Within the first article of a series of three we discussed the skill "constraint" within the New Zealand economy and the cyclical nature of shortages in skill levels now seems to be permanently embedded so that at times we need to satisfy shortages by attracting skilled migrants to New Zealand.

We then discussed strategies to plan, resource, source and assess skilled migrants - much of this information gained from our own experiences and that of companies who are actively hiring internationally.  The stage of re-settling international hires is also tied closely to these stages.

Not surprisingly the scale of hiring has a direct correlation to what resources you as a company must commit to support re-settling.  Companies have found ten is far more manageable than twenty relative to process worker roles.  Although having said that, if the language and cultural barrier is less, or you are undertaking repeat selection campaigns in the same location, greater numbers are manageable.  It is naturally far easier to be hiring one person no matter what role or discipline they represent.

Consideration of family who will emigrate with the new employee and those who are left behind is not to be underestimated.  These people often hold the ‘balance of power’ and influence the success of re-settling.   Companies have experienced the negative impact of the pressures and demands placed on the new immigrant from extended families in the homeland.  Other similar considerations relate to un-resolved financial and asset related affairs of the immigrant in their homeland.
Your physical company location , and the community where the immigrant will settle, is also critical as it directly impacts on the ease of re-settling.  One company rejected a very "rare to find" engineer, whom they had flown across the world to interview.   They had not researched the fact that the candidates partner did not speak any English.  Because the location of the factory did not have access to English tutoring, nor local people who spoke the foreign language, they did not hire him despite his absolute suitability for the role because they felt the resources were not available to support the partner and therefore the recruitment would ultimately fail. .  Needless to say the importance of local re-settling resources and relationships with these is vital.  Established contacts with community services such as real estate agents, schools, medical, sports, arts, religious denominations, language and cultural integration services etc are all relevant to a successful re-settling programme.

Important ambassadors  are your existing staff who have successfully re-settled .  Utilise these staff at an early stage in the process to help address concerns that arise and obviously at resettlement time.

Given the tumultuous state of the world financial markets and international companies "laying off" staff, some commentators have suggested that specialist skills could be easier to find overseas. While the numbers could potentially be available it is worth remembering that during times of high stress it is human instinct to return to the known and lower risk, Therefore we may well see more kiwis returning "home" but find that international candidates show slightly more reluctance to relocate to the other side of the world.