Workforce management is now a boardroom issue in ANZ

Episode 1 of Clocked In: ANZ Workforce Trends focuses on the current state of workforce management in Australia and New Zealand. OneAdvanced Country Director Adam Bowles and Solutions Lead Marcus Sweeney talk through what has changed, what leaders tend to miss, and where to look first. We highly recommend watching the full conversation to get the more comprehensive insights.

Watch Episode 1

Key takeaways

• Intentional underpayment has been a criminal offence in Australia since 1 January 2025, yet most underpayment still comes from complexity, not intent.
• For shift workers, flexibility often means knowing their hours early enough to plan their lives.
• A fully covered roster can hide burnout: the same reliable people filling gaps, and managers making calls on a Sunday night.
• Workforce data can't diagnose burnout, but it shows you where to start the conversation.
• Systems only help if the people on site can use them with confidence.

Why is workforce management now a boardroom issue?

The legal stakes have risen. Since 1 January 2025, intentionally underpaying wages or entitlements has been a criminal offence under the Fair Work Act. The Fair Work Ombudsman recovered $453 million for more than 181,000 workers in 2025-26, and almost $2.5 billion over the past six financial years. Close to half of the 2025-26 recoveries came from large corporate employers.

Most organisations aren't underpaying people on purpose. The cause is complexity. There are 121 modern awards in Australia, and keeping entitlements correct and current across them is hard. The Fair Work Ombudsman's Pay and Conditions Tool handled more than 5.2 million calculations in 2024-25. The pair point out that the real number of people checking their entitlements is likely higher, because many use other online calculators.

Add the cost of attracting and keeping talent, and frontline teams who often feel misunderstood by the leaders above them, and it's clear why this is now a leadership conversation.

What does flexibility actually mean for shift workers?

Flexibility means different things depending on where you work. Desk-based teams moved to working from home or hybrid models. People who have to be on site didn't get the same options.

For shift workers, the practical version looks like this:

• Early notice of the hours they'll work
• An easy way to communicate their availability to managers and teammates
• A simple way to swap shifts with peers
• Confidence in their hours, and in what those hours mean for their income

Sometimes it's simpler still. Flexibility for a shift worker might just mean knowing their hours far enough ahead to book childcare.

Can people enjoy their work and still be burned out?

Yes, and it's one of the biggest risks leaders face. The people picking up extra shifts and covering absences are often the ones who love their work and their team. Enjoying your job and being overworked can look the same from the outside, right up until someone burns out.

The pair describe a cycle worth watching for. A coverage gap creates pressure. Pressure contributes to more absences and departures. The same reliable people keep filling the gaps, and it often goes unnoticed.

The wider data points the same way:

• UKG and Workplace Intelligence's ANZ frontline study found 80% of Australian frontline workers feel burned out. Of those, 86% say they're less productive and 76% say they make more mistakes.
• Dayforce's 2026 frontline research found only 38% of Australian frontline workers say their leaders understand their challenges, down from 73% in 2024.

What can a fully covered roster hide?

A roster can look complete while the real picture sits elsewhere: a manager spending their Sunday evening phoning around, persuading people to come in at the last minute, or the same person always stepping in to cover.

Your workforce data won't prove someone is burned out. It can show persistent last-minute changes and the same names filling the same gaps. That's a reason to start a conversation, and once you look into your systems you can start to notice the patterns and have an honest chat with your people.

Why is it hard to get reliable workforce data from systems you already have?

Having the system isn't the same as using it well. Three things get in the way:

• Digital skills. OneAdvanced's own trends research last year found a stark digital skills gap, especially for people working on site in blue-collar roles.
• Change fatigue. Change is constant, and people may not have the spare time to learn a new way of doing admin on top of their job.
• Assumptions. Does every employee have a company laptop and email address? Do they have time in their day for this admin?

There is a practical test: can an employee make those changes themselves, or does a manager have to approve every routine request? Manager and employee relationships can still look a lot like parent and child. Moving to adult-to-adult conversations means asking what your people have to ask permission for, and giving them tools simple enough to update their own data with confidence.

It matters beyond convenience. Quality data underpins every informed decision, and it is the foundation for any use of AI later on.

Where should leaders start?

1. Look past coverage. Review last-minute changes and who keeps filling the gaps.
2. Give shift workers their hours early, with an easy way to share availability and swap shifts.
3. Run the practical test. Can employees update their own data and make routine requests without asking a manager?
4. Find out where your award interpretation lives. Is it in a system, or in one person's head? (Episode 2 digs into this.)
5. Choose tools people on site can use with confidence. Simple wins.

Choosing the right technology partner can make a significant difference now and into the future. See how OneAdvanced Time and Attendance handles rostering, time tracking and built-in award interpretation, or speak to our team.

Up next in the series: Episode 2, The Real Cost of Getting Time and Pay Wrong. Register once to watch the whole series.