Unison is proud to celebrate 100 years of powering Hawke’s Bay on 19 June 2024 and is inviting contributions from the community to collectively tell the story of Unison’s journey in the region.
From its establishment as the Hawke’s Bay Electric Power Board on 19 June 1924, Unison has been an integral part of the local economy and Hawke’s Bay. The centenary offers a unique opportunity for reflection, celebration, and anticipation of what the future holds.
A focal point of the centennial celebration is the collection and display of stories that detail Unison’s journey over the last 100 years. Unison is inviting current and former staff, and all those who have been a part of its journey to share stories, photos and items that can be showcased as part of an interactive exhibition at the Faraday Museum in Napier from June through August. Evolving from a small local lines company to a group of specialist electricity companies located all over the world, Unison continues to innovate and grow all whilst powering its regions of Hawke’s Bay, Taupō and Rotorua.
Unison has powered countless homes, supported the development of business and economic growth, and backed the wellbeing of its communities through its wide range of sponsorships. Unison Group Chief Executive, Jaun Park shares his enthusiasm for the centenary, underlining the vital role of community participation in enriching the celebration.
“We’re proud of our history and the role we’ve played in the community for the past 100 years. As we mark a century of service, it is essential to honour and acknowledge the people who have been a part of our journey. This milestone not only allows us to reflect on our past achievements but also serves as an inspiration for future innovations. “We want to hear from everyone connected to Unison’s story, past and present. This is not just Unison’s history, this is the shared history of our region.
Celebrate with us, share your memories, your photographs, and your stories for everyone in the community to enjoy,” said Mr Park. Unison has set up a special Facebook group named “Celebrating 100 Years of Unison(Hawke’s Bay Electric Power Board)” where everyone can share their memories, or you can make contact via email or post.
After 21 years leading the charge at Unison, Ken Sutherland is stepping down. As Ken looks to flick the switch off as chief executive of one of Hawke’s Bay’s largest companies, he took time out to reflect on what has been an incredibly successful tenure, building the community-owned business from a turnover of $33 million in 2002 to a turnover of $314 million in 2021/2022.
Ken initially planned to continue in the role until the company’s centenary celebrations in 2024 but has opted to call it a day after the next annual general meeting in July 2023. Unison started as the Hawke’s Bay Electric Power Board in 1924 and up until the early 2000s, the company was an electricity retailer as well as the network service provider.
When Ken came on board in 2002, the company was reinventing itself and starting to look for new ways of growth, following the government-regulated change that one company could not distribute and retail electricity. “The company was quite small back then, having just gone through the separation of retail and network. We had a small workforce that did faults repair, and we had contractors on the network providing capital construction for the business.”
The growth of the business commenced with being awarded a management service contract of Central Hawke’s Bay lines company Centralines Limited in October 2002, quickly followed
by acquiring the Taupo and Rotorua electricity distribution assets of United Networks Limited and Vector Limited.
The expansion out of Hawke’s Bay led to a change of name to Unison Networks Limited (trading as Unison) in 2003, becoming the fourth-largest electricity lines company in New Zealand.
“I think the board got me in to grow the business, and I had only just got my feet under the desk when the opportunity came about with Taupo and Rotorua, and that basically rewrote the strategy for the business going forward.”
By 2007, Ken had restructured the business, creating Unison Contracting Services, which would offer power, civil and vegetation services to its parent company, and then picking up a similar contract for services with Dunedin energy provider Aurora.
As Ken sits in his expansive office on the second floor of Unison’s headquarters in Omahu Road, he is quick to point out that it’s been a team effort, starting with a strong performing board well led by four chairs over his time – Forrie Miller, Bryan Martin, Kevin Atkinson and current chair Phil Hocquard – and some talented senior managers.
As well as Unison Contracting Services, Unison Group’s subsidiaries include fibre network business UnisonFibre; ETEL, which is New Zealand’s largest transformer manufacturing company specialising in the design and manufacture of distribution transformers; and specialist high-voltage business PBA Limited, which Unison bought in March 2022 from Australian owners. Unison Group now employs more than 1,000 people and has assets of $1 billion. “My view is there is a bit of a jigsaw puzzle you are trying to solve, and so a number of our acquisitions in recent times were the missing pieces that added to the capability of the entire group.
“We look to opportunities that run alongside what we do as a network business, so if it is relating to equipment or services that are related to electricity and networks, then we have an interest in those opportunities.
