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Transcript: Shayne Elliott with Mark Burrows - Nine News

Mark Burrows: ANZ bank is on a recruitment drive but it’s a little different from normal. It is trying to encourage older workers back into the workforce. It comes after new data reveals more than half a million Australians over the age of 45 are on JobSeeker. For more we are joined by ANZ CEO, Shayne Elliott. Mr. Elliott thanks for your time. I thought in the banking and finance industry once you hit 50, 55 you were thrown on the scrap heap. You are turning that on its head.

Shayne Elliott: Yeah, we're a people business. We have to deal with real people out in the community. In particular, at the moment a lot of those people are going through difficult times because of COVID etc. We want to boost our frontline and those are people who talk to customers every day and people with life experience, a little bit older, are actually perfect for those roles.

 

Mark Burrows: Shayne, are older people easy to recruit? Are they aware how to make the applications and all those different things you have got to go through?

 

Shayne Elliott: No, they are not actually. Look, that’s a broad statement. But as a general rule, no. Because today a lot of recruitment is done online, it’s done through social media sites, things like LinkedIn and Glassdoor and various other sites. And of course, older people are not necessarily familiar with those tools. So yeah, they are a little bit harder to find to be perfectly honest. That’s why we work with various providers, including government agencies, to see how we can get the word out that if you’ve got an interesting background and are prepared to talk to people, and do a bit of learning, we may have a role for you.

 

Mark Burrows: I believe they can actually contact you personally?

 

Shayne Elliott: Yeah, sure. There’s always the most efficient way, to come straight to me. So my email address is Shayne.Elliott@anz.com. I’m pretty easy to find online and actually already today I’ve had quite a few people send me in their CVs and we’re grateful for that.

 

Mark Burrows: I suspect you might regret that but anyway. Shayne there’s a lot of people out of work across the nation at the moment. In a few hours three states will be in lockdown. What is ANZ doing to help customers who are struggling?

 

Shayne Elliott: It’s a good question. So right throughout the banking industry, including ANZ, I think has really tried to do their bit. If people are struggling whether they are running a small business or just with their own home, the best thing is to call your bank. The banks can offer deferrals – so we put your loan on hold, we can talk about waiving fees, we can do all sorts of things really depending on the circumstances that you are in. We’ve got the financial wherewithal to do it and we’ve got the will and we’re able to do it. There’s really nothing that’s off the table in terms of what banks can do to help.

 

Mark Burrows: Shayne, we’re out of time but thanks for talking to us.

 

Shayne Elliott: Thank you.

 

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