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About Crown
As published in CONSTRUCTION NEWS 2007:
Traditional Approach to Recruitment!!!!!
The traditional approach to recruitment involves a specific job description given to an employment agency. The agency will then advertise, interview and submit one candidate for the employer to interview and employ! The employer will often give the agency sole rights to act on his behalf. This means that the recruitment agent is client focused, in order to retain the company’s confidence and sole agency. Therefore the approach taken will be very conservative and safe, eliminating any applicant with any hint of a question mark.
The majority of applicants are screened through email applications and telephone reference checking. Only candidates with a strong possibility of being exact matches to a job description will be interviewed. This method of recruiting does not favour immigrants who have no local experience and whose references are difficult to check by phone.
Immigrants end up outside this procedure and find it difficult if not impossible, to break through the barrier.
Crown! Brakes the Mould
Crown offers innovative approaches to meet the needs of a changing workplace. Crown's recruiting methodology incorporates unique solutions where our quality assurance systems and processes make a difference. Crown partners with industry to add value to our clients business operations. Crown has a long list bearing testimony to this, both from Clients and Candidates.
We understand Candidates overseas experience and skills. We understand the New Zealand market. Crown is able to transfer and translate candidates past experience into a New Zealand future. Having Consultants from New Zealand, South African and Overseas with experience ourselves, we are able to market and present candidate to the New Zealand market. Crown markets candidates to New Zealand employers that may require the “Skills set” of a person.
Crown is a technically specialised organisation able to present a full range of services designed to meet all human resource needs. At Crown we pride ourselves in offering an individual approach to each of our clients. We help organisations anticipate their future human resource requirements based on a mutual understanding. Crown experience ensures a better understanding of client requirements and a more accurate, thorough assessment of qualified candidates.
Finding, Keeping Great Employees
Why do some companies experience high staff turnover, while others enjoy a relatively stable workforce? It’s all about developing and nurturing your people.
It’s a new year – imagine how great it would be to have no staff changes for the whole 12 months!
Recruiting staff continues to be a major challenge for businesses in New Zealand. While there’s been an easing of the skills shortage in some sectors, the reality is finding skilled staff is not easy; with our declining birth rate and ageing population, employers are also faced with a shrinking labour pool. It’s enough to make you want to shut up shop.
But recruitment is just half the equation. How do you keep ’em once you’ve found ‘em? Retaining staff is a huge issue in a work environment where the employee effectively calls the shots.
The message is clear. Look after your staff. Nurture them, take their work-life balance issues seriously, make your workplace somewhere they want to be. Disengaged workers (people who are just going through the motions) are a drain on any business. The last Department of Labour ‘Skills in the Labour Market’ report found that 21 percent of firms had difficulty finding unskilled labour. Perhaps even more significant was the finding that for 14 percent of firms surveyed, shortage of labour was the main constraint on expansion.
Its figures like this that are forcing many employers to look at the way they manage staff. “They’re learning the hard way that staff retention is essential to the bottom line. Up-skilling, better work-life balance and feedback to employees are all essential to retain and motivate staff”. It’s easy to dismiss the issue of work-life balance as another example of political correctness gone mad, it’s very much a reality for many in today’s workforce.
“There’s a common misconception in the market that this is mainly important to working families. But many employees without families are now requesting a more flexible work day”. Increasing number of contractors are managing their own work-life balance while still being employees on a full-time basis. “Businesses must become more flexible to retain key staff”. And it would seem they are. The latest EEO Trust Work-Life survey (completed in May 2006) found the most common way used by both small and large businesses to encourage work-life balance is through flexible working hours. “This can include flexible starting and finishing times and the ability to occasionally take time off during the day to attend appointments or other commitments.
Recruiting Staff
Hiring new staff is a time consuming – and therefore costly – exercise. And it’s one an increasing number of SME owners and managers are happy to leave to experts like Crown Recruitment Ltd “They realise they don’t have the necessary skills and using a recruitment agency saves time and money”. Our company has become a key part of many of their client’s businesses. “With time and resources at SMEs at a premium, taking a manager out of the business to recruit, read CVs and interview can lead to a serious loss in productivity, thus affecting the bottom line”.
But if you prefer to do-it-yourself Crown has the following advise; ensure you have a clear idea of the role you’re recruiting for, what type of skills are required to perform the job, and a clear job description. “Don’t rush the selection process. This person will be a key member of your team and having to recruit again in the immediate future, because a mistake was made, will cost not only time but money and resources.
Kathy Fandam, managing director of Crown Recruitment, says as a result of her company’s affiliation with recruitment agencies in the UK and South Africa, she works with a lot of new migrants with sort of skills New Zealand companies desperately need. “South Africans come here because they have to get away… people from the UK because they want to!”.
