New Zealand employers seek foreigners for addressing skills shortages

New Zealand, 21st November: Nearly 39 percent of employers in New Zealand look overseas for filling skills shortages in the nation, findings of a latest research by Manpower Group show.

The research named 2011 Borderless Workforce by Manpower Group New Zealand states that New Zealand depends on talented immigrant professionals especially engineers, technicians and those having skills in manual trades for filling vacant job positions in New Zealand.

Foreigners recruited for working in New Zealand--And majority of immigrant workers recruited by New Zealand employers for filling skills shortages hail from India, the UK and South Africa, the research further asserts. The findings of this latest research were released along with ‘Borderless Solutions to Today’s Talent Mismatch’, an insight paper by the same group.

It guides employers in New Zealand to forget about border limits if they want to find people with requisite skills and talent for addressing current skills shortage in the nation. The paper also gives a piece of advice to employers on how to find the right professionals across the nation.

Key findings of the research—

• Around 43 percent of employers are bothered by the possibility of talented individuals leaving New Zealand to find jobs in another nation.

• Among major problems faced by nearly 25 percent of New Zealand employers wanting to hire overseas or foreign workers include legal and visa conditions.

• Around 68 percent of employers say business and government are not doing sufficient efforts to restrict outflow of talented New Zealanders from the nation.

Moreover, there is almost nil effort to allure such people back to their native nation.

• Among the nations posing biggest threat to the progress of New Zealand’s economy include the UK(16 percent) and Australia(39 percent) respectively.

Employers must adopt right approach to manage talent—According to Managing Director of ManpowerGroup Australia & New Zealand, Lincoln Crawley, employers in New Zealand must adopt a sophisticated strategy if they want to find a right balance in the demand and supply of talent. This includes adopting a talent mobility approach for overcoming skills shortages, he added.

Collaborations are needed between employers, educators and government for increasing sourcing opportunities by introducing desired changes in labor laws.