AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND GUILLAUME BROCHES DJEBRAEL BOUZERARA.

AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND

GUILLAUME BROCHES DJEBRAEL BOUZERARA

SUMMARY

INTRODUCTION

I / CONTEXT : ECONOMICS

POLITICS

CULTURAL

II / LABOUR MARKET TRENDS

TRENDS

UNEMPLOYMENT

III/ MANAGEMENT AND ORGANISATION

IV/ MANAGING HUMAN RESSOURCES

RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION

TRAINING AND DEVLOPMENT

REWARDS AND REMUNERATION

EMPLOYEE RELATIONS

INTRODUCTION

Australia and New Zealand form a continent at their own.

Australia is larger and more industrialized. Since 1980’s they have similar employment policies

and employee relations system. They have become internationally competitive and

industrialized market economies, with high technological capabilities.

2009 GDP real growth rate

Work Force (million)

Unemployment rate

Australia 1.3% 11.45 5.6%

New Zealand

-1.6% 2.3 6.2%

I/ Economic context of Australia

Australia has become a leading provider of industrial expertise, entertainment products, international education and a world destination for tourism.

According the « The Economist », Australia was ranked among the 15 top industrialized countries in the world.

From 1987 to 2007, Australian economy grew at an average rate of 4%

Economic context of New ZealandNew Zealand has become a free market economy competing

worldwide through technology-based mass production of commodities.

Its exports include many things like meat, dairy products, fish, wood, fruit, vegetables, paper…etc

A lot of factors have contributed to the transformation of the Australian and New Zealand economies :

-The spread of multinational companies-The increasing use of information and communications technologies-The growth in international tourism-The high level of international trade

Besides, their focus on the Asia-Pacific region is an important element in this transformation.

Politic context Australia and New Zealand : parliamentary democracies with the

British monarch as sovereign. Both have a federal state system NZ : 16 regions and 1 territory; Australia: 6 states and 2 territories.

Australia has oscillated between Labour and Liberal-National governments. The Liberal National party returned to power after the 2010 parliamentary elections.

New Zealand politics has oscillated between the conservative National party and the left wing Labour party. The National party returned to power in November 2008 promise to review the system of employee relations.

Cultural contextAustralia and New Zealand share a British cultural heritage.

Estimation: 40% of Australians are migrants mainly from the UK, Ireland and North America. Recently an increase of the Asian immigrants.

Native Australians represent about 2% of the total population. Not very active in economic activities of the country. They tend to be less skilled and less qualified than other groups.

New Zealand: mixture of indigenous people (Maori), British, and other European settlers, and recent immigrants from Asia.

According to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, Australia and New Zealand are both: small power distance, high individualism, weak on uncertainty avoidance, and relatively masculine.

II / Labour Market TrendsAustralia’s workforce: 11.45 million

New Zealand’s workforce: 2.3 million

Most of the workforce of both countries is in the service sector.

In New Zealand, the high level of employment in the service has been attributed to the public sector and to the increasing number of multinational companies in finance and tourism.

Workforce distribution in 2005

Agriculture Industry Services

Australia 3.6% 21.4% 75%

New Zealand

7% 19% 74%

Employment of women Both countries are overall totally against women

discrimination at work. Sometimes even companies are encouraged to recruit some women.

In Australia, there’s total equity between men and women giving them equal opportunities in pay and in all other benefits.

The number of women in the workforce has sharply increased.

However, most female work at low paid jobs in the retailing, health, education…and 73% of all part time jobs are occupied by women in Australia and 71% in New Zealand.

Flexible working practices The most popular are: part-time work, study leave,

flextime, home-based working, and job sharing.

In Australia, part-time has more than doubled between 78 and 2004 and has stabilized at 24% of the workforce between 2005 and 2009.

In New Zealand: 22.5% part time jobs in 2009.

Growth in teleworking and home-based working in both countries.

Employment of older people

People in both countries are living longer and getting healthier.

Many employees continue to work even after the official retirement age.

This is due to the change in the age for pension from 60 to 65.

Employment of ethnic minorities

Concept very different from any other country.

Native people are part of the ethnic minority while the ethnic majority is mainly made up of British, Irish, and American.

Aboriginal : 2% in Australia

The Maori : 7% in New Zealand

They don’t face a lot of problems concerning employment (Maori 2nd highest rate of participation in the labour market).

