If ever there was a time to take action, it’s now. After a few very tough years, the business landscape in New Zealand is ripe for productivity, and the winners will be those who are ready to take advantage of the potential. So are you ready?

Surviving the chaos

It has been a decade like we’ve never seen before. The twenty-twenties were barely three months old when COVID threw a spanner of enormous proportions into the business works. After years of debating whether remote working would affect productivity, New Zealand and the rest of the world went home to find out. In the state of flux that followed organisations had to act quickly and be flexible to survive – many actually benefitted from the chaos if they could smoothly pivot.

What followed at various unpredictable intervals was an extreme skills shortage, inflation, second guessing of market conditions, and all levels of uncertainty from both employers and employees.

But at last, there seems to be some stabilising of extremes. There are still a few dances to be done, but there is light at the end of the murky business tunnel we have been pushing ourselves through, like Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption. And while we might not yet be totally free, there are a few benefits that have been left over from the previous years.

New Zealand’s versatile workforce

The first, is a highly skilled, technical and adaptable workforce. The resilience shown by New Zealand’s workers over the last few years, and the speed with which they have had to adapt to new technology and new ways of working has never been seen before. And rather than being completely over it, the latest Salary Guide shows that they’ve very much become used to pushing boundaries. As Matthew Dickason, Hays APAC CEO says in this year’s Salary Guide: “Employees are looking for more and more learning and development opportunities, they’re looking for career progression and they want to contribute to their employer’s success and be recognised for it.”

So, what’s stopping them? Well, ironically, it’s their employers.

Yes, caution is still the watchword for most organisations. As Mathew states in his introduction: “This year’s Salary Guide data is demonstrating that the extremes of the past few years are stabilising, yet businesses are still showing signs of caution. This leaves open the opportunity for the bold to take action now and gain the first mover’s advantage.”

With the advent of AI technology coinciding with this calm after the storm, employers can ill afford to sit on their hands. Inflation is easing, productivity is on the rise and as Matthew says, “they need to put their foot down and go.” Because those who don’t move forward are going to start going backwards in this period of opportunity.

Attracting and retaining staff

One of the things needed to drive productivity is to hire quality staff and retain them, and the Salary Guide makes for interesting reading in both areas. Not surprisingly the reputation of the company, its cultural and its commitment to sustainability are all areas that attract new staff – especially from younger generations. But with the cost-of-living crisis biting hard in New Zealand, the things that tend to retain staff are far simpler and closer to home – job security and team culture were the two that rated highest. People simply want to know they’re safe in their job and that they work with good people.

The umbrella that covers both of these attract and retain pillars is trust. As Mathew says: “Whether that trustworthiness needs to be demonstrated by a commitment to community or through the lived experience of working within the organisation, in an ever more fractured world, building and creating trust with your employees will help you unlock the vast potential of people.”

Time for action

Mathew ends by saying, “the time for steadying the ship has passed.” The technology is ready, the workforce is more skilled and resilient than ever before and ready to learn and adapt further. There is still an unstable geo-political backdrop to the world, but economies have better learnt to deal with such scenarios. Add generative AI to the mix and it’s all systems go. Or not.

For innovators in New Zealand ready to take risks, the upside is huge, and the downside is not as hazardous as before. For those unwilling to move forward, they may find themselves moving backwards against their will.

Unleash the potential of your workforce – it’s time to take action.