Challenging Times Ahead - 2009 and Beyond
New Zealanders are resilient and have an ability to stand against adversity no matter how difficult the situation becomes.
Very few of us remember the depression of the 1930's, some remember the tough economics of the 1970's with Rob Muldoon's Wage Freeze Regulations and high interest rates but most remember the effects of the sharemarket crash in 1987.
So what makes this 'depression' different? Is it escalated by the press having a field day on the bad economic news coming out of the USA and the UK? Is it escalated by the press reporting continuously about large numbers of redundancies, mortgagee sales and business closures? While we are in uncertain times, whatever the situation, New Zealanders can and will survive.
We are natural leaders and born optimists who as a small nation of multiracial groups have the ability to make our mark on the international stage.
We are a country of producers largely agricultural but also in many other activities as well.
Our NZ farmers face adversity in some shape or other everyday so what makes the rest of us any different.
There are many articles being written daily of the doom and gloom of New Zealand's economic situation and we have all been reminded that we have to tighten our belts but this does not mean that we have to respond "Rambo style" by taking the slash and burn approach.
It calls for restraint, closer networking and improved communication, looking at ways of working smarter and maybe even a little harder.
We all have a lot to gain by addressing the problems and taking this 'knee jerk' approach is extremely short sighted.
From what we know and been told of the current business status and economic policies in NZ, the government is taking steps to initiate and fast-track infrastructure spend by identifying funding sources, reviewing legislations such as the RMA and Building Act to limit statutory restraints to relevant works, and bringing forward planned infrastructural programmes.
This is good news for the engineering sector; however, the same cannot be said for the local government infrastructural investment.
We all know that local government rating revenue is based on QV property valuations and as the real estate values are noticeably reducing, council's ability to fund their planned works is impacted by this reduced rate intake.
Rodney Hyde as Minister of Local Government may need to take a more proactive stance on the situation and rather than concern himself with labour savings as he has publicly with some councils recently he may wish to consider diverting non-core service expenditure into more essential infrastructure developments.
This would be a far more sensible and productive position to take.
A win-win then for everyone.
As Prime Minister, John Key has committed central government to taking positive measures towards tackling this 'depression' local government can also do more to show the community that it too can lead by example and display confidence in the way they do business.
By this it does not mean the Mayors donating their salary increases to charity (although a nice gesture) it means ensuring its core service activities are managed well and are continually maintained.
For local authorities now is the time to better position the organisation for the future.
For Auckland the talk of a super city while an important topic and one that has been highlighted in the media recently does call for a degree of restraint and a much improved form of communication on the subject.
The royal commission said talk of a super-city was speculative and Chairman Peter Salmon dismissed the media's comments by reportedly saying, "Articles of this nature, which purport to reveal the commission's decisions, are unhelpful, and disturb council staff throughout the region.
" While we must be mindful of change and ongoing future development we need to be sure of the facts and in particular how this is disseminated especially if we are to engage buy-in by existing/potential staff members and the community at large.
We need to be engaging in more positive affirmation.
Up until recently the main complaint has been the lack of human resources.
Not being able to recruit adequately trained staff especially for those hard to fill roles has been the outcry to date.
Now is the time to test the job market and take advantage of this time to recruit some high quality employees and think more strategically for the future.
Make better use of your Human Resources (HR) team at this time as they will be one of your best resources.
Now is a good time to network closer with your staff, pulling together so as to come out of this recession stronger and more productive than before.
Make good use of your performance management systems as this is a positive way to better communicate the organisations objectives and manage it effectively to everyone's advantage.
HR has the skills to assist managers analyse and clarify the skills needed to achieve this.
Managers must be committed to ensuring the correct process is followed, and be able to clearly define the future objectives at the employee's level.
This is an opportunity to be positive and proactive and promote NZ local government as innovative leaders not only to staff but to the wider community.
Article by - David Law - Employment Relations and Recruitment Consultant
Very few of us remember the depression of the 1930's, some remember the tough economics of the 1970's with Rob Muldoon's Wage Freeze Regulations and high interest rates but most remember the effects of the sharemarket crash in 1987.
So what makes this 'depression' different? Is it escalated by the press having a field day on the bad economic news coming out of the USA and the UK? Is it escalated by the press reporting continuously about large numbers of redundancies, mortgagee sales and business closures? While we are in uncertain times, whatever the situation, New Zealanders can and will survive.
We are natural leaders and born optimists who as a small nation of multiracial groups have the ability to make our mark on the international stage.
We are a country of producers largely agricultural but also in many other activities as well.
Our NZ farmers face adversity in some shape or other everyday so what makes the rest of us any different.
There are many articles being written daily of the doom and gloom of New Zealand's economic situation and we have all been reminded that we have to tighten our belts but this does not mean that we have to respond "Rambo style" by taking the slash and burn approach.
It calls for restraint, closer networking and improved communication, looking at ways of working smarter and maybe even a little harder.
We all have a lot to gain by addressing the problems and taking this 'knee jerk' approach is extremely short sighted.
From what we know and been told of the current business status and economic policies in NZ, the government is taking steps to initiate and fast-track infrastructure spend by identifying funding sources, reviewing legislations such as the RMA and Building Act to limit statutory restraints to relevant works, and bringing forward planned infrastructural programmes.
This is good news for the engineering sector; however, the same cannot be said for the local government infrastructural investment.
We all know that local government rating revenue is based on QV property valuations and as the real estate values are noticeably reducing, council's ability to fund their planned works is impacted by this reduced rate intake.
Rodney Hyde as Minister of Local Government may need to take a more proactive stance on the situation and rather than concern himself with labour savings as he has publicly with some councils recently he may wish to consider diverting non-core service expenditure into more essential infrastructure developments.
This would be a far more sensible and productive position to take.
A win-win then for everyone.
As Prime Minister, John Key has committed central government to taking positive measures towards tackling this 'depression' local government can also do more to show the community that it too can lead by example and display confidence in the way they do business.
By this it does not mean the Mayors donating their salary increases to charity (although a nice gesture) it means ensuring its core service activities are managed well and are continually maintained.
For local authorities now is the time to better position the organisation for the future.
For Auckland the talk of a super city while an important topic and one that has been highlighted in the media recently does call for a degree of restraint and a much improved form of communication on the subject.
The royal commission said talk of a super-city was speculative and Chairman Peter Salmon dismissed the media's comments by reportedly saying, "Articles of this nature, which purport to reveal the commission's decisions, are unhelpful, and disturb council staff throughout the region.
" While we must be mindful of change and ongoing future development we need to be sure of the facts and in particular how this is disseminated especially if we are to engage buy-in by existing/potential staff members and the community at large.
We need to be engaging in more positive affirmation.
Up until recently the main complaint has been the lack of human resources.
Not being able to recruit adequately trained staff especially for those hard to fill roles has been the outcry to date.
Now is the time to test the job market and take advantage of this time to recruit some high quality employees and think more strategically for the future.
Make better use of your Human Resources (HR) team at this time as they will be one of your best resources.
Now is a good time to network closer with your staff, pulling together so as to come out of this recession stronger and more productive than before.
Make good use of your performance management systems as this is a positive way to better communicate the organisations objectives and manage it effectively to everyone's advantage.
HR has the skills to assist managers analyse and clarify the skills needed to achieve this.
Managers must be committed to ensuring the correct process is followed, and be able to clearly define the future objectives at the employee's level.
This is an opportunity to be positive and proactive and promote NZ local government as innovative leaders not only to staff but to the wider community.
Article by - David Law - Employment Relations and Recruitment Consultant
