Under pressure!

With building activity increasing across the country, and regulatory changes galore, what pressures are you facing and how are you handling them?

Firm: Haimes Building
Principal: Mark Haimes
Location: Taupo
Staff: 20

It’s been fairly full on with all the health and safety legislation and building regulations coming through, but it’s something we need to take seriously, so we’ve been making it a priority to stay on top of everything as much as possible. We read all the industry publications we can, and attend seminars when they come to town. We also receive health and safety updates directly from Worksafe, so that’s helpful.

Building activity in Taupo has been steady, but not crazy like Auckland and Christchurch, so we’re just ticking along and taking on new jobs as we finish the last one.

With 20 staff, you have to maintain a fairly significant workload, but it seems to be going all right and I haven’t had any trouble finding skilled carpenters. However, we have found there seems to be a skills shortage in several sub-trades, particularly roofers and plasterers.

Firm: Pope Homes
Principal: Erin Pope
Location: Rotorua
Staff: 4 (including Erin & 1 admin)

As a member of Certified Builders, we’re kept fairly up to speed with what’s going on in terms of changing legislation. Given that all members are required to use contracts for every job, and have insurance, that keeps us ahead of the curve on some of these changes that are just coming through now. I also read industry publications, such as Under Construction, and stuff in the news.

As a town, Rotorua has a real shortage of land for new housing, so we’re not seeing much of the national building boom happening here. However, we’ve always been open to working in the surrounding areas, and Bay of Plenty is definitely booming at the moment, so we have plenty of work on.

With demand throughout the country increasing, the most challenging aspect of building at the moment is finding good employees – I’ve found there’s a real shortage of skilled and licensed guys out there. There are plenty who consider themselves skilled, but aren’t and don’t have a licence, and still expect to lead projects – that’s not the type of guy I’m looking for. What I’ve found more useful is taking on apprentices and taking the time to teach them the right skills, then getting them licensed.

Firm: Ian Trainer Building
Principal: Ian Trainer
Location: Twizel
Staff: 4 (including Ian)

You just have to go with the flow, really. With all this new legislation coming in, we just do our best to keep up to speed through emails from Worksafe and MBIE, by reading industry publications and by going to seminars – when the odd one does come through Twizel. I also make sure to relay all the information I receive to my guys, so they’re across the changes.

In a small town like ours, it’s always hard finding staff with the right skills – it’s almost more about finding ones with the right attitude. However, we haven’t really felt that much impact from the “building boom” here, so I haven’t had a sudden need to take on more carpenters. We have four builders, including me, and the youngest guy, who we took on about a year ago. We weren’t even advertising at the time, but found out that he was keen through word of mouth and decided to bring him on board.

The amount of building work available hasn’t changed much over the past few years – it isn’t exactly buoyant, but it’s enough to keep us busy.

Now have your say…

What are your thoughts on the new consumer protection measures and how will you deal with them?

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Email your answer with your full name, contact phone number, company name, number of full-time staff and the city or town in which you’re based to editor@pmundersconstruction.co.nz. All responses must be submitted by 25 September. The answers to this question will be published in Under Construction November.