News Roundup

Survey reveals impacts of COVID-19

Until a vaccine is widely available within New Zealand, COVID-19 will continue to change our business landscape. Ernst and Young’s latest COVID-19 Pulse Survey reveals the workforce challenges facing us.

While most organisations are returning to regular work patterns, the impact of COVID-19 is evident on everything from budgets to wellness.

Fifty-eight per cent of New Zealand organisations surveyed noted that workforce health and wellbeing is their main challenge. This is an increase of 24 per cent from the previous survey (October 2020). Accordingly, it is no surprise to see employee wellbeing as the most important people priority reported by most respondents (72 per cent).

Recruitment is almost back to ‘normal’, but some skills are still elusive. Only 9 per cent of organisations currently have a hiring freeze in place, a decrease of 13 per cent since the previous survey.

With the border closures making it harder to recruit talent from overseas, 30 per cent of organisations are increasingly looking to upskill and develop their existing staff.

Salary budgets are still ‘up in the air’ for many, with around 30 per cent of organisations still undecided about the next annual review cycle. Sixteen per cent of the sample are increasing salary review budgets.

Are skills in some sectors becoming endangered?

A recent survey shows sectors now most at risk of having obsolete skills are technology and telecoms, finance and engineering.

The report, commissioned by Degreed, surveyed over 5,000 workers in eight global markets. The current economic uncertainty resulting from the coronavirus crisis is accelerating demand for new skills among 60 per cent of workers. Yet, nearly half of businesses (46 per cent) have reduced their upskilling opportunities in the past six months.

The result is a widening global skills gap, with over a third (38 per cent) of workers feeling less confident they have the skills to do their job effectively, compared with prepandemic, and nearly half (46 per cent) predicting their current skills will die out in the next three-to-five years.

Employees report this is increasing stress levels and reducing their productivity and performance, which, in turn, hurts businesses.

Chris McCarthy, CEO at Degreed, says, “The businesses that survive and flourish following the crisis will be different than they were before. This means workers are having to sharpen their current skills and build new ones to meet changing demands. Yet just as upskilling became vital to economic recovery, most organisations have cut investment in learning and development opportunities. We already know the global skills gap is costing trillions of dollars in lost GDP. Not to mention the impact on employee wellbeing.”

You'll find a full copy of the Degreed report here. The State of skills: Endangered Skills 2021.

Healthy start to 2021

The latest SEEK NZ Quarterly Employment Report data show a positive quarter-on-quarter performance, with national growth in jobs advertised during Q4 2020 increasing 19 per cent, which includes October, November and December 2020.

Month-on-month performance was also positive, with national growth in jobs advertised in January 2021, compared with December 2020, increasing 1 per cent.

Janet Faulding, General Manager, SEEK NZ, comments, “We have seen the new year begin strongly with job ad listing continuing to bounce back. This follows the announcement of the unemployment rate sitting lower than forecasted, suggesting the strong economic recovery in the second half of 2020 is carrying through.”

“Following the New Zealand 2020 General Election in October, we noticed an increase in business confidence. More certainty led to continued growth in the lead up to the holiday period, when businesses prepared for this busier time of year, particularly in retail and hospitality.”

Vaccine roll out

A major challenge for 2021 will be the roll out of the four different COVID-19 vaccines New Zealand has on order.

Dr Ashley Bloomfield says work is under way on planning the roll out and the aim is to achieve herd immunity through vaccinations.

“Initially vaccination will protect most of those who receive one or other vaccine … and later in the year we would hope to achieve sufficient coverage for population (‘herd’) immunity,” he says.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment will soon be updating businesses and workers with guidance about the upcoming COVID-19 immunisation programme. The guidance will cover employment law implications around the availability of COVID-19 vaccinations.

This guidance will be updated in consultation with the Ministry of Health, WorkSafe, New Zealand Council of Trade Unions and Business NZ, and will cover more specific scenarios and questions in relation to employment rights and obligations.

According to the Ministry of Health, COVID-19 vaccinations will not be mandatory for the New Zealand public. The Ministry of Health issues public health guidance on managing COVID-19-related risks in the workplace and will continue to update this advice.