“Acquiring businesses has also developed and grown our talent and I take a lot of pride in the people we have working at Unison. I think we have a brilliant team and what distinguishes us from other lines businesses is actually our people, not the assets, and how we go about running the business.”
Ken says it has always been important to embrace the constant evolution within the energy sector, the most recent being sustainability and New Zealand’s transition to a zero-carbon future.
“Unison has a role to play in helping the country’s transition to a zero-carbon future in areas such as transport, industrial heating and housing.
“People still need energy to power their lives but how they get that energy and what they use it for is rapidly changing,” Ken says, pointing to the technologies of smart grid, solar, battery and electric vehicles.
“When we acquired ETEL it was at a time when we were looking at the transformation of the electricity network and we initiated a smart grid strategy, which was the beginning of moving the business away from a reactive way of asset management to a more predictive and dynamic asset management approach.
“We recognised we needed to have a smarter network to deal with the changes in use of an electricity network; this was a turning point for us and put as at the forefront of electricity networks in New Zealand, if not in Australasia.”
Being at the leading edge of sector innovations has brought with it a range of industry accolades – the most recent being in the sustainability space when Unison won the 2022 Low-Carbon Future Award at the New Zealand Energy Excellence Awards for its pioneering sustainability work on the recently operational Windsor Substation in Hastings.
As Ken prepares to hand over the reins, he says most Hawke’s Bay residents still think the company simply provides a service that “keeps their lights on” as well as returns them an annual dividend via the Hawke’s Bay Power Consumers’ Trust.
Ken is looking forward to the next stage of his life, which will involve spending more time with wife Debra, their four children and fifteen grandchildren while also exploring governance roles locally and nationally.
“Debs and I have been talking about there being more to life than being a chief executive. Debs has enabled me to dedicate 21 years to the job and it is now time for us to spend time together and with our large family.”
If reducing carbon emissions wasn’t a goal for your business before 2022, it certainly will be now, since the New Zealand Government released its first Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) in May.
Hawke’s Bay has felt the impact of climate change with a severe drought in the summer of 2020/21 and then major rain events along the East Coast during our most recent summer.
The drought impacted our farming community, while the rain and humid weather took its toll on the wine, apple and cherry growing sectors.
As local business owners, we know a poor harvest season sends economic ripples throughout the community as smaller crops and inferior produce hit profitability and wallets are tightened.
The ERP is the government’s move to place greater responsibility on businesses to take measures to reduce their environmental footprint, including setting emission reduction targets for specific sectors.
Emissions from energy and industry sectors make up 27 percent of total emissions and the plan will lead to estimated emissions reductions during the first budget period of:
● From Transport: 1.7 to 1.9 Mt carbon dioxide equivalent
● From Energy: 2.7 to 6.2 Mt carbon dioxide equivalent
● From Agriculture: 0.3 to 2.7 Mt carbon dioxide equivalent
● From Building and Construction: 0.9 to 1.7 Mt carbon dioxide equivalent. Overall, the plan aims to meet the nation’s first emissions budget of 72.4 million tonnes a year, reducing carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by 11.5 million tonnes of carbon in the next three years.
The policies will be backed by $2.9 billion in proceeds of selling carbon credits to polluters under the Emissions Trading Scheme over the next four years, and Hawke’s Bay businesses can apply for funding support to launch their decarbonisation journey via the Government Investment in Decarbonising Industry (GIDI) Fund.
The fund has had a cash injection due to the launch of the ERP, jumping from $69 million to around $650 million to partner with major process heat energy users and help them cut costs as well as emissions.
The ERP announcement also included targeted investment at a regional level for projects that optimise low emission fuel use; funding for electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure upgrades to support fuel-switching; and the early adoption of high-decarbonisation energy technologies.
The original fund is regarded by government as a huge success funding fund 53 major industrial decarbonisation projects and estimated to save 7.46 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over a lifetime – the equivalent to taking 134,800 cars off the road.
Wool scouring business WoolWorks was one of the first to get GIDI funding, convert gas and oil boilers to efficient hot water heat pump technology – see story on page 11.
Unison powers up to meet business demand for decarbonisation initiatives
Already in Hawke’s Bay, power lines company Unison is providing support to some large processing and manufacturing businesses and is anticipating an increase in interest by other local businesses looking to reduce their reliance on industrial processed power, such as from coal, oil or gas boilers.
