Property & Build: Election 2023

Page 56

ELECTION 2023

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places such as Iran, Pakistan, South Africa, Zimbabwe, India, Korea, UAE, Croatia, Germany, Canada, Fiji, the UK and Australia. Encouragingly as we have on-boarded these people the male/female split is now lifted to 60/40. And our remuneration is based on role and competence within the role as well as performance.

How to attract, retain and support good staff How has the Certification industry been disrupted by the Covid environment and what have we done to combat the changes

A

year ago I wrote an article on this very same topic. At that time New Zealanders, and in particular those of us up in the Northern part of the North Island, had just come out of an extended period of restrictions. Little did we know that we would return from the Xmas break and be pushed back into another series of restrictions. As the year unfolded New Zealand finally threw open the doors and allowed both its people and international visitors to start the process of travelling freely up and down country again. By the time this all came into being we had all spent more than 2 years managing Covid through an initial eliminate strategy, and ultimately a learning to live with the virus world 56 propertyandbuild.com

In the previous article I focussed on the core operational levers that we had been required to review and amend to allow our business to operate and effectively survive. Now a year later all of the changes we had determined to make are either locked in or in the throes of being locked in.

The sticking point There is one area that continues to be a significant struggle for all businesses throughout New Zealand, and we at Telarc are not isolated from it. This area is the way in which we attract, retain and support people in a post Covid world. We are a normal business by New Zealand standards. We employ just under 50 people. We have workers

based from Auckland in the north down to Dunedin in the south. We have clients on Stewart Island all the way to Kaitaia in the north. Five years ago the business employed predominantly European males with an average age of late 50’s to mid-60’s. Covid’s arrival saw a number of those employees retire. When seeking to replace the retiring wave we had in front of us we found ourselves increasingly looking at and employing really good candidates from offshore. So when you look at our business today it is a completely different demographic. Half of the current team identify as NZ European. We now find ourselves with the balance of the team being born and educated in

Real world experience Where have the workers gone? The change is not something we had planned for. What we discovered as we looked to replace our ageing workforce was that there weren’t many New Zealanders with the experience and qualifications we needed who were looking for work. You may ask why? The challenge we have is that we need people with real world experience. We audit predominantly infrastructure management, manufacturing and construction companies. The building of those entities took place, in a good proportion of cases, many years ago. As we, in New Zealand, have automated processes and downsized traditional operational training grounds for new talent coming into the industries sectors mentioned earlier we have seen the pool of “could be” auditors diminish. On the other hand, in the countries I mentioned earlier, from whom we are sourcing qualified people, we are able to access people who have been involved in, or supported, the development and management of large-scale infrastructure projects. This is both in their own countries as well as within the regions they


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Hard work gets results

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pages 62-63

Chemical safety relies on meaningful cooperation

1min
page 61

How to attract, retain and support good staff

8min
pages 56-60

The great unlearning

5min
pages 54-55

The perfect combination of quality assurance, high stock levels and expertise

1min
pages 52-53

No better investment than chemical safety training

2min
page 51

Ensuring adequate respiratory protection

1min
pages 48-50

NZ workplace fatality rate is double Australia’s

2min
pages 46-47

Industry leader in soft fall protection on construction sites

1min
page 45

Physical threats & abuse widespread in construction

1min
page 44

Was the Covid-19 wage subsidy successful?

4min
pages 42-43

Are you maximising the benefits of your AEP?

5min
pages 40-41

How BIM Will Impact Your Future Infrastructure Projects

2min
page 38

Construction partnership aims to accelerate growth sectorwide

1min
pages 36-37

A collaborative way forward for infrastructure & construction

4min
pages 34-36

How will new energy standards affect Australia’s building sector?

2min
pages 32-33

Proven efficiency

1min
page 31

Safer, faster, multipurpose telehandlers

1min
pages 30-31

What does the future look like for housing in New Zealand?

7min
pages 26-29

Shortsightedness and poor planning lead to property buyouts

3min
pages 25-26

New Zealand cities losing their leaves

1min
page 24

National’s new housing strategy mixed bag’

5min
pages 22-24

Foreign buyer housing policy grabs attention of offshore billionaires

5min
pages 20-22

Kiwi innovation leading the way in concrete slab insulation

2min
pages 19-20

Would a land value tax incentivise housing growth

3min
pages 18-19

Development activity falling as headwinds intensify

4min
pages 16-17

Rental stock reaching crisis levels

2min
page 15

House prices up for first time since downturn

11min
pages 10-14

Commercial property insights Q2 2023

3min
pages 8-9

SLAB 200 HIGH PERFORMANCE 200kPa RATED INSULATION FOR CONCRETE SLABS

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page 7

Reserve Bank taking ‘wait and see’ approach

1min
page 6

Is our electoral system undemocratic

1min
pages 4-5

Site Safe New Zealand launch VR training courses for New

2min
pages 2-4
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