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Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey,

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Speaker 1: work from home. It's getting the bosses of Australia's biggest

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Speaker 1: businesses all steamed up. Specifically the idea governments might lock

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Speaker 1: in arrangements that until now have been ad hoc and

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Speaker 1: some CEOs hoped temporary. Today on the front, the CEOs

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Speaker 1: of Australia's top one hundred companies get very frank about

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Speaker 1: how they really feel about what's going on in workplaces.

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Speaker 2: Oasis, ACDC, Metallica, Ariana Grande, the cricket.

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Speaker 1: Are building at Olympic Park tonight, fans of ac DC streaming.

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Speaker 2: Australian shoppers are expected to splurge almost seven billion dollars

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Speaker 2: in this year's Black Friday and pre Christmas sales, with

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Speaker 2: much of that spending on Creditserve.

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Speaker 1: Bankers warning Australians and other the rate rise could happen.

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Speaker 2: Next Year's confidence surging by nearly thirteen percent in November.

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Speaker 1: Every year, as Australia is winding down for the beginning

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Speaker 1: of the festive season, Eric Johnston is winding up with

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Speaker 1: an annual tradition, the CEO Survey. Eric Johnston is an

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Speaker 1: associate editor with The Australian, one of the country's most

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Speaker 1: experienced business reporters, And Eric, I know you look forward

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Speaker 1: to talking to all these CEOs. It's a little bit

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Speaker 1: like a confessional booth, isn't it where they come and

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Speaker 1: tell you what they really think.

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Speaker 2: Look, it is and thanks Claire. So what it also

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Speaker 2: allows them to do is just take the temperature about

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Speaker 2: where they're up to and looking forward, and they do

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Speaker 2: speak really frankly and openly about where their companies are

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Speaker 2: positioned and how they're feeling about the economy and reform

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Speaker 2: and other areas that are top of mind for CEOs.

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Speaker 1: One of the big issues in the Australian workforce right now,

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Speaker 1: of course, is work from home. It's becoming more and

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Speaker 1: more entrenched from the point of view of the employee,

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Speaker 1: but the landscape is changing. What a CEO saying, Eric,

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Speaker 1: how are they feeling about it?

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Speaker 2: Work from home has really evolved since the pandemic, and

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Speaker 2: what we see in the workplace now is this fine

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Speaker 2: balance that has sort of emerged, if you like. In general,

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Speaker 2: most Australian workplaces offer some sort of flexibility or hybrid working,

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Speaker 2: that is, office based workplaces and others. What we've seen

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Speaker 2: in the last two to three years is our company

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Speaker 2: has been a little bit more prescriptive, so say about

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Speaker 2: two to three days a week in the workplace. However,

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Speaker 2: the overwhelming feedback in this year's CEO survey, and this

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Speaker 2: is new compared to previous years, is the idea of

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Speaker 2: a mandate of some office workers mandated that they have

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Speaker 2: a right to work from home as many as two

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Speaker 2: days a week. Now that hasn't come out of thin air.

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Speaker 1: Victoria could become the first date in the country to

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Speaker 1: enshrine the right to work from home into law. Jacenter

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Speaker 1: Allen's pitch to make working from home a legal right

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Speaker 1: has left businesses fuming with confusion over how it will

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Speaker 1: be implemented.

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Speaker 2: Bosses particular and Victoria are really upset about this because

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Speaker 2: they declare it's an overreach, it's really going to impact

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Speaker 2: on productivity, and it's just going to throw out everything

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Speaker 2: what they've been working up to until this point. A

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Speaker 2: lot of CEOs are really saying prescription is a bridge

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Speaker 2: too far, it's too much. So Ryan Stokes, for example,

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Speaker 2: he oversees a number of companies including Borrow and less Track,

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Speaker 2: as well as having the majority of staking the seven network.

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Speaker 2: He tells us prescribed and legislated work from home is

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Speaker 2: a disaster and would be a sledgehammer to productivity. So

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Speaker 2: they're pretty strong comments from somebody who's oversees thousands of

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Speaker 2: workers across their businesses.