“From an electricity perspective, the direction of travel is very clear. Electricity is going to do a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of decarbonisation of transport fleets and converting industrial processes – especially those that rely on coal, oil or gas boilers – to electricity,” says Unison general manager commercial Nathan Strong.
“To the credit of many local businesses and industry, they have been thinking about de-carbonisation for the last three years, and maybe longer and we have already had a few knocks on the door in terms of our customers wanting to look at options to decarbonise as well as get an understanding of infrastructure impacts of any transition.
Unison relationships manager Danny Gough adds that the types of businesses introducing decarbonisation initiatives is very diverse but mostly include those within the production and manufacturing sectors who are looking to get away from utilising thermal heat.
“We’ve also seen interest from government agencies, as well as district health boards, schools and the residential retirement sector.”
Danny says businesses aren’t just looking at reducing their carbon footprint as ‘doing their bit’ to improve the environment, but also as part of their growth strategies and promoting their sustainability actions.
He says Unison is working closely with those organisations and their consultants to support their decarbonisation aspirations and sustainability goals.
“Our role is to provide relevant information and advice on fitfor-purpose optimal electrical solutions, and to assist them in determining their electrical requirements and the upfront and ongoing costs associated with infrastructure upgrades.”
Nathan says the GIDI Fund offers a major opportunity for local businesses as they consider how to fund their emission plan.
“The government has injected 10 shots of adrenaline in the arm with the fund, which will get businesses thinking about how they can afford the cost of accelerating the likes of a boiler replacement, so one of the challenges for Unison will be to manage demand from businesses that want to get underway quickly.
“One of the things we are doing as a business is making sure that we are resourcing up to meet expected demand while making sure that we are in front of the change.
“Our message is, talk to us early or risk joining a queue at some point in terms of getting the hardware and the infrastructure in place.”
Regional council adopts climate action network
The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council has launched a Hawke’s Bay Climate Action Network for businesses, a shared platform for peer-to-peer learning for businesses committed to reducing emissions, which will feed directly into council planning.
It meets every six weeks to discuss emissions reduction, sustainability and adapting to the changing climate.
The council is also aiming to launch its Regional Climate Action Plan by July 2023, outlining how the council will be carbon neutral by 2025 and the region by 2050.
The network and plan is being led by the council’s first climate action ambassador, Pippa McKelvie-Sebileau.
Pippa says climate change is already impacting our way of life, from being able to swim in the waterways we love to where we live around the coast.
“Successful adaptation to climate change is not only essential for economic resilience of our region but also for the wellbeing of our communities.
“This role is about climate action. The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council already has an excellent science base and team of scientists, so it will be about turning that knowledge into practical solutions for our community.
Pippa says the ERP offers businesses and organisations a significant financial commitment to support the transition to lower emissions activities.
“This plan marks the first steps to create the conditions we need for a long delayed journey towards a fairer low emissions and a more secure future for everyone.”
“Farmers are crying out for solutions to help them lower their agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and respond to a warming climate, so the investment and acceleration of research and development is welcome.
“But we cannot rely on breakthrough technology solutions to reduce emissions by the rate they need to be to keep warming under 1.5 degrees.”
Pippa also sees potential to create added value roles within traditional sectors such as construction.
“There is also no funding to retrofit houses with better insulation to reduce energy needs and make homes healthier, and it would be good to see a focus on shifting economic paradigms to support more sustainable models with lower inequality and greater social cohesion.”
Product stewardship firm leads by example
Hastings-based business and sustainability programme developer 3R introduced a carbon reduction plan in 2014, and reduced its greenhouse emissions by 32 per cent (129 tonnes) in the first year, surpassing its goal of 20 per cent by 2020.
It also gained accreditation to CEMARS (Certified Emissions Measurement and Reduction Scheme), the world’s first internationally accredited greenhouse gas certification scheme to ISO14065.
3R chief executive Adelle Rose says much of the initial reduction was largely achieved by opening a depot in Christchurch, which meant material it collected in the South Island was no longer sent to the North Island.
3r Group – Adele Rose – Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, July 2020. Photo by John Cowpland / alphapix
“The following year we went a step further and gained carboNZero (now Toitū net carbonzero) certification through Toitū Envirocare. This certification isn’t simply about measuring emissions and offsetting them through carbon credits, but rather identifying and taking actions to reduce emissions.”
