Community Partnership Events
Rural Communities Working Together as One
The Why
The purpose of, and why these events are so successful, is to gather and listen to pain-points around labour shortages and resourcing, retention and support challenges from a very local perspective. We achieve this by speaking with the business owners, farmers, employers, schools, stakeholders, and community groups directly in an informal supper event. The focus is speaking with, and not at people, getting engagement through trust and communication. We have now run these highly successful events in Gore, Oamaru, Nelson and Greymouth.
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The strongest feedback from those who have attended was that they were grateful this was an event where we could gather, and all the parties could speak together informally about what mattered within that community. This environment meant everyone could openly and honestly discuss what the pressures and issues they were locally dealing with and felt listened to, not spoken to.
The fact we developed the program around not having people “Standing in front, talking at us” was very well received. Several attendees reflected on enjoying the event more because of this and feeling more at ease, willing and able to speak, and more open to working with the approach.
At both the Gore and Oamaru events, the individual mayors spoke at the opening of the evening, and spoke highly of the concept of bringing employers and community groups together to work on local rural employment challenges. They spoke of the value of connecting the community and finding, communicating, and responding to local issues and vacancies, and the value of working together to support those vacancies and concerns.
The Waitaki District Council, Gore District Council, Nelson City Council had senior staff in attendance, and they overwhelmingly expressed how grateful and supportive of the project they were. They found particular value in being able to learn of local issues directly from the employers, business owners and farmers. Also, the value in having the local community support organisations like Workbridge, Mayor’s task Force for Jobs, Drive My Life, Iwi and Pacifica support groups, community trusts and government stakeholders attend to hear and respond, all at one event where the conversation was driven and directed by, and for the community.
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Challenges Identified
The feedback from our initial program is that this project was an overwhelming success. We have established 106 people into full-time and viable long-term employment. The communities we supported have fostered strong links. We have become the umbrella organisation that all the valuable community work that already takes place can use for networking and direction.
This feedback has come from stakeholder and partner groups, including MSD, MTFJ, Workbridge, Local Councils, Schools, Local Government, rural businesses, employers and probably most importantly, the participants who are now employees.
From the events in Gore, Nelson, Greymouth and Oamaru, we helped link rural employers and businesses with real labour pressure with willing and eager people who were underemployed, Older, unemployed, still in learning or NEETS. This is still a pool of talent that is mostly untapped.
These individuals could have additional barriers and challenges to employment, be it mental health or learning disadvantages, physical disabilities, or Neurodiverse traits. We have worked with people from all backgrounds, who face similar barriers to find, but, more importantly, remain employed.
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One of the critical outcomes and one reason we are so proud of this achievement is that of the 106 individuals placed through the program; there were still 96 still employed after 3 months. This statistic should not be underrated, which is why this type of program has many advantages over a simple recruit/place program. We support all the parties as a team from that community. The employers call us with questions about how to keep the employee better engaged and supported, questions about how to help with onboarding and training, and advice about how to approach coaching and retention.
Not only has the funding enabled us to support the rural employers and finding and supporting the new employees to find work that appeals to and remains in work, but we have supported a few individuals with purchasing tools for the job, wet weather gear and clothing.
We could identify many potential vacancies in the community From the conversations we engaged in and directly from the employers within the community.
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Many of these seasonal vacancies don’t fit traditionally supported funding programs. Most current vacancies were full-time and urgently needed to be filled.
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From the evenings and follow-up communications, we identified that we had 136 urgent full-time current vacancies, up to 290 seasonal and part-time roles, and 11 apprenticeship opportunities. Over the next six months, we were able to place 106 individuals into those vacancies, but, more importantly, fully support both the employer and new employee. Hence, everyone felt valued, and all parties could become part of the success without having to invest extra time that rural employers often don't have spare. The ability to partner with the already established community organisations and network was invaluable, and the feedback from the networking perspective alone was exceptional.
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There is real potential to scale up on the success we have just found. Expand the training and Confidence and Commitment seminars. Expand the networks, community, and stakeholder engagement and, most importantly, support rural businesses to overcome labour challenges and individuals who need a little better support to overcome the barriers they face. To give them the confidence to become employed, find the value in themselves they lack, and share that value with employers and the rural community.
Challenges Overcome
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We identified an urgent demand for “post-employment support” for people entering the workforce.
Feedback was strong about this type of support being needed, particularly for young people and people with additional barriers, but also generally. The need was seen to be around mental health, support and education, and around the best ways to support individuals within isolated areas in remaining in employment and feeling supported and well. With the national support of Workbridge and local community support groups, we were able to deliver on education and offer, where appropriate and funded, ongoing Post Employment support for both the Employer and new employee.
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Lower unemployment is making sourcing new employees very difficult. There are more roles than people being referred from traditional sources. These vacancies remaining open are leading to stress for the employers and feedback was this can lead to negatively effecting mental health.
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Funding for tools and equipment for new starters has been an issue. MTFJ has helped to support young people in the community with equipment and support, and questions were asked about funding for such initiatives ongoing.
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It was thought that better links and communication between secondary and tertiary education and local employers are needed. Feedback was often young people were turning up without a good understanding of jobs, what the reality of working was like and lacking confidence and support. Because of this, they frequently failed to remain in employment.
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It was also identified a relevant, managed local single point of contact between community services providers, employers, the schools and would be valuable.
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From the conversation we engaged in, and importantly directly from the employers within the community, we could identify many potential vacancies.
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