News

Issue 161

Overseas talent needed to fill jobs
ManpowerGroup New Zealand’s new 2011 Borderless Workforce research has found that 39 percent of employers in New Zealand look outside the country’s borders to address skills shortages, with foreign talent most important in engineers, technicians and skilled manual trade job categories, and primarily coming from the UK, South Africa and India.

The findings were released in tandem with ManpowerGroup’s paper, Borderless Solutions to Today’s Talent Mismatch.

Other key findings from the Borderless Workforce research include:

• 43 percent of employers are concerned about the impact on the labour market from talent leaving New Zealand to work in another country;
• 68 percent of employers believe government and business are not doing enough to slow the outward migration of talent and attract these people back to New Zealand;
• Employers from New Zealand who look abroad to help solve talent shortages indicate the biggest obstacles they encounter when recruiting foreign workers are visa and legal requirements (25 percent);
• New Zealand employers named Australia (39 percent) and the UK (16 percent) as the countries they believe provide the biggest threat to New Zealand’s ability to compete economically.

NZ leaders driving business productivity 
For the first time in 15 years New Zealand’s leaders have become more constructive despite the challenging environment the country has faced, according to a new research report from organisational culture experts Human Synergistics International.

The fundamental driver for this improvement is the willingness of managers and leaders to give regular and direct feedback, creating a more open culture of continuous improvement. The research highlights that New Zealand leaders have become 10 percent better at managing their organisations with people and culture as their focus.

More dramatically, they have reduced their defensive and aggressive behaviours—eg, demanding perfection or setting unrealistic goals—by 12 percent, resulting in a more productive work environment. Put simply, they are becoming more proactive and less reactive.

Indians well qualified but face work barriers
Despite being one of the most qualified groups to migrate to New Zealand, Indians find it hard to get work for which they are qualified, says a study, Namasté New Zealand: Indian Employers and Employees in Auckland, carried out by Massey and Waikato universities.

The study involved interviews with 20 India-born employees and seven employers who had arrived in Auckland since 2000. Over 60 percent of participants had a bachelor’s degree or higher qualification (compared to 16 percent of Auckland’s New Zealand-born population and 34 percent of recent British immigrants). Only 45 percent of participants reported their current jobs made good use of their qualifications.

Indian migrants are one of the largest migrant groups, second only to the British.

Lead author, Massey University sociologist Professor Paul Spoonley, says it is “disappointing” to see highly educated, fluent English speaking Indian migrants “struggling to gain employment or experiencing downward mobility in terms of employment and income”.

Call to solve labour shortages
The New Zealand Chambers of Commerce wants the incoming government to give greater attention to solving New Zealand’s labour shortages. Its spokesman, Michael Barnett, says it is a paradox that despite the economic downturn, employers continue to face a shortage of suitably skilled workers. At the same time, he says, New Zealand has a persistent high level of youth unemployment.

“There is a strong impression of a disconnect between employers wanting to recruit suitable people, people wanting work and whether we are getting full value for money from industry training organisations,” says Barnett.

The Chamber is calling for a comprehensive review of industry and vocational training services to help address this conundrum, saying it requires a “whole of government and New Zealand Inc approach” focused on encouraging and managing the supply of skills.

Barnett says the solution to youth unemployment is not a government agency imposing requirements on young unqualified school leavers. Rather it is willing employers seeking to create a positive business and lifestyle environment that makes the job seeker want to work. “The attitude has to be right on both sides,” he says.

Insurer wins best workplace award
AA Insurance (pictured above) is proof that tough times can only make you stronger, after being named New Zealand’s best workplace at the recent JRA Best Workplaces Awards for 2011.

After a year spent dealing with the fallout of the Christchurch earthquake, employees at the insurance firm went on to give feedback placing their workplace at the top of 237 organisations across the country which entered the survey.

AA Insurance was named the Overall Winner, as well as winner of the Large Workplace category, at a black tie awards ceremony held at the Langham Hotel in Auckland.

Now in its 12th year, the survey uses confidential feedback from organisations’ employees to rate their employers. This year a record number of employees gave feedback on their workplaces, with more than 31,700 Kiwis responding to the survey from a wide range of sectors and regions across the country.

