Massive public sector job losses have produced a favourable labour market for the Otago Regional Council, a staff report says.
A report into the council’s strategic risk relating to its human resources is to be presented to tomorrow’s audit and risk subcommittee.
Councillors will be asked to weigh in on the organisation’s approach to attracting and retaining the right staff.
However, there were a lot of people looking for work at present, the report said.
"The labour market is currently favourable for ORC — particularly due to the high volume of redundancies in central government organisations," the report to the subcommittee said.
More than 5000 public service roles have reportedly been cut or proposed as the government pares back the sector.
The council’s latest workforce snapshot showed there were 351 total staff at the council — and 25 vacancies.
In the second quarter of this financial year, 36 jobs at the council had been advertised and 31 had been successfully filled.
The council had received 692 job applications over that span, an average of 19 applications per role, the summary said.
The strategic risk report also outlined a range of "external risk factors" including ongoing scrutiny of rates, council spending and its work programme, which could "detract from employee engagement and wellbeing".
The legislative reform and uncertainty under the new government could also affect employee wellbeing due to impacts on work programmes, the report said.
Low housing availability and affordability in Wanaka and Queenstown was a threat to the council’s ability to retain staff there "and can seriously impact on the wellbeing of our people who reside there".
And it said while the labour market had improved, council staff were also being targeted for employment by other organisations.
It went on to say the council’s "organisational structure, systems and processes" had not kept pace with its significant growth from 2020 to 2023.
Heavy workloads "in many teams" put staff satisfaction and wellbeing at risk.
Annual staff turnover for the 12 months to May 31 this year was 16.4%.
The average tenure at the council was 4.5 years, the snapshot said.
