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Lind isn't alone. Listen carefully when you next talk to your colleagues and business contacts and you'll find lots of talented, high-powered people with non-Kiwi accents working in New Zealand, and not just on three-year secondments from head office. Look at some of our big companies. Sky boss John Fellet is originally from North America, as is Shell chairman Ed Johnson. Deloitte is headed up by UK-born Nick Main, Tranz Rail by Australian Michael Beard. In fact, a good percentage of the Tranz Rail senior team weren't born here. Carter Holt Harvey's chief innovation officer, Kent Blumberg, is an American. And so it goes on. None of these people are on hardship postings. They all chose New Zealand. Jacob Almagor was born in Israel, has a masters degree in computer science and has been an entrepreneur in both Israel and the US since the early 1980s. He founded ScanVec, listed on the Nasdaq in 1991 and he was on the executive team of multinational medical equipment developer Mennen Medical. He left Israel because of the political and social instability, but after six years in the US still didn't feel at home there. He looked at several different emigration destinations and finally chose New Zealand. "I was searching for an environment where I shared the general values of life. In the US I missed the British culture, which is the basis of Israeli social structures. But the UK is too grey." A year after arriving in New Zealand, as Unlimited went to press Almagor is developing a multimillion-dollar venture capital project with Deloitte. But don't be fooled. New Zealand undoubtedly suffers a brain drain problem. The number of overseas New Zealanders coming back to live has slumped from 29,575 in the year to March 1991, to only 21,171 in the March 2001 year. And the net outflow of permanent and long-term people from New Zealand reached 9270 in the year ended June 2001. The talent race "This is the hardest market I have been in for 20 years," says recruitment consultant Heather Kean of Pohlen Kean. "Demand is so high that even if you get a yes from someone, 25–30% of the time they will get another offer and you have to start again. Six months ago that was happening only 5–10% of the time." There are significant skill shortages in key areas: technology, marketing, health, academia, boat building, some trades, even dairy farming in the South Island. "There is no doubt we are experiencing very serious losses of highly qualified staff to pay and conditions that are significantly better overseas." says Auckland University's Bridget Wickham, one of the organisers of the recent "Catching the knowledge wave" conference. Universities have always been a global business, with high international staff mobility. "But what we are experiencing is beyond normal in terms of difficulty attracting top academics from overseas to work here, and difficulty retaining bright, globally excellent academics." But are we asking the wrong question when we wonder how to stop the brain drain? New Zealanders have always been highly mobile. In fact, a US Census Bureau survey of 16 countries in the 1980s showed we move more often than any other nationality. New Zealanders are always going to go overseas. The question we need to ask is how to increase the number of talented people — New Zealanders or otherwise — wanting to come to this country to replenish the ones we are losing. The net loss masks the fact we are also gaining a lot of talent. Statistics New Zealand figures show that since the early 1980s more than 20,000 New Zealanders have returned from overseas each year — that's half a million people since 1980. In addition, around 650,000 permanent migrants have arrived. Are they the "talent" we need for economic growth? Increasingly, yes. Jacqueline Lidgard, of Waikato University's Migration Research Group, has done a lot of research on returning New Zealanders and has found them to be a highly educated group. She surveyed all Kiwis arriving back and intending to stay long term in November 2000. Some 50% had tertiary qualifications, 7% had trade qualifications and 13% had an overseas qualification. The trends for overseas migrants are also encouraging. A recent Treasury study, Go West, Young Man, Go West, divided all migrants over the last decade into highly skilled, semi-skilled and low-skilled. The study concluded that "the proportion of arrivals accounted for by the high-skilled has grown substantially over time, while at the same time the proportion of low-skilled people arriving has fallen. In addition, arrivals are slightly more skilled than departures." The answers
