employment

Unions puzzled by job figures
Radio New Zealand's Checkpoint programme

May 6 2010

Unemployment numbers have unions scratching their heads.

LISTEN ONLINE: Click here to listen to Robert Reid being interviewed on Radio NZ. 

It wouldn't be a bad job. Surrounded by makeup and perfume all day but one of New Zealand's biggest retailers can't seem to get anyone to do it.

As the unemployment rate reaches a 10-year high, with the number of unemployed people now standing at 168,000, Farmers is struggling to fill 30 jobs manning its beauty and fragrance counters.

The human resources department has been reduced to running recruitment evenings in Hamilton and Auckland to inform candidates about a career in the beauty industry and to identify the qualities that make sales professionals.

"We're interested in hearing from new beauty graduates, seasoned industry professionals and sales professionals looking for a change in industry," says Sheila Naidoo, head of HR for Farmers. According to recent statistics from the Department of Labour, there should be an overload of retail workers in the job market, said Ms Naidoo.

"Even if they don't have beauty industry experience, if they have a passion for beauty products and a desire to work with prestigious brands, we can train them," she said.

Lorraine Reay, Clinique counter manager at Farmers, Hamilton city store, prides herself on being able to connect with people.

"Being a counter manager is a bit like being a successful real estate agent. You have to think of yourself as being self-employed, even though you work for Farmers."

Ms Naidoo said Farmers was looking for staff like Ms Reay who had come to Farmers with previous experience in hospitality.

Ms Naidoo said Farmers was willing to look beyond an applicant's immediate work experience to fill the positions.

She said while beauty may be considered more of a female industry several men were doing well at Farmers.

David Marris, fragrance sales professional, celebrated his sixth anniversary at Farmers Hamilton store this month.

Asked what type of person is suited to a career in fragrance or cosmetics, Mr Marris said: "A focus on customer service is essential . . . and of course a love for the product certainly helps."

Ms Naidoo said the recruitment drive would start at the new Farmers store opening at The Base, in Te Rapa, Hamilton on May 4.

--------------------

CAPTION:
Vacancies galore: Lorraine Feay, of Clinique, and David Marris, of Fragrance in a Farmers store where their products are sold. However, Farmers is struggling to get good employees for its beauty departments.
Picture: KATRINA BIELESKI

Businesses are shooting themselves in the foot by choosing recruitment agencies that treat job seekers poorly - a new survey shows widespread anger among candidates.

The OCG Consulting survey of 11,000 candidates over the last six months examined the treatment the job seekers received from recruitment agencies compared to when they dealt with employers directly.

Respondents were asked to rate their level of satisfaction in four categories on a five-point scale from ‘excellent’ to ‘poor’. Recruitment agencies were rated poor more often than employers in every category.

In ‘overall standard of care’ a whopping 23% of recruitment agencies were rated poor, compared to 16% of employers. The ‘communication skills’ (19%/14%), ‘follow-up’ (23%/20%) and ‘level of understanding’ (17%/11%) categories continued this trend. At the other end of the scale, only 5% of employers and recruiters were rated as excellent for overall standard of care.

OCG general manager Carol Dallimore describes the results of the survey as “horrific” for recruiters. “The anecdotal feedback we’ve received from candidates recently is that their treatment has been pretty abysmal, both at the hands of employers and recruitment agencies – but as the survey shows, recruitment agencies have been worse.”

She warns that if shabby treatment puts a candidate off dealing with a recruitment agency, this harms not only the agency but also the businesses that deal with that agency that could potentially miss out on talent. Although the flood of candidates has overwhelmed the systems of some agencies, she blames the lack of follow-up from many of them on what she calls a “lack of common courtesy”.

She still recommends employers use a recruiter in most cases, particularly now due to the current glut of CVs, but she advises them to look for agencies that are good at candidate selection, which has suddenly leap-frogged candidate sourcing in importance.

There is an “upsurge of frustrated candidates”, as evidenced by some angry responses to the survey. One respondent opined, “I get the impression that many (recruitment consultants) have no ability to assess the quality of my background and experience nor do they recognise from my CV how I have been able to change and adapt to roles. “In short, I wonder if the monkeys at Auckland Zoo are given piles of CVs to stick pins in.”

More changes to industrial relations and the Employment Relations Act appear to be on the Government's agenda.

Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson says the Government has to be open to suggestions when it comes to potential law changes.

She believes legislative framework is needed with enough flexibility to allow businesses to survive the current economic conditions but which still treats employees fairly. Ms Wilkinson says there are plans to make changes concerning union access to workplaces and to restore workers' rights to enter collective agreements without having to belong to a union.

She also wants to look at the Employment Relations Authority and the Employment Court to streamline processes.

New research from Celerant Consulting suggests that over half of UK business leaders find winning the hearts and minds of employees the most difficult aspect of delivering change within companies.

A survey of over 600 senior executives across Europe and the United States, carried out by the Economist Intelligence Unit, suggests that the majority of change programmes - structured approaches to implementing and managing change within a company - fail. 64% of UK leaders questioned said that half or fewer of the change programmes they have undertaken in the past five years have been successful.

The most significant challenges faced by UK companies in executing change programmes include winning the hearts and minds of staff (51%) and overcoming a lack of buy-in from local management (36%). UK bosses recognise that 'effective communications' (25%) and 'employee buy-in' (21%) are the most important factors in successful implementation, compared to global averages of 19% and 17% respectively.

