Work-life balance to lure top skills

HINERANGI VAIMOSO
There's a skills shortage sweeping the country but with a message promising the all important balance between work and lifestyle, Hawke's Bay may be able to keep its head above water.
Chamber of Commerce CEO Murray Douglas loaded up 10,000 copies of Hawke's Bay a Step Forward yesterday, a publication put together with Hawke's Bay Today, and designed to entice people into the region.
And this weekend it will be Aucklanders feeling the easterly blast as Mr Douglas and a team representing the 700 jobs up for grabs hit the APN Careers Expo at the ASB Showgrounds in Epsom.
``There are a couple of options when it comes to relieving a skills shortage,' Mr Douglas said. ``You can either steal them from overseas which is expensive but sometimes necessary, or grow them locally but that takes a long time. Or you steal them from out of the rest of New Zealand.'
Mr Douglas believed Hawke's Bay shouldn't be a hard case to argue with some of the best weather in the country, good schools, ample real estate and a healthy export dollar.
Sectors urgently in need of a boost were the professional services area, which included lawyers and accountants, the health sector and the skilled trades industry, he said.
Representatives from businesses, Hastings District Council, Napier City Council and Hawke's Bay Regional Council were all set to leave for Auckland today ready to sell our region.
Hawke's Bay Today general manager Matthew Sherry said a new website would also be promoted as a regional online ``one-stop shop' job market for the Bay.
``Employment is part of our business and the website is the ideal complement to the employment section of our newspapers,' Mr Sherry said. ``We want to be involved in attracting people to the region.'
The expo would provide a ``target audience' for the joint campaign.