The NZ Herald has reported yet another petrol price with 91 Unleaded up to $2.12 a litre. This is not only having a spin off affect into other industries resulting in price increases across the board but is starting to affect the employment market.

From an employee perspective, when the question of what is your ideal job is asked, the first answer is invariably concerned with location. An issue which was once concerned with the cost of travel from a time perspective, is now becoming more important purely as a direct cost of living.

For an employee that spent $50 a week on petrol costs a couple of years ago they would now be paying $100 a week to get to work. If they could move to an office that was by public transport, or even better if they could gain a position just a walk from home, they could effectively save an extra $5200 a year!!!

For those employers considering an office move or looking to open a new office, consideration needs to be taken as to how accessible the premises are for your staff. I believe that if you want to attract the best talent in a competitive market the location of your office base will become key.

It will be interesting to see what employers do as petrol price increases; some possible ideas are paying bus/ferry tickets, providing scooters, incentives around car pooling etc…

At a local government level there are an opportunity to look at initiatives that encourage people to use public transport or alternative methods of transport, park and ride initiatives, not only saving money on the cost of petrol but would promote sustainability. As a student in Palmerston North the council used to fix up ‘pre-loved’ bikes and leave them around town for people to us free of charge, could this be an option?

Whatever happens, as the general population becomes savvier around saving, employees will become more focused on the cost from getting from home to work and back again. Those clever employers will be prepared and have an opportunity to differentiate themselves in the employment marketplace.

There have been various studies on resume fraud that indicate that around 80% of resumes have false information on them.  This week it has been revealed that the former Head of Immigration in NZ claimed a PhD from the London School of Economics and the State Services Commission has made the decision to the refer the situation to the police.

There are unfortunately a number of executives that have been caught out both in NZ and internationally that have held very senior positions.

Just like any other type of fraud, why would you do it?  I guess there is the fear of not getting a position that provokes employees to ‘embellish’ their CV.  I understand people highlighting strengths and ensuring that their CV paints them in the best light, but quality reference checking and background checks will catch an individual out sooner or later.

The Rock radio station ran a poll today on ‘do you think it is okay to lie on your resume?’ and at one point when I was listening over 80% of listeners thought that it was.  They also had some interesting callers and text messages come through by people who were free to admit on national radio situations where they had ‘fudged’ their CV:

•    One caller had changed his role title from Mail Room Clerk to Distribution Manager and then as he had owned a couple of properties put himself as a Director of the last company he worked for.  Ironically I am not sure that in this case he was doing himself any favours as he was applying for a truck driver position!
•    One prospective candidate had put his own cellphone number down as a referee and I assume under a false name regarding a previous job.  Upon leaving the interview the candidate received a phone call from the potential new employer and the candidate started giving himself a glowing reference, the only problem was the candidate was being watched out the window of the office by his potential new manager.
•    Another caller showed that he had a good sense of humour by stating on his CV that he has a PHDL – ‘Probably Has Difficulty Learning’
•    One caller talked in some detail about how she lied about her salary in getting her current role.

I have heard of a number of occasions where people have said they were on a higher salary to ensure they get an increase in their next role.  This again is dangerous, for instance as part of our reference checking process at LINK we check on a candidates previous salary to ensure consistency.

If the employer, is an employer of choice they should pay you what you are worth and you should be able to also gain benchmarks from the recruitment firm as well as looking at salary surveys to realise what is a fair and equitable salary.  Starting negotiations with a lie is likely to end in not gaining the role at all and is not a good way to begin any relationship.

My recommendation; highlight your strengths on a CV and ensure that a potential employer can see that you are an ideal candidate for the role – but don’t lie. It will catch up with you sooner or later.

In New Zealand like most of the developed world we are currently going through record low unemployment. Moreso, there is some concern around the credit crunch and the affect on the employment market.

The reality is as a prospective job seeker you still ‘hold the power’ when it comes to looking for the next job.  However, with the economic uncertainty opportunities may reduce and the battle for the ‘ideal’ next role may become more difficult.

To combat this, job seekers need to start thinking of how they are marketing themselves to get the best job.  Just as a marketer positions their product or service in the best light to increase revenue, to get the best role you need to think about how you promote your own best interests, from the initial application to the job offer stage.

