Fair Work Commission

The AWRS contains a range of items that can be used to indicate the opportunities that employees reported they had to develop and progress in their employment and the barriers that exist to achieving goals and aspirations.

Opportunities for development & progression

As presented in Table 6.4, over half (59%) of all employees had taken part in some form of training directly related to their current role in the past 12 months.

More females than males reported having taken part in training over the past 12 months that was directly related to their role (55% and 46% respectively). In addition, most of these employees who had taken part in training were employed on a permanent basis (85%) compared to 1 in 10 who were employed on a casual basis (9%).

Of all employees who undertook some form of training related to their current role in the past 12 months, employers reportedly covered the entire cost of the training in most cases (84%).

Source: AWRS 2014, Employee survey; AWRS 2014.

Base = 7875 employees provided a response to the question if they had undertaken any training in the past 12 months that directly related to their current employment, with 8 respondents not providing an answer. Of the 7875 respondents who answered the training item, 7849 had also provided a response to the gender item. 7813 were classified as either full-time or part-time according to the definition used by the ABS, 7603 able to be classified as permanent, fixed-term contract or casual. Respondents who could not be classified as permanent, fixed-term contract or casual (272 respondents) were excluded.

Base = 4735 employees provided a response to the item about funding for the training they undertook, with 11 respondents excluded from the analysis as they did not answer the item.

Perceived barriers to development & progression

As shown in Table 6.5, just under half (44%) of all employees indicated that at least 1 type of barrier was impeding their career progression in their current employment, with more females than males indicating that they are experiencing barriers to achieving career goals.

Limited promotion opportunities and/or few higher-level roles was the most commonly cited barrier preventing employees from achieving particular roles or career goals, with almost two-thirds (63%) of the employees who felt that they experienced barriers reporting this.

Of the employees who cited their commitments outside of work as a barrier to their career progression, a notably higher proportion was female compared to male (13% and 5% respectively). Perceived barriers may or may not be related to reported job satisfaction levels, as presented in Table 6.1, where females had higher average satisfaction with flexibility to balance work and non-work commitments compared to males.

Source: AWRS 2014, Employee survey.

Base = 7883 employees provided a response to the question if they perceived any barriers to their career progression at the place of their current employment. Respondents were considered to have perceived a barrier if they had indicated 'yes' to at least 1 of any of the 8 options provided.

Note: Columns will not add up to 100% as multiple responses were permitted.