Adelle says with freight being its largest source of emissions, 3R constantly reviewed travel routes and alternative freight service options, overlapping collections and where possible collaboration across stewardship schemes. Efficiency in these aspects helps drive down our emissions even as we grow the volume of materials we collect for recycling.
“However, our next step to reduce emissions is a big one – changing our fleet to low-emissions options – and this requires significant investment along with infrastructure to support it, which isn’t necessarily available nationally at present.
“This means we need to focus on small incremental changes that can help such as minimizing employee travel, using other Toitū net carbonzero certified suppliers like power provider Ecotricity, driver training and regular vehicle maintenance, improving web conferencing technology, and staying on top of our organic waste to landfill.”
Adelle says 3R is the only Hawke’s Bay based member of the Climate Leaders’ Coalition , which has a highly ambitious commitment to accelerate our transition towards a zero carbon and resilient future.
As part of commitments, 3R is also starting to work with staff and suppliers to reduce their emissions.
Adelle says the ERP is a step in the right direction, adding its mostly up to government and industry to do the hard yards in tackling climate change.
“While the actions of individuals to tackle human contribution to climate change are important, the most impactful and far-reaching are those taken by government and industry. It’s therefore significant that the plan released by government sets out a way forward for reducing the country’s emissions but shows that climate action is the new business as usual, as well as showing New Zealand’s leadership on the issue on the global stage.”
Going forward, Adelle is looking for a greater partnership between government and the private sector with the introduction of an advisory group.
“For us and our work designing product stewardship schemes, partnerships are essential, and we would have liked to see a closer relationship between government and the private sector when developing the plan.
“Government still has the opportunity to improve this aspect as it moves forward with the implementation of the plan.
An advisory group that allows the private sector to have its voice heard and included in the conversation would be very welcome.”
The ERP also offers 3R an opportunity to help other businesses in Hawke’s Bay and around New Zealand by introducing new product stewardship programmes, such as a new recovery programme for synthetic refrigerant gases – one of the most potent greenhouse gases, thousands of times more so than carbon dioxide.
Having achieved its own targets five years earlier than planned, 3R has now reset its targets to a 12 percent reduction of total emissions (excluding air travel, waste and freight) by 2025 and 38 percent by 2030, and a 12 percent reduction of all emissions by 2030.
Ken Sutherland has been the Unison chief executive for over a decade. In 2011 Ken was the inaugural winner of the Profiteers for his strong leadership of our local lines company. Over the last decade there have been changes within the energy sector but Ken sees some megatrends starting to emerge.
What’s likely to change in the energy sector?
An unprecedented level of change is already underway in the energy sector. While some movement will be felt this decade, it is expected the profound impact will happen over the next 30 years. Three major megatrends are driving the change:
1. New consumer technology, which is increasing the options for consumers to produce, store and use electricity in new ways;
2. The rise in consumers who actively engage with their electricity supply;
3. Sustainability and the requirement to meet climate change objectives: minimising our environmental impact, integrating more renewable sources of energy and mitigating the impact climate change has on our landscapes and consequently our network assets.
Although New Zealand already has a highly renewable electricity sector, there is a massive opportunity for New Zealand to harness its significant potential to ramp this up more to support a rapid transition to electric vehicles and reduce our reliance on imported petrol and diesel for our transport fleet.
The big challenge for the electricity sector is how the industry and policy-makers can facilitate this change, without putting pressure on costs and prices of electricity. The biggest risk we see is that well-intended Government policies, such as the ban on gas exploration, lead to undesired consequences, such as needing to keep the coal-fired Huntly power station going much longer to deal with times where there is not much wind or sun, and the hydro-lakes are low.
We look across at Australia and see decades of failed electricity market policies, where politicians have made targeted interventions that have had really bad outcomes for consumers, with massive increases in prices and much greater risks of unreliable power supplies. Rather than picking winners, our hope is that the Government here will just make it expensive to emit CO2 and the generators will be highly motivated to invest in the right kinds of renewable power generation.
But along the way, New Zealand will have to make some tough choices. We all love our wide-open spaces and majestic mountains, but if we want more renewables and we want some of our biggest energy users to convert to electricity we will have to learn to accept more windmills and electricity infrastructures on our horizons. There isn’t going to be any easy solutions that don’t involve making tough trade-offs.
