As reported on NZI Business recently, wage expectations for Accounting and IT contractors have increased between 4% to 6% since March this year.  But this optimism was not experienced in the Sales, Marketing or Management professions, with wage expectations actually decreasing in these areas.

View video – Wage expectations

For more information on the Crackerjacks professional contracting Survey that revealed these varying wage expectations  – contact us on question@crackerjacks.co.nz quoting “Professional Contracting Rate Guide”.

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Contact Sandra Diekerhof or Justine Winter in Hamilton on:

Sandra.diekerhof@crackerjacks.co.nz or Justine.winter@crackerjacks.co.nz

(07) 974 9291

Planning to see your business through a pandemic is important. This can be done by planning the steps your business will take before, during and after a pandemic. There is no one, single response you can plan for. You and your staff need to respond flexibly depending on the situation. Keeping your plan updated will also be useful in the event of another type of crisis occurring.

Information on the Department of Labour website that could help you with your planning includes:

• Commonly asked Questions and Answers for employers about potential employment issues that could arise during a pandemic.

• Information to assist with business continuity planning.

• Workplace health and safety guidance, including infection control advice relevant to the workplace.

• Advice on the use of personal protective equipment in the workplace.

• Practical scenarios that illustrate the different measures businesses can take to protect themselves.

Keep informed of developments and update your plans, and your employees accordingly. In addition to the existing business networks and organisations you belong to, the Department of Labour, Ministry of Economic Development and Ministry of Health websites provide ongoing sources of information on the implications of a pandemic for workplaces, businesses, and public health.

Crackerjacks provide businesses with a cost effective solution for sourcing, tracking and engaging professional contractors.  As for contractors, this offers you an online tool to market yourself to prospective clients, source contracts and obtain feedback for professional development.

To see how Crackerjacks can work for you register today.

Demand for healthcare workers appears recession-proof but job prospects for business professionals are slumping, a new survey shows.

The quarterly member survey by Australian and New Zealand industry body Recruitment and Consulting Services Association found business professionals dropped from fourth to 14th place in the overall skills shortage list.

Demand for health professionals and nurses remained static.

For New Zealand alone, the skills shortage list was topped by non-building engineering associates and technicians, followed by health professionals, medical technicians, and drivers.

In fifth place were non-building professional engineers, then nurses, mobile plant operators, IT and telecommunications trades, IT and telecommunications technicians, with electrical trades (building) in 10th place.

Labour market conditions eased, as permanent placements dipped 4 per cent in the overall survey and temporary or contract placements rose 3 per cent, the association said.

The proportion of recruiters reporting that “job applicants have the right capabilities” had risen 12 per cent and there was a 9 per cent rise in the number reporting they had sufficient applicants for each job.

Overall, the survey found labour market conditions had improved back to the level experienced in April 2004.

“What we’re now seeing is a return to a more sustainable level of employment demand,” association chief executive Julie Mills said.

“Throughout last year and the beginning of 2008, the labour market was stretched so tight that employers were often unable to find the talent they needed; now there appears to be some relief at hand.”

More employers were taking a risk-averse approach to hiring, and opting for temporary staff rather than permanent placements.

Despite the easing of the labour market, the lack of suitable candidates was still the third-biggest concern, cited by three-quarters of the recruitment industry. Top concerns were the economy and clients’ lack of hiring intentions.

“Even though we have more candidates in the market and slowing employment growth, the downturn won’t simply make the skills shortage disappear,” Ms Mills said.

“Years of under-investment in education and training, coupled with the large number of baby boomers now retiring, means that we will continue to see pockets of skills shortages in certain roles and industries.

“We also need to remember that while the jobs market may be cooling, it is coming off a very high base of what was almost full employment. Employees who are worried about their jobs need to remember this, and try not to panic.”

- NZPA

Link to article

The unemployment rate rose to 4.2 per cent in the September quarter, its the highest rate for nearly five years, and economists expect it to keep climbing.

It was 3.9 per cent in June.

