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Living in the New Normal


Key Findings:

  1. Just under a quarter of Christchurch respondents and nearly half of Auckland respondents said they were previously happy in their work, but since the pandemic have become unhappy.
  2. Slightly more Aucklanders are still on reduced pay or were made redundant because of COVID-19.
  3. Not only did most Kiwis work from home due to the pandemic, but a clear majority enjoyed the experience.

For 63% of Christchurch workers, COVID-19 still hasn’t changed their opinion about their job. On top of that, most (56%) have had no changes to their working life due to the continued pandemic, a similar result to our prior report, and 23% have lost a sense of happiness in their role. Auckland fared a little worse, with 46% saying they were previously happy in their job but now arent, leaving just a third to say their attitude hasn’t changed. More Aucklanders (24%) than Christchurch workers (16%) saw changes occur in their role because of COVID-19 which have since returned to normal, and more Aucklanders are still on reduced pay (2% more) and were made redundant (4% more).

Most Kiwis moved to a work from home (WFH) model for the lockdowns last year, and still have a lot of flexibility in their role as a result. 42% (Christchurch) and 38% (Auckland) worked from home in the lockdowns, and about a third from each location still have that flexibility. Quite a lot more Aucklanders (17%) than Christchurch workers (6%) have moved to WFH for the foreseeable future, leaving just 12% (Christchurch) and 10% (Auckland) who did not WFH at all.

This period of WFH has been enjoyable, too. Most Christchurch workers (39%) and Aucklanders (58%) always thought they would enjoy it and it worked out well for them, and a further 10% (Christchurch) and 7% (Auckland) hadn’t wanted to WFH, but then enjoyed the experience. But, some Kiwis didn’t enjoy it – 15% of those in Christchurch, and 17% of those in Auckland. We also asked employers the same question, and the majority (47%) agreed it worked out well, compared with 11% who thought it didn’t.

 

 


NZ IT Workers in Focus


Key Findings:

  1. The vast majority of IT workers in both cities expect to leave their current role within a year.
  2. Salary is only middlingly important to respondents, and most believe their salary is fair – although the majority is slight.
  3. Unemployment levels have started to come down again, from 22% last report to 15% this report.

NZ employers should be mindful – most of their IT workers will likely be gone within a year. In Christchurch, 15% of respondents say they think they’ll be gone from their current role within 3-6 months, 25% say it’ll be 6-12 and 25% are looking for a new role right now. In Auckland, those figures are all higher: 17% (3-6 months), 29% (6-12 months) and 32% (currently looking).

Christchurch workers feel more strongly about the importance of salary than Aucklanders, but only slightly. When asked to rate its importance on a scale of one to five, Christchurch respondents were right in the middle (average of 2.51) with Aucklanders behind at 2.03. Indeed, you’ll see in our graphs in this section and the comments below that there are other things more important than money to an IT worker.

Salaries are, however, considered mostly fair. The majority of respondents from both cities (53% Christchurch vs. 49% Auckland) felt their salary met expectations and was fair, although those thinking it is lower than expectation were just behind (40% and 44% respectively). Compared to our last report, Christchurch respondents feel their salaries are now less fair while Aucklanders feel they are more fair.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Recruitment Trends in the ‘The New Normal’


Key Findings:

  1. Hiring activity remained very stable these past six months, with expectations that the stability will continue for another six.
  2. Employers are currently hiring to accommodate new projects, and to a lesser degree, replace staff.
  3. Permanent staff are the preferred option, though there’s been a six-point increase in desire for contractors since March.

We’ve been tracking hiring activity for a while now. It dropped all the way down in September 2020, then started to bounce back in March 2021. Since then it has remained quite stable: the number of employers who have hired one or more employees in the last six months dropped only slightly, from 92% (March) to 89% (August). A further 84% expect to hire again in the coming six months.

For most employers, the reason behind their recent spate of recruitment is that they have new work/projects needing completed (75%). This was followed by the replacement of staff (69%), then an increase in demand of both IT within the organisation as well as from customers (44% each).

And which channels led to the most recruitment success? For 71% of employers, advertising / external promotion was most effective, followed by the use of a recruitment agency (65%).Internal promotions accounted for a reasonable number, 47%, with professional networks coming in at 35%. The clear majority of employers preferred permanent staff (84%) over contractors (16%), which indicates a slight increase in preference for contractors since our March report (+6 percentage points).


Top Most In-Demand Roles


 

 

 

 


Your Comments


 

 

 


Summary


This has been a largely positive report. Hiring activity among employers continued to bounce back after it plummeted in 2020, with a significant majority of businesses having onboarded one or more staff recently and anticipating hiring even more. You can see the changes this has made in the sector’s unemployment levels, which came down since March.

One of the big results of this report is the prevalence and enjoyment of working from home among employees. We can clearly see that a year on since the pandemic, most Kiwis in the IT sector have had to work from home and, in good news, tended to enjoy the experience. That said, it’s not universally loved and employers would do well to keep balancing in-office and at-home time to maintain staff satisfaction (especially given so many employees are thinking of changing roles soon).

Thank you again to everybody who participated in the survey and contributed to the important findings of this Sourced Report. It’s great to see ongoing positivity after a tumultuous year, and that there have been benefits to the hard work the sector has put in these past 12 months. As we continue to stay on top of the trends affecting Christchurch and Auckland, we look forwards to speaking with you again come March 2022.

Many thanks to everyone who took the time to complete the Sourced Report.

 

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