NEWS ROUNDUP
Jobseekers disruption
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n light of the significant upheavals being caused by COVID-19, it wasn’t surprising to see March job advertising fall by 29.4 per cent. This dwarfed February’s slippage of 7.7 per cent and is likely to fall further in the months to come. SEEK Australia logged a 65 per cent fall in its job advertising in the first week of April, compared with the corresponding week last year. At the time of going to press, Janet Faulding, General Manager, SEEK New Zealand stated that the firsthand challenges for Kiwis and their businesses have been seen for many weeks now. “April saw a job ad decline of –65.3 per cent in New Zealand, which was down again from the previous month, at –27 per cent during March 2020,” Janet said.
“There is a lack of job and business security, and many organisations are in a state of flux as they assess their business model in response to the impact of coronavirus. The labour market has two dynamics at play at the moment; some businesses are struggling to maintain operations for their workforce, while other industries have seen a rapid spike in demand for labour.” Industries such as tourism and hospitality recorded large 12-month drops in April 2020, namely a 73 per cent fall year on year, and trades and services a 58 per cent fall. At the other end of the spectrum, advertising positions in farming, animals, conservation, community services, and development all remained comparatively steady.
government’s various support packages aimed at keeping as many people in jobs as possible through the COVID-19 disruption. Prime amongst these is the wage subsidy scheme. This has already paid out around $7 billion (2.3 per cent of gross domestic product), covering more than 1 million employees and sole traders. SEEK has also created a COVID-19 hub, which has been specifically designed to help people find work, offer job-loss support, and tips and resources to work differently, such as working remotely. Employers can also include a ‘work from home’ feature on their job ad listing, which allows jobseekers to choose it as an option when searching for work.
A major positive for the New Zealand labour market has been the Janet Faulding GM, SEEK NZ
Business recovery sees new normal
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ecruiters all across New Zealand are seeking new ways of working, as they go from standing still to racing full-throttle down the recruitment race track. A global survey by HR consulting firm Mercer shows that, as of early April in the United States, 68 per cent of companies had closed offices amid the pandemic, and 63 per cent had instituted some type of hiring freeze. Figures from New Zealand reveal that 116,000 people had filed for unemployment benefit in the month of March. This figure is up 0.2 percentage points on the March 2019 quarter.
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HUMAN RESOURCES
WINTER 2020
But once the pandemic eases and the business world tries to create a new normal, many employers will need to ramp up staff – quickly and prudently. Rob Bishop of Bishop Associates Recruitment states that it’s still vital for hiring managers to map out what’s on the horizon. He suggests taking a more holistic and commercially astute view of your business when planning for staffing needs. “Start by asking good questions, such as ‘Did my customer profile change? Did any of our key business strategies change?’ It’s also worth asking if roles are critical and how
they align to the company’s overall commercial strategy.” Rob goes on to say that it may be worth considering the effectiveness of your recruitment technology, to maintain and engage with your talent pipeline. Act fast and don’t keep candidates waiting. Update job descriptions and mix up recruitment methods, for example, use LinkedIn referrals and database mining. It’s also important to evaluate the capability of internal candidates and be agile in the use of transferable skills.
