Ready, ready, go! Employers are preparing for the exodus of kiwi workers with the reopening of the borders

With the provisional reopening of New Zealand’s borders from today, employers and businesses are bracing for the inevitable rush to the airport, warning that an already critical shortage of skilled workers will have long-term effects on
the economy.

They say New Zealand must act quickly and collectively to fill already vacant positions and attract new skilled workers to the country in what promises to be a ruthless global race for talent.

International recruiters and employers have already put skilled workers to the test, but many kiwis have been reluctant to leave in a world ravaged by Covid and while New Zealand’s borders were so restrictive.

With this bond gone, employers expect staff with Covid-inspired itchy feet to leave in droves for their delayed OE. Those working in sectors such as construction, healthcare and technology / digital say there is a danger that the shrinking pool of skilled workers left behind will spread too narrowly if the resulting vacancies cannot be busy.

In the construction sector, employers warn of the impossibility of completing, or even starting, major infrastructure and construction projects in both the public and private sectors; cost increases caused by delays; poor invoice; and a consequent lack of growth and innovation in the sector.

They warn that the government’s five-step border reopening plan, which runs until October, may be too little too late.

Rick Herd, CEO of commercial construction company Naylor Love, said that if New Zealand – and that includes the government – fails to do it right, the country’s economy and progress would suffer.

There were shortages in every sector of his industry, he said, from concrete pouring workers to professional staff including designers, consultants, managers and CEOs, even staff in consensus departments in municipalities.

The government’s insistence that industries train workers in New Zealand’s unemployed pool, rather than importing immigrants, was not a solution, he said. Many of New Zealand’s unemployed were unemployed.

“Bureaucrats and immigration think we can train people locally. We can, but we can’t train them fast enough. Training organizations are also short of trainers.

“And let’s face it, many kiwis don’t want to be painters, they don’t want to be carpenters or tile installers. So the best we can do is bring them from overseas as a short-term solution. The government doesn’t seem to understand that.”

Ryman Healthcare has a team of recruiters that are constantly working to maintain its workforce of 6,500 employees in New Zealand and Australia, which included village managers, designers and architects, IT specialists, builders, surveyors and, most notably, nurses.

The Aged Care Association estimates the industry is short of at least 1,000 nurses in New Zealand at a time when the Omicron outbreak is putting further pressure on nursing homes and retirement villages.

A spokesperson for Ryman said the company was in expansion mode and was currently building 15 new villages that needed new teams to manage them. Skilled construction workers have long been in short supply, he said.

The government’s five-step plan means that fully vaccinated kiwis will now be admitted from Australia. From mid-March (Phase 2) vaccinated New Zealanders from anywhere in the world will be able to return home and other eligible travelers. Vaccinated skilled workers earning at least 1.5 times the average salary for roles over six months and travelers on working holidays will also be admitted.

Step 3 from April 13 will allow entry of vaccinated people from anywhere in the world, including current temporary and student visa holders who still have a valid visa and up to 5,000 international students for the second semester.

In July (phase 4), vaccinated people from Australia and countries that do not need a visa will be allowed to enter, or visitors who already have a valid tourist visa and travelers arriving with the Visa categories of work for accredited employers.

In October (step 5) all visa categories will reopen, including visitors and student visa holders. There is no mention of vaccination or isolation requirements on the Immigration New Zealand website.

Helen Davidson, chief executive officer of the Association of Consulting and Engineering (ACE), said members are pleased to see the five-step plan introduced and specifically to allow entry of skilled labor starting in March.

“But it’s not the silver bullet.”

Employers in various industries have long and loudly complained that the government wage threshold for skilled workers, set at around $ 107,000 per year, was too high.

That threshold will be moved to a positive test of 1.5 times the median salary, reaching approximately $ 84,000, in March. It was a welcome move, Davidson said.

“But there will be key critical roles that drop below $ 84,000.”

ACE, which represents more than 13,000 employees in 238 member companies, interviewed members last year on the subject of worker shortages. At that stage 135 companies in the construction and infrastructure sectors reported more than 3,000 vacancies, including 800 in engineering alone.

In a normal year, companies would hire 20 percent of their new hires from the international market, Davidson said.

“So with the borders closed our people really fought. It was tough and they are exhausted.”

The most recent survey by New Zealand employment agency HainesAttract of 500 skilled workers in the construction, healthcare and technology sectors showed that 41% were considering leaving the country in the coming months, a notable increase from a survey similar conducted in 2021.

Cost of living, salary, job opportunities and lack of experience abroad were among the reasons for leaving New Zealand.

Hamish Price, CEO of HainesAttract, said the world was short on skills and overseas employers were looking to New Zealand to address their shortcomings.

“The risk is to have more kiwis leaving and far fewer new ones arriving unless we are actively in the skills race. If New Zealand does not act quickly, attract and retain talent, the skills shortage will worsen immensely. “.

Competition was on the rise between countries with 33% of respondents claiming to have already been approached by a foreign recruiter.

Price said HainesAttract and most of its major clients want the government to take on a major marketing campaign open to business, to compete with countries like Australia and Canada that were taking similar approaches to attract thousands of skilled workers from abroad.

Datacom chief executive Justin Gray said the company has hired more than 700 people since April last year thanks to the concerted efforts of its recruiting team. The company had lost “a few hundred” in the same time and was looking to fill 100 to 200 roles at any one time.

“We have to manage our workload among our customers to make sure we put people in the right place.”

Gray said that while he agreed that importing skilled workers was an inevitable short-term solution, Datacom was also doubling down on efforts to train kiwifruit who otherwise would never have a chance to work in the digital industry. .