Unemployment

By 1994, the rate of unemployment in Australia was 10.2% and went down to 5.8% in 2009 as the state of economy improved.

New Zealand, same trends to end up to : 4.8% in 2009.

III/ Management and organization

The system of management and organization in Australia and New Zealand was similar to the British one in the 1970’s.

Changes to: aware of the necessity to link HRM to corporate strategy. Focus more on performance indicators at the organizational, group and individual level.

HR and corporate strategyThe high exposure of many managers to international

management practices from the increasing presence of MNC’s in both countries has led to the transfer of management practices that were seen as good practice by international standards.

Most companies in both countries have had to concentrate on value-added products and services require a more strategic approach to management.

Employees want to improve their operations by introducing new technologies, redesigning jobs, developing skills, gaining employee commitment, improving products quality, cutting costs…

New Zealand employers were much more likely than Australians to implement cost reduction and productivity measures.

Work intensification New Zealand employers introduced new payment systems and made their employees work harder.

While sometimes the Australian do not replace an employee that left his job.

Decline in trade union membership in both countries, employers have had to use more individualistic approaches in dealing with their employees more decentralized bargaining arrangements at the enterprise level: every employee is considered individually.

Employees are allowed to negotiate over work hours, work conditions etc…

IV / Managing human resources

Process of recruitment is very important in both countries because the labour market is very diverse and there is a shortage of skilled workforce.

Recruitment From advertising vacancies on notice board internally, in

newspapers, on internet… common features are:- use of word of mouth : very common in manual and low skilled jobs.- unsolicited job seekers who just walk in to ask for employment. - extensive use of the internet.

Graduate recruitment : Both countries have a growing population of students graduating each year.

Graduate labour market : very competitive.

Selection The Process is once a pool of candidates has been

identified through the recruitment process the most appropriate candidate, or candidates are identified through a selection process including but not limited to interviewing, reference checking and testing.  The purpose of the selection process is to ensure that the best person or people are appointed to the role or roles using effective, fair and equitable assessment activities .

Use of interviews in both countries. The use of tests is very limited. Recent studies have shown an increase in the use of testing, not just to recruit but also for promotion, training etc…

Training and Development Both countries use “on the job training”; “off the job training” and

organizational trainings at different levels.

They vary in their approaches and their level of spending on training.

In both countries, the federal government expects public and private sector organizations to invest in the training and development of their employees for example back to education initiatives to make the unemployables employable.

Employers in both countries make use of the services of training and accrediting bodies like the Human Resources Institute Of New Zealand.

Rewards & Remuneration

HR's role in determining the level of salary and benefits for a position or employee is an important factor in the attraction, engagement, motivation and retention of employees. 

Centralized rewards system

Until recently, Australian federal wage policy had been determined by the government and the employers.The Federal Arbitration commission, had to made the appropriate wage decision which very often was applied troughout the country.

Nowdays , many employers have moved towards a more decentralized system of rewards and remuneration

Decentralized rewards system

Deregulation of industrial relations and employment policies in both countries since the 1990s has encouraged many employers to introduce flexible systems of rewards related to individual performance.

The wageBoth countries operate a statutory minimum

wage .

In Australia it was set a basic minimum wage that was aimed aat meeting the normal needs of an average unskilled worker with a family unit of five.

But over the years the wage determination change and is currently at AU$15.00 per hour.

The wageIn 1894 the government of New Zealand

enacted the fisrt minimum wage law in the world . From then until the 1990s the minimum wage was determined by collective agreements betwen the state, tarde unions and employers.

Currently, the statutory minimum wage is decided in relation to the customer price index NZ$12 per hour .

Employee relations

The practice of employee relations in Australia and New Zealand has historically been similar to that in the UK. The devlopment of trade unionism started in the nineteenth century and by the 1920s more than half of the Australian workforce had joined trade unions. The fisrt confederation of all trade unions was formed in 1927 as the Australian Council Of Trade Unions, Which is still an important party to the federal employee relations agreements.

In New Zeland, the Employment Contracts act disbanded the arbitration system and replaced it with a system of entreprise based bargaining and voluntary conciliation and arbitration.

In Australia, The decentralization of employment relations in the 1990s was extended to include entreprise flexibility agreements and made the negotiation of workplace agreements possible in non unionized entreprises.