Brannigans' partner Nick Carter echoes Hlaca's comments about business-as-usual and staff retention. His company specialises in executive recruitment and human resources consultancy. He says Christchurch is seeing its second wave of post-earthquake recruitment. "After dealing with the immediate impact, employers are now focused on filling the gaps at the coalface."
One of the hottest areas for executive recruitment in the city is in professional services. Carter says there's a need for lawyers, accountants and finance experts.
He says there's also an unmet demand for skills across most of the South Island's rural belt. That's only partly because Christchurch is sucking in regional talent. This is particularly acute in the dairy sector with large dairy groups competing hard for talent. There's a need for skilled hands-on workers, but even experienced truck drivers are in short supply.
Hlaca and Carter both say retention is a challenge. In the executive sector that's partly about carrying out regular salary reviews. Carter says though that might be an annual exercise in normal times, under current Christchurch conditions it needs to be more frequent.
At Randstad Hlaca says she has seen employers offer silly money, especially for construction professionals, and that some semi-skilled workers have done well in the recent past but that things have flattened out.
She says turnover rates are high by the city's long-term standards and with local unemployment hovering at around 3.8 per cent it becomes more important to keep people.
Carter agrees: "A lot more companies are waking up to retention as an issue. It's putting inflationary pressure on wages, but there are other ways of keeping people; investing in leadership development courses; giving greater responsibility and moving people up. The simple matter is that people already inside a company tend to be better than bringing people from outside." Fast-tracking promotion is made possible because many companies in Christchurch are going through a rapid growth cycle as the city rebuilds.
Accelerated promotion also works as a drawcard. Hlaca says: "Someone sitting at a desk in Auckland might have to wait five years before there's a promotion slot to move into. They may find there's a vacancy at the next level in Christchurch they can move into and advance their career."
She points to a recent Randstad World of Work report which found 41 per cent of New Zealand workers intend to look for a new job this year. Of these, 63 per cent say they want to move to advance their careers. Hlaca says that's good news for Christchurch employers, but there's more to it than a one off step-up, She also says the experience taking part in the city's rebuild is something really special to put on your CV that may pay dividends for years.
Carter says companies often underestimate the role their culture plays in staff retention. He says his business has HR consulting clients that want to better understand their culture. They are asking questions like "what do we stand for" or, more importantly, "what do our employees think we stand for"?
Hlaca says low unemployment rates means people are getting jobs who might have struggled to find work at other times. She says that in the past, Christchurch employers have taken a conservative approach to hiring. They were inclined to shy away from workers from different cultures or from certain age groups. Much of that is breaking down.
At the same time, local bosses are more open to using part-timers to fill gaps. These can be older workers who don't want to work a full week or it could mean mothers with family responsibilities.
Beyond those sources, employers are looking further afield. That means the North Island, Australia, Asia and even Europe. Hlaca says there are many overseas New Zealanders looking to come home. A particular source is Australia - now that country's economy is winding down, there's something of a reverse tide of trans-Tasman migration. And then there are the Irish, British and Filipino accents turning up on worksites across the city.
Some of these groups, especially young men without families, are transient. Hlaca says they are here for a purpose and prepared to work hard, but they may not stay long-term. Even more transient are the backpackers pouring into the city to fill temporary vacancies for a matter of months.
Helping Carter to find the right migrants to fill local gaps is Glenn Davis, who is in charge of New Zealand Skills In Demand's Christchurch operation. The business works to place skilled migrants from Britain and Ireland in New Zealand - at the moment that mainly means Christchurch.
Davis says there's a certain kind of migrant who slots quickly into New Zealand. They have done their homework and may have previously visited the country. In many cases they may have a New Zealand partner. Davis says he is mainly looking for people who plan to settle here.
He says his strategy with overseas-born migrants is to sell New Zealand first. That's relatively easy, but once they are interested, Christchurch is then often in their sights.
Hiring talent from the UK can fill some short-term gaps, but Davis says he prefers to take a long-term view and sees his role as opening up a recruitment pipeline to deliver skilled people over the next five to 15 years - which he says is how long local executives expect tight labour conditions.
All three mention accommodation as being a barrier for inbound workers. That's hardly surprising in a city where many local residents still struggle to find adequate housing.
The good news is that just as employers are more flexible about who they employ, workers are more flexible about where they live. Christchurch people are not generally known for long-distance commuting, but for people from more crowded home nations, an hour-long drive into town from a neighbouring community is rarely an issue. On the flip side, Hlaca says employers are learning to be more flexible about starting times.
Despite the earthquake, Christchurch is a relatively easy sale to certain types of migrants. Hlaca says: "Everyone has their own story, but you hear talk of being able to go to the beach in the morning and ski in the afternoon. I hear many talk of it being a great place to bring up kids".
It's easy to dismiss the lifestyle story as just marketing, but Carter says he also finds the word crop up when talking to candidates. He says it applies as much to returning Cantabrians as to people from elsewhere in New Zealand or from overseas. "The city has a magnetic pull, one of our biggest strengths is that people decide they want to live here".
Work it out
3.8 per cent unemployment rate in Christchurch 41 per cent of NZ workers intend to look for a new job this year 63 per cent of those want to move to advance their career.
Work flows from good relationships
Invercargill-based Nind Electrical jumped at the opportunity to establish local operations in Christchurch and secure work in the rebuild by leveraging existing relationships with partner firms.
"We knew the opportunities were there, but the timing for any move into Christchurch was critical because the rebuild took some real time before it got going,'' says Nind director Steven Winter.
"There had to be a critical mass of work there before it even looked like something that could work. The motivation for us going there was knowing that we had five or six clients going there who confirmed to us that they'd be interested in working together if we chose to enter Christchurch.''
The market has been up and down says Winter, who identifies inconsistency of demand as a significant risk factor for businesses working on the rebuild.
"There've been companies that have gone broke up there in the past two or three years with the high costs needed to set up and then finding that the work was coming in too spasmodically. I don't think we would have gone up there if it wasn't for existing relationships.''
Winter stresses that "keeping within our capabilities and sticking to what we know'' is at the core of the firm's Christchurch venture.
The Christchurch base will be a permanent part of Nind's business.
The company is there "for the long-haul,'' with a steady flow of work expected over the next 10 years.
"We've built a team of 12 electricians over the past 12 months and the work that we've picked up on has come from existing clients who we have good working relationships with,'' says Winter.
That guaranteed work minimised the risk of entering the market that accompanied the required investment. "Some of them we still haven't done any work for but we know that it's coming,'' Winter says. "Others have been pretty good particularly on the commercial side where we've picked up some good jobs.''
"On the residential side which is primarily EQC work, we've been proactive in getting in touch with the Fletcher hubs and we're doing EQC work for three or four hubs around the Christchurch area.''
The Fletcher hubs oversee reconstruction and repair work throughout the rebuild area, where teams of building managers and advisers assess and co-ordinate work.
"What we're doing there is inspections initially and then coming back later, sometimes as long as 12 months afterwards, when the work which has been agreed on is coming through.
"We haven't ventured into the big government projects or anchor projects at this stage because I personally don't think we have the capabilities to handle that size of work on our own.''
Continuing to partner with larger organisations and getting work within those big projects is certainly a possibility for Nind as they continue to grow their Christchurch operations.
But the growth will be monitored and restricted, as it would be funded completely with cash flow instead of utilising debt finance to curtail the risk of growing too big too fast in Christchurch.
