Recruitment

New Zealand vs. Australia – beat them, or join them?

By Nick Smith, 360 Search Ltd

Australia is a compelling alternative for construction management personnel seeking opportunity and improved income. NZ is lagging behind, particularly with the current economic climate. If we lose staff overseas, the cost of getting them back will be immense.

No matter what you read or who you talk to about the construction market in New Zealand at present, the general consensus is that over the next 12 months there will be less work around than what we have all been used to over the previous years. Most of us are confident that it will pick up towards the end of this year with growth through to 2010. At the very least this is what the experts are telling us.

For employees, this can mean uncertainty in their future and this is when employees are more and more open to opportunities with a higher percentage becoming active job seekers. Whilst New Zealand is quieter on the building front, Australia is going through the roof, specifically in Queensland and WA.

New Zealand construction professionals are compelled to pop their heads up, and have a look over the Tasman while things are uncertain here.

Our sister company in Australia has standing orders with us for personnel across all sectors. Infrastructure in particular, as well as residential and commercial construction is booming and wages are on average 30 per cent higher than in New Zealand.

We’ve all heard the migration figures to Australia that seem to range between 28,000 and 36,000 depending on which news channel you watch. Below are some actual examples of why.

I’ve put them into two extreme categories:

Talent bankers
These are the smart strategic companies who understand economic cycles and the value of their employees, not only to their own companies, but to the industry and country.
They communicate to their staff, undertake staff and performance reviews, improve and tighten up staff relationships and even make strategic staff acquisitions where practical for the medium to long term.
They put talent in the bank, nurture it, train it, value it and unleash it when the time comes: forward thinking. Unfortunately these companies seem to be the exception to the rule!

Hibernators
Rationalise, cut back, minimise risk, shed staff, turn the air conditioning onto ‘economy mode’ and hole up for the winter. The underlying message to their staff is that they should be New Zealand vs. Australia – beat them, or join them? By Nick Smith, 360 Search Ltd happy to still have a job. They read the fact that there are more candidates on the market as giving them back control. When they do need to hire, they offer ten per cent less than the rest of the market. Short sighted, survival mode. Not the best from an employer brand perspective: old school.

Losing staff to competitors in the same market is the lesser of two evils, you may get them back and at least they are still contributing members to our economy. If we lose them to Australia, the chances of them coming back in the future are slim.

Most of the people I’ve dealt with lately who have made the move to Australia, (and there are a lot of them) have done so reluctantly.

Their preference is to be at home, but the alternative is just too attractive not to look at seriously.

Here are just two typical examples:

Building project manager
A trade qualified Kiwi construction project manager with 20 years’ experience in the industry. He has successfully delivered projects up to $NZ60m and returned from overseas, having been working in Europe for three years. His children were at high school, his wife is a professional and he wanted to live back in Auckland in a 30 year old home he owned on the North Shore.
Several job offers in New Zealand, the best of which was 125k total salary package including a vehicle. It took six weeks from the first interview to the offer stage.

Forced to look into Australia he flew to Brisbane, spent four days interviewing, had four job offers within a week, the least of which was 150k plus a vehicle, plus bonus, plus relocation, plus three months paid accommodation, plus superannuation, plus a salary review in six months. He planned to buy a brand new four bedroom home in a new sub-division with swimming pool and would have change from the sale of his three bedroom, 30 year old home on the North Shore. How many pluses was that?

Civil construction supervisor
This guy also had every reason to want to stay home in NZ. A supervisor for a specialist pipe laying contractor, Jimmy was 32 years of age with a young family. His Auckland salary package was $NZ55,000 plus vehicle, one income, hard grafting and working towards a project management role. Australian offer = Sunshine Coast, $AU85,000 plus vehicle, plus bonus, plus superannuation, plus training towards a PM role. Send us a postcard!

I could quote pages of these examples.
It seems the country and the industry is doing everything other than buying their one way tickets. With approximately 20 per cent of jobs advertised on NZ job websites being in Australia and Australian Recruiters campaigning hard in NZ, looking at the long term our attitudes and conditions need focus to become at tractive employment propositions. Or we could become the sixth State of Australia. Which of these sounds worse to you?