Westpac's CEO Catherine McGrath. Photo / Supplied
New Zealand is going to have to reinforce its message of openness in order to attract foreign workers again, says Westpac New Zealand chief executive Catherine McGrath.
The labour shortage is one of the biggest concerns McGrath has as she sees the issue come through from both its customers' and the bank's own employment challenges.
She was down in Queenstown recently for work and saw evidence of how restaurants and hotels were struggling to get enough workers.
"Getting a table booking was really quite tough. And it's not because we have a lack of tables or seats. It's because they just don't have the staff to support customers.
"And that's even really well-known restaurants in Queenstown that, in my experience, have always been heaving."
McGrath said she was also surprised to see a sign in her hotel room that said if she chose not to get the room serviced there would be a $10 bar credit.
"It reiterates that there is a real shortage of relatively unskilled labour."
Within Westpac NZ itself, she said it had challenges both at the high-skilled end and at the entry level for slightly different reasons.
"At the high-skill end skills like technology, data, digital and regulation are all in short demand and we don't have enough of them in the NZ market so everybody is competing really hard for that talent."
She said the bank was trying to recruit people from overseas but New Zealand was being perceived as a less attractive country than it used to be because of the time it has taken to rejoin the world.
"There is a bit of cynicism that I think will take some time to ease off, about 'if I come to New Zealand will I be allowed out again?' We are a less easy market to attract people into."
It was only last week that the Government ditched New Zealand's traffic light system, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying it was very unlikely New Zealand would go into a lockdown situation again.
McGrath said though it was good to have that stated publicly it would need to be reiterated.
"We are going to have to say that many, many times because we have experienced the last 12 months differently than other parts of the world.
"Whilst we stood ahead of the world for the first 12 months of Covid because of the decisions taken to look after New Zealanders I think that gloss came off in the second year and now we have got a reasonable period of time where we have to be really consistent and on message about why New Zealand is a great place to come work again."
McGrath said convincing New Zealanders to come home for work tended to be easier. "We have had some success with that — our CFO had been based out of Singapore for a long time and she has come back home.
"But if I am trying to recruit people who aren't New Zealanders into NZ that becomes a real challenge."
She said the Government needed to look at it from a system-wide level so immigration aligned with infrastructure.
"It is incredibly important so that we can pull people in and we have got services to support them."
McGrath said New Zealand had to compete hard against destinations like Australia which had thrown the doors open.
"I was a bit traumatised when I saw Australia going out and saying we have got 35,000 spaces open the doors and come on in.
"They are a market that we compete with and I think they are being more assertive and faster about how to tackle that talent challenge."
Technology jobs are one of the hardest areas to fill.
"You can recruit and train up at a junior level. But if you want to get a technology architect they are in short supply in New Zealand.
"They are incredibly well paid in Australia and that is where we would have some specific challenges about how attractive is New Zealand as a market to come into?"
She said New Zealand also needed to grow its local talent through education.
"That is where businesses really need to step in and help too.
"We particularly need to look at untapped pools in the New Zealand market. Whether that is rethinking and doing more in terms of policies for women, particularly coming in and out of the workforce around when they are having children, or into Maori and Pasifika pools of talent."
Westpac was currently recruiting staff out of some South Auckland schools.
"We are bringing them into Westpac and talking to them about the entry-level jobs but also the amazing careers that you can have digital and technology."