Get active in shaping policy

Over the past year it feels like we’ve gone from blue skies to storm clouds. Optimism about surviving Covid-19 relatively unscathed compared with much of the world, at least from a health perspective, has been replaced with deep concern about inflation, the cost of living and geopolitical instability.

The clouds started to form earlier across three areas in particular – shortages of talent, increasing regulatory complexity, and government processes that lack transparency and consistency.

Lockdowns and border closures saw the talent tide go out. New Zealand’s strong economic growth pre-Covid was due in sizable part to immigration and access to international talent. This masked the fact that we’re not producing enough home-grown talent to match demand across many sectors and industries.

Auditors are among the groups most affected. For many years the shortfall was filled by overseas auditors coming in on a range of different visas. Given audit is the training ground for much of our broader financial sector and there are also opportunities globally for New Zealand auditors, it is no surprise there are challenges in retaining domestically sourced auditors in the profession.

CA ANZ secured a Border Class Exception in late 2021 that has allowed 180 overseas auditors to enter the country. However, the shortage is ongoing and far from resolved.

Auditors are critical to ensuring trust and confidence in our economy and public institutions. They are highly skilled and the global shortage means New Zealand needs competitive immigration settings.

The inclusion of auditors on the government’s Green List has so far remained elusive, despite the clear need and our ongoing advocacy. The Green List process has lacked transparency and consistency and this isn’t building confidence in businesses or prospective migrants.

Another challenge is that at the same time, the pipeline of secondary school students going on to study business and accounting at tertiary level is also declining. There is a range of causes, including perceptions of finance careers among students. But the fact is that policy-makers have hollowed out the secondary school business curriculum by combining the business streams, including accounting, into one subject at Year 11, and making accounting only accessible as a specialist subject in the last two years of secondary school.

So what can we do?

There are two things directors need to do to address talent issues. First, ensure your organisation has a strong plan to retain and attract talent. Second, ensure you are joining in with broader advocacy efforts and bending the ear of government to achieve the best possible policy settings.

On the first, CA ANZ engaged its membership from Whangarei to Invercargill to produce a series of recommendations and insights on attracting and retaining talent. Although focused on how to draw talent to our regions, the lessons are equally valid for major centres.

Organisations must focus on creative solutions. Paying more isn’t always the answer, and neither are wellbeing programmes or increased annual leave. Rather, introducing truly flexible work, job sharing, or even reduced hour workdays, are what seems to matter most.

We have all heard about people throwing in the towel at well-paid jobs because they’re burned out or don’t believe in their work. CA ANZ’s recently published Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Report confirms this – employees want meaningful work and an inclusive, purpose-driven culture. If they don’t find it, they will move on, and evidence suggests job satisfaction and productivity go hand-in-hand.

It’s also important to make sure your business and industry is visible to the next generation. CA ANZ has been active in putting accounting and finance in front of high school students – connecting with students and teachers via the Young Enterprise Scheme and bringing CAs in to speak to student groups.

Getting the policy settings right

While you can do a lot on your own to create the best possible workplace culture, and to increase the pipeline of talent into your organisation, membership organisations and businesses need to work together to influence policy settings.

Better immigration settings that address talent shortages are a necessity for many sectors. Having recently engaged with ministers and officials about the critical shortage of auditors, as well as anti-money laundering (AML) rules, various tax settings, and the school curriculum, it seems ideology rather than robust policy analysis and evidence is driving some decisions more than it should.

Unfortunately for New Zealand, Australia’s government has adopted a much more proactive and long-term approach to immigration. At their recent Jobs and Skills Summit in September, Australia’s new Labor government made several announcements, including an increase in permanent migration, and extending visas and relaxing work restrictions on international students. Several Australian states have now launched highly visible campaigns to attract Kiwis, which is a clear challenge to our economy and talent pool.

What happens when we don't get it right

Immigration policy is just one difficult policy area – AML is another. Unfortunately, the original AML legislation resulted in regulatory overkill and significant compliance costs for businesses. After four years of persistent advocacy, CA ANZ recently obtained an exemption for tax agents who undertake tax transfers for New Zealand businesses and taxpayers. This required a significant investment of time, money and effort.

Regulation must be balanced. Disproportionate complexity, compliance burden and cost do not build confidence.

There is a concern we are heading in the same direction with the income insurance proposal and a number of tax policy proposals. We are seeing outcomes that lump our business and communities with regulatory burden that is not commensurate with the risk.

Directors need to look not only at what their organisations are doing, but how they can feed into broader industry or sector-wide advocacy.

In an election year, there is an opportunity to shape the policy landscape for the following term – but it will take active engagement, a willingness to highlight some of the tough issues and collaboration with government on appropriate solutions.