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Most employers in New Zealand and Australia feel they have had to make too many people redundant during the economic downturn.
Recruitment firm Hudson says its survey of 605 employers and 1690 employees, 21% of those in New Zealand, found 84% felt they had needed to make too many redundancies.
Hudson's general manager Marc Burrage told NZI Business this morning that many employers are now struggling with the reality of those decisions.
"Most of the employers we have spoken to have said that, in retrospect, they wished they hadn't made the cuts they had during the downturn," he said.
Burrage says the recession hit harder and faster than expected and many businesses had to make drastic changes to survive. Eight out of ten employers in the survey said they became actively focused on growth.
Burrage believes the situation is changing as the economy slowly recovers and businesses add more employees, but the quality of staff retained has become an issue.
"Almost half of the hires that employers have made (in the past year), they believe are not good, or not as good as they like.
"We put that down to the last real surge of hiring pre-recession when many organisations were caught up in the scramble for talent. What they were doing was hiring fast as opposed to hiring right," Burrage said.
Going forward
More than half of the employers surveyed (53%) reported that during the downturn some scheduled business development or plans were put on hold, and 51% said their profit or revenue was down. 38% had downgraded their profit outlook.
"Employers desperately need to bolster not only the size, but also the strength of their teams to bring their businesses back to a place where they can compete effectively in their markets and establish a solid foundation for sustainable, long-term growth," Burrage said.
Employers are now looking at the numbers they need to get their businesses productive again but face a challenge as the choice for jobseekers begins to widen.
Among employees, 62% reported they were actively or passively job seeking. Of those, 93% were planning to be in a new role within 18 months.
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