Too many candidates lack soft skills

Business confidence amongst northern region firms is on the rise - despite some Rotorua firms having trouble finding suitable staff.

The latest figures from the northern Chamber of Commerce quarterly business confidence survey showed 45 per cent of respondents believed the New Zealand business situation will improve, up from 43 per cent the previous quarter and more than twice the net confidence for this time last year.

Rotorua Chamber chief executive Roger Gordon said he was pleased, although not surprised, with the results, which also showed 47 per cent of business owners believed their own business situation will improve.

The survey was undertaken electronically earlier this week.

"This recent survey reflects what most business owners have been telling us. There are still challenges - like obtaining finance and finding the right employees, but things are improving," Mr Gordon said. "Business owners are increasingly positive about the New Zealand economy and also about their own businesses."

He said the survey findings still reflected difficulties for businesses in recruiting good employees with 27 per cent of respondents saying it was harder than last quarter to find skilled staff.

However, employment intentions remained high, with 86 per cent of respondents intending to keep staffing levels the same or increase them over the next three months.

Mr Gordon said these statistics were interesting given the higher levels of unemployment.

"Jobs are there, there is unfortunately a mismatch between demand for, and supply of labour.

"If this gap is going to be addressed, there needs to be a strong focus on encouraging those currently in the labour supply pool to gain relevant skills or to re-train to match the opportunities that exist. We need to do more work to clearly identify the profile of labour demand."

Talent ID director Kellie Hamlett said that mismatch was evident right across the board in Rotorua - from the more "basic" positions such as customer service to technical, high level roles.

She said while there were some good candidates in Rotorua, and a steady number arriving in the city looking for work, the problem was finding people with the technical skills who were also the right fit for a business.

"You can have five candidates that all have the skill base but don't have the right soft skills."

Ms Hamlett said where she had a candidate that needed upskilling she recommended they got training in that area at somewhere like Waiariki Institute of Technology.

"We have even done a little bit of training [of candidates] ourselves to upskill."