Michael Page International has released its Salary and Employment Forecast, which canvassed the opinions of 2500 hiring managers in New Zealand.

The recruitment firm’s survey found hiring talented people in white-collar positions was a significant challenge for many businesses. Half the employers surveyed expected to lose staff to turnover in the next year.

Almost half of the employers expected a skills shortage.

Pete Macauley, Regional Director for Michael Page International in New Zealand, said the broking world was as talent-short as any relationship management roles, with the best talent retained with good base salaries and performance-based bonuses.

Macauley said good brokers would have an established book of clients and little reason to move to those seeking new staff.

“It is difficult attracting a strong salesperson into a brokerage position where they may be required to start from scratch, and on many occasions on a commission-only basis. The best talent in the market are in a stronger position to demand stability and security from a remuneration perspective.”

He said it would also be hard for employers to hire brokers who had clauses in their contracts limiting their ability to work for competitors for a set period of time.

“While there has been a sense of optimism and increased confidence surrounding the New Zealand business market earlier in the year, the current sentiment is that the services sector has started to move into a flat feel rather than a growth feel, and manufacturing activity has contracted. However, whether we are in a strong or weak business environment, New Zealand is a talent-short market. We continually see a demand for talented professionals across all sectors, making talent attraction hugely important for employers,” Macauley said.

Many skilled people would be drawn to Christchurch for work related to the earthquake rebuild, especially in the construction and property fields, where he said there would not be enough local people to fill roles.

“Many employers are implementing strong internal retention strategies to hold on to their best people and this creates a challenge for other organisations looking to source talented staff.”

Forty-eight per cent of employers surveyed said they were likely to offer bonuses as a fixed percentage of base salary and more than half were likely to offer salary increases of 2%-3% for professionals with skills in highest demand.

Employers also planned to offer a range of incentives to appeal to potential employees, including a mobile phone (89%), company car (69%) or healthcare and insurance benefits (63%).