"Just three percent of New Zealand employers* contribute to a superannuation scheme for their staff," she said. "This is really surprising, given that many employers are finding it difficult to attract and retain the best people.
"This is also despite employees stating that super was one of the most popular benefits after wages and salary, according to a November salary study conducted by PA Consulting Group and published in March this year.
"This tells us that the days of total remuneration - people being offered a bundle of cash in the hand - are over. Employees are starting to think about total packages that set them up well for the future. Now more than ever, employers who want to attract and keep good employees need to build appealing incentives into their packages," she says.
Linda McCulloch made the comments in a presentation to the IIR Remuneration, Pay and Incentives conference in Auckland today.
"In the 1980s employees were viewed by many employers as just another type of resource – now, employers are recognising that some staff effectively choose them. If New Zealand employers aren’t offering what employees want, they can’t be surprised when they choose someone else that is," says Linda McCulloch.
"This raises the opportunity for employers to offer their employees more benefit based remuneration to lessen the incentive for employees to go off-shore in search of better packages.
"At AMP we’ve made positive steps to offer our employees a wider range of benefits to help attract and retain good people. On top of a competitive salary, we offer help for temporary or permanent disablement, cover for health costs, advice on financial planning and saving, share options, superannuation and professional development opportunities.
"We’ve still got a way to go, but it’s starting to make a real difference for employees. AMP aims to be an employer of choice, and in New Zealand our employee surveys have around an 80% response rate – which is very good by industry standards - and we have a very successful internal recognition programme called Champions which recognises staff initiative and performance," says Linda McCulloch.
* 3% of employers provide super: Government Actuary statistics, 1999 Report of the GA to Government; Statistics NZ Feb 1999 number of employers in NZ with more than 10 employees and their employee totals.
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