Exclusive EMA news, advice, learning and networking I ssue 37 + May + 2007

■ Caught playing at work■ NZ's export story■ Is your workplace

air quality adequate?

In this issue:

SURPRISE

How NZ's biggest manufacturer plans to grow

EMA Northern & Central are the major stakeholders in:

Malcolm Rands

KiwiSaver: Making it count in

your workplace!

How we can take on China?

Guardian trust

Stack the risk and return in yourfavour…

Building a business and setting up the right assets that will provide for your financial securitydemands hard work, sacrifice and carefulplanning.

Very often we’re working so hard and making thesacrifices that we slip up on the planning, or put itoff until later…sometimes until it’s too late.

Having the right plans in place at the right timecould make all the difference. Have you everwondered how someone’s business can go belly upand yet their lifestyle hardly misses a beat? They continue to live in the comfortable familyhome, enjoy weekends at the bach and by allaccounts, life is as it was before.

The answer is simple:Have proper plans in place, in time, and keep them up to date.

Guardian Trust is New Zealand’s specialist trusteeand financial adviser. Our qualified team oflawyers, accountants and financial advisers canhelp you set up co-ordinated legal arrangementsthat will provide for anticipated or unforeseenevents, making sure your hard earned assets areprotected and you and your dependents continueto enjoy their benefits:

• Wills Have you reviewed your will in the last threeyears to ensure it still meets your wishes?

• Enduring Powers of AttorneyHave you appointed someone to manage youraffairs if you became incapacitated and wereunable to do so?

• TrustsCould a trust give you better planning powerand protection?

• Retirement and Investment PlanningWill your investments fund the lifestyle youenvisage in your retirement?

• Buy/Sell AgreementsHave you planned ahead for a smooth transitionto avoid potential conflict and stress?

Guardian Trust is the EMA’s preferredpartner in asset protection andmanagement.

For a complimentary consultation to discuss your options or review yourexisting plans, contact

Bryan Ivamy on (09) 529 1659

Our Vision. Your Success PAGE �

FINANCE

NETWORKING

TECHNOLOGY

MANUFACTURING

We could take on China

New Zealand's export storyYour Business NZ briefing

Free web listing coming

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is published for:

EMA NorthErN

159 Khyber Pass Rd, Grafton,

Private Bag 92066 Auckland

Ph: 09 367 0900 or 0800 800 362

Email: ema@ema.co.nz Website: www.ema.co.nz

Chief Executive

Alasdair Thompson

Advocacy Manager

Bruce Goldsworthy

Manager, Employment Advice

David Lowe

Manager EMA Learning

George Gerard

Waikato

Alan Fursdon

07 839 0806

Bay of Plenty

Kim Stretton

07 577 9665

EMA cENtrAl

PO Box 1087 Wellington Ph: 04 473 7224

Fax: 04 473 4501

Email: ema@emacentral.org.nz

Website: www.emacentral.org.nz

Chief Executive

Paul Winter

Gisborne office

06 863 2438

Hawke’s Bay

06 843 3419

Taranaki

06 759 4006

Manawatu/Wanganui

06 350 1825

Nelson

03 548 4528

Editor

Gilbert Peterson 09 367 0916

Published by

TPL Publishing Services

Project Manager

Sheila Marshall 09 529 3007

Advertising Sales

Colin Gestro 09 489 8911

colin@affinityads.com

ISSN No. 1176-4953

Is the HR department needed?

Why you need to monitor the air your staff breathe

NZ IFRS and tax: EMA's E&Y Tax Tips

True stories from Rod Moratti, P.I.

Attracting top people

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FINANCE

NETWORKING

TECHNOLOGY

MANUFACTURING

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Paul Winter on Budget principles

The growth strategy of our largest manufacturerFonterra's CEO Andrew Ferrier gives the outline

Our business environment deficit Alasdair Thompson points to the gaps

FINANCE

NETWORKING

TECHNOLOGY

MANUFACTURING

07- 09 Making KiwiSaver count Your EMA complete guide to KiwiSaver

FINANCE

NETWORKING

TECHNOLOGY

MANUFACTURING

Malcolm Rands of the Ecostore featured at Thrive Auckland. Malcolm is taking on the giants Unilever and Colgate Palmolive from his Ponsonby store and Tamaki manufacturing plant. He said 80% of the usual laundry soap powder is ‘Australian dirt’.That is, its filler made from an Australian mineral is used to bulk up the powder to create the impression of value for money. He said the ingredients in many of the usual laundry powders can bring on allergies, asthma and other medical conditions. Malcolm is bulking up his business in Asia, the UK, Australia and soon the US in a multi million dollar deal. You had to be at Thrive to hear the whole story and many others equally fascinating, or you missed out.

On the cover:

KiwisAvEr fEAturE

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FINANCE

NETWORKING

TECHNOLOGY

MANUFACTURING

State of play of PMI

Cutting energy costs

Effective CRM

Selecting the right staff

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NZ PMI

GLOBAL PMI

FINANCE

NETWORKING

TECHNOLOGY

MANUFACTURING

07

By Paul Winter, Chief Executive, EMA Central

Both a centre left or centre right Government would claim that its policy decisions, and its taxation and expenditure priorities, are best to deliver triple bottom line benefits for New Zealand in economic, environ-mental and social terms.

But neither party is subjected to the rigour of decision making of a broad marketplace where each day the value and performance of contestable products and services is being judged. To the contrary, the programmes of a Government and the signals it sends to voters are only judged as a total package when voters have an opportunity to change their political decision-makers once every three years.

For this reason alone all New Zealanders should be keen to see more services devolved to contestable market places, even if they believe there is a role for Government to fund them. The evidence is that real consumer choice increases the probability that any enterprise will add the greatest value.

