Employer Quarterly - for

employers in the Tauranga

Western Bay of Plenty region

December 2013 [Quarterly] Issue 5

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Whats in this issue: Settlement information services to change Snippets High quality work life for migrants Simplified process for dairy farmers Christmas holiday entitlements New forum launched Employers urged to open minds Local Settlement Network meeting

Settlement information services funded by Immigration New Zealand will look different in the future. You may recall that earlier this year a review of SSNZ was undertaken. While the review found that SSNZ had achieved what it was set up to deliver and that clients were highly satisfied with the service, it also identified that the delivery model is no longer sustainable in a changing economic, social and immigration environment. A new service delivery model for settlement information services was proposed. Immigration New Zealand has recently released more detail about how the service will look in future. All new migrants and their families will continue to have access to free settlement information and services, and employers will be assisted to plan for and retain the skills their business needs to grow. However, the way these services are delivered will change and Immigration New Zealands priorities for its settlement services are: reaching more migrants in more places, and better supporting employers to retain their skilled migrants.

http://www.facebook.com/SSNZ.Tauranga

their move and settle well. For more information or any comments and suggestions, please contact Carol Andersen in the first instance, or you can email Immigration New Zealands National Manager for Settlement judi.altinkaya@mbie.govt.nz

Snippets
Census 2013 figures released by Statistics NZ this month show that New Zealand is becoming increasingly ethnically diverse. One in eight people in New Zealand were born in Asia, up from one in 11 in 2006. Hindi is now the fourth most widely spoken language in New Zealand behind English, Maori and Samoan. In the Bay of Plenty we have seen an increase in our overseas-born population by 2.4 points to 17.3 percent - 39.8 per cent of whom were from the United Kingdom and Ireland, followed by Asia on 21.8 per cent. Typhoon Haiyan caused catastrophic damage across the Philippines in November. Aid organisations are still accepting donations to assist in helping the estimated 10 million people affected by the destruction caused. If you havent yet, you might want to make a contribution

Details of the new model are currently being finalised, but the overall intention is that Immigration New Zealand will deliver most of the components of the new model telephone and email contacts, website services, as well as a team of Retention Specialists who will be dedicated to assisting businesses, sectors and local economic development planning. A face to face information service will be purchased from an external information agency, yet to be determined. The new model is planned for implementation from 1 July 2014 and, until then SSNZ Tauranga Western Bay of Plenty will be operating as usual. Settlement services will continue to be available from Monday to Friday, and in addition www.ssnz.govt.nz is available for current and reliable information about living and working in New Zealand to help new migrants to plan
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Resources to help you

To order any of these resources just contact us on 07 579 6532
Employers Toolkit
Have you recruited staff from overseas? Is it working well?

Migrants in the New Zealand workplace report a high quality working life
The Statistics New Zealand Survey of Working Life: December 2012 quarter released last month shows that there are 583,400 workers in New Zealand that were born overseas, thats nearly 25 per cent of New Zealands employed people. The length of time spent in New Zealand was a major factor in the employment outcomes of migrants, showing that recent migrants were less likely to belong to a union than New Zealand born or longterm migrants and were more likely to be in lower skilled industries. All migrant groups showed that satisfaction with their main job was high with 85% reporting they felt satisfied or very satisfied, these levels were higher than those reported by New Zealand-born workers who were at 76.7%. Higher proportions of migrants were shown to hold a bachelors or higher degree than New Zealand-born workers, but New Zealand-born workers were more likely to hold a vocational qualification. All workers had good faith in their employers.

A Guide for Newcomers

Settling into New Zealand and the Kiwi Workplace

WORKTALK
Improving workplace communication across language and culture http://worktalk.immigratiom.govt.nz

Welcome to Tauranga & Western Bay of Plenty

A guide to living and working in the region

Are You Employing Migrant Construction Workers? Working in the New Zealand Construction Industry A welcome that works DVD
Can also be found at: http://www.migrantsupport.org.nz/employers/index.h tml

Processes for Employing Migrant Dairy Farm Workers Simplified

Federated Farmers is working to simplify the process for dairy farmers wanting to hire migrant workers.
online tool to help simplify what it says can be a complex and costly The organisation is launching a new process.