Some points to consider are:

-    What makes you the best candidate for the advertised role?
-    Who are your competitors (i.e other prospective candidates) and how do you differentiate yourself from them?
-    Is your CV laid out correctly – is it appropriate for the job market you are applying or the industry?
-    Does your CV make chronological sense?
-    Put yourself in the hiring mangers shoes; if you were the hiring manager and you picked up your CV would you interview you?
-    Does your CV look good on the computer screen as it is likely it won’t get printed out?
-    If a busy hiring manager has only five minutes to look over your CV amongst one hundred other applicants will they be able to gain that you are suitable for the role?

Furthermore, the basics around your CV cannot be forgotten.  I would say the majority of CV’s that we review (at every level) have spelling and grammatical errors, a number have incorrect dates, often the layout is inconsistent etc, etc.

Key to provide the best application is to partner with a recruiter that will ensure that you are positioning yourself to get the best next job; be it for a vacancy they have or tapping into the ‘hidden job market’ through their client connections.

LINK Recruitment Auckland has created a talent agent approach to recruitment, rather than trying to box you into an industry, role, job type etc…  we will take the time to find out what you are looking for, your career goals and many other expectations around your next move.  We understand we cannot place everyone we work with, but provide professional advice on CV presentation, interview preparation and many other aspects on ensuring you are doing what is required to secure the best job available.

I read in the NZ Herald the other day that traditional Kiwi work parties involve beer, banter and barbecues and thought that pretty much did sum up a NZ work function. The article was addressing the issue of assisting new migrants to adjust to NZ which I thought was a very good point.

There is often much talk about new immigrants needing to integrate into the Kiwi culture. The reality is that employers also need to take it upon themselves to help new starters fit in and feel comfortable. Even the time I spent in Australia was interesting from the point of view how there are differences between the cultures, definition of phrases and ways of doing business.

A very simple example in Australia is the phrase ‘good sort’. A good sort in NZ is someone that you get on well with and relate to and like being around. My recruitment team pulled me up in Melbourne after I arrived, when they heard me telling my client how much of a good sort he was! From a business point of view, NZ is perhaps a little more relaxed than Australia, whereas Australian’s are far more effective networkers.

Aside from cultural differences, which can be learnt over time employers can assist any new starter by coming on board by an effective induction program and being aware of their personal needs.

For example, providing opportunities for migrants to speak to family and keep in touch with back home as due to time differences this sometimes can only take place in the day.

Having a solid induction and training program when new employees come on board is important and almost more so for new immigrants starting at an organisation. It is important for any new starter to feel confident to be able to speak to senior management and HR about any situation so that any issue can be dealt with immediately.

At LINK Recruitment new employees are flown to our head office and are given a week where they learn about the LINK culture, vision, goals of the organisation and meet key people in the senior management and the directors.

This has resulted in greater employee engagement into the overall LINK story, consultants that understand the wider business and a flatter management structure that encourages a feedback culture. In continuing with this open line of communication, HR are now proactively engaging in ‘stay interviews’ with employees at LINK to ensure that staff are content in their roles and have a vehicle to express any concerns.

Similarly when employing people from overseas you need to take the time to help them integrate into your business culture and communicate with them on a regular basis to ensure they are happy in their workplace and be aware that beer, banter and barbecues may not be everyone’s idea of a great time.

With the recent collapse of Blue Chip investments in New Zealand, the obvious biggest loser has been the investors.  However, there is often a forgotten party within that mix that get adversely affected when organisations fall over and that is the employees.

Working for an organisation that does not succeed can affect your ‘employee brand’ no matter what position you hold within that company.

The recruitment process from an employer point of view and the methodology behind finding candidates with good clean backgrounds is becoming tighter and tighter.  Good employers will reference check, credit check, run a criminal history and even use online searches to ensure that they are mitigating as much of the risk as possible when coming on board.

From an employee perspective I often come across situations where a prospective employee is more concerned in their basic needs in a role (i.e salary, location and job title) rather than finding out anything beyond that.

We spend more of our ‘waking week’ at work, however, when it comes to choosing a new workplace often not much is done to find out about the organisation that you are looking to work for.