Kathy Fandam’s area of specialty is technical services and she says her recruits invariably remark on the different pace of things here. “South Africans live to work – not work to live. As a ‘new’ New Zealander, running her own business, she has also concluded that the work environment is geared towards the employee, not the employer.
Be Remarkable
So if getting the work-life balance issues sorted is one of the keys to retaining staff, what else should employers be looking at? The experts will tell you it’s really all common sense. Flexibility, and as much as possible; being generous in acknowledging good performance; being ‘remarkable’ (going beyond the expected and surprising staff with things they’ll talk about with their mates and family); and being open and sharing strategy and financial information, are all areas successful managers highlight. And they’re quick to point out these don’t necessarily demand throwing money around.
In today’s fast paced business environment the importance of good systems is readily acknowledged and companies pay considerable amounts of money to ensure they get the best. But all the systems in creation are worthless if you’re not developing the people who use those systems – the people who are a company’s biggest and most valuable asset.
Employers is it the “Time to be nice again”
Should you bring back the pool table and beer fridge? Your next battle may be on the labour front as skills shortages hit projects on both sides of the Tasman.
At the turn of this century, at the height of the tech boom, the ’war for talent’ was so great that to gain precious skills, employers resorted to many gimmicks.
Fridges packed with beer have become common at many organisations, along with casual Fridays and flexible hours, with rising salaries, particularly for contractors.
In the ’tech wreck’ of 2001 to 2003 that followed; the toys were put away. ….. were booted out, and for the lucky survivors, pay rates plateaued.
Deja vu Now, the good times are back, projects are on again, work is plentiful and the skill shortages have returned. Project management skills are cited as particularly scarce and contracting is in vogue again.
New Zealand, perhaps more so as Kiwis typically cross the Tasman for higher wages. I blame the current skills shortage on several years of downturn not attracting many new people and apprenticeships into the Trade and Technical industry. "Many senior people that entered industry in the 1970s to 1980s are leaving (either retiring or burnt-out and now own vineyards or B&Bs or restaurants) and there are not enough immigrants to fill the gap
The Trade and Technical industry is globally picking up from the very low of 2001 to 2003, and over those three to four years, organisations did not invest in the work force. They put things on the back burner and now they have a backlog of work.
We are suffering much from the past three to five year downturn as fewer people came out of apprenticeships and training from the polytechnics as people were getting sacked.
"There are ripples from the US and UK and when it gets to New Zealand, we struggle even more, being a low wage economy as people are rightly tempted to sell their skills on the global market,".
However, while the British know about New Zealand, its lifestyle and lower wages, the Americans "need to do more homework to avoid disappointment".
A global concern"incredibly shrinking workforce" from an ageing population. Employers, are you prepared for this.
I advise employers to fix a strategic direction for their organisations, setting out their mission and objectives to ultimately determine current and future human capital objectives.
They should conduct a workforce analysis and look at their skills, gaps in skills and address issues through recruitment, reward and development. Employers should look at training, succession planning and related HR issues; taking a longer term view of up to 10 years, to avoid the overstaffing and layoff issues of recent years.
Assess current skill levels and demand, identify gaps, and develop a resource plan to close the gaps.
Closer to home, beer and pool might work, but the best methods concern "personal interaction, good management, making sure people are engaged, happy and challenged".
While the overseas analysts say pay rates will eventually increase, New Zealand recruiters and executives say money is not the only solution.
"We are dealing with a generation that wants to get from A-to-B ASAP. The younger generation has different motivation to the baby boomers and companies need to understand this,".
"Everyone wants to work in a fun, dynamic company where people are really motivated and team players and investment in people are high priorities,"
"They also look for a career path. Career succession is important. New Zealand organisations tend to have a fairly flat structure and in some instances employees do have to leave to progress their careers.
"Flexible hours are a big plus for many people especially with the traffic challenges. Working remotely is also becoming very popular,".
"We often see good people who don’t perfectly match the job description and get declined, but are snapped up elsewhere and add value over the longer term,"
"Employers know they can train skills but not attitude,"
The law of supply and demand
Skills matter more than job titles and skills can be found in the unlikeliest places.
Targeted immigration programs are an important part of the Trade and Technical industry in New Zealand but they don’t really address the underlying problems of employers wanting people that are ready to ’plug and play’."
"Whatever the strategy, it requires a holistic approach to attracting the right people and creating loyalty and commitment in building high-performance teams,"
And while employers may be loath to pay fees to attract people, they might have to.
