Finding Workers For Government Projects is challenging.
Where to find skilled people?
Two years of COVID restrictions and border closure left us out of international labour, which we used to rely heavily on. Employers currently have problems finding skilled employees. Significant pressure is on the construction and engineering sectors. They are happy to train apprentices, but it takes years before they work at a professional level and there must be skilled tradies to perform the training. See below my observations after talking to a few of my New Zealand clients from different trades.
It’s interesting to observe how different the mindset of employees sourced from the other countries is to that of some New Zealand-born employees. Our Bangladeshi workers (and other ethnicities) appear to have a much higher work ethic – just because they are from a society where paid work and also social benefits are not so common. When the business owner cares, supports, and takes an interest in overseas workers, it makes workers proud, happy and keen to work even better.
New Zealand employees seem to have slipped in some sectors right into a state of complacency so significant that their work attendance seems to them optional. Sick leave is treated as additional annual leave, extended grief leave is not able to be challenged – yet this practically abuse of trust is left for companies to handle, with virtually no way to discipline them due to New Zealand favouring employee work regulations.
Local workers prefer part-time work and also do not wish to travel to their worksite if it is a bit further away. The result has been sluggish moving jobs, extended hold-ups, cost blowouts – all under forecasted, placing huge pressure on margins for employers.
The above behaviour of local tradies forces construction companies to focus mainly on workforce monitoring rather than job monitoring. There is an obvious problem!
Well, there is a solution to this problem! The labour force is available – a workforce that appears happy, works hard, and also enjoys being employed. A labor force with good and varied skill, who are keen to work and also super-keen to stay employed in the future. We bring these tradies to New Zealand for almost 15 years from the neighboring country, where they learn all the trade skills.
The result of employing our overseas staff is that our New Zealand clients become much more effective. Enthusiasm in the working place is contagious and often New Zealand staff members work better encouraged by overseas tradies.
We get everyday queries from companies wishing to use our TRADIES from Singapore, in New Zealand. We ensure that employers are getting ready to have Accreditation as per new requirements of INZ from March 2022.
We cooperate with 2 very experienced and successful Immigration Advisers to have a priority queue for our employers. Accreditation makes it possible for employers to process visa applications faster, plus the chance to offer some workers a much desired ‘job to residence’ visa.
Bangladeshi, Filipino, Nepalies, and Indian skilled workers prefer employment with Accredited Employers. They are working hard for the chance to reside in New Zealand with their families and make a better future for their children.
During COVID restrictions many of our Roofers, Floor Finishers, Carpenters, Crane and Digger Operators, Welders, Fitters, and Mechanics went through the English for Employment courses in order to be ready to work in New Zealand.
I would love to finish my story with John Kennedy’s quote about America. “Perhaps our brightest hope for the future lies in the lessons of the past. The people who have come to this country have made America, in the words of one perceptive writer, ‘a heterogeneous race but a homogeneous nation.” New Zealand is very similar, our many nations enrich each other by their differences, and altogether we are a stronger nation! We should open our borders carefully and get much appreciated overseas labour back in!
