In this issue:

• Welcome
• Skills squeeze tightens
• Wellington incomes soar
• Quality of life more important than pay
• A “thank you” goes a long way
• Slow recruitment processes a turn-off for Aussies
• Identifying workers with “good soldier syndrome”
• Stress the top factor in quitting a job
• Recruitment coach
• And finally...

Welcome

Welcome to the summer edition of The Johnson Group newsletter.

We’re delighted to welcome Shekhar Reddy to the team. Shekhar worked mainly with non-governmental organisations in health management in Malaysia before arriving in New Zealand in 2000. He then worked as a learning and development consultant in the public and private sectors in Auckland before moving into recruitment. He is a great addition to The Johnson Group team of consultants.

We are delighted that Melissa Alfonso-Cruz, who was previously working with our talent pool, will rejoin us in March from maternity leave.   Melissa will be stepping up into the role of Recruitment Consultant and looks forward to meeting you, our clients.

The Johnson Group has made several exciting innovations in recent months. Our new database system enables us to refine our searches and match up clients and candidates more quickly and accurately.

And we’re now using Google Adwords to attract high quality passive candidates.  Google Adwords has helped us to double traffic to our website.

We’re getting great feedback on our health recruitment division. Liam Walsh, who heads the service, has noticed an increasing number of clients are choosing to plan in advance – such as letting us know their availability for the month ahead, rather than calling up on the day to ask for a contractor to fill a shift.

In health recruitment – and, indeed, in all the services we provide – what sets The Johnson Group apart from other recruitment agencies is our willingness to listen. We always want to hear your views, and to learn how we can help make your life easier.

Leigh

Skills squeeze tightens

Skill shortages will be a long-term feature of New Zealand ’s labour market, according to the Department of Labour’s latest Skills in the Labour Market report.

The report, covering the quarter to September 2007, says 41% of firms reported having trouble finding skilled staff, while 19% of firms found it difficult to attract unskilled staff. With migration figures falling and the unemployment rate at a record low, employers had to recruit from a shrinking pool of available labour.

The Johnson Group is able to offset the impact of skill shortages by using our “talent radar” to give preferred clients advance notice of suitable candidates before a vacancy arises. Seventy percent of The Johnson Group’s candidates are recruited from our own talent pool.

For the full report, see: http://www.dol.govt.nz/publications/lmr/lmr-skills-summary.asp

Wellington incomes soar

Rising public sector pay rates have helped Wellington incomes to jump by 21% in just one year.

Statistics New Zealand figures found incomes rose by 9% nationwide in the year to June, but were more than double that in Wellington. Analysts say government departments are now more willing to

compete with the private sector on pay, which has pushed incomes up.

You’ve got to keep working at productivity...finding the right people; better ways. If you invest in your people, get them talking to you and invest in the infrastructure to make their ideas happen within a reasonable time, you’ll have yourselves a winning team

(Phil Pollett, CEO/owner of Goodtime Foods)

Quality of life more important than pay

Quality of life is now a more important factor than pay for finance professionals deciding whether to stay in New Zealand or look for work overseas.

A survey of finance and accounting staff in 17 countries found that pay was still the main reason New Zealanders actively looked for a new job, but came third after quality of life and family reasons for Kiwis considering working overseas.

Leigh Johnson says one-third of employers are either looking for a new job or considering looking for a new job. Employers’ main aim, she says, should be to focus on top-quality candidates who are skilled, productive and actively engaged in their work.

“Some recruitment firms take a shotgun approach and ring everyone, which can be disastrous when people’s hopes are dashed,” says Leigh.

A “thank you” goes a long way

Never mind pay, perks and work/life balance – workers say a simple “thank you” from the boss would be enough to make them more productive.

Two-thirds of 15000 North American workers surveyed wanted to be thanked more often, and a similar number felt the extra appreciation would make them work harder. Workers aged 18 to 34 were particularly likely to want more thanks, and workers preferred to be thanked in person rather than by email.

Slow recruitment processes a turn-off for Aussies

Slow, convoluted recruitment processes discourage workers in the Australia public sector from applying for jobs, according to a new report.

Hiring a new employee in the Australian Public Service (APS) takes an average of 88 days, says the APS Commission’s State of the Service report. The report says poor planning by managers and unnecessary internal processes are the main cause of drawn-out recruitment practices.

Calling for better, fasted recruitment processes, APS Commissioner Lynelle Briggs says that in the current competitive labour market “high quality candidates will not – nor should they be expected to – wait for three months or more while a recruitment process is finalised”.

For the full report, see: http://www.apsc.gov.au/stateoftheservice/0607/index.html

Identifying workers with “good soldier syndrome”

An Auckland human resources specialist says employers should learn how to recruit and motivate staff who have “good soldier syndrome”.

“Good soldiers” are workers who are committed, hard-working, help their colleagues and generally go the extra mile to ensure their workplace runs well. Dr Giles Burch, a senior lecturer in human resource management at Auckland University, says well-motivated workers are great to have around, but managers should be careful not to take advantage of them.

For more information, see: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=59&objectid=10476503

I needed IB to listen more to our customers and stop telling them, ‘This is what you want’. I needed IBM to work more as a team. The culture inside IBM was one of individualism and invention, not customer listening

(Lou Gerstner, former head of IBM)

Stress the top factor in quitting a job

Almost 40% of people taking part in a worldwide survey on work rewards say stress is the main reason they have resigned from a job.

Managers believed that pay was the main reason employers walked out, and ranked stress only fifth in the list of reasons for going. Seventy percent said recruiting qualified talent was a constant battle.

For more information, see: http://www.watsonwyatt.be/research/resrender.asp?id=2007-US-0190&page=1

Recruitment coach

I’d like to try hiring skilled migrants to fill some of the gaps in my department. What sort of issues should I be aware of?

Rhys, Lower Hutt

It’s important to consider migrants’ personal and family situation as well as their skills, says Leigh Johnson.

Employers notice a huge difference in work output if migrants feel well settled in New Zealand . Managers should help candidates understand the difference between the life they had back home and the life they could have here, and accept that it may take them some time to settle.

“One great advantage of migrant workers is they bring fresh thinking and have a real willingness to work hard and contribute,” says Leigh. “If they have gone to the extraordinary effort of moving to a new country, they have already demonstrated how motivated they are to make the most of the experience.”

And finally...

A number of clients have told us they’ve been reflecting on how difficult they found it to recruit staff themselves last year, and have said they’d like to make a fresh start in 2008.

We offer you a specialist talent pool of public sector professionals.  That means if you need a policy analyst, planning and reporting advisor, strategic planner, data or information analyst, project manager, researcher or evaluator, or any other related position (permanent or contract) – there is a 70% chance we already have that person on our database.

As this is an election year, many of you are busier than ever. Outsourcing recruitment makes sense when you’re busy delivering on other goals. Let us help you share the load.