The challenge for the energy sector is the uncertainty surrounding the change. The pace and exact nature of future technology and consumer behaviour is unknown and difficult to predict. We need to plan and develop our network and operations in a way that maintains flexibility to meet future demands, while continuing to provide a reliable and cost-effective supply of electricity to all our customers.
What technology advancements will have an impact on how Unison does business?
We have a key role to play in supporting consumers to adopt new technology in the future and ultimately consumers should be able to connect any new electrical technology they wish to the network, provided the cost is appropriate and the technology is safe, reliable and does not adversely impact the quality of electricity supply.
As solar, battery and EVs continue to become more popular and affordable, people will use our electricity network in different ways. We need to consider how our network will handle peak loads, greater solar PV, battery usage and the charging of EVs. We also need to ensure devices do not have a negative impact on the quality of the electricity supply, by ensuring new technologies are meeting the minimum technical connection standards. A deterioration in the quality of electricity supply can cause appliances in the home to fail and ultimately restrict the number of solar, battery and EVs to be connected to the network.
Network adaptation goes hand in hand with pricing reform. Traditional pricing methods, based on per kWh charges that do not change during the course of a day, are not fit for purpose. As more people change their energy use, current pricing will increase resulting in inequitable outcomes.
Unison is already working towards pricing reform with a goal for reform that promotes consumer choice and is more reflective of the networks costs and services customers receive. We want to ensure that our consumers are not left disadvantaged in the long term as our industry adapts and evolves.
In the future, people might want to select a level of electricity capacity that suits their lifestyle, in the same way that people currently purchase a data limit on their broadband service. Or they might prefer a time of use charge, whereby if they know electricity costs less during times when the network is used less, such as overnight, they could run some appliances or recharge their cars overnight.
The views of our customers matter to us and we are prioritising our engagement with them, continuing to seek their opinions and encourage them to have their say, so we can learn more about their expectations and requirements from us. In January this year we started the first of a regular series of consumer interviews and focus groups to get feedback and opinions on electricity use and pricing and this customer engagement will continue to be a priority as we evolve our business.
Is there an Uber/Airbnb transformation within your sector/profession?
Absolutely. That would be an open network, often referred to as a distributed energy network.
Traditionally electricity has flowed in one direction across the network from the national grid to distributors to customers. Future technologies will require networks to be capable of supporting two-way flows of energy.
If you think about it, the success of Uber and Air BnB are that they provide consumers who have spare capacity, (an under-utilised car or spare bedroom) with the ability to monetise that spare capacity through an easy to use platform – apps. Sophisticated pricing models are used to allocate that capacity to highest value uses, like Uber’s surge pricing.
The same can happen with electricity. A consumer with surplus solar generation could sell that directly to other consumers.
Once capacity increases in EV batteries, electric vehicles will potentially become mobile electricity generators, that could provide some of their stored electricity at peak times. For companies like Unison, this resource could even substitute for the need to upgrade network equipment. Instead of installing a higher capacity cable, we could rely on consumers’ flexibility and their own production capabilities to meet higher demands at particular locations. Automation and rapid advances in communications technologies will enable this to occur as we reach critical mass of these new technologies.
Far from being a drab and boring sector, we’re excited that the Uber and AirBnB concepts have just as much relevance and consumer benefit as in these other sectors. Unison is actively developing its capabilities to enable these activities to occur, albeit being conscious we don’t want to commit too early to any particular technologies or approaches given the rapidly evolving thinking in these areas.
Despite the great weather and lifestyle opportunities, Hawke’s Bay employers are struggling to fill key vacancies. What’s behind the region’s skills shortage?
It’s a problem that’s all too common across a range of Hawke’s Bay firms: business growth is being held back because companies simply can’t find the skilled staff they need to expand.
Richard Lane employs 16 people at his Napier engineering companies Industrial Manufacturing Services and IMS New Zealand.
To fill a growing order book, the businesses depend on skilled engineers, designers stainless steel fabricators and welders but Richard says his efforts to advertise for additional staff over the past two years have been fruitless.
“It’s a situation that’s definitely slowing our growth. We could add another five staff in the workshop and two in the office if we could find the right people.”
Rachel Cornwall, director of Red Consulting Group which recruits for a wide range of industries in both Hawke’s Bay and nationwide, says Richard’s predicament is common across the region, but is a reflection nationally as well.
Aside from engineering, other sectors where it is a struggle to fill Hawke’s Bay roles include medical/clinical, law and valuation. Experienced tradespeople including electricians and plumbers are also difficult to find.
