Hays Energy
JANUARY - MARCH 2012
Hotspots
In the coming months Protection Technicians and Protection Engineers will be most in demand across New Zealand but in particular in the urban centres. There is a deep skills shortage in the local market as the country loses good talent to the higher salaries and better lifestyle being offered in Australia.
Demand remains high for Washington Accord level 8 or above along with Engineers with transmission lines, substation and protection skills. Experienced Live Line Mechanics with experience of New Zealand or equivalent HV equipment are also sought.
Overcoming skills shortages
Some employers are looking to poach these skills from aboard and are directing their attention towards Europe and America to find candidates with equivalent skills. However, the cost of bringing these candidates to New Zealand is putting many off using this process to address the skills shortage. Instead, we are seeing the use of head hunting becoming more common, along with small salary increases, better benefits and flexible hours to encourage local applicants to apply.
The coming quarter
For the companies that have large T&D contracts, hiring activity will continue unabated. New Power generation projects will be restricted to the geothermal area, resulting in more aggressive recruiting to secure talent. For other energy employers we will begin to see further restructuring and possible redundancies with a chance of staff moving across the Tasman.
Employer trends
There is a current trend to reduce the timeframe it is taking to bring new staff onboard and replace those that have vacated key positions. We have seen internal recruitment teams bolstered to help pick up the pace in hiring activity while others are using recruiters such as Hays Energy to locate candidates.
Candidate trends
Overall we have seen an increase in the numbers of candidates looking for new opportunities; this includes looking at both Australia and overseas rather than locally. We have experienced a rise in the number of overseas enquiries coming from Europe and America in addition to strong interest from Asia. The recent RPI tender for preferred contractors and suppliers made by Transpower also had an effect the market.
