.
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That's the view of Pointer Remote Roles' Jo Palmer, who recently addressed the graduates of Tocal College's Generating Regionally Outstanding Women (GROW) course in Tamworth.
Mrs Palmer has now made a number of visits to the region, talking about the benefits of remote work to both employer and employee.
"How we're working is broken - and Millennials, Gen Z, we're mad if we think we're going to be able to get them to sit in an office 9-5," she said.
The 2019 Rural Woman of the Year founded her business-worker matchmaking service because she saw there was "talent all over Australia and loads of them in the country" and believed "where you live shouldn't be a determining factor for the sort of work you can do".
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"What I'm really passionate about doing is giving people access to be able to stay where they want to live," she said.
"The financial benefit of being able to access work, it's a no-brainer - but it's also the ability to be working in something you're qualified in, as opposed to just the job that's available in your town and community ...
"The trickle-down effect in a rural community means ... they're shopping locally, they can stay where they want to live, they can keep the kids at the school.
"It keeps those communities humming and stems the population decline."
Roadblocks
However, businesses needed to also be on board.
"The biggest roadblock for us is that businesses in rural areas shy away from the concept because it seems a bit hard," Mrs Palmer said.
And there were some challenges, but the benefits outweighed them, she said.
Employers needed a clear definition and expectations of the role, and the technology and systems in place to facilitate remote work.
This could include video-call meetings, digital filing on a remote server and a secure file-transfer protocol.
One tip for was for employers to spend time working remotely to determine how it could be set up.
"It's a different way of doing things and it does take some change to get your head around - but I think when a business is willing to think outside the box, [it] can grow and diversify and open up to new markets, export or foreign markets."
When a business was set up to scale globally, "it shouldn't matter the head office is in Tamworth" - it could build the best teams in the best markets.