Kea initiative gives Kiwi employers greater access to highly skilled expat community

The Kiwi Expat Association (Kea) has launched an online tool to give New Zealand employers greater access to the highly skilled Kiwi expat population and believes that attracting these expats back is a key contributor to the growth of New Zealand’s economy.

Kea, which was founded by Sir Stephen Tindall in 2001 and has a membership of 30,000 Kiwi expats worldwide, developed the Kea Job Community (www.keajobs.com) to encourage New Zealand employers to reach out to the highly skilled expat population in order to bring their skills and experience back home.

“With a depth of international experience and access to the world’s top business leaders, Kiwi expats are some of our most highly skilled, well connected, and therefore highly sought after, employees,” says Kea CEO Ross McConnell.

“Attracting some of this talent back home is a necessity for New Zealand to achieve its economic growth targets and giving Kiwi employers access to our network is a first step. It is then up to New Zealand employers to retain this talent so we can benefit from their international experience and networks which will ultimately help our businesses grow on a global scale.”

The Kea Job Community uses Kea’s extensive network to not only give employers access to this pool of talent but also to give candidates around the world access to a large number of jobs in different industries worldwide.

New Zealand has the most globally dispersed population in the OECD with a staggering 25% of our highly-skilled population living off shore. There are many barriers preventing expats from returning home including significantly lower salaries. Australians now earn on average 30.5 per cent more than New Zealanders.

While these factors may deter expats from returning home, many are keen to do so for family or lifestyle reasons. In a Kea study of Kiwi expats, 50 per cent of respondents said they intended to return home while a further 25 per cent said they would return home for the right opportunity.

“If the opportunities are here and some of our highly skilled workforce is ready to come home, then we need to reach out to them and give them the final “pull” they need to make the move,” said McConnell.

“For the past nine years, the focus of Kea has been to build and support an off shore network of global citizens who take an active interest in the future of New Zealand. Now, following the recession and the country’s continual economic challenges, we have increased our focus to look at how we can use this network to better support the economic performance of New Zealand.”

It is free for candidates to register with the Kea Job Community. It will cost employers $200 + gst to post a job however volume discounts are available and a launch special of $50 + GST is currently on offer until the end of January. See www.keajobs.com for more information.