News Roundup

Jobseekers disruption

In 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.

A major positive for the New Zealand labour market has been the 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.

Janet Faulding GM, SEEK NZ

Business recovery sees new normal

Recruiters 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.

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.

HR's biggest issues

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HRNZ surveyed HR professionals around New Zealand to find out what issues we face once we’ve moved out of lockdown.

Health and wellness of staff, managing remote workers, entitlement to subsidies and employee remuneration were the big four issues facing HR leaders around the country.

We have had to absorb a lot during this time, and HR respondents have a sense of urgency and duty to support their employees.

“Unfortunately restructuring and redundancy is the biggest priority for HR professionals as we start the return to work,” stated Nick McKissack, Chief Executive at HRNZ. “Employers around New Zealand will be forced to deal with the commercial realities of the economic contraction we’re facing.”

This represents a complete turn-about for many, who for the past decade have been focused on competing for the best talent in a world of full employment. HR professionals also identified the need to build change capability and business resilience as a top priority. “Organisations around New Zealand are faced with adapting their service offerings to a new world and one which has a high level of uncertainty in the short to medium term,” said Nick. Full results of the survey can be found at hrnz.org.nz

HRNZ continues to ensure it provides practical and relevant resources for members, as well as facilitating opportunities for members to learn from each other, to help meet the emerging challenges of the workplace today.