Employers in NZ Rely on Foreign Talent to Fill Vacancies

Employers in New Zealand Rely on Talent from UK, South Africa and India to Fill Vacancies

ManpowerGroup Offers Borderless Workforce Solutions to World’s Talent Mismatch Dilemma

Christchurch, 21 November 2011 – ManpowerGroup New Zealand’s new 2011 Borderless Workforce research has found that 39 per cent of employers in New Zealand look outside the country’s borders to address skills shortages, with foreign talent most important in ‘engineers’, ‘technicians’ and ‘skilled manual trade’ job categories, and primarily coming from the UK, South Africa and India.

The research findings were released in tandem with ManpowerGroup’s new insight paper, “Borderless Solutions to Today’s Talent Mismatch,” advising employers worldwide on how to source the right talent across borders, and specifying the types of policies, public-private strategies and migration patterns that are driving greater sourcing opportunities across the world’s talent corridors.

Other key findings from the Borderless Workforce research include:

• 43% of employers are concerned about the impact on the labour market from talent leaving New Zealand to work in another country.
• Further, 68%of employers believe government and business are not doing enough to slow the outward migration of talent and attract these people back to New Zealand.
• Employers from New Zealand who look abroad to help solve talent shortages indicate the biggest obstacles they encounter when recruiting foreign workers are visa and legal requirements (25%).
• New Zealand employers named Australia (39%) and )the United Kingdom (16%) as the countries they believe provide the biggest threat to New Zealand’s ability to compete economically.

According to ManpowerGroup Australia & New Zealand’s Managing Director, Lincoln Crawley, the world’s borderless workforce – the migration of talent across and within national boundaries – is growing rapidly in size.

“Employers need to take a sophisticated approach to managing their talent supply and demand challenges, in order to win the escalating war for talent. This means including a talent mobility strategy in their overall plan to combat skills shortages,” said Mr Crawley.

Mr Crawley said employers today must collaborate with governments and educators in creating more dynamic sourcing opportunities, at least regionally. More work opportunities are surfacing across more global markets, but labour laws have traditionally been local. As a result, workers with the same shared skills tend to congregate in regional “talent corridors.” Employers target these regional pools when seeking specific skill sets.

“Kiwi employers have grave concerns about losing valuable, talented workers to overseas opportunities. And the problem is, the skills gaps in New Zealand are very similar to the rest of the world – engineers and skilled tradespeople are in demand everywhere,” said Mr Crawley.

“To remain competitive, employers need to fight fire with fire, creating a global talent strategy of their own to attract foreign workers and fill their skills gaps.”

ManpowerGroup’s new Insight paper, “Borderless Solutions to Today’s Talent Mismatch,” is available at www.manpowergroup.co.nz/research.cfm, along with The Borderless Workforce 2011 – Research Results Global and Australia and New Zealand “All three papers offer employers, governments and educators the real-time context needed to locate talent with skills in demand – while overcoming regulatory and economic challenges in the process.

About ManpowerGroup
ManpowerGroup™ (NYSE: MAN), the world leader in innovative workforce solutions, creates and delivers high-impact solutions that enable our clients to achieve their business goals and enhance their competitiveness. With over 60 years of experience, our $22 billion company creates unique time to value through a comprehensive suite of innovative solutions that help clients win in the Human Age. These solutions cover an entire range of talent-driven needs from recruitment and assessment, training and development, and career management, to outsourcing and workforce consulting.

ManpowerGroup maintains the world’s largest and industry-leading network of nearly 3,900 offices in over 80 countries and territories, generating a dynamic mix of an unmatched global footprint with valuable insight and local expertise to meet the needs of its 400,000 clients per year, across all industry sectors, small and medium-sized enterprises, local, multinational and global companies. By connecting our deep understanding of human potential to the ambitions of clients, ManpowerGroup helps the organizations and individuals we serve achieve more than they imagined – because their success leads to our success. And by creating these powerful connections, we create power that drives organizations forward, accelerates personal success and builds more sustainable communities. We help power the world of work. The ManpowerGroup suite of solutions is offered through ManpowerGroup™ Solutions, Manpower®, Experis™ and Right Management®. Learn more about how the ManpowerGroup can help you win in the Human Age at www.manpowergroup.com.au.

ManpowerGroup is the most trusted brand in the industry, being the only company in our industry to be named to the Ethisphere Institute's 2011 World's Most Ethical Companies list for our proven commitment to ethical business practices, including an outstanding commitment to ethical leadership, compliance practices and corporate social responsibility. In addition, ManpowerGroup has also been recognized as the industry leader by Fortune magazine, who named the company in first place on its 2011 list of the Most Admired Companies in the temporary help sector.

In January 2011, at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, ManpowerGroup announced the world has entered the Human Age, where talent has replaced capital as the key competitive differentiator. Learn more about this new age at www.manpowergroup.com/humanage

Gain access to ManpowerGroup’s extensive thought leadership papers, annual Talent Shortage surveys and the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, one of the most trusted indices of employment activity in the world, via the ManpowerGroup World of Work Insight iPad application. This thought leadership app explores the challenges faced by employers navigating the changing world of work and provides in-depth commentary, analysis, insight and advice on strategies for success.

Follow ManpowerGroup Chairman and CEO Jeff Joerres on Twitter: twitter.com/manpowergroupjj. Joerres is one of only six Fortune 500 CEOs who leverages a Twitter account to get his message out.

About Manpower New Zealand
ManpowerGroup, the world leader in innovative workforce solutions, has been helping clients and candidates win in New Zealand since 1996. With eight branches in three cities across the nation, Manpower New Zealand provides unique value to clients and candidates through recruitment & assessment, training & development, career management, outsourcing and workforce solutions.

This is the Human Age, where access to talent has replaced access to capital as the key competitive differentiator. Manpower New Zealand creates powerful connections between organisations and the talent they need to enhance their competitiveness and unleash their workforce potential. By creating these powerful connections, we help everybody achieve more than they imagined, and power the world of work.

Follow Manpower New Zealand on Twitter http://twitter.com/manpowernz

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