The problem is not specific to Hawke’s Bay, Rachel says. A large number of candidates from other centres are keen to move to the region but with the country’s economy growing and unemployment at historically low levels, attracting and retaining skilled staff is a nationwide issue for businesses wherever they are.
“In fact, it’s even harder in the main centres. Where we might have to look at 50 candidates before we find the right one for a role in Hawke’s Bay, in Auckland our team could be dealing with 400 or 500 people before we find the right person to fill a position,” she says.
Over the past year,about half of the management and leadership appointments into Hawke’s Bay organisations Red has been involved with have been candidates from outside the region.
“Hawke’s Bay is a really appealing region for many job candidates in other centres and we’re successfully attracting people here but at the end of the day, specialised or highly skilled in- demand roles remain difficult to fill because we’re competing for talent with the rest of the country.”
And while Hawke’s Bay may have an enviable climate and lifestyle opportunities, Rachel says that doesn’t necessarily set it apart from other regions and employers need to realise that there are a range of complex factors that candidates weigh up during a job hunt.
Home-owning Aucklanders, for example, may be reluctant to move out of the city because of the capital gains they are currently enjoying on their homes, something that could be a significant factor when they weigh up the financial implications of taking a job in Hawke’s Bay.
It’s also generally difficult to get parents of teenagers to shift regions, she says, because it involves uplifting children who are settled in their current schools.
Hawke’s Bay Chamber of Commerce chief executive Wayne Walford says Hawke’s Bay engineering companies in particular are increasingly looking to bring in staff from overseas to fill their skill gaps – a reflection of the fact that the region is competing for talent not just with other parts of the country, but also internationally.
Wayne says Hawke’s Bay also has to deal with the issue that senior salaries are higher in the main centres, even if that doesn’t paint a full picture for prospective Hawke’s Bay arrivals, given their overall living costs are likely to be lower if they take up roles here.
He says a major local firm looking to recruit for a senior role recently conducted research that indicated someone on a $150,000 salary in Wellington would have more money in their pocket if they took up a $90,000 job in Hawke’s Bay.
The challenge, Wayne says, is for Hawke’s Bay to promote its “overall attractiveness” as a location with a great lifestyle, an affordable place to live with excellent schools and other facilities.
Richard from IMS says industries need to invest more in training, a belief he puts into practice: four of his 16 staff are apprentices.
“The main reason businesses don’t take on apprentices is they can’t afford to because the oversight required from senior staff slows their tradespeople down and that makes them less competitive in the market,” he says.
“If the government turned around tomorrow and said we’re putting a scheme in place that subsides apprenticeships there would be people jumping at it because wages are getting higher and higher but an apprentice is a cost on a business given they’re not fully productive compared to qualified tradespeople.”
Another local firm with a strong focus on training as a means to overcome its skill shortage issues is Unison Contracting Services which has taken on 24 trainees this year, up from its usual intake of six.
All but one of 12 apprentice line mechanics, electricians and cable jointers the company took on in March are being trained in partnership with Connexis, the Industry Training Organisation (ITO) for the Infrastructure sector.
A further 12 trainees are due to start around August.
Unison acting training manager Mike Wereta said the ITO-based training “ensures that at the end of the training programme we have newly qualified staff who are more than capable of taking their place in the field and being productive”.
Mike said the company wanted to take a pro-active approach to addressing the skills shortage in the Energy sector.
“We’ve changed the structure of our training to allow for full-time trainees. We now have three dedicated trade coaches and a purpose-built training facility to ensure our trainees gain targeted skills and knowledge.”Rachel from Red says part of the problem is that young people do not appear to be motivated to pursue certain career paths such as engineering and perhaps companies in that space with exciting growth stories need to spend more time visiting schools to promote the opportunities.
“There isn’t a magic answer but we can’t just rely on our lovely sunshine to attractive people to the region. Businesses have to be rewarding their staff fairly and offering a superior work culture in order to attract the best people,” she says.
“They also need to think about how to hold onto their staff for longer. The flip side of worrying about attracting skilled workers is thinking about why good staff are moving on. Why are you losing them? Have they gone for better money or a better work culture?”
Despite the challenges, Hawke’s Bay is still managing to attract very good people into the region.
“While certain skill sets are in short supply, there’s tonnes of potential for this region to continue growing through attracting the best people. Employers just need to ensure they pay well, and that they’re looking after their staff.”
