The survey results, published in the latest Hudson Report: Employment Trends show that, for more than half of the people surveyed, their workload has increased during the past year.
This is largely due to more projects (72.1 percent) and greater demand from customers (51.2 percent) and to lesser extent decreased team sizes (21.5 percent).
Hudson NZ executive general manager Roman Rogers says many businesses are ‘flying while they build the plane’.
“Balancing business as usual and project commitments can be tricky – employees are exposed to great work and opportunities, but it also means they are working harder and longer. Many employees are prepared to do this. However there is often not much, if any, downtime between projects to recharge, which can lead to burnout.”
He says there is an increased risk of employee burnout if projects are not managed effectively. “In fact, 29.6 percent of employers are experiencing increased employee burnout. Better clarity around role and delivery expectations is viewed as key way to address this problem.
“Clarity around expectations is certainly needed, employers need to think about what they are trying to achieve and what blend of skills and behaviours they need to be successful,” he adds.
More than half of employers (59.1 percent) intend to keep staffing levels steady, while 31.3 percent intend to employ more people.
Industries with the most positive hiring intentions include government, education and financial services/insurance. Information, communication and technology (ICT) exhibits the most positive hiring intentions among professions surveyed, with particularly high demand for project managers, business analysts and testers.
Increased projects may be influencing the demand for contractors with just under quarter (23.3 percent) of employers intending to increase their contractor base.
NZ Management magazine’s upcoming November issue provides indepth analysis of talent management in Kiwi context.
