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The Great Onboarding Struggle – and how Collections teams can Overcome it!

It’s no secret that Australia has had a significant labour shortage since the onset of the pandemic. It is affecting collections and frontline teams across all industry sectors. But it doesn’t stop there. Getting people in is challenging enough – keeping them is even more complicated. Inadequate onboarding processes and a lack of quality training often lead to onboarding struggles.

If you find recruiting and retaining staff challenging, you are certainly not alone. A recent survey conducted by the Australian Industry Group, a peak national employer organisation that represents the interests of more than 60,000 businesses employing 1 million staff, found that;

’73 per cent of Australian businesses expected to have difficulty in finding and/or retaining skilled labour in 2022′.

At eMatrix training, we are already seeing the fallout of this Labour shortage firsthand. It is not good enough for organisations to hire and then have second-rate onboarding. Worse yet, no ongoing training. HR & L&D teams understand the importance of transitioning recruits but are often under pressure. As a result, they look to us to outsource elements of onboarding and development for their collections teams.

So, what are some of the factors playing into this shortage? Is it going to get better, and what help can we provide?

Critical Factors Behind Labour Shortage.

Restrictions imposed on international borders because of the pandemic has led to a lack of skilled migrants, international students, and backpackers in Australia. Skilled workers leaving Australia to return to their home country has also resulted in Australia’s population being at its lowest in over 100 years.

At the same time, Australia has not adequately invested in a domestic skilled workforce pre-pandemic. Traineeships and apprenticeship numbers were at an all-time low before introducing the Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements scheme in October 2020. These directly impact finding good staff for frontline teams, including collections.

In a labour shortage, the power shifts from employer to employee. It can be a scary prospect for employers. But it can also create a real opportunity for savvy leaders to position themselves as an ’employer of choice’. Onboarding new hires at an organisation should be a strategic process. It should last at least one year to ensure high retention. Employers who recognise this and do it well will be ahead of their competitors.

eMatrix products and training services aim to reduce the impact of the labour shortage by helping organisations attract and retain the right recruits for the role, upskill them, and develop their careers.

With that in mind, let’s look at some of the ways we are helping HR and L&D teams address these challenges.

5 Practical Ways we help with Onboarding Struggles & Training

  1. We take time to understand your business, values, and language to tailor appropriate onboarding and training programs designed for you.
  2. We provide access to our Collector Behavioural Profiling Toolwhich helps ensure that you place the right person in the role. The tool highlights any areas for you to focus on for future training at an individual level. One of the reasons many people walk during onboarding is if they hold unrealistic expectations about the role. Assessing role suitability during the recruitment process helps with employment longevity.
  3. We train the soft skills that empower your staff, elevate customers’ experience, and improve your bottom line. Our training upskills your collections frontline teams in customer engagement, conflict resolution, collections, hardship, customer vulnerability, well-being & leadership: “Empowered and supported staff = Happy staff = Low turnover”.
  4. We provide a sustainable online solution developed for the initial 12 months of employment and beyond. Clients get access to 12 of our most popular online modules plus monthly interactive webinars, one-on-one coaching sessions, certificates of completion, and merit for participants.
  5.  We deliver Cert III and IV in Business and Cert IV in Leadership & Management in conjunction with our RTO Knowledge Space to Collections frontline staff and leaders. We map our specialist training to the certificates.

So, here are 5 practical ways in which we can help you address the current labour shortage or onboarding struggles. Undoubtedly, it is a challenging time for many collections frontline teams. But out of adversity comes opportunity. The good news is that the solutions are for organisations who want to position themselves as market leaders and employers of choice. Those that do will thrive within this environment.

What’s stopping you?

To find out more, contact Jodie Bedoya, Director of eMatrix Training, Australia’s leading Collections & Vulnerability Training Specialists, on 0438 391 500 or jodieb@ematrixtraining.com.au.