Category winners were:

• Small Workplace category:
  Winner: Electricity and Gas Complaints Commissioner
  Most Improved: Arneg New Zealand
  Finalists: ADInstruments, Auckland Radiation Oncology, Dricon, Entertainment Publications, Inspire Group, Mansons TCLM, Maven International, Optimal Usability and Porter Novelli.
• Small-Medium Workplace category:
  Winner: Brother International (NZ)
  Most Improved: Dispute Resolution Services
  Finalists: Aviation Tourism and Travel Training Organisation (ATTTO), Cardinal Logistics, Footsteps Education, Giltrap City Toyota, GrabOne, Hyundai Motors New Zealand, Mercy Hospice Auckland, Obex Medical and Soltius New Zealand.
• Medium-Large Workplace category:
  Winner: Mars New Zealand
  Most Improved: The Laminex Group
  Finalists: Arrow International (NZ), DraftFCB New Zealand, Duncan Cotterill Lawyers, FMG, New World Te Rapa, Overland Footwear, South Taranaki District Council, The Laminex Group and Trade Me.
• Large Workplace category:
  Winner: AA Insurance
  Most Improved: Yellow
  Finalists: Flight Centre (NZ), Southern Cross Medical Care Society, Warehouse Stationery and Vero Insurance New Zealand.
• Five Year League:
  Flight Centre (NZ), Inspire Group, Mars New Zealand, Maven International, Obex Medical, Overland Footwear, Vero Insurance NZ.

HRINZ award winners
Excellence in human resources was celebrated at the recent HRINZ HR Awards presentation dinner in Wellington.

The HRINZ HR Generalist of the Year was awarded to Rowan Tonkin of Gen-I, who also took home the top accolade of HRINZ HR Person of the Year. Terry Buckingham from Otago Polytechnic was awarded the HRINZ HR Specialist of the Year for his contributions to health and safety in the workplace, while the HRINZ Young HR Practitioners of the Year went to Duncan Brown of Deloitte.

BEL Group was awarded the HRINZ HR Initiative of the Year award for its ‘Good, Better, Best’ job targets initiative.

Other finalists were Deborah Jones for her achievement as workforce manager for Rugby World Cup 2011 Limited, Karen Hutson of IAG who earned Distinction as a Young HR Practitioner, Gillian Jones for her specialist work in career development, KPMG for their graduate recruitment programme, and Sky City Entertainment Group for their work in supporting employees to achieve work-life balance.

Fisher & Paykel won the Wellness Award for its employee wellness programme and the Ministry of Social Development’s ‘Chief for a Day’ initiative won the state sector award.

Work notes

28 NOVEMBER: The NZ Council of Trade Unions says the Minister of Labour’s advice about how women could go about finding out about pay equity in their workplace is incorrect and leaves women in a Catch-22 situation. CTU president Helen Kelly said Kate Wilkinson’s advice was for women to write to the Department of Labour seeking a labour inspector’s assistance if they suspected a pay equity issue existed at their workplace.

25 NOVEMBER: Radio New Zealand reports Green MP Kevin Hague is considering a private prosecution against the Department of Labour under the HSE Act over its role in the Pike River mine explosion.

25 NOVEMBER: The Council of Trade Unions says $15.8 million in levies collected to fund workplace health and safety has not been used for that purpose, despite ongoing shortages of staff in the Department of Labour’s health and safety inspectorate.

24 NOVEMBER: Workbase chief executive Katherine Percy and BusinessNZ chief executive Phil O’Reilly urge the Government to listen to the business community’s message about its desire for a workforce with better literacy, language and numeracy skills.

23 NOVEMBER: The Dominion Post reports National Party leader John Key says one of his party’s top priorities following the election is to immediately implement a new lower public service staffing cap.

23 NOVEMBER: The Otago Daily Times reports the National Party admits skilled workers are leaving for Australia in record numbers, but says emigrants can’t be held back at the border.

22 NOVEMBER: Pay for 54 of 215 positions dropped in 2011 compared to just three in 2008, according to the EMA’s National Wage and Salary Survey. It also found the average increase in pay rates, including those recently hired, was a fraction over 2 percent.

17 NOVEMBER: Default and conservative KiwiSaver funds with low exposure to shares and property have been the best performers for the quarter ended September 30, according to a survey by international investment consultancy Mercer.

17 NOVEMBER: The Remuneration Authority gives MPs an across-the-board salary increase of 1.5 percent and a $5000 payment to compensate for their axed international travel perk. Backbenchers will now be paid a base salary of $141,800, up from $134,800. The prime minister’s salary will rise from $400,500 to $411,510.

16 NOVEMBER: Corrections minister Judith Collins announces prisoners will be trained to help with the rebuild of Christchurch. A new trade training complex has been set up in Christchurch Men’s Prison to provide training in plumbing, roofing and drainlaying, painting and decorating, and automotive engineering. It is expected around 130 extra prisoners per year will participate in this training.

