National Approach Needed in Battle for Exec Talent

National Approach Needed in Battle for Executive Talent

New Zealand well positioned to attract global business skills

New Zealand risks becoming a target country in a global battle for executive talent unless a national approach is adopted to attract and retain skilled people, says leading business migration specialist David Crawford.

Dr Crawford from Fragomen Global, the world’s leading provider of corporate immigration services, said New Zealand was in a strong position to attract skilled people due to the excellent career opportunities it offered as well as providing an attractive and safe place to invest.

“New Zealand is competing for talent. There is a global demand for skilled business people but in some areas there are not enough good people for the jobs. This challenge comes at a time when demand for skills has never been stronger. As a result, countries are becoming employee and employer competitors.”

Dr Crawford is visiting Fragomen New Zealand, the firm’s second office to be opened in the Asia-Pac region in the past year. The Fragomen New Zealand offices are headquartered in Wellington.

Leading New Zealand business migration specialist, Karen Justice, has been appointed to manage Fragomen’s operations, which forms an integral part of a global network of 130 legal advisers and 500 immigration specialists in 25 offices. She has more than a decade’s experience advising business.

Ms Justice said New Zealand had major advantages in a global talent hunt and was well positioned to assist local employers looking at transfers and new hires especially within Asia Pacific. She said that “The Doing Best report also identified New Zealand as the most business-friendly country among 155 studied including Singapore, the US, Canada, Australia, Britain and Japan.”

Dr Crawford said that training existing New Zealanders was vital to the country’s continued development and that importing skills will be simply one feature of meeting labour market demands in areas of internationally acute skill shortages.

According to Ms Justice, Fragomen saw Wellington having particular needs in the search for executive talent. “A recent Sherwin Chan and Walsh survey highlighted the concerns of Wellington companies that have postponed investment because they cannot fill skilled jobs. 35% of survey respondents said they had vacancies for skilled workers. Nearly 60% said their firms’ ability to expand output was attributed to a lack of skilled people.”

“Fragomen is uniquely placed to assist local employers to meet these needs,” she said.

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