Consequently, companies need to rethink their remuneration strategies, respond to the basic laws of supply and demand and pay more.
Signing-on bonuses, common in the US, but new to New Zealand, though won’t upset the salary apple cart. Retention packages and paying people a bonus after an agreed period in the company, also help, along with performance-based bonuses.
Crown Recruitment is a leading provider of technical employment services as an organisation that has built a reputation and success on providing reliable responsive service and highly qualified technical personnel New Zealand Wide.
Crown is located on the North Shore of Auckland. We cover North and South Islands of New Zealand for positions available. Auckland provides a great base, but our networks reach to every corner of New Zealand.
Crown Recruitment Ltd
"Providers of Highly Skilled and Qualified Trade and Technical Staff"Tel: (09) 476 4036
Using a Recruitment Agency! Employers
Recruiting staff can be a time consuming and stressful task. Increasingly, employers are looking towards recruitment agencies to lighten the burden of recruiting. Recruitment agencies are there to provide a service to employers, this service enables employers to spend their time on other business matters.
Life is hard for businesses looking to recruit new staff at present. There is a worldwide skills shortage and online job advertisements are at a record high. In response, the recruitment business is booming as employers look for external assistance to ease their plight.nature of recruitment agencies differs. Most agencies are one of the following
General - advertising various jobs from a range of industries
Specialised - advertising jobs for one industry sector only, for example trade, technical, engineering.
Local - advertising jobs locally for one area, i.e. North Shore, or East Tamaki etc vacancies and businesses.
It is essential to choose an agency that is appropriate for your purposes. If you wish to recruit an engineer, you should contact an agency specialising in this area. They will be able to provide you with specific advice and they will have a large database of appropriate candidates. As an employer you may use a recruitment agency for a number of reasons. The most important reason is to reduce the burden of recruiting for you, other reasons include:
You do not have the specialist knowledge required, e.g. knowledge on employment law
Your company has a low profile
You wish to conceal your recruitment activities
You want help with the recruitment process
You do not have time to manage the process yourself
You want to minimise publicity costs
You want to shorten the recruitment process
You want access to a wide pool of candidates
Cost effective time management for senior staff
Services provided by recruitment agencies:
The range of services provided by recruitment agencies is increasing. These days they go much further than merely advertising your vacancies. For example, they offer:
Advertising vacancies
Database search
Searching and selecting
Psychometric tests
Checking references
Interviewing
Market trend information
The services above are not provided without a cost. In many cases the agency charge is a percentage of the successful candidate's first annual wage. Other problems can include the varying quality of successful candidates; also the large pool of respondents can be time consuming to look through, with some candidates being unsuitable.
Understanding the use if a recruitment agency?
People go to recruitment agencies when they are changing their jobs, as one of the ways to find work alongside networking, cold-calling and looking for vacancies, because:
agencies are free for the job-seeker – the employer pays the agency
an agency can match a company’s requirements in terms of qualifications, skills, experience and personality to the candidates on its database
agencies know the employment market and can prepare candidates for interview
agencies know realistic salary levels and may even negotiate on a candidate’s behalf
agencies will guide individuals through the selection process because it is in their interests for the candidate to get the job
being selected for interview with the potential employer by an agency means that the candidate has at least some of the qualities needed to meet the requirements of the job.
Agencies
There is no such thing as a typical recruitment agency. They vary from huge companies to the small, local companies found in any telephone directory. There are also general agencies that are usually well known, and others that specialise in a particular market sector like Trade and Technical . Recently, online agencies have arrived (and departed in a few cases),
What all have in common, though, is the fact that it is illegal for anyone looking for work to be charged any fees by an agency that helps them to find it. They can be asked to pay for any services like interview training or CV writing, but not for job-finding. The recruitment agency is paid by its client – the organisation recruiting the individual (the hirer) – and this is usually a proportion, typically 15 to 40 per cent, of the first-year salary.
Recruitment agencies should not be confused with outplacement companies. The latter are paid by an individual or more usually the company they are leaving to help them to find other jobs – rather as the Career Transition Partnership does for Service leavers.
Search and selection
Operating at the very top end of the industry are search and selection agencies or headhunters that specialise in finding senior managers for their clients through a network of contacts or broadsheet advertising. Fees reflect the level at which they work and the discreet nature of the service they offer. However, in a knowledge-driven world, specialists in such fields as IT, telecommunications, corporate communications, finance and the web may now find themselves being approached by people asking if they might enjoy a career change.
Search and selection consultants offer a bespoke service that could include every aspect of producing job and personnel specifications, finding a suitable shortlist, grooming candidates for interview (if they are not already known to the hirer), ensuring that packages are fully agreed, and maintaining absolute confidentiality. Only a few, high-value Service leavers will ever meet a headhunter, although many are themselves ex-Forces.
