Career Waka Jumping Is Here, New Zealand Businesses Struggling With Staff Retention In 2022

Auckland, 23 March 2022 – The 2021/22 annual Beyond Recruitment Economic & Labour Report reveals New Zealand companies are seeing an acceleration of ‘Career Waka Jumping’. Unlike overseas markets where employees are resigning for a break from paid work, dubbed the Great Resignation, the continuing low unemployment rate indicates that Kiwis are jumping ship for better opportunities.

Career Waka Jumping

The respondents, representing over 300 business leaders across multiple sectors, indicated that retaining talent is much harder now (66%) than it was 12 months ago. Very large businesses (over 1,000 staff) said they find it much harder than SMEs (1-200 staff), at a rate of 77% to 51%.

Over half of all employers (55%) say they have witnessed an increase in employees changing jobs, with 35% saying they saw some movement and 20% noticing lots of movement. For the rest, they either saw an average amount of movement (30%), none at all (14%) or weren’t sure (1%).

“The competition for good talent is fierce. We’re seeing an acceleration of waka jumping, with more than half of companies reporting an increase in talent movement.” says Liza Viz Chief Executive, Beyond Recruitment. “There is a clear talent shortage in New Zealand, but the borders opening won’t help all businesses – Kiwis will see the border opening as an opportune time to move overseas for work and go on a delayed OE.”

“This talent shortage creates a dynamic where if you don’t enjoy your job or your career, you can easily find work somewhere else. With the right skill set, you can even change careers to something you believe is more meaningful. Businesses are seeing a 30% year on year turnover rate, which anyone will tell you is too high. What’s positive is that businesses are taking significant steps to reward and retain good workers,” says Viz.

In 2020, the average company pay rises were about 1-2%. They climbed slightly in 2021 with 27% of leaders saying the average pay rise in their company was 2%, and 23% saying it was 3%.

“Keeping salaries and wages in line with inflation is another trend we expect to see as 2022 moves on,” says Viz.

Good talent is hard to find

In 2020, the report discovered that finding talent was the largest talent issue facing Kiwi organisations. In 2021 the problem got worse and rose from being the top issue for 46% of organisations in 2020 to 60% of organisations in 2021. Attracting talent to their business (16%) was the second largest issue reported by respondents.

The report also asked if it was easier to hire new staff in 2021 than before the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Almost half (47%) said it was much harder. A further 39% said it was somewhat harder. When asked to rank how hard it is to hire new talent on a scale of one (very easy) to 100 (very hard), the average response sat at 73.

New Zealand leaders are more intent on hiring permanent staff (62%) than contract or temporary staff (18%). The desire for permanent over gig workers rose from 38% last year to this year’s 62%.

Benefits and mental health 

In terms of non-cash benefits, offering working from home (83%) and flexible work hours (82%) were the two most popular benefits in 2021. Rounding out the rest of the top five were company paid training (64%), mobile phone/allowance (59%), and health and/or life insurance (40%). This represented a huge boost for the insurance benefit, with 2020 results indicating that only 13% of companies were offering insurance as a benefit.

Where employee engagement issues have been discovered, Kiwi business leaders deploy a variety of tactics to manage them. The most popular are flexible work arrangements (81%), followed by employee assistance programmes (EAPs) (78%).

Health and wellness initiatives were extremely popular, now in use by 67% of companies. Stress management programmes (47%), and on-site food options (24%) were also popular. Only 3% of companies said they haven’t identified any engagement issues.

“We’ve seen that the requirements of the pandemic, and the mental and physical tolls it has taken on people, seriously shape the packages and benefits that workers want. While it’s no surprise that flexible work arrangements held the top spot, that it grew in popularity by 17 points is significant,” says Viz.

“The value of EAPs jumped a whopping 60 points on last year, health and wellness initiatives grew 39 points, and stress management programmes by 24 points. This really shows us how important wellness in the workplace has become, with so many new employers offering these options. Kiwi businesses need to know that it’s not just about pay, but also quality of life, and businesses that recognise this will attract and retain the best people.”

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