Personnel Resources / Temp Resources recruitment co-ordinator Emma Henderson says there are job vacancies across most sectors. Photo / Andrew Warner
Job vacancies are ''everywhere'' as industries struggle to recruit skilled professionals while employers scramble to offer more incentives and higher pay packets.
Sectors spoken to by NZME including digital technology, lawyers and quantity surveyors were hit by the labour shortage and were concerned about attracting and retaining staff.
One described it as the ''perfect storm''.
Recruitment agencies agreed it was still a candidate-driven market and there was a smaller pool to choose from. One said some employees were using that to negotiate better terms with no intention of moving companies.
Figures from Trademe show the number of job listings in the Bay of Plenty jumped by 4 per cent year-on-year in the July to September quarter. In the region, the average salary jumped up by 3 per cent over the same timeframes to $65,991.
Personnel Resources / Temp Resources recruitment co-ordinator Emma Henderson said ''everywhere you look'' in Tauranga there were job vacancies in specialist and generalist roles in the professional services area.
Skills in management accounting and finance were in high demand, as well as more general administration skills.
Recruitment was taking a bit longer for some roles, she said.
''People are either very settled or riding the uncertain economic and political situation by staying put. Job seekers are facing numerous offers, and some of them are using these to improve their position with their current employer, with no intention to move.''
''There are some good genuine candidates out there and employers are having to be decisive and move quickly to secure them.''
In Rotorua, there was a plethora of candidates and roles.
''There seems to be more of an urgency now in placing people and filling roles.
Good candidates were aware they were in a position to ask for more flexibility.
''This means, in turn, our clients/employers are having to be flexible and open to different ways of working; part-time, job sharing or hybrid roles in order to secure good candidates.''
Henderson said with the current wave of HR Roles, finance and health sector roles, it was still seeing out-of-town applicants who would happily relocate to Rotorua.
The Staffroom director Jill Cachemaille said sourcing suitable applicants was still challenging although it was fielding a lot of enquiry around fair salaries from candidates in employment.
Accounts and finance roles seem to be making a comeback at the moment as well as administration, IT, executive assistant and purchasing.
''Remuneration considerations continue to be at the top of the priority list for candidates along with culture, wellness and parking. Employers are reacting to these demands as best as they can by starting open discussions with their staff on what else they can offer with a view to retain their people.''
Ryan and Alexander Recruitment Agency executive consultant Natalie Milne said employers were finding they were having to select from a smaller pool of candidates.
''We are finding that we are still getting very strong applicants coming through for professional services roles, and despite fewer applying, are placing good people into permanent roles.''
Filling junior to mid-level positions was slightly harder than more senior-level roles because, at that level, candidates had more choices.
There seem to be many opportunities in the finance space and it was recruiting across a range of professional services, including business development, operations management, human resources, quality, compliance and health and safety, and research and science.
''We definitely use links to client social media feeds where possible and use our own social media profiles to promote roles. We speak with our clients regularly about the importance of employment branding.''
''Social-media and tech-savvy candidates will research organisations, looking particularly at culture and work conditions and use this in their decision-making processes.''
In her view, Tauranga was definitely moving to meet market conditions for salary and had become more competitive while flexibility within the job including working from home had become normal.
IT Professionals New Zealand chief executive Victoria MacLennan said the digital technology industry had the ''perfect storm'' created by the skills and talent shortage.
Factors leading up to that included increased demand through buoyant growth, gross underinvestment by businesses in developing junior staff, borders closed and a skills mismatch with some employers reluctant to reskill and upskill staff.
''Adding to this our industry has been suffering a generational diversity challenge where the industry has failed to attract more women (25 per cent of the industry), Māori (4 per cent) and Pacific Peoples (2 per cent) into the industry. This in itself is complex to solve.''
Some of the challenges included the perception technology was just for men, falling numbers of higher education in digital technology studies enrolments, a "bro culture" and a lack of focus on inclusion and belonging in many workplaces.
MacLennan said some of its members indicated recruitment in 2022 was harder than last year.
''This could be in part due to our young people leaving our shores, perhaps not in the droves the media has predicted, but they are often making choices to return to their OE or start one after being trapped here through the Covid years.''
The list of hard to recruit for jobs was long.
''I heard a strong message that finding Māori practitioners – or those who have a strong Māori worldview that can see technology through a Māori lens, are the hardest to find right now. I know from my own business experience that data roles – data architects, data engineers, data analysts, visualisation specialists are all hard to find right now.''
Analysts, data scientists, network engineers, cyber security specialists, software developers, systems architects and enterprise architects were also in demand.
New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors president Heather Crilly said many building surveyors were facing challenges with staffing and recruiting because traditionally a large number had been recruited from overseas.
It was attempting to address the issue by developing a building surveying degree to attract the younger generation and complement the level 6 diploma.
''But it will take some time before training of new staff can fill the current gap due to the time it takes to become a registered building surveyor.''
A Law Society spokesperson said the New Zealand labour market remains tight and this tightness was also felt across the legal labour market, particularly in the regions where ''attracting new talent may be more of a struggle than in our main centres''.
Its data shows that 16,400 people either renewed or gained their practising certificate in the year to June 2022, up from 15,554 in the year to June 2021.
There was a substantial increase of new lawyers being admitted this year, 754 were admitted in the year to June 2022 as opposed to 209 in the year to June 2021.
''Covid may have had an impact on those levels but it remains to be seen. Business confidence is starting to improve and we're seeing a gradual increase in people arriving in New Zealand.''
Jobs by the numbers
* In Tauranga's hospitality and tourism sector, job listings increased by 25 per cent year-on-year in Q3, while customer service and healthcare job listings both saw an increase of 23 per cent.
* The average number of applications per listing in the Tauranga district jumped by 3 per cent year-on-year in Q3.
* In the Rotorua district, the number of job listings in Q3 increased by 13 per cent year-on-year.
* Rotorua hospitality and tourism listings climbed by 70 per cent year-on-year in Q3, while trades and services listings were up by 29 per cent, and retail listings increased by 22 per cent.
* The average number of applications per listing in the Rotorua district jumped by 6 per cent year-on-year in Q3. - Source Trademe
A duo who have worked extensively for high-growth startups within New Zealand's tech ecosystem believe videos are the way of the future when it comes to job recruitment.
Denym Bird and Alex Hamilton founded Hey There, an Auckland-based company, earlier this month in a bid to help particularly smaller businesses turn their job description into a script on camera.
''The videos get a far better response - they are more relatable than text, and do a better job of explaining why a company is awesome to work for'', Bird said.
''Videos can communicate the 'heart' of a company... by truly capturing their people and philosophy.''
Hamilton said he knew first-hand about the difficulty and challenges involved in attracting and recruiting talent, especially over the past 24 months.
According to CareerBuilder internal data, job postings with video icons were viewed 12 per cent more than postings without video and on average its customers received a 34 per cent greater application rate when they added a video to their job postings, he said.
''HR and recruiting have been done the same way for 20 years, largely utilising job boards to reach a limited candidate pool. What this method doesn't account for is that companies and their employees are able to attract talent themselves. Doing so effectively, however, relies on having something awesome to share.''
He said videos could be included on traditional job sites but also posted to a company's page or social channels as well as shared by employees to drive further reach.
''They are more relatable... and do a better job of explaining why a company is awesome to work for. During Covid, many of us had our purpose reset. We asked questions about the impact we want to have.''
A job was more than a salary.
''Today's employees want to resonate with the conviction and motivations of the team they work within - and video communicates this.''
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