High-street agencies
The next level of recruitment agency is the high-street company. Such companies also find employees for their clients, although the fact that a particular company needs some more engineers may not be confidential and wider publicity may help to recruit them.
They maintain a database of people, with details of their qualifications and experience, and may also advertise in national and local media for candidates for particular appointments – sometimes identifying the client and sometimes not.
High-street agencies may be general or they may specialise in a specific sector; if the former they will probably have specialists in key market areas. The job-seeker approaching them can expect an interview, tests of their skills and aptitudes, and possibly some training and help with preparing a CV. The agency will contact employers seeking to fill positions, arrange interviews and possibly take up references if the interview is successful and a job offer is accepted. However, the employer is the hirer – the agency is simply a middleman.
Crown Recruitment Ltd specializes in the recruitment of Trade, Technical and Engineering Staff New Zealand Wide, we mostly work in the areas of the Skills Shortage that is becoming a worldwide trend.
"Providers of Highly Skilled and Qualified Trade and Technical Staff"Tel: (09) 476 4036
Salaries Vs Wages
Job title? Experience in management of staff? Qualifications?
What are you worth?
Salaries, wages, and related employment costs are often large and important line items for all businesses. Most Surveys and Statistics are a year behind on earnings. The best way to find out is to build a relationship with a company that has its finger on the market pulse that works with everyday earnings. Salary surveys and statistics on economic trends can be useful guides to estimating these figures. Surveys are conducted by professional organizations, industry publications, governments, and professional placement firms. Used only as a guide, as the amount of pay usually depends on employment agreement, experience and qualifications, and the employer's employment policies. There are also significant regional differences in average earnings.
Most people begin their work life earning an Hourly Wage. A salary is not offered unless and until you have achieved a certain level of experience and skills in the work world.
This explains why there seems to be a different degree of "status" that goes along with the two different payment methods. However that's not really true -
Neither position is any less or more important than the other. In fact, each supports and depends on the other, and they're both important to the success of any business.
As with most things in life, there are pro's and con's to both of these payment methods.
Hourly Wages ...
When you work a position that pays an Hourly Wage, you're guaranteed a certain dollar amount for each and every hour you work and most of these positions have a set number of hours you're expected to work per week.
The down-side to this type of payment method can be that you'll lose money if you lose time at work. Unless - It's covered by your employer's policies on sick leave, personal time or vacation time.
The up-side to getting an Hourly Wage can be if you have the chance to work more than 40 hours per week. Then you'll get what's known as "overtime". (Explained in the next paragraph.)
When you work in a position that pays an Hourly Wage, if you work more than 40 hours per week, you'll be paid "time and a half" on each hour over that 40 hours. Occasionally "double time" on holidays and some other times decided by employers.
(If you're not familiar with how "time and a half" works, what it means is you take your regular hourly rate, divide it by half and add that to your regular hourly rate. For example, if your regular hourly rate is $5.00, half of that is $2.50. Then $5.00 + $2.50 = $7.50 And that's what you'll be paid for every hour over 40 hours. "Double time" means you double your hourly rate.)
So you can see how this can be a real plus! If your employer has the need for you work a good deal of overtime, or on holidays, etc., you can make quite a bit more money! (Ah - But just remember - The more you make, the more Taxman Bob takes ...)
Salary ...
When you work in a position that pays on a Salary basis, you're also guaranteed a certain dollar amount per week. The difference comes in the number of hours you work. (Most of these positions have an agreed number of hours you're expected to work each week.)
The down-side to this type of payment method can be that you find your position demands you work more than 40 hours per week and on holidays. Note - You won't get any overtime or double time.
The up-side can be if you're able to get all of your work done, (and done well), in less than 40 hours per week. Because as agreed, you'll get the same amount of money.
While there can be a few more "perks" to getting a Salary, depending on what employers offer, what you've seen here are the basic differences between the two payment methods.
These two types of payment methods have pro's and con's for employers as well. Based on a number of factors to run their business successfully, they decide which positions offer which type of payment.
Bottom Line…
As you go about Earning a Living, you'll need to decide for yourself just which of these two types of payment methods works best for you.
And as with all other aspects involved in Earning a Living, take the time to really research the details of any position. Then you can be sure you're making the best choice.
For more information regarding Salaries and Wages feel free to call
Crown Recruitment Ltd
"Providers of Highly Skilled and Qualified Trade, Technical and Engineering Staff New Zealand Wide"Tel: (09) 476 4036