Family businesses can bolster economic growth, but the tight labour market is a big challenge: Sally Craig

With more people seeing the benefits and opportunities of working from home and turning their ‘side-hustle’ into a full-time business, family businesses will continue to have an enormous role to play in Australian and New Zealand economies now and well into the future, says Sally Craig, GM People & Culture Kennards Hire

- Drishti Pant

In Australia, family businesses represent 67 percent of all operating businesses, whilst in New Zealand,75 percent of consumers trust family businesses more than nonfamily businesses, according to a recent KPMG report,

With more ease of doing business and the rise in remote work culture, family businesses have the potential to further grow and expand. However, the tight recruitment market poses a threat to their growth. To compete in the war for talent, family businesses need to get the basics right and focus on improving their employees’ experience. But where do they start?

“Focusing on the engagement, retention and talent growth of your current workforce is critical, particularly for family owned businesses,” says Sally Craig, GM People & Culture Kennards Hire, in an interview with People Matters.

Sally Craig has been with Kennards Hire since February 2016. Her experience in human resources and organisational change spans over twenty years, across a wide range of industries, which include telecommunications, travel, government, freight and logistics and, more recently, hire. Prior to joining Kennards Hire, Sally worked at companies such as StarTrack, Lonely Planet and Telstra, taking up leading roles that involve the design, development, and implementation of people and organisational development and change programmes.