Fishing is part of the answer to attract skilled workers to move to our region. That’s what one local business owner told me last week. Doing some crystal balling, this business owner sees the short to medium-term prospects for our region being positive. More even than the south east corner, where they also operate. Which led him to offer some of his southern staff paid fishing trips up here. Believing by giving them an experience they love, not only keeps them loyal, they’ll get a taste for the Capricorn lifestyle, discover how affordable housing is, how good the schools are and when offered to work up here they’ll be more receptive about moving the family here. Sounds simple doesn’t it and logical. Shouldn’t there be more of this!
What jobs, some of you may be asking? With the infrastructure projects in the promised pipeline and the resurgent Bowen Basin’s growing demand for workers we will experience a skill shortage. The likely losers from this will be local owned businesses, unable to match the wage packages offered by the big multi-nationals to retain their existing employees or attract suitable replacements.
We need to be actively attracting (as well as training local people to be) skilled workers now. Barra fishing in the Fitzroy can be more than a tourist attractor; it needs to also be a re-locator trigger. Not the only fishing trigger though; ocean/reef fishing has to be also part of the package too. Highlight all of our region’s assets to get the best result, not geo-fence some of them. It is more important to attract skilled workers to the region, then where they decide to live in the region. What is good for Rockhampton is good for the Coast, and vice versa.
The Emu Park Fishing Classic is being held on the same September weekend as the Oceania Cup is in Rockhampton. Take advantage of this mix of international sport and fishing. Approach a significant supplier to the desired skilled workers, like Makita, with a prize that included flights, accommodation, tickets to Thursday’s hockey matches between Australian and New Zealand men’s and women’s teams along with the legends match featuring Rockhampton former international hockey stars Jamie Dwyer and Mark Knowles, as well as registration for the fishing classic, for them to promote through tool shops in Brisbane. This sells Rockhampton and the Coast as a place that hosts important international events and a fishing destination to an arguably interested targeted market. Perhaps challenging their perceptions of the region. Make one of the conditions is winners have to post on social media what they are doing each day in the region, then their family, friends and work mates are being exposed to what our region can offer them too. Support this with a paid digital media campaign highlighting house prices and applicable job vacancies, you’ve effectively planted a seed that eventually could see people moving to our region.
Perhaps Aurizon, if they are having a problem relocating their office staff from Brisbane to Rockhampton, as they indicated they were going to do, could buy tickets to the hockey and fishing classic for the designated 200 staff and bring them here to sample it. It would demonstrate some serious intent to deliver on what they stated.
Local businesses, start your own crystal balling, if skill shortages are on your horizon do something about it now. Otherwise, in the not too distant future, you will be working even more harder and longer in your business, or have a lot more time to go fishing.