"It's about making life a little bit simpler and actually understanding what you need to do and how you need to do it," Federated Farmers' dairy spokesperson James Houghton said. "We would love to employ New Zealanders but there are just not enough wanting to front up." Immigration New Zealand figures show the demand for migrant dairy workers is continuing to grow steadily. There are around 2,300 migrant dairy workers in New Zealand, making up around 20% of the workforce. Around half come from the Philippines while many also come from countries like India, Fiji, Chile and Great Britain. Canterbury, Southland, Waikato, Otago and Hawke's Bay are the top five regions currently employing migrant workers.
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Christmas Holiday entitlementsdont be the Christmas Grinch

Gosh it is nearing that time of year again when we all eat too much, have fun with family, open presents and have some time off work! Although the law is very clear on entitlements when working over Christmas or having holidays, community law services still receive complaints from employees saying that they have not been paid wages during this time or they havent been paid their statutory entitlements. The Christmas and New Year holidays fall on Wednesday and Thursday respectively this year so everything should be relatively simple. These holidays are observed on the actual day when they fall on a weekday. When Public holidays fall on a Saturday or Sunday and the employee normally works on the Saturday or Sunday, the public holiday is observed on the Saturday and Sunday. If the employee did not normally work on the Saturday or Sunday the public holiday is observed on the following Monday and Tuesday. The Holidays Amendment Act 2010 clarifies entitlements to public holidays, alternative holidays, sick leave and bereavement leave that fall during a closedown period. If a business has a close-down period then the employee is entitled to paid public holidays if they would be otherwise working days for them. Employees are entitled to a paid day off on a public holiday if it would otherwise be a working day. These holidays are separate and additional to annual holidays. If you ask an employee to work on a Public holiday and it is their normal working day, then they will be entitled to time and a half plus a lieu day to be taken at a time that is suitable. Transferring of Public holidays to another day is by agreement between employer and employee, entitlements should not change. Check out www.mbie.govt.nz for more information.
Source: Baywide Community Law Service

New Forum Launched

Well known public lawyer, Mai Chen, Managing Director of Chen Palmers, has recently launched a new forum, New Zealand Asian Leaders which aims to assist Asian New Zealanders who are chief executives, and those who aspire to be chief executives, to be more effective in their performance and interaction with the rest of New Zealand. The launch was attended by more than 200 people from a range of professions, public and private enterprises and politicians. Minster for Ethnic Affairs, Judith Collins said that she felt that there were not enough Asian businesses represented in government organisations and agencies and that she would like to see more businesses and professionals of Asian origin being appointed to the boards of government bodies and state-owned enterprises. Former Governor General Sir Anand Satyanand said that the establishment of the new forum is a ..new and significant milestone and was further evidence of how much the migrant population of New Zealand had grown and how New Zealand has adapted, and continues to adapt, to the change in our demographic make-up and recognises the impact that change has made and makes upon New Zealands economic productivity.

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Employers Urged to Open Minds

Geoff Taylor, Director of Skilled British Workers, an organisation which helps UK workers to migrate to New Zealand has said that employers willing to employ staff from overseas can gain competitive advantage from the different perspectives, different views and different way of doing things that migrant workers bring. Employers are being urged to broaden their outlook and to move away from the traditional approach to making appointments which focuses very heavily on workers having New Zealand experience. Research undertaken by Nicola North at Massey University found that employers reported positive views on employing migrant workers, with only 1.1% saying their workers worked less hard than Kiwi workers; this view was supported by positive comments with regard to migrant workers work ethic, skills, performance and the richness greater diversity brings. In addition it was found that employing migrant workers increased networking opportunities and contacts overseas and provided language and cultural skills which give an improved capacity to serve an increasingly diverse customer base. While requiring experience in the Kiwi workplace is important, using it as the main criteria when hiring could mean missing out on opportunities and not moving with the times.

Priority One CEO inspires LSN audience

We recently held our bi-annual update to stakeholders at the Tauranga Club on Devonport Road. Our second Local Settlement Network (LSN) meeting for the year featured Andrew Coker, CEO of Priority One as the guest speaker. Andrew informed the gathered guests about the work that his economic development team have been putting in to attracting businesses and their employees to Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty region.

One of Priority Ones clever adverts aimed at attracting businesses to the Bay of Plenty which caused much laughter at our LSN meeting!

His organisations work also involves attracting ex-pat Kiwis and migrants to enjoy a work and life style balance unique to the Bay. An impressive series of success stories were shared with the audience who were inspired by the potential for the growth and development in our beautiful part of the country.

And dont forget

... Settlement Support can assist you with: preparing your staff for the arrival of workers from overseas advice on how to welcome migrant staff members induction tips provide Intercultural Awareness and Communications programmes to employers and their managers present workshops to staff to assist them in helping their migrant colleagues to integrate into the workforce and, by arrangement, offer orientation tours to your new migrant employees and their families. We are a FREE service, so please dont hesitate to make contact with us.
SSNZ Contact Centre YMCA Tauranga Phone: 07 579 6532 Page 4 of 4 428 Devonport Road Mobile: 027 578 9272 TAURANGA Fax: 07 577 6475 Email: ssnz@ymcatauranga.org.nz