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Speaker 1: It reminds me a little bit of the conversation about

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Speaker 1: the right to disconnect to Eric. That was something that

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Speaker 1: was floating around as an idea. Then suddenly the Greens

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Speaker 1: federally saw an opportunity in a trade off with the

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Speaker 1: federal government to get this into legislation. It was past.

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Speaker 1: It is now the law that workers have the right

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Speaker 1: to disconnect, whatever that means. I recall business being a

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Speaker 1: little bit anxious about that being codified because in so

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Speaker 1: many instances they had worked out a pretty good balance

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Speaker 1: with their own employees. They were concerned that codifying it

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Speaker 1: would mean they were locked into something that might make

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Speaker 1: things much much more difficult. How do companies, especially big

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Speaker 1: companies with lots of employees, navigate this when it's something

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Speaker 1: that a lot of employees have become very attached to.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the broader theories, While the employment market is relatively tight,

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Speaker 2: and it is at the moment still even though it's

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Speaker 2: creeping up just slightly and just still a very tight market,

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Speaker 2: so employee is have the balance of power what companies

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Speaker 2: are done. They also accept that it's good for productivity.

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Speaker 2: There's actually some feedback, so Medibank, for example, the private

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Speaker 2: health insurer, they have no office mandates. They believe the

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Speaker 2: productivity has increased on the back of that. Get this.

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Speaker 2: They also say that attrition that's turnover a workforce is

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Speaker 2: forelon or significantly. It's quite expensive to keep replacing your workforce.

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Speaker 2: It's a very big cost. So there's some businesses that

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Speaker 2: say it does work for them, but overwhelmingly say banks,

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Speaker 2: for example, the big four Australian banks all have some

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Speaker 2: sort of fifty percent office attendance policy. They say it's

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Speaker 2: really important for culture and to build a safe culture

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Speaker 2: in terms of a high risk financial environment, so that's

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Speaker 2: a really important aspect. What's really stood out to me

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Speaker 2: there's a mid sized fintech called Zella. They're based up

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Speaker 2: there on Collin Street in Melbourne. They describe the proposers

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Speaker 2: about mandated working from home as the anticithis of what

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Speaker 2: the Victorian economy needs right now. Obviously the state is

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Speaker 2: going through a bit of a tough time. They say

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Speaker 2: that the fact that state government have chosen to use

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Speaker 2: this topic as an election to grandstand is really disappointing.

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Speaker 2: They're talking about how the difficulty of a startup. Everything

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Speaker 2: has to go right, and this is just another thing

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Speaker 2: that gets in the way of things going right for

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Speaker 2: a startup.

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Speaker 1: One of the other considerations for companies is if they're

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Speaker 1: often senior employees who have nice homes that they want

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Speaker 1: to spend time in working from home, how do the

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Speaker 1: young ones get the training and the mentorship and the

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Speaker 1: collaboration that they need to grow. That's also a consideration

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Speaker 1: the young workforce. When we're talking about artificial intelligence, Eric,

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Speaker 1: those entry level jobs that once upon a time were

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Speaker 1: done by cadets or trainees or apprentices in whatever form

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Speaker 1: you want to call them, can now in some instances

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Speaker 1: be done by generative artificial intelligence. What's your sense of

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Speaker 1: how CEOs are feeling about the advent of BOSSI.

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Speaker 2: Companies are using AI and they've spent the last two

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Speaker 2: years or so just testing it and playing with it,

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Speaker 2: But now what we're seeing, we're right on the cusp

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Speaker 2: where AI is transforming their businesses now and it's not

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Speaker 2: a tomorrow thing your CEE companies that are leaders like

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Speaker 2: come off bank and really talk about really deploying AI

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Speaker 2: cross its systems. Will Worth, for example, is using it.