However, when we buy a car or a house, often we will get a number of reports and summaries on the suitability of that purchase.  We will compare options, prices, performance, location, etc…

In the case of Blue Chip and the related organisations I am not sure whether there would have been alarm bells for potential employees when joining these organisations.

However, in terms of doing your due diligence there are a number of ways to research both the financial position, culture and management style of an organisation such as:

-    ask the prospective manager if you can reference check them
-    call people within the industry
-    seek out people that use their product or service and find out about that experience
-    discuss with your recruiter their experience with the organisation
-    ask for their financial statements
-    conduct an online search to see what blogs or other information exists about the organisation
-    if they are listed look at their recent share history
-    speak to current employees and find out their experience
-    use the final interview to interview them – what is their vision, values and goals?

No matter what your role within an organisation, if that company is involved in any dodgy activity and this is made public then this could affect your ability in gaining your next role.

It is important to know the good, the bad and the ugly when going into the organisation.  Often when applying for positions you hear the good, it is up to you to find out about the not so good and ensure that your expectations about that company are set from day one.  This way there will be as little surprises as possible and you will keep your career on track.

When Kiwi’s abroad or those that have travel to here think of New Zealand they will invariably think of the ‘greenness’ of the country. We like to think of New Zealand as being an unspoilt landscape, beautiful beaches, glistening rivers, deep native bush, mountains and an ever changing environment from sea to snow.

This love of the environment is beginning to influence returning job seekers when they seek out prospective organisations. Having been overseas and witnessed the impact that large corporates can have on the environment, New Zealanders are becoming more concerned about an organisation and its corporate social responsibility policy.

In the current market conditions candidates have the ability to be choosy about their employer of choice.

We all know that having a strong employee value proposition is important, however, it is no longer enough to provide a good salary, nice work environment and a bowl of fruit a week. Having a commitment to the community you operate in is becoming a necessity for organisations to differentiate themselves from their competitors and attract the best talent.

There are a number of New Zealand organisations that are doing really well in this area, organisations that encourage the use of environmentally friendly bags, provide volunteering days for their staff and sponsor various charities.

More and more organisations are also asking to get the ‘buy-in’ of staff when choosing how give back to the community. Recently LINK Recruitment, surveyed their entire staff to see how they wanted LINK to support the community.

From a hiring manager point of view, this commitment to corporate social responsibility will also help you attract and retain Generation Y. Studies have shown that corporate social responsibility is high on Gen Y’s list when choosing prospective employers

To close, if you are a business leader in New Zealand, what are you doing to be socially responsible? Looking at your CSR strategy will not only lift your profile as an organisation but may be the difference between securing someone over another organisation.

If you are seeking a role and looking to align yourself to a culture similar to your own ideals, then are you asking the recruiter or the hiring manager what they are doing to give back to the community?

Have you ever ‘googled’ yourself?  It can be a surprise just how much information there is about you on the Internet and it is not always information that you would like your current or prospective employer from seeing!

From paying for a car park via a mobile to becoming almost a cashless society, New Zealanders are famous for being early adopters of all sorts of technologies and using technology to their advantage.

Being a nation of travelers New Zealanders have  embraced social networking to keep in touch with friends, colleagues, past contacts and now increasingly to open up job opportunities.

Whilst online networking is useful for keeping in contact with friends, it can be a very successful means of assisting you in finding a new position.

Around 80% of roles are never advertised and key to tapping into this ‘hidden job market’ is to position yourself appropriately online and utilise professional networking websites in actively finding a new position.

As of January 2008 there were over 300,000 users of Facebook in New Zealand. Professional networking sites are also on the rise, with sites such as LINKEDin hosting over 8,500 New Zealanders, and growing.

New Zealand job hunters now need to ensure that their online presence will help boost not hinder their career.

Here are some ideas to get you started:
•    Google yourself and review what comes up from the eyes of a prospective employer.
•    Start a LINKed in profile, or update it to keep it current.
•    Do a search on your industry and find any relevant local blogs or social sites – participate by replying to posts or submitting your own comment.
•    Sign up to Kea – ‘New Zealand’s Global Talent Community’ – they connect with over 23,000 Kiwis in over 174 countries around the globe.

Whether you are thinking of returning to New Zealand in the short term or the long term when it comes to online networking the Kea website sums it up well:

“Kapohia nga Taura here ki Aotearoa – take hold of the strands that link you to New Zealand”.

