Overwhelming number of people apply for Taupō office admin job

Alex Stewart Electrical co-owner Clare Stewart had over 140 applicants for an office manager job. Photo / Alex Stewart Electrical

Covid-19 has resulted in a massive spike in people wanting part-time work says a Taupō employer.

Alex Stewart Electrical advertised an office administration job in July, and co-owner Clare Stewart says the response was so overwhelming they had to take the job advert down after 140 people sent their curriculum vitae in in one week.

Clare said over 80 per cent of the applicants had the right qualifications and could have done the job.

"We ended up with an incredible employee. But we could have been happy with a huge range of the applicants, which is a far cry from every other job ad we have put out prior to Covid," said Clare.

She put the high level of interest partly down to both Covid-19, with at least 10 to 15 per cent of applicants having been made redundant due to the pandemic.

"There is a real interest out there for jobs."

However the person they employed was attracted by the part-time nature of the work with the advertised hours being from 9am to 2.30pm, five days a week. Clare said a job that fits in with school hours was attractive to a lot of mums looking to return to work.

"As a mum of two small girls myself I found that part of it so fascinating. That there is a huge amount of amazingly talented mums out there who need to fit work around their kids but could bring such incredible skills to their workplaces.

"Mums are usually extremely time efficient, effective communicators, organised, the list goes on," said Clare.

The high level of interest for the vacancy got Clare thinking that other businesses in the Taupō community could benefit from these individuals and their skills. She said it was apparent to her that Taupō employers are underutilising this pool of talent within the district.

"If only a slightly different way of working [was the norm] as out of school hours can be a huge constraint. Employees are looking for options such as reduced hours, working from home, or job sharing," said Clare.

She said skilled employees are readily available but only if employers could take a different approach to the standard workday. Making work task-based rather than hours-based was another way to offer flexibility to employees.

"Surely there would be plenty of other trade-based businesses or plenty of other industries like ours that could benefit from such talent."