Over the last few months, government and business support agencies have been busily gathering data from businesses – both in our region and state-wide – to determine the current state of the business sector.
This information provides important insights to define policy and processes that address problems and challenges we’re all facing in our businesses each day.
If you’ve taken time out of your workday to complete these surveys, thank you.
Your feedback is heard and used by us, as your Chamber of Commerce, in our Advocacy role for our members and the wider Sydney Hills business community. It’s also used by the advocacy bodies we work with such as Business NSW, the Hills Shire Council, and State and Federal members of parliament
Reports have been collated and produced – and are now available to review and use in your own business planning.
We’ve brought these together is this article and highlighted some key data that matters to our business community.
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The Hills Performance Sentiment Index 2022 – Results
The Hills Business Performance Sentiment Index (Business PSI) is an ongoing measure of business performance, conditions, and sentiment, calculated through a metric involving 21 questions. The 2022 PSI Survey is the 7th PSI survey.
The Hills Shire Business PSI indicates gradual post-COVID recovery across the Hills business community. Survey results highlight that:
- 3 in 5 business owners and managers continue to view COVID-19 as an issue of ‘extreme’ or ‘significant’ impact on business performance.
- Priority on management and staff skills has increased by 11-percentage point increase (since 2020), however remains a lower priority than sales revenue, funding and cashflow, and cost management.
- 2 in 5 business owners or managers have utilised Local or State Government support. Those who have utilised government support and resources in the past 6 months are more likely to report business expansion in office use, fit-out, number of locations or commercial space.
Conditions
- Operating conditions are the highest ever in the PSI’s 7 years – sitting at 9. This is propelled by accelerating economic improvements at both a national and local level.
- The business community view the 2022 regulatory settings to be a balance of improving supportive government policy settings and collapsing red tapes, likely due to gradual impact of easing COVID-related policies.
- Infrastructure and locale have declined, likely demonstrating that the productivity and connectivity gained from the Metro has normalised and that ‘return-to-office’ is reapplying pressure on local traffic networks and public transport.
Conditions by Business Size
- Micro businesses (1-4 employees) and medium businesses are reporting the highest economic condition scores.
- Non-employing sole traders are reporting collapsing red tape and regulation requirements, however, are also the only business segment experiencing a slowing infrastructure and locale in The Hills.
- All businesses are noticing improvements in supportive government policy settings.
Strengths of The Hills
- Location (57%), work/life balance (54%, family friendliness (50%) and Hills business/work culture (47%) comprise of the top five current strengths of doing business in the region.
- There is a steady rise in recognition for local business network(s).
Conditions in B2B v B2C
- Both business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C) are reporting similar operating conditions, however B2C is experiencing greater challenges with regulatory settings, likely due to the fall in consumer confidence.
- Rising business expansion in B2B and B2C is offsetting falling local infrastructure provision.
Further insights
- The Net Promoter Score for doing business in The Hills is 30, which is an increase from 21 in 2020.
- 75% of business owners in The Hills consider investment in productivity innovation ‘extremely’ or ‘very important’.
The Hills Corridor Strategy and Hills Future Local Strategic Planning Statement are considered ‘extremely important’ or ‘very important’ by more than one in three business owners and managers.
How to Use the PSI and ID Insights
The Annual Hills PSI report provides important insight into the business conditions and expectation of the region. You can couple this information with Demographic Data insights accessible through ID Data Insights available on the Council’s Website HERE to help your business:
- Understand where clusters of certain characteristics of customers are located in The Hills including age groups, housing size and tenure, ethnicity, education, disability, and more
- Better tailor products and services to the local customer wants
- Make informed decisions on location and investments based on surrounding business industries and residential characteristics
- Better understand the profile, strengths and weaknesses of the local workforce, and
- Create better informed business plans for the future by understanding local trends, population mapping and forecasts, age group clusters, and upcoming residential development.
Workforce Skills Survey 2022
Over 90% of businesses are experiencing workforce shortages, according to the 2022 Workforce Skills Survey. (Business NSW June 2022)
In every industry, our members report that people are their biggest challenge right now. There’s plenty of work to be done, just not enough people who can do the work. The results of the 2022 Workforce Skills Survey show:
- 93% of businesses reported currently experiencing a skills shortage – far higher than in 2021 (73%), 2019 (55%) and 2017 (59%).
- 72% reported that they had tried to fill vacancies 3 or more times in the last 12 months.
- 26% reported that the shortages were caused by not having had any applicants for vacancies.
- Less than 1% reported that staff shortages were having no effect on the business.
- 51% reported that the staff shortages were causing significant negative impacts, such as losing customers and missing opportunities.
- Every Industry and every region significantly affected.
- 40% reported that it was equally difficult to fill entry level positions as it is to find experienced staff. An additional 9% reported it was more difficult to fill entry-level positions than experienced staff.
Some the solutions and priorities being proposed to address these challenges are:
- Increasing education and training for our community, particularly by increasing funding to the VET sector
- Increasing workforce participation, including removing income thresholds for age pensioners and young people
- Supporting the return of overseas workers and making it faster, easier and cheaper for businesses to navigate the migration system, and
- Improving information to jobseekers.
How to Use the Workforce Skills Data
The report highlights the overall challenge for all businesses in finding staff to meet the demand. This issue is likely to be protracted over the next year. Therefore, creating better relationships with your networks and increasing collaboration to share resources will be essential. Furthermore, setting realistic expectations with consumers and customers will be important as your business works at addressing its staffing gaps and cost increases.
The Chamber’s team will continue to work with Business NSW to help raise these issues and discuss solutions with key government decision makers as part of our member advocacy services.
If you need help finding support for your business as you navigate the Skills and Staff Shortage, contact the Sydney Hills Business Chamber so we connect you with businesses in the region that can assist you.
Remember to book your tickets and join us for the August 2022 Business Lunch as we tackle the People and Jobs Challenge together.
More statistics that can help your business understand the market
The ABS (Australia Bureau of Statistics) produces regular reports that provide businesses with insight into their sector, and as well as insight into their customers.
The ABS will be working with businesses, accountants and bookkeepers, and accounting software companies to co-design a new reporting application that links with software businesses already in use. This means businesses can report their data more quickly and easily.
Businesses will also have fewer figures to report. Part of the change will be for ABS to use data already provided to the government, like the salary and wage information reported through Single Touch Payroll.
They estimate small and medium businesses will spend at least 70% less time completing ABS surveys.
As part of the new initiative, the ABS will also provide tailored reports back to business to help them understand their performance against similar businesses.
Understanding what’s happening helps your business forecast and make good decisions about when, where, and who to do business with here.
Below are some ABS reports that may assist you:
Retail Trade Australia – Monthly and quarterly estimates of turnover and volumes for retail businesses, including store and online sales. READ HERE
Monthly Business Turnover Indicator – Experimental indicator of business turnover derived from monthly Business Activity Statements. READ HERE
Counts of Businesses, including Entries and Exits – Contains counts of actively trading businesses, rates of entry to and exit from the market sector of the economy, and rates of business survival. READ HERE
Business Conditions and Sentiments – Insights into Australian business conditions and sentiments. READ HERE
Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages in Australia – Weekly jobs and wages estimates, sourced from Single Touch Payroll (STP) data. READ HERE
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Become a member of the Sydney Hills Business Chamber so you can be supported by other business owners, connect with referral sources, and explore opportunities for joint-ventures and collaborations: