L to R: Recent winners in the annual Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs Awards. SYLVIA ENGELS, Manager – Policy Development, Mental Health and Alcohol and Drug Directorate, DHHS, ANDREW VERDOUW, Team Leader, Intervention Programs Unit, Tasmanian Prison Service, Associate Professor STUART FERGUSON, School of Medicine, University of Tasmania and ANDREW HARPER, Needle and Syringe Program Worker, Anglicare Tasmania
The Alcohol, Tobacco and other Drugs Council (ATDC) has released its biennial Workforce Survey, which gives a snapshot of the alcohol, tobacco and other drugs (ATOD) sector.
ATDC CEO Jann Smith said the report gives an overview of the skills that workers have, frequency of changeover of staff, work satisfaction in the sector and so much more.
“This gives organisations a chance to respond to trends, provide training in areas that may be lacking skills and examine how satisfied the workforce is overall,” she said.
“This report is fundamental to understanding the state of the sector and provides a guide for strategic planning and workforce development activities, in moving forward.
“Survey respondents were made up of both ATOD workers and people in management roles.
“There have been some interesting findings from the survey – females outnumber males, there is a low turnover of staff, with managers and leaders averaging six years with their employer, and workers averaging four and a half years. What was very pleasing was that staff identified that they remained in their positions because they felt they were making a useful contribution to society.
“This was followed very closely by workers saying they found the work challenging, as a reason that made them stay. I feel this clearly shows we have workers who are very invested in this sector and who have passion and drive to make positive changes.
“The survey has also shown that the sector has a skilled workforce with close to 100 per cent holding a certificate IV or higher. This again shows that our workers are invested in the sector and organisations take training very seriously to ensure our workers remain satisfied and challenged.
The survey had two components – an organisational survey completed by one manager from each of the 23 organisations that responded. The second component was completed by 229 individual workers in the sector.
The full survey can be found at http://www.atdc.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/2015-05-20_COMMS_RESOURCE_ATDC_-Workforce-Survey_Web.pdf
ATDC Communications Officer Carolyn Docking
