Rotorua Lakes Council has 67 vacancies including permanent fulltime, permanent part-time and fixed-term roles.
Rotorua Lakes Council has 67 vacancies including permanent fulltime, permanent part-time and fixed-term roles.
A competitive labour market, fewer applicants and job seekers’ high pay expectations mean councils in the region are struggling to find staff.
Rotorua Lakes Council organisational enablement deputy chief executive Thomas Collé said the tight labour market meant there were fewer applicants for roles and the Accredited Employer Work Visarequirements limits its ability to hire from overseas due to the conditions migrants need to meet.
“We may miss out on candidates who have had counter-offers from current employers or have had more than one job offer to consider and [the] council can’t always compete with candidates’ pay expectations. Working remotely has also changed the landscape and we are not always able to accommodate candidates’ wishes to work from home regularly or permanently.”
He said not being able to fill vacancies could affect service delivery.
“As we have fewer staff to carry out the work, that can cause delays or additional cost if we need to get the work done via consultants.”
Rotorua Lakes Council organisational enablement deputy chief executive Thomas Collé. Photo / NZME
Rotorua Lakes Council has 67 vacancies including permanent fulltime, permanent part-time and fixed-term roles.
The vacancies include policy planners, accountants, administrators, Safe City Guardians, and its consenting/planning, engineering and IT roles were extremely hard to fill.
“These roles are in high demand not only across councils but also in the private sector.”
A team lead, policy planning role was its longest-standing vacancy due to the high level of demand.
Collé said the council was all about the community.
“This is a key driver for why most of our staff want to work here. They are passionate about working for and making a difference in the community.”
Pay bands for its present vacancies ranged from $54,330 to $150,515.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council people and leadership general manager Karen Aspey said the region was experiencing significant population growth.
“With that comes a range of big, complex challenges we need to solve in both the spatial planning and transport space.”
Of the 35 vacancies, three roles in transport and three in spatial planning were recently created roles to ensure it had the right capacity and capability in the right places.
“Some specialist roles such as transport and planning, which are sometimes filled from overseas labour pools, have been impacted (their advertising durations have been prolonged) due to border closures and the associated decrease in immigration movements. More recently, the competition has increased on a national level for these roles and there is also a lot of work going on in New Zealand in these spaces, and we are aware we are competing against other organisations as we seek to attract and recruit in this space.”
“We know this through our standout survey results with the vast majority of staff agreeing that Toi Moana is a ‘great place to work’. People also come here to be a great leader and the investment we make to support them to develop and grow.
“Our people are deeply connected to their mahi and our organisation’s purpose.”
Some of its staff incentives include life and income protection insurance, discounted health insurance, a hybrid and flexible work environment, and a sick leave bank option.
The regional council uses strategic pay grades from grade 6 to grade 28 with midpoints from $49,941 to $267,672.
Meanwhile, Tauranga City Council corporate services general manager Alastair McNeil said from a salary perspective it was up against “big global companies that are paying foreign dollars” for highly skilled staff.
It had 45 vacancies at the moment and had found its engineering and digital specialist roles the most challenging to fill.
“They often require highly skilled technical ability and we’re grappling with a massive skills shortage in New Zealand. Aggravating the skills shortage is the fact most companies offer flexible working as standard now, which means people can continue living where they are and work for big companies in the main centres, or even overseas without having to relocate.”
Skilled people frequently seek high pay overseas, and often these skills cannot be filled using the New Zealand market, he said.
Factors such as the rising cost of living and a shortage of housing in Tauranga were also contributing to the challenge.
McNeil said it was looking for people with a wide range of experience levels and skills who want to get stuck in and make a difference.
“When people start a career with us, they are often surprised at the breadth of work we do. We have a variety of roles available where people can work on exciting projects like the redevelopment of the civic precinct, the transformation of our waterfront, planning for new housing and upgrading our transport system. Our people work hard to make Tauranga better and put the community at the heart of everything we do.”
Its pay grades started from $55,500 to $236,000 and there was a range of incentives and staff benefits including five weeks’ annual leave, flexible work-from-home options, life insurance, and learning development opportunities.
