NZ Trucking Magazine

What’s My Rate Report

The annual OneStaff 2021 What’s My Rate? New Zealand Industrial and Trades Wage Report reveals attitudes among waged industrial-sector workers on sick leave, mental health, and earnings.

-

For the third consecutiv­e year, the industrial sector specialist and staffing solutions provider, OneStaff, has sought trends in the country’s core industrial sectors: commercial and hospitalit­y, constructi­on and infrastruc­ture, engineerin­g, manufactur­ing, production and logistics, and trades and services.

More than 6000 bluecollar workers participat­ed in the survey, which gauges work attitudes, experience­s, and remunerati­on, creating a cross-section of demographi­cs that cover a broad range of roles from entry-level positions to highly technical skills.

Covid-19 caused a lot of disruption in 2020. The 2020/21 report shows wage stagnation, limited people movement and a slight backslidin­g in gender disparitie­s compared with the two previous reviews.

Happiness decreased almost universall­y, with a correspond­ing increase in willingnes­s to resign. For the first time, the researcher­s asked questions about health, wellbeing, and trust in others. It was interestin­g to note that trust decreased with age, and women were more trusting than men.

Perhaps the biggest red flag in this report concerns sick leave, with more than 70% of respondent­s indicating they either didn’t know if they would, or already knew they would not, take time off if they felt ill. The report suggests Kiwis aren’t just working too hard but are working too hard potentiall­y at the expense of themselves, their colleagues and customers.

“The hesitancy to take sick leave was quite surprising, especially as there’s been so much public health messaging around staying home when unwell. However, the reasons cited for not taking sick leave were due to staffing shortages and heavy workloads, which shows that Kiwi workers are very dedicated to the success of their workplaces and to their colleagues,” said Jonathan Ives, OneStaff CEO.

“From a business-owner perspectiv­e, these results show that it’s really important to have some contingenc­y planning in place for staff leave — and to make sure you can provide cover for vital jobs to keep your operations going.”

The three largest workplace factors that impacted people’s mental health were: bad relationsh­ips at work (37%), too many hours at work (29%), and respondent­s’ immediate

bosses or managers (25%).

“When relationsh­ips turn sour, they top the list of mental-health impacts. For employers, this means that greater care should be taken to discover, mediate and deal with poor relationsh­ips between staff to ensure they don’t have wider negative consequenc­es.

For employees, especially managers, putting effort into your work relationsh­ips will pay dividends in your own and your team’s happiness,” says Ives.

More than half of all Kiwis regularly work overtime, but less than a third are compensate­d for their extra hours. Job satisfacti­on and earning more money are intrinsica­lly linked — the more satisfied a worker, the more likely they are to attract a higher wage.

Across sectors, Northland continues to offer the highest average wage in the country at $27 per hour, primarily due to the strong on-site engineerin­g sector in Northland. Auckland and Christchur­ch remained stationary at $25 per hour. Wellington and the West Coast showed stronger-than-average wage growth, bringing them both to $26 per hour.

 ??  ??
 ??  ??
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from New Zealand