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Speaker 2: You think of all the things that they have to

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Speaker 2: move around the country every day and they're starting to

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Speaker 2: use AI and it's in its big warehouses to more

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Speaker 2: efficiently allocate things on the back of the truck. So

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Speaker 2: that's stuff where AI is changing the way that we

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Speaker 2: do business.

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Speaker 1: This time of year, it's hard to get a sense

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Speaker 1: of what the economy is really like because of course

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Speaker 1: we're all spending billions of dollars on presents and food

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Speaker 1: and so on. In the midst of all that noise,

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Speaker 1: what are you hearing from CEOs about where they think

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Speaker 1: the economy is at?

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Speaker 2: There is cautious optimism about next year. So we've now

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Speaker 2: seen a situation where the interest rates the next move

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Speaker 2: may be up, and that discussion has changed from just

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Speaker 2: a few weeks ago, even a couple of months ago,

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Speaker 2: where everyone was anticipating an interest rate cut. So now

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Speaker 2: it's either going to be on hold for a foreseeable

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Speaker 2: future or the next move potentially up, which is enough

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Speaker 2: to sort of scare everyone. But at this point, and

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Speaker 2: this is right up to the moments of feedback from CEOs,

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Speaker 2: and this is looking in their own business, and they're

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Speaker 2: still cautiously optimistic about what's coming over the next year,

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Speaker 2: what's coming for twenty twenty six. However, there is a

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Speaker 2: big caveat around that. The consumer profile, the households are

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Speaker 2: still really fragile, so an interest rate rise might really

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Speaker 2: set that back. In the Australian economy is doing okay

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Speaker 2: in parts and still doing tough in some parts. But

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Speaker 2: the consumers are spending at the moment, they're starting to

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Speaker 2: come out of their shelves after a couple of years

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Speaker 2: of high interest rates and they've started to spend. We're

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Speaker 2: all going to concerts, we going to oasis, We're going

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Speaker 2: to metallic are and ACDC and so on. We're buying

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Speaker 2: a lot of merchandise around that. However, any further interest

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Speaker 2: rate rises may upset that coming up.

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Speaker 1: Why productivity and regulation keep bosses awake at night. If

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Speaker 1: the CEOs you spoke to could ask for one thing

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Speaker 1: for Christmas, airqor do you think it would be.

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Speaker 2: Well, you ask one hundred CEOs a question, you'll get

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Speaker 2: a hundred different responses, but mostly regulation and over regulation

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Speaker 2: is a big issue and they're at least relieved a

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Speaker 2: little bit that we're starting to talk about productivity in

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Speaker 2: the national conversation and we had a productivity round table

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Speaker 2: early this year. At least it's now been discussed in

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Speaker 2: the corridors and power. Productivity has been declared by some

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Speaker 2: as a national crisis, and some like Vicki Brady of

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Speaker 2: Telstra or Matt Common Conwealth Bank, saying there is nothing

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Speaker 2: more important than getting productivity up for Australia. Regulation is

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Speaker 2: a big frustration with chief executives. We had some feedback

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Speaker 2: from a company called Julux Group. They produced paints and chemicals.

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Speaker 2: They're trying to expand a factory in Western Sydney and

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Speaker 2: they've been trying to do that for two years. One

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Speaker 2: hundred and twenty million dollar investment expand in existing operation

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Speaker 2: still hasn't happened, waiting eighteen months for approvals, more than

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Speaker 2: three and a half thousand pages of documents that they've

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Speaker 2: had to apply to do that. Thankfully, they've complained in

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Speaker 2: the New South Wales government has recognized that's too much

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Speaker 2: and try and fast track it. But that's just one

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Speaker 2: example of money and investment being held up, and that

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Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty million is not just some abstracts figure.

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Speaker 2: That trades people working on the site, that's apprentices getting opportunities,

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Speaker 2: that's real business, that's money being put back into the country.

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Speaker 2: That's just sitting there on hold.

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Speaker 1: Eric Johnston is The Australian's Associate editor. The CEO of

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Speaker 1: Survey is live now at the Australian dot com dot au.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Eric, Thanks cly