How employers can overcome talent shortage
Employers need to re-evaluate how they fill certain positions if they are to continue to recruit skilled staff.
A survey of more than 650 employers by recruitment firm Manpower shows 48% of New Zealand companies contacted are experiencing difficulty filling key positions.
The jobs hardest to fill are engineers, sales reps and skilled trades.
Managing director Lincoln Crawley says to get the right people, employers need to adjust their criteria for prospective employees.
He says one thing they can do is look for a "teachable fit", which essentially involves settling for less-skilled staff.
"The approach is to identify the sort of skills which are actually teachable within a relatively short space of time, and in an economic way."
Mr Crawley says when looking at trades, the idea is to separate the work that needs to be done by highly-skilled tradespeople and to supplement that by using people who can be quickly trained.
For example, if an employer was looking for 10 tradespeople, they could employ four who were very highly skilled and the rest less skilled.
He says the approach will certainly result in more training on the part of employers but will prove cost-effective in the long term.
The survey also showed New Zealand employers are becoming complacent about not being able to find skilled staff.
Just 8% of employers feel the talent shortage is having a high impact, compared to 23% in 2011.
Mr Crawley says employers have been beating their heads against a wall with little success.
"They've given up, basically."
He says while employers don't think it is a big deal now, it will be in the future.
Employers should also consider hiring flexible workers and recruit from underemployed groups such as older workers.
The 'teachable fit' idea has found support among NBR ONLINE readers, with one commenting: "I am starting an initiative in our firm to grow our own good people by taking on school leavers and training them."
Another says employers should "take some time and train a few people, and stop requiring stupid qualifications that are of marginal use compared to on premises training."
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Comments and questions13
The fact is that we have been teaching our kids that they will all become white collar workers, but have one of the least competitive corporate sectors in the developed world. It would be more prudent to create a stream for different educational outcomes for a larger portion of society, especially in those communities where academic failure has become endemic.
Big angry boys and girls with low IQs and no family tradition of education are being forced to study the wrong subjects for their ability; instead, they learn little more than hatred and disrespect for the system, while society foots the bill. After they finally drop out, society pays for their unemployment benefits and the children they can't afford. This must stop!
Couldn't agree more.
We don't have a skills shortage. We have a shortage of employees at the wages & salaries employers are prepared to pay.
I am in a position where we are competing head on with the Mines in Aus. IE Heavy equipment mechanics. our Retail customers won't pay the rates required to stop the drain. currently have 9 Apprentices and for 80% of the fully skilled, the lure is too great. not an easy solution.
Some of the fault must also fall at the feet of the secondary schools and their career advisors. I could now and have in the past approached schools directly in an effort to find apprentices for the trades my company does and have had no takers. The students who show any potential are told tertiary studies is the only way to go to get the big $$$. And those students who show no initiative at all are ignored. The trades have struggled to get good candidates particularly to fill the foreman and supervisors roles when baby boomer's retire for years.
and many university graduates have ginormous student loans, whereas an apprentice coming out of his/her time need not have any; plus many employers allow day release for study
A lot of whinging from the comments here. The govt should or doesn't ..blah blah
What are YOU going to do about the problem.
I am starting an initiative in our firm to grow our own good people by taking on school leavers and training them, a 2-3 year lead time...
Nice work!
Employers these days are lazy. Take some time and train a few people, and stop requiring stupid qualifications that are of marginal use compared to on premises training.
People especially tradies are doing something about low wages. Hopping on a plane and permanently moving to Australia.
and take your spare $17000 to pay stamp duty on a $500K house in the outer suburbds - http://www.rams.com.au/home-loans/calculators/stamp-duty-calculator/
Well educated and hard working Asians, educated in NZ, are giving up and leaving for Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Australia where they readily find acceptance and good paying jobs.
Asia thanks NZ, for their education and the opportunity for these young enthusiastic employees.
Pity most of the NZ employers are still stuck in the colonial past.
Continue down the economic slide, losers!
My sympathies are with SME employer/owners...they train staff only to lose them...they probably work double the hours their staff do just to stay afloat these days. Having been self-employed, but never wanting to expand to worry about non-productive employees, I know what it's like to work mths at a time without a days break to keep one's family.