Before I left for Australia there was a large amount of discussion around the New Zealand ‘brain drain’ and having come back it is still a topic that is being discussed in the New Zealand business environment. I would question whether a brain drain really exists or really whether it is just a case of demand for skilled talent outstrips supply?

A couple of weeks ago Statistics New Zealand released figures that 28,000 kiwi’s went to Australia last year.

On investigation it appears that a quarter leaving the country for Australia were actually under the age of 15 and the majority of the migrants that were of adult age were in ‘blue collar’ or ‘no collar’ type roles.

Other than Australia, all other countries to New Zealand had a ‘net inflow’ of permanent and long term migrants with the largest being from the United Kingdom.

So, if there is simply not enough population in New Zealand then what can business leaders to ensure that they grow their organisation?

I believe New Zealand managers need to look at ways that they can attract diversity in a market of very low unemployment. This may be simply through creating a flexible working environment, enabling home access or offering facilities like on-site childcare.

From a hiring point of view managers need to also be open to looking outside of New Zealand to attract staff for more senior roles. They need to look to the recruiter they work with and ask for solutions that are outside of posting an advertisement and hoping they find the best candidate.

The reality is that we are now in a ‘global war’ for talent and businesses that recognise this will ensure they continue to grow and stay ahead of their competition.

Since being back in New Zealand I have noticed two things very quickly; that there is no shortage of great jobs and no shortage of great wine.

The New Zealand social calendar seems to be inundated with wine and food festivals, vineyard concerts, weddings held at wineries etc… in my short time back I have been to one festival, one wedding and am planning on attending a concert in the next fortnight.

This boom in the wine industry is an indication to me of the confidence in the economy. From a consumer point of view it highlights to me that New Zealand is still very much a work hard, play hard type culture.

There seems to be an ever abundance of other events that offer New Zealanders the chance to enjoy life outside of work, be that sporting, arts, cultural or music. Furthermore, there seems to be a never-ending thirst for the outdoors and activities around that.

This desire to enjoy life is creating another reason why staff are looking for opportunities that provide greater work/life balance. In an increasingly tight labour market New Zealand organisations are realising the need to provide flexible options to retain their top performers.

I believe this demand for a flexible work environment will mean an increase in contractors, part-time workers or staff that look at opportunities to take on fixed term contracts as opposed to joining an organisation on a permanent basis.

In addressing issues around attraction and retention I believe the organisations that embrace innovation in the way they structure their teams will benefit in both the short and long term.

From a candidate point of view the option to spend more time taking in the finer things in life, be it wine, outdoor pursuits or just spending more of their ‘waking week’ outside of a work environment could be very attractive.

For management, my experience has shown that in many cases where workplaces are open to flexible arrangement for existing or incoming staff they are provided with a greater experience level and a more refreshed employee who gives nothing less than 100%.

Having successfully made it through week one back home I had forgotten how many unique “NZisms” such as the food, the relaxed approach and way of doing things.

Returning back home has been like a rediscovery of everything kiwi, I had forgotten about how open and supportive New Zealanders are.

As a new business to the NZ environment we have received a welcome openness to both me returning home and a new organisation on the Auckland recruitment landscape.  The support from prospective clients, candidates and even competitors wishing us well has been amazing.

The well publicised ‘war for talent’ that exists in NZ is a real issue in the success and progression of many organisations.  A pleasing factor my first week back is that I have noticed businesses being more savvy and more open to new and innovative ideas of finding staff.  Organisations seem to be more aware now of the need to create a tight employee value proposition and focus on attraction and retention.

We have already been approached by one large NZ company to work on an exciting project, and one which the previous company they had engaged had placed in the ‘too hard’ basket.

The reality is there are good people out there, they just need to be uncovered, be that through attracting staff to return to NZ or attracting using more innovative sourcing strategies.  The pleasing point from a LINK perspective, is that prospective clients generally want to hear what we have to say and how we can help make their business grow.

Whilst I have no doubt that this year is going to be a busy one I am confident that I have made the best lifestyle choice and the best career choice by coming home.  Furthermore, I am optimistic about our ability to assist our clients in securing the best talent and assisting our candidates in growing their careers.