Johnson had to compromise — life, or a high-flying career. Luckily for New Zealand, he chose life (he refers to himself as a Kiwi by nature, an American by accident of birth) and expresses no regrets. But the simple truth is that attracting people on lifestyle isn't enough. It will bring some people, it will retain some people. But it won't get us to the ambitious population target of five million, discussed at the "Catching the knowledge wave" conference. In fact, at our present rate of progress (115,389 extra people in the last 40 years), it will take us 400 years to reach that target. We need more than just lifestyle. Here are a few ideas: Think big John Heard is the head of Java for Sun Microsystems worldwide. He's too big for New Zealand, says brother Mark Heard, head of Ariba NZ. "He won't come back. He'd like to, but where's the job for him? Maybe he'll retire here." "Would you, as an international journalist, want the Owaka Times on your personal résumé?" asks Craig Miller, recruiter for Wellington IT consulting firm Synergy International. "Some people will come to New Zealand anyway, some would only come if the dollars were good, but some would come if they could have a prestigious job, even if the dollars weren't great. If we had large development centres run by Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and Motorola, for example, New Zealand would become a globally attractive place for IT professionals." Kent Blumberg, chief innovation officer at Carter Holt Harvey, is the sort of person New Zealand needs more of. He has a degree in science and mechanical engineering from Stanford University and a masters of science in management. He's worked for some big North American pulp and paper companies up to general manager level, but he and his wife decided they wanted to live overseas for a while. Blumberg wanted a beautiful country; he wanted a challenging job. But most of all he wanted a lifeline back to the US. Working for CHH, with its ownership link to International Paper, was perfect. "The main issue for me was that I was going down connected to a big company in the US. I knew I had the opportunity to go back if I wanted." Many North Americans will come and go. Blumberg expects to return to the US one day; Tranz Rail change manager Jeff Heisler is on his second stint in New Zealand (with two different companies) and loves it here, though he will also probably go back some day. Finding big international corporate talent lures is not just a pipe dream. Motorola considered setting up a development centre in New Zealand and didn't, but Ericsson, Compaq, Vodafone and Ernst & Young all have development centres here doing international research work. Most people seem to believe some sort of incentive is the key to attracting more large CV-enhancing companies to New Zealand, whether it be tax breaks, technology parks or financial assistance, as has been done in Ireland. "It's difficult to sell an investment decision in a country as isolated as New Zealand without incentives," says Heisler. "There's an element of risk involved. While there might be a number of factors that make New Zealand stack up, if someone else is offering better incentives and is less unknown …" "The Australian government is much better at enticements than we are," says recruitment consultant Barry Dreyer of ITP Worldwide. "We have to be smarter than Australia." Invest in the future There are some bits of the brain drain that just ain't going to be fixed without extra money. Take the dire situation faced by Auckland University's medical school. Twenty years ago, says Dean of Medicine Peter Gluckman, we were among the best in the world in terms of talent and research facilities. Now the brightest people aren't staying, and the school is in no position to attract the best from overseas. For a start, the salaries he can offer here are only about half what people get overseas. But more importantly, in an industry dominated by the desire to be recognised by your peers as doing the most exciting research in your field, New Zealand's scientific infrastructure is woefully inadequate. "It's as if we were teaching people about computer science using an abacus. I'm stuck in a lab with equipment where I can study one gene at a time. Overseas I could study 10,000 genes at a time. I don't blame young people for not wanting to stay." Gluckman has calculated he needs $15 million to spend on non-building-related infrastructure to make his medical school a top-class centre of research excellence that would attract and retain some of the best brains in the world. But it needs to be spent now, he says, before the scientific world passes New Zealand by. Instead, he has an annual budget of $1–$2 million. Gluckman estimates if government spent $200 million on infrastructure and research funding across the country, we could develop the sort of knowledge-based economy to attract great people. Sounds a lot? Remember, the government found $120 million to compensate West Coast loggers. Be clever Talk to some New Zealand employers about the brain drain and they look at you as if you are mad. Brain drain, what brain drain? There are heaps of great potential employees in the world and we certainly don't have problems attracting enough for our needs, they say. We've profiled a