Employment issues are always key in an election and are primary sources of disagreement between Labour and National, and among the smaller parties according to where they sit on the political spectrum.
Continuing areas of political dispute are 90-day trial periods, the extent of collective bargaining, and the treatment of independent contractors. All three featured in the survey, with nearly three quarters (73%) showing a strong and consistent preference for the National Party’s policies.
By Sonia Breeze
Businesses need to reskill their workforce, but whether they have the capacity to do so, and whether the Government is doing enough to help, is up for debate.
Just over half (51%) of respondents signalled the Government isn’t yet doing enough to support businesses with changing staffing needs, and access to skills and talent remains the most important employment issue for businesses at this time. This worry is consistent with findings from the 2020 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends survey, which found that 74% of organisations identified reskilling the workforce as important to their business success in the next 12-18 months, but only 10% felt ready to address this gap.
Businesses are clear on the human capital issues they would like political parties to focus on, ranking incentives to take on apprentices or provide more training as the top solution; however, there appears to be uncertainty as to whether the Government’s Reform of Vocational Education will result in an improved skills pipeline.
While accessing and developing talent is a significant issue for organisations, so too is terminating the employment of unsatisfactory team members, with over half of respondents saying they’ve faced difficulties in this area. As a result, nearly three quarters favour the Government bringing back the 90-day probationary period.
COVID-19 coupled with technology advances makes creating a workforce geared for future success challenging. Organisations are increasingly looking to the Government to help them along their skills journey, but more needs to be done to equip New Zealanders with the skills they need to succeed.