BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS OCT/NOV 2019

24 BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS October/November 2019
New work visa rules - who benefits?
Changes to temporary work visas couldn’t have come at
a better time.
HUMAN RESOURCES
> BY KELLIE HAMLETT
Director, Recruitment & HR Specialist, Talent ID Recruitment Ltd.
She can be contacted on kellie@talentid.co.nz or 027 227 7736
With a tight labour
market and summer
seasonal work
just around the corner, many
employers are feeling the
pinch.
While the changes won’t
start being implemented until
next year, it’s reassuring to
know that they’re on their way.
Changes announced last
month will be phased in
over the next 18 months and
include:
• a new three-stage, employer-led
visa application
process that involves an
employer check, job check
and worker check
• a new temporary work visa
that replaces six temporary
work visas
• categorising jobs by pay
level, rather than ‘skill
band’ (ANZSCO codes will
no longer be used)
• strengthening the labour
market test for low-paid
jobs
• open access for high-paid
jobs in rural regions and
lists in cities
• sector agreements for
industries that regularly
employ migrant workers
• reinstating the ability for
lower-paid workers to bring
their families to NZ
Ultimately, the changes will
make the process of hiring foreign
workers easier, provide
more certainty for employers
and encourage employers to
train and employ more New
Zealanders.
So what do employers need
to do? In the short-term, nothing.
(However, if you are a Talented
Accredited Employer,
from October 7, 2020, you
need to note that you will only
be able to obtain work to residence
visas for staff who are
paid $79,560 and over.)
First changes
The first visible change will
come at the end of next year,
when Immigration NZ will
start negotiating sector agreements
with the residential care
and meat processing industries
(four other sectors have also
been identified for negotiations).
Once in place, employers
will need to hire migrant workers
under the terms of their sector’s
agreement.
Changes to employing temporary
migrant workers won’t
come into effect until 2021,
when a new employer-assisted
visa will replace the current six
visas.
Accreditation will be mandatory,
with those already
accredited transitioned into the
new system.
With the announcement
fresh out of the bag, the finer
points of how exactly the new
system will work are yet to
be revealed. Subscribing to
updates from Immigration NZ
is a good way of keeping in
touch with what you need to do
and when:
(https://register.newzea-
landnow.govt.nz/forms/7Y-
JQerVwOUyurwjSoaB97Q).
It’s estimated that the
changes will help 25,000 to
30,000 businesses fill labour
skills shortages. And, while
there are bound to be teething
issues and areas of contention,
it’s heading in the right direction.
Filling jobs via a process
that is easier and has more
safeguards in place for both
employers and employees has
to be good for everyone and
the economy at large.
Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga Gears up for Growth
with Yorb, Microsoft Azure and Office 365
Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga is both a
political-leadership entity, and a provider
of high-quality health, social and education
services to more than 12,000 people, mainly
through government-funded contracts.
The number of people
seeking care and support
from Te Taiwhenua
o Heretaunga (TToH) continues
to grow and is expected to
reach 20,000 within the next
five years.
Its contracts cover medical,
dental and mental healthcare;
family support, parenting education,
youth development,
drug and alcohol therapies
within prisons and community
based. It provides school
nurses, antenatal courses, child
development teams and community
nursing.
Residential facilities are
provided for young parents
with new babies, seniors,
unwell people, and women
rebuilding their lives. TToH
works across a wide geographical
area along the east coast of
the North Island, from Mahia
to southern Wairarapa.
“Scalability and agility are
the catch cry for fast growing
organisations everywhere. Te
Taiwhenua o Heretaunga is no
exception,” says CEO George
Reedy. TToH has a new organisational
business strategy and
wanted an IT strategy to support
its business plans.
“We were looking for
someone who could support us
to be scalable; who would have
the knowledge and be a good
fit for us; who we could have
Tim Wilton, Network Consultant and James Waldron, Sales Manager, Yorb talking with
Teriwa from TToH
We pride ourselves on the fact that we
don’t just talk technology. We talk about
people’s business and understand the
business issues and pain points, then
translate that into technology.”
an awesome working relationship
with, and who would
understand our cultural needs
as well as our organisational
needs,” Graham says.
That fits neatly with Yorb’s
philosophy.
“We pride ourselves on
the fact that we don’t just talk
technology. We talk about people’s
business and understand
the business issues and pain
points, then translate that into
technology,” Waldron says.
Yorb’s tagline; business
defined technology means “We
pride ourselves on the fact that
we don’t just talk technology.
We talk about people’s business
and understand the business
issues and pain points,
then translate that into technology,”
Waldron says.
Yorb were “very proactive”
about supporting TToH
throughout the process and
answering questions. “When
necessary, they were more than
happy to go back to the drawing
board and realign what
they were proposing.
“Yorb quickly identified that
taking the workloads to Microsoft
Azure would give TToH
much more scalability and
deliver immediate benefits.
Yorb proposed a complete
lift and shift of TToH’s entire
system, which included 11 terminal
servers, to Azure and the
use of the Office 365 productivity
suite.
“A lot of other providers
proposed reducing the amount
of Terminal Servers, to reduce
costs. What I liked about
YORB was they encouraged us
to take everything to the cloud.
That way, we would know
nothing would break, the transition
would be smooth, data
accessible from anyone and we
could work together to resolve
all the other historic issues.”
Yorb and TToH are also
talking about creating virtual
doctors using video calls and
leveraging technology to take
healthcare into the home.
“In order for us to double,
IT has to be across everything.
It is the only thing that can
help us achieve our five year
goals.
“We have to start thinking
about automation, our data,
our forecasting using our time
in more efficient and effective
ways through IT, with IT and
supported by IT – and YORB
as our Trusted Advisor.”
URl: https://www.yorb.
tech/client-journey.html