couple of these companies recently in Unlimited. You may remember Katherine Corich at Sysdoc and her kayaking, mountaineering staffers ("A boss to die for", May 2001), or Compaq ADC, using Christchurch as its major drawcard ("Losing the talent race", October 2000). We've found another great example in Synergy International. Synergy has worked hard to be smart about recruitment and make itself an employer of choice, and doesn't have any problems with finding staff. But we need many more companies like that. Take a risk Prabar Mittra trained as an accountant with Price Waterhouse in London, spending eight years there before returning to his native Calcutta as a fund manager, still with Price Waterhouse. When the firm moved its headquarters to Delhi, Mittra had two options — relocate to Delhi or Bombay and put up with an average daily commute of three to four hours, or find somewhere that suited him and his family better. After a lot of research they chose New Zealand and had little trouble getting residency. Finding a job was a different matter. Mittra had skills, experience and speaks English fluently, but it was four months before he found a job, and then only a temporary contract doing the sort of basic accounting work he was doing 10 years ago. He sent out 100 applications; in 60% of cases he was told the reason he was not considered was a lack of local experience. "I don't blame the employers. Very often they are small companies, with a small number of staff, so the margin of error isn't very big. They need you to be able to deliver right away without training; if you can't deliver the business suffers." Sure, but being risk-averse about talent when your country's economy is rapidly losing the knowledge race isn't very bright, huh? And it isn't only overseas migrants suffering. As Unlimited researched this story, Mittra's experience was echoed time and time again by many talented people (returning New Zealanders and migrants alike). Somehow, the better you are at your job and the more overseas experience you have had, the less New Zealand companies are prepared to employ you. Barry Dreyer runs the New Zealand operations of high-tech recruitment company ITP Worldwide. He sees increasing numbers of great people coming to New Zealand — often returning New Zealanders or partners of returning New Zealanders — but is frustrated at how difficult it is to get New Zealand management to talk to these people. It's not the same in Silicon Valley, where his company is based. "New Zealanders are very insular. US companies are increasingly employing European executives because they realise that their multi-lingual skills and ease at working in a multinational environment is crucial. We have to get that sort of attitude in our management." Take two recent cases. One an American married to a New Zealander, with Kiwi citizen children. At present he is chief financial officer for a $US40 billion global multinational company based in California. For the past year, he has been trying to find a job in New Zealand, but despite approaching up to a dozen companies, Dreyer is finding it almost impossible to even get him an interview. "He'll wait another couple of years and if he doesn't get a job here he'll go to Sydney." The second case is a qualified actuary from the former USSR. She has a brilliant degree from a top Scottish university, experience in web design and very good English. It took her two years to find a job, and then in a financial modelling area not using her considerable talents, Dreyer says. "New Zealand management is risk averse when it comes to making employment decisions. Anyone who is different is a risk and we would rather walk away from a fantastic opportunity than take a punt." Making it easier Few people Unlimited spoke to had many complaints about immigration these days. Bureaucratic, certainly, and not proactive (its website www.immigration.govt.nz is the epitome of practical, no-nonsense stuff), but it is efficient and willing to let the right people with the right skills into the country. "Last Friday," says Synergy's Craig Miller "I took a software development manager just off the boat from South Africa to the immigration department. I had the papers already filled in, but it took just 35 minutes to get a two-year working visa."
Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel also has several initiatives aimed at increasing the numbers of talented migrants. She aims to increase the annual number of skilled and business migrants approved to enter New Zealand to 27,000, a 60% increase on last year's figure. She has also announced a pilot project to identify areas of skill shortages and simplify and speed up the process of applying for work permits. For the first time, spouses and partners of work permit holders will automatically qualify for open work permits. And the government is putting together a list of recognised qualifications that automatically meet New Zealand's immigration criteria.