Since the start of the year the economy has added just 2000 more jobs, not nearly enough to keep pace with the increase in the population, so unemployment has risen steadily from the all-time low of 3.4 per cent recorded at the end of 2007.

There were some signs of resilience: employment grew by 3000 or 0.1 per cent in the September quarter – surprising the markets which had expected a 0.6 per cent drop – and all of the increase was in full-time jobs.

But Westpac economist Dominick Stephens described that quarter as a lull between storms: the recession of the first half of the year, driven by high petrol prices and drought, and the “horrendous” market meltdown of October which is expected to lead to a full-blown global slump.

Unemployment rates were highest in Northland, 6.5 per cent, and on the East Coast, 6.4 per cent. Auckland was also above the national average at 4.4 per cent.

Employment fell in construction, retailing and financial services – where much of the jobs growth of the past five years had been – but rose in manufacturing, health and education.

“There have been chronic labour shortages in those sectors and employers have finally been able to fill vacancies. But the pent-up demand has probably been sated now,” Mr Stephens said. Westpac expects the unemployment rate to hit 5.6 per cent by the end of next year.

As profiled in the New Zealand Herald, Crackerjacks is ironing the wrinkles out of contracting with a new-age take on professional contract recruitment.

We are not a job board nor are we a list of CV’s.  Crackerjacks is an online recruitment solution for professional contractors and businesses, which is the first of its kind.

Never before have businesses had a versatile talent management tool that acts as a channel extension for HR Managers and employers to source professionals.  Businesses can easily source and track a range of professionals after they have posted a job in the business section and a success fee is only charged after a business has found a suitable contractor.  We provide a cost effective alternative to sourcing professional contractors and charge a flat monthly fee, which is more compelling than percentage mark-up fees agencies charge.

For contractors Crackerjacks provides a platform where they can source contracts and market themselves to potential clients.  Contractors can create a rating for themselves through initial reference and performance feedback from past employers and Crackerjacks contracts they have completed.  The higher the rating the higher the contractor’s details will appear on search lists conducted by businesses.  There are also exerts of positive feedback added to contractors profiles.

We have reinvented contract recruitment by taking a completely different approach to traditional models where a company would have to either search through past contractor files or call a recruitment agent where they would have to pay an average 20% mark up on the contractors hourly wage and leave it with the agent to arrange it.

Crackerjacks gives more control to the contractors and businesses who use the site while still equipping them with the tools to find and secure suitable roles and professionals.  In essence we are a ‘low-touch’ equivalent to a traditional recruitment agency.

We are interested to hear your thoughts on the difference between new age contract recruitment and older models.  What do you believe the main differences are and what are the consequences of this?  Please leave us a comment with your thoughts…

At present National is the clear leader with 56% of the votes followed by Labour with 24% of votes.

Interestingly so, our poll reflects official polls conducted and general public opinion.  It has been widely documented in the media recently that National will assist businesses and self employed contractors more than the other parties.

This highlights the probability that people using Crackerjacks are representative of the larger New Zealand public and conveys there is a balanced group of professionals using it.  The contractors who registered with Crackerjacks and engaged with this poll are a true representation of the NZ business sector and the professional contracting market.  This illustrates we are attracting a number of professionals to our contractor database.

We are interested to hear your thoughts on this…leave a comment.

Tony Wai knows what it’s like to be on both the jobseeker’s and the employer’s side of contracting.

He knows that while it is a time- and cost-effective option, it can also be arduous and disappointing for both parties.

In mid-July this year, Wai launched a new online contractor recruitment company, crackerjacks.co.nz, which aims to iron out the hassles of contracting recruitment.

The New Zealand contracting industry is growing – particularly with recent redundancies arising from the credit crunch – and Wai estimates it is worth around $350 million a year.

“It’s an industry where a lot of money is being paid out, and we saw ways people could save,” Wai says.

He describes Crackerjacks as a “channel extension” – bringing contractors and businesses together without being restricted to their respective recruitment agents. Employers seek talent from registered “Crackerjacks” – the contractors – who in turn receive the tools they need to secure and manage great contracts.

