Employee retention a priority for organisations in New Zealand

Over the last two years, retaining employees who are hard to be replaced is a key consideration for three-quarters of organisations in New Zealand when determining wages and salaries for employees.

Besides talent retention, competing for employees and adapting to changes in business conditions have also been key factors for organisations in their wage and salary setting decisions, according to Stats NZ, New Zealand’s data agency.

Beyond monetary rewards, more organisations are also offering more flexibility for their employees, as Ricky Ho, Business Performance Manager at Stats NZ, elaborated, “We asked businesses about how the non-wage conditions for their employees changed over the last two years, and about one-quarter of organisations indicated an increase in employees’ choice over hours of work.”

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More than one in five organisations reported an increase in employees’ choice over location of work, with the financial and insurance services industry experiencing the greatest increases in flexibility of these employment conditions.

Furthermore, more than half of the organisations surveyed from August to November 2022 said they have increased the sick leave entitlements for their employees, in line with New Zealand’s requirement to increase the minimum sick leave entitlement from five to 10 days under the Holidays (Increasing Sick Leave) Amendment Act 2021, effective from 24 July 2021.