Tourism faces major challenge recruitment challenges. Amanda Cropp reports.
Unemployed school leaver Dylan Bryant got his big break when he became one of more than 700 beneficiaries to complete five week hospitality training course with Accor Hotels.
It landed the 19-year-old a room service job at Auckland’s Pullman Hotel, making him one the 332,300 New Zealanders directly or indirectly employed in tourism.
But our biggest foreign exchange earner is also increasingly reliant on migrant labour to transport, feed, house and entertain the 3.7 million international visitors expected this year.
Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA) chief executive Chris Roberts warns of a "very serious employment crisis" if proposals to tighten up on work visas makes it harder to hire migrants for lower paid jobs.
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He says the latest job vacancy data from the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE) highlights the problem with increasing demand for staff continuing into the off season.
In the May quarter, for example, vacancies for housekeepers and coach drivers were up more than 60 per cent on the previous year.
As of March 2016 – the latest MBIE figures available – temporary migrants made up almost 31,000 of the 154,000 people employed in accommodation and food services.
Roberts says it is often impossible to find suitably experienced Kiwis, particularly in areas like Queenstown and in more remote locations.
"As the industry has grown most of the additional staffing needs has been met by overseas workers, rather than getting more New Zealanders into the sector."
Head of AUT’s hospitality department David Williamson says the tourism labour market is already in crisis. "The only reason it doesn’t look like it is is [because] we’re allowing so many migrants to come in and cover it up … this is what unsustainable looks like."
Money – the elephant in the room
A recent MYOB Business Monitor survey of tourism businesses found a quarter intended raising staff pay off the back of increased turnover and Williamson says it’s about time.
His analysis of wages in the accommodation and food and beverage sector showed they fell 24 per cent in real value between 1979 and 2006, recovered a little, then shot up 10 per cent from 2014 to the present day.
He doesn’t buy the argument that New Zealanders are not interested in tourism.
AUT has hundreds of students doing degrees, diplomas, and post graduate study in hospitality, but he says tracking of graduates who went straight into hospitality jobs, found they don’t stay in the industry.
Within four or five years, half of them had left for for better pay and conditions in other sectors where their customer service skills are in high demand.
Casualisation of the workforce and ultra flexible contracts have taken a toll too, Williamson says.
"Contracts that call you on demand and get you to work four hour shifts – that works great for employers but is not so great for employees."
The result was a downward cycle where tourism and hospitality jobs were regarded as temporary low paid part-time positions, before embarking on a "real" career, says Williamson.
That attitude was perpetuated by removing tourism from university entrance criteria.
"That sends a very clear message to parents and students that tourism and hospitality are dummy subjects not to be taken seriously."
Recruiting from the ranks of the unemployed
Tourism operators responding to a TIA survey said they never or rarely took referrals from Work and Income New Zealand because candidates were unreliable, unskilled, or failed police and drug checks.
One company said 22 of its 25 Queenstown staff were on work visas, and another said the cost and lack of housing made it unattractive for New Zealanders on minimum wage to move there.
However, the joint Accor Hotel and Ministry of Social Development Building Futures programme for beneficiaries has placed 726 trainees like Dylan Bryant since 2010, and 385 remained employed after six months.
The ministry pays welfare benefits during just over a month of classroom and on-the-job training, and there are plans to eventually expand the scheme from Auckland and Rotorua to Wellington and Christchurch.
Trainees are guaranteed a job on graduation and Bryant hasn’t looked back. "It’s fun, I meet new people every day, I learn every day."
Accor’s learning development manager Sarah Keenan says trainees have ranged from former mental health patients, to transgender people and Mums returning to the work workforce.
More than 520 gained national qualifications and were often the first in their families to do so. "We’re seeing seeing life changing results."
An early graduate represented New Zealand at an international barista competition and others went on to become assistant managers.
The migrant merry-go-round
Despite such successes, Roberts says the need for migrant labour is likely to continue, which is why the proposed tightening of work visas is such a concern.
Restaurant Association chief executive Marisa Bidois, who has also been lobbying hard on the issue, says it appears the changes, which resulted in 170 submissions to MBIE, are a done deal.
"They’re going through a process but we’ve been told that the decision has been made."
TIA’s submission says many tourism jobs pay below the proposed salary threshold of $49,000 for migrants on essential skills visas.
Migrants in these jobs will have to leave after three years, and face a stand down period before they can return.
"All it really does is force employers to replace one foreign worker with another foreign worker who will have to be trained up again … it’s a constant revolving door of people," Roberts says.
Added to that, unless the partners of lower-skilled visa-holders got visas in their own right, they would no longer be able to work here, which had the potential to cut out a large number of hotel staff.
Staffing in the sticks
Te Waonui Forest Retreat general manager Richard Bungeroth worries the new salary thresholds will make it difficult for him to hire waiters, room attendants and house keepers.
The Franz Josef hotel owned by the Scenic Hotel Group closes for four months in winter, and in summer most of the 65 staff are migrants.
"What Kiwi in their right mind is going to leave a job to come to the West Coast and be told in May they have to go?" says Bungeroth.
Having a "United Nations" workforce fluent in languages such as French, Russian, and Spanish is also a major plus.
"That’s why the whole backpacker thing is the best fit."
Providing staff accommodation helps hugely with recruitment and last year the Scenic Hotel Group spent $11 million on a new staff village in Franz Josef to replace worker housing washed away in a major flood.
Staff pay between $140 and $160 a week for a room, heat, power, and free Wi-Fi and Bungeroth says some leave with a very nice savings nest egg.
Scenic Hotel Group human resources manager Craig Binney says Queenstown is a whole different ball game.
Having staff quit because they can’t afford or find accommodation in the resort is "almost a daily occurrence" and they recently leased a large Queenstown property to house 12 employees for the company’s two hotels.
The first private accommodation development for Queenstown’s tourism workforce is due to break ground soon, and mayor Jim Boult says if others proceed as planned, they could result in up to 1000 worker beds.
Kiwis versus migrants
So does it really matter who looks after our international visitors?
Owner of guiding company Adrift Tongariro Stewart Barclay tries to hire Kiwis because they are committed to building a career.
"A person working on an overseas holiday visa is here for a short time and a good time. They’ll work very hard for the season or two, they get to see New Zealand and then go home."
Barclay says visitors like to deal with Kiwis to learn about our lifestyle and culture and not feel they are just "part of a conveyor" being processed.
"One of my mate’s daughters is from a farm. She talks about their farm, and other walks while imparting information on tourism as well, so they come away from that trip with a really nice immersion in New Zealand."
Roberts agrees tourism should ideally employ New Zealanders, but says enthusiastic overseas workers with good people skills can do a great job.
"Wherever you go [globally] there’s a good chance you will be served by someone who’s not a local."
Keenan says her trainees are down to earth characters who engage well with guests.
"People travel all over the world for our Kiwi hospitality and who better to deliver that than authentic Kiwis?"
Tourism Minister Paula Bennett sees no harm in young travellers working in tourism during their time here.
She says efforts to iron out seasonal peaks and troughs will make the industry more attractive to Kiwis if it means they can work year-round.
"But [employers] do need to be paying fairly and making sure those profits get through to staff."
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