“We are not a job board; we are an online recruiter,” says Wai. The company acts like a recruitment company, he says, but charges much less.

Wai thinks he picked a good time to launch: the company grew by 50 per cent in September alone.

While he suspects some of the site’s members are people who recently lost their jobs in the finance sector, he says there is also a pool of “hard-core” contractors who will always be in demand.

“People are contracting because they want to work to live, not live to work. They want to be in control, they want to make more money or they think they’ve already proven themselves,” Wai says.

Employers opted to employ contractors to cover staff members’ leave, to work on a project for a set time or to tide the company over when it loses an employee and does not have time to fill the position through the regular recruitment process.

Wai says it can be cost effective to use contractors, particularly for small businesses, as it reduces their administrative burden in payroll and removes constraints imposed by legislation such as the Holidays Act and the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act.

“It’s very much you are here for this amount of time to complete this job. It’s taking out the infrastructure costs.”

But through his experience at the head of several New Zealand companies, Wai realized the cost of sourcing the contractor – especially at late notice – was exorbitant and unrealistic for small businesses.

“Really the only option is to call a recruitment agency, and then you are effectively a price-taker. They will tell you how much you need to pay them, and you meet them on the job.”

An agency can charge a company around $30,000 in fees for a 12-month period, and on top of that, it’s not uncommon for the contractor to demand $50 or more per hour.

“We saw the need to change things.”

Crackerjacks charges employers $500 a month for a full-time contractor for up to 12 months, when the fee is capped. This can save the company up to 80 per cent of the fee charged by a traditional agency, says Wai.

Being online means Crackerjacks requires fewer staff and less office infrastructure, and Wai is working to link to other popular online communities such as the networking site grownups.co.nz.

Wai knows the site is tackling a highly competitive market but says Crackerjacks’ step-by-step recruitment process is unique to New Zealand. He says he has secured   patent-pending status for it.

While he believes there’s no easy time to set up a company – cashflow being the key hurdle – Wai says it’s easier to launch when people are ready for the product or service.

“Contracting five to 10 years ago was quite quirky, but it’s much different today as people are looking for different options.”

That said, there was still a bit of negativity surrounding the industry, as horror stories of useless contractors or unreasonable employers have given it a bad name.

Crackerjacks aims to strengthen the relationship between both parties by reference-checking candidates and using a quality-performance rating system to give businesses confidence in the candidate pool. At the end of the contract, employers give contractors feedback on their profile – only the contractor can read the constructive criticism, but positive comments are open to viewers. This also helps contractors build up their profile and reputation.

Wai says it has been challenging to get businesses and contractors to use the website, as there is still a fear of trying something new, and “we don’t have million dollar budgets to do a big campaign”, but he believes the company has the right people on board to give it credibility.

Wai, who calls himself the managing director, has worked in senior finance roles in some of New Zealand’s largest companies including Fletcher Challenge and DB Group.

He also spent two years as chief operating officer of Emerald Foods (Movenpick and NZ Natural icecream) and led the company through an important growth phase.

He has employed an experienced human resources manager, Helen Sedcole, to cover that side of the business. Sedcole has held senior HR roles in Carter Holt, Goodman Fielder and The Warehouse.

Frane Karaman, Wai’s chief technical officer, has 20 years of experience in information technology and has worked on big-name corporate information communication technology projects in New Zealand, Australia and Europe.

The site now has more than 400 contractors registered, and many businesses have hired candidates.

Wai says he aims to take the company to Britain and Australia in the near future, but is wary of spreading the company too thin.

“We see ourselves as primarily New Zealand – and unique to New Zealand.”

These professionals are primarily involved in the IT, Advertising/Media, Marketing/PR, Events, Administration and Sales sectors.

Interestingly so the professions with the highest number of contractors are Analyst/Programmers and Website Developers, closely followed by Graphic Designers.

With a number of exciting developments still to take place we are expecting to see the number of listed contractors steadily increase well into the New Year.

Watch this space.