Despite the high possibility of failure, the survey suggests that UK leaders spend more on change initiatives than their counterparts in any other country. The average expenditure by UK leaders in the last year (£5.43m) was 36% higher than the global average. This comes against a background of an estimated UK spend on consultants of £10bn in 2007, according to the Management Consultancies Association.

The survey also reveals that 57% of UK business leaders say their planned change programmes for the coming year are a direct response to the credit crunch. Accordingly, over a third (40%) of UK leaders plan to increase their spending on change initiatives over the next 12 months, while only 12% intend to spend less.

The quest for operational efficiency is driving change programmes. Almost two-thirds (64%) of UK business leaders say that improving their company's operational efficiency is the top issue on their agenda. In a further sign that the credit crunch is impacting on the corporate agenda, reducing costs (58%) is seen to be significantly more important than increasing revenues (43%).

Ian Clarkson, chief executive at Celerant, said: "A slowdown always put the question of 'how do we respond?' on the table - and frequently the answer becomes 'we need to change'. Yet, as leaders themselves admit that the majority of initiatives do not work, what should they do to ensure they successfully manage the process of change? "Our survey shows that companies fail in the execution of change initiatives because they are unable to win the hearts and minds of employees at all levels of their organisation. This happens when people do not trust their managers or understand what values the management team stands for. Too often a change programme is seen as an excuse to make people redundant. In order to successfully deliver change, leaders need to inspire people with a sense of urgency, have a clearly communicated vision and plan and continually motivate staff. As change management becomes part of day-to-day management, only those leaders who can successfully execute it will survive and flourish."

Ralph Hargrow, global chief people officer at Molson Coors Brewing Company, said: "Change for the most part is personal. You have to speak to people personally, to have them understand and embrace the promise of change. That requires a lot of work. Broadly speaking, the easier it is for individuals to understand and embrace the personal benefit of a change for themselves, the easier it is to win their hearts and minds. The more difficult it is to paint a vision, the more difficult it is to effect and embrace such change."

Consulting Times July 2008

The Government and trade unions say National's employment relations policy will cut wages, despite the party saying it will retain core provisions of the Employment Relations Act (ERA) if it wins the election.

National's leader, John Key, gave an assurance today the basic principles of the ERA would remain in place. "We are staying with the Employment Relations Act. We are not going back to the Employment Contracts Act," he said. "Good faith provisions will still apply, as will rights to sick leave, holidays, and health and safety provisions."

Mr Key said National would keep four weeks annual leave but allow employees to trade the fourth week for cash.

Labour Minister Trevor Mallard described the policy as "a return to the bad old days" with no protection for new employees, an erosion of the Holidays Act and a power shift in favour of employers. National's policy contains the previously-announced provision for a 90-day probation period for new employees and says there will be a review of the Holidays Act. Mr Mallard described the probation period as a "fire at will" provision which would mean lower pay and would force new employees into a trial period without any protection against unfair or unreasonable treatment. And he said a review of the Holidays Act was National Party code for cutting the pay of sick people.

The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) said the policy would drive down the wages of all workers. "Every point in this policy is an attack on current worker rights and every point would put downward pressure on wages," said EPMU national secretary Andrew Little.

Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly said there was no mention in the policy of how it would lift wages and predicted holiday pay would be cut.

The National Distribution Union's secretary, Laila Harre, said the policy was a wolf in sheep's clothing. "It is a gift to employers, wrapped in the language of `reasonableness'," she said. "This policy will keep wages down. . .the attempt to shift the balance of power in a workplace even more towards employers is dressed up in weasel words."

Business New Zealand said the policy had the capacity to deliver economic growth if it was partnered by other pro-growth policies. "A period of restraint and consolidation along with enhancement of basic rights is likely to be beneficial," Business NZ chief executive Phil O'Reilly said. "The vast majority of employers will welcome the commitment to review the Holidays Act which has been widely criticised for its complexity and costliness to apply." National's industrial relations spokeswoman, Kate Wilkinson, said the policy was balanced and the response was hysterical. "There is no threat to worker rights, collective bargaining will continue, there is no attack on entitlements, there is no plan to cut holidays and there is no plan to privatise ACC," she said. "It's the same tired old hysterical rubbish we've heard from Labour all week."

The main points of National’s policy are:
- Introduce a 90-day trial period for new staff, by agreement between the employer and employee, in businesses with fewer than 20 people;
- Continue to allow union access to workplaces with an employer's consent, which cannot be unreasonably withheld;
- Continue to support the social partnership with Business NZ and the Council of Trade Unions to work together on issues of mutual interest;
- Restore workers' rights to bargain collectively without having to belong to a union;
- Retain the Mediation Service but ensure it is properly resourced with properly qualified mediators;
- Require the Employment Relations Authority to act judicially in accordance with the principles of natural justice, including the right to be heard, and the right to cross-examine before an impartial referee;
- Allow injunctions and important legal questions to be heard in the first instance in the Employment Court, and allow a general right of appeal to the Court of Appeal;
- Keep four weeks annual leave but allow employees to request trade of the fourth week for cash. This can be only at the employee's request and cannot be raised in negotiations for an agreement; and
- Appoint a working party to review the Holidays Act, especially the issue of 'relevant daily pay'.