It seems at last we have a government taking brain drain (and brain gain) issues seriously. It's mostly talk so far — the Go West Young Man Treasury report, the "Catching the knowledge wave" conference and a survey on New Zealanders offshore being carried out at the moment by research company McKinsey, reportedly with Helen Clark's strong support. If all this translates into action, it could be significant, says Auckland University's Bridget Wickham. The sort of diaspora programmes carried out in countries like Taiwan, Israel and Ireland to bring talented people home, and the sort of marketing Ireland has done to attract overseas people and investment, are best coordinated by government. "New Zealand needs to relate to its diaspora in a creative, fun, energising way, not through lists and newsletters. You should feel you belong to an exclusive, buzzy, on-the-edge club and feel privileged to be part of it. Even if they don't necessarily come home, we want them to take an interest in New Zealand, support the work of New Zealand companies and provide networks and relationships." Changing places Changes like these could make a significant difference to our ability to attract skilled people to New Zealand, says Rob Snelling, director of recruitment and immigration consultants Commonwealth Services Group. Snelling, himself a returned New Zealander, spent eight years in London bringing people from here to work in the UK. When he decided to move back to New Zealand, it seemed logical to set up a business bringing talented people to New Zealand. It didn't work. "It got too hard. There were problems with immigration policy, with getting people's qualifications recognised." Much-needed teachers, for example, were waiting four months to get their qualifications recognised, when in the UK the same process had taken 20 days. Snelling changed tack; now 95% of his business is setting Kiwis up with jobs overseas. His remedy to the brain drain? Government departments — Treasury, Labour, Immigration, New Zealand Qualifications Authority — all need to work much closer together to deal with immigration issues and monitor trends in the marketplace to match skills with shortages. Snelling's argument is that immigration is still too much of a numbers game, with number of points, target immigration numbers and so on. It's too inflexible to meet our needs. Recruiting immigrants How's this for a radical alternative? It's an idea put forward by Auckland University's Wickham. What if we developed a recruitment branding strategy for New Zealand — a complete package for selling New Zealand around the world as an employment destination — in order to attract the best talent? More radical still, what if we abandoned the "immigration by numbers" points system approach (the equivalent of the no-risk personality testing method of corporate recruitment) and stopped choosing our immigrants by CV (instead of picking the people with the right qualification and years of experience)? What if we took the approach of our best companies and choose people by their potential and their fit with New Zealand? "There's something extremely strategic about immigration," Wickham says. Too right. It's extremely hard. It's risky and subjective. It requires immigration officers to stop being bureaucrats and have a fantastically open-minded view of what makes a good New Zealander. And we might let in a few mad scientists along the way. It's a thought. Let's finish on a high note. Waikato University's Jacqueline Lidgard wrote in her 2001 study on return migration of New Zealanders, "Let us stop bemoaning the fact that New Zealand citizens are continuing to emigrate as they have for decades. Instead, let us celebrate the new ideas, experience and money that returnees and expatriates contribute to our society". The words apply to migrants, too. In January one substantial purchase made the front page of the New Zealand Herald: a beachfront mansion sold for $8.3 million on the internet. The buyer was a 34-year-old Aucklander currently working in the computer industry in the US, but intending to return to live and work in his new home sometime in the future. Hooray! Brain drain, what brain drain? Disclosure of interest: Nikki Mandow arrived in New Zealand from the UK on a three-month holiday 11 years ago. She thinks it isn't such a bad place, really Nikki Mandow
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Ĺsa Lind is 28. She's modelled in Italy, France, the UK and Australia, had a singing career spanning Stockholm, Cannes and London, and speaks five languages fluently. She's about to finish a degree in law and languages and is set to get a job with a major law firm. Where does she live? Auckland. Too right. This paragon of youth, beauty and talent chooses to be in New Zealand. Okay, she came here in 1994 because her Kiwi partner wanted to come home, but he never intended them to stay in New Zealand. The decision not to leave was Lind's as much as his. "I really like it here. There's a good energy. People in the business world are working on interesting ideas and are laid back."
The story of Ed Johnson, now chairman of Shell NZ, is a familiar one — the story of many of us, or at least of someone we know. Listen again and remember what New Zealand has to offer. Born in the US, Johnson married a Kiwi girl and five years later the couple decided to bring their young family to New Zealand. With a degree in finance, an MBA and experience lifting a start-up engineering company to a 1100-person organisation, he got two good job offers and started working for Shell. As we said, 20 years later Johnson is chairman of the board. Still, his was the classic lifestyle decision. "It was the late 70s in the US. We watched couples that were very strongly career-driven being pulled apart. There were drugs. We weren't happy with the education system … For me, it was a very specific trade-off between personal values around family and environment, and my career aspirations."
