54 | CIVIL CONSTRUCTION Pipeline & Civil Policy settings exacerbate skill shortage Kelly Deeks to page 56 LOOKING FOR FRESH TALENT? RECRUITING SUCCESS. We are New Zealand’s leading recruitment agency. For every applicant, we have an industry expert. Business is business, but you can’t do good business without good people. TALK TO OUR RECRUITMENT EXPERTS. AUCKLAND. Level 16, 51 Shortland Street, Auckland 1010 www.franklinsmithgroup.co.nz 09 551 6477 Franklin Smith. The civil construction industry is calling for immigration policy settings to be adjusted to facilitate the short term need for suitably attributed people to help deliver New Zealand’s infrastructure requirements. “Like most industries, we’ve got a skill shortage,” says Hugh Goddard, managing director Auckland’s Pipeline & Civil. “I’ve been in the industry for 20 years and I’ve never seen a situation like this before. We haven’t seen this level of job advertisements across the board that we are currently seeing. “We need people at all levels, but the immigration settings have been focused only on high skilled jobs and high paid people. “We have introduced a new pathway, whereby our interns are referred to as general operatives. They can then become a skilled operative, and ..... they can progress into more technical roles.” There is a big gap below that that needs to be addressed, and the current settings aren’t achieving that.” Hugh says the assumption is these are low skilled positions that could be filled by any Kiwi, but the fact is civil construction is a demanding and high risk industry which needs its staff to possess certain attributes, like having a good attitude, a willingness to learn, the ability to follow instructions, communication skills, a drivers licence, and of course be drug free and reliable. “They also have to have an interest in growing and developing themselves, and Pipeline & Civil will support them with their development.” All of these factors limit the number of people attracted to the civil construction industry, but Hugh says once they get in and see the progression opportunities available to them, there are really good careers to be built and really good money to be made. A change of perception about civil construction careers is a critical change point for the industry going forward. The team at Pipeline & Civil is changing its vocabulary to bring more positive connotations to the career path. “The first role has always been called a labourer, and that word speaks of an unskilled career where options for progression are very limited. We have introduced a new pathway, whereby our new entrants are referred to as general operatives. They can then become a skilled operative, and if they stay engaged with our industry training body Connexis, they can progress into more technical roles.”
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