16 NOVEMBER: A pilot study of nurses conducted by Massey University finds that more than half of those who had quit nursing positions had done so because of moral issues. The study found short-staffing and long shifts were among the causes of “moral distress” cited by those nurses in the study who had left positions.

15 NOVEMBER: The New Zealand Herald reports representatives of the Canterbury Employment and Skills Board are holding recruitment drives in England in a bid to import skilled workers to help the Christchurch rebuild.

World at work

So what’s your excuse?
US-based CareerBuilder’s annual survey of HR practitioners included a request for the lamest or most bizarre excuses proffered by employees to explain their absence from work.

Our favourites include:

• Employee said bats got in her hair;
• Employee’s 12-year-old daughter stole his car and he had no other way to get to work. He didn’t want to report it to the police;
• Employee was in line at a coffee shop when a truck carrying flour backed up and dumped the flour into her convertible;
• Employee said a deer bit him during the hunting season;
• Employee said a fridge fell on him;
• Employee’s brother-in-law was kidnapped by a drug cartel while in Mexico.

The survey also uncovered some more serious data from its 2600 surveyed employers.

It found companies reported the first quarter of the year is the prime time that employees call in sick, although they also reported heightened absenteeism around the holidays. And while most staff (84 percent) use the phone to call in sick, 24 percent sent an email and 11 notified their employer by texting.

When it comes to checking up on allegedly unwell staff, 19 percent of responding employers said they had asked another person to phone the sick staff member at home, while 16 percent admitted they did a drive-by of the person’s home.

The truth about team building events
Half the respondents to a survey on team building said they react with fear, panic or at best, apathy, when told they will be participating in a team building event.

The RedBalloon for Corporate survey found most workers and management like to participate, but there are certain pitfalls that can stand in the way of businesses maximising the effectiveness of such events.

Matt Geraghty, RedBalloon general manager for corporate, said team building events suffer from a range of stereotypes, and the phrase alone can provoke a cynical reaction from workers.

Almost three-quarters of respondents (72 percent) said their current experience with team building was average or very poor, yet 82 percent of respondents are eager to participate in more of them.

Some of the things respondents loathe about team building events are that they are time wasters, there’s no clear purpose or intent behind the event, they’re tired and cliched, they’re embarrassing, and participants who don’t play along ruin it for others.

Geraghty said ‘bonding with colleagues and getting to know each other better’ was the top motivator for participating in these events, receiving votes from 79 percent of respondents. Shadowing this was the desire to get out of the office (78 percent), and the attraction of food, beverages and entertainment was popular with 69 percent.

Facial blemishes affect job interview chances
Facial blemishes such as scars and birthmarks are a barrier to job interview success, according to a new study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. Reporting on the study, Science Daily says that interviewers couldn’t remember as much about people with some sort of facial disfigurement, resulting in a lower rating for the job candidate.

Researchers at Rice University and the University of Houston (both in the United States) used eye tracking devices during interviews, followed by questions on how much the interviewer or observer could recall about the interviewee.

They found that the more time the interviewer or observer spent looking at the facial disfigurement, the less they could remember about the content of the interview and the lower they rated the job candidate.

Social media and stupid employees
Personnel Today blogger Guru has been following a recent debate in the HR blogosphere concerning whether or not employers should have a social media policy. The general feeling, it seems, is that having a policy is not treating employees as adults and is tantamount to saying that they are stupid. Guru writes that “loads of employees are stupid” which is why employers need policies on everything from “running with scissors to not getting drunk at the Christmas party and harassing your most favourite colleague.” Guru adds that having policies “makes it easy when we want to sack those stupid employees” and it also “makes it clear to stupid employees what is expected of them, which is infinitely preferable to talking to them, or, shudder, ‘engaging’ with them.”

Slip slidin’ away
In Britain, The Telegraph reports a building safety officer fell off a ladder while demonstrating a new safety measure outside a home in Gateshead. The demonstration went wrong when the man, who was tethered to the ladder, slid sideways and crashed into a neighbour’s garden. As he lay on the ground, one worker observed: “That proves the system doesn’t work then”. Footage of the failed demonstration was later posted on YouTube where it has been viewed more than 70,000 times. The man has been suspended for breaching safety protocol by not anchoring the ladder to the wall.

Novelty apron gag falls flat
The NSW government has been forced to take disciplinary action against a senior legal officer at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) after he gave a colleague a novelty ‘boobs apron’. Human Capital reports the gift was part of an ongoing joke between the executive director of the DPP, Nigel Hadgkiss, and a workmate who had once described himself as “a big girl at heart”. A guest at a work party where the gift was exchanged took offence and complained to the department. Human Capital described the incident as a “storm in a D-cup”.