In the media there is a lot of debate about the crucial concept of New Zealand’s overall productivity. The best data available suggests our productivity is in decline with the

trend rate of improvement over the last five years about half that achieved by other OECD economies.

But the point is, the overall productivity of the nation is always the sum of what each enterprise adds or detracts.

Achieving improvement at the enterprise level will see the nation’s productivity rise overall.

Higher productivity will maximise your rewards no matter if you’re an owner, manager or employee. So you should ensure the opportunities delivered in the 2007 budget are given proper attention. We all need to continually focus on how we can make our enterprises even more successful in delivering value to our customers and stakeholders.

Leisure is a benefit we enjoy as a result of being more productive and wealthy, but don’t believe the Government and union view that more leisure time will increase productivity. It might be true for a few exhausted individuals but on balance the increased time mandated for holidays in 2007 will lower our productivity overall.

The hardest areas in which to achieve productivity gains are those involving monopolies. This is where governments tend to dominate,

either as providers or as regulators. But let’s keep the focus on the engine room of the economy. The tax paying enterprises, because Government has signalled this year’s budget will provide them with economic incentives for the first time in many years.

Government’s biggest concern about bringing in a lower business tax rate is shareholders will not reinvest the gains they receive into building their enterprise’s economic capability. But in a world awash with low cost funding this point is irrelevant.

Directors and shareholders decide each year, no matter what the prevailing level of tax, whether the opportunities for re-investing their enterprise’s profit will generate more long term value than they will get from releasing those funds for reinvestment elsewhere.

For some exporters with high New Zealand content and no natural hedge from imports, and where foreign exchange cover could have run out, a cut to the company tax rate may help them survive. But only time will tell whether the Budget’s tax credits for expenditure on exporting, R&D and skills development will encourage more reinvestment than lowering the general tax level.

The Budget, smart enterprises, and growth

EMA is scheduling two major surveys of member opinion and experience over the next weeks:Shortly the Directions – Understanding Governance survey will canvas members’ experience of, and need for formal and informal business guidance or governance. A fortnight later the PricewaterhouseCoopers/EMA Clever Companies survey (‘Taking the pulse of Kiwi companies’) will again ask businesses and other organizations for advice of how they are tackling their

obstacles to growth. EMA and PwC are keen to uncover and promote innovative and ‘clever’ business practices. The Clever Companies survey will be similar to last year’s with a comprehensive report mailed to all participants. Participants will also be invited to the launch of the survey’s findings.The Directions – Understanding Governance survey, again similar to last year’s, will be emailed to you with a link to the survey. All participants will receive a voucher for a free listing on www.finddi-

rectors.com for two years, and invited to participate in local events when the survey results are presented.The Directions survey is all about finding the sort of advice amongst the business community to assist your strategic decision making processes. The opportunities being developed are for businesses and other organizations, no matter what size, to take up the structures of a board of directors. Both surveys will be written up in EMA Business+.

Two important surveys coming

PAGE � EMA Business Plus Magazine - Exclusive EMA news, advice, learning and networking

PAGE �Our Vision. Your Success

The global demand outlook for milk is the best it has been for 20 years. More importantly Fonterra has the strategy to capitalise on this demand.

Dairy accounts for 20 per cent of New Zealand’s export earnings, our payout to farmers puts some $5 billion into the economy every year and we provide some 11,000 jobs here in New Zealand, many in rural areas.

In an age where you need a chemistry degree to understand some food labels, dairy is seen as pure and simple. It is also recognised as healthy, with the nutritional benefits of dairy increasingly taking centre-stage. It fits naturally with many of the world’s health concerns. For example osteoporosis affects one woman in three and one man in five, and dairy has a proven role to play in bone health. Consumers are placing emphasis on clean, green foods and dairy fits into that category.

As a result, global demand is growing at just under three per cent a year, which is the equivalent of one whole New Zealand dairy industry opening up every year for the next 10 years.

A full 30 per cent of the annual demand increase will come from China alone. Other strong consumption growth is forecast in India, Brazil, the US and the oil exporting countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

The biggest growth opportunity in dairy today is in liquid, fresh milk. As a result, we at Fonterra have adjusted our strategy to ensure we capture growth opportunities in both cross border trade and local production for local consumption in select markets.

Exporting to the global market is our stock-in-trade. We have a product portfolio across the entire dairy commodity range, we can supply from numerous origins, strong customer relationships and we are increasingly seen by many of our largest customers

as the supplier of choice. Where the opportunities are in fresh milk we have a wealth of experience across the whole dairy chain. Our strategy leverages all of these strengths.

The strategyOur strategy has four platforms.

First, we must ensure that New Zealand farmers and Fonterra remain one of the lowest-cost, sustainable suppliers of milk in the world. Our first priority is to retain local supply by paying New Zealand farmers the best possible returns over and above the milk price.

Second, we are making Fonterra indispensable to customers by augmenting New Zealand supply with product from multiple countries to ensure continuity of supply. Today, Fonterra has diversified our milk sources and we now have contracts with our largest customers to supply maybe 70 per cent or more of their requirements.

Our third platform aims to increase returns to our shareholders from markets where we cannot supply from New Zealand, where high tariffs make it impractical to use New Zealand milk, or where the demand is for fresh milk. These include China, the US and Brazil.

In China we have a 43 per cent interest in San Lu, one of China’s top three dairy companies to strengthen our long held status as the largest exporter of dairy products there and as

we recognise China’s future demand will largely be met with local supply. We are also moving forward with plans to develop a large, commercial dairy farm to become an integrated business in the Chinese market.

We also have a partnership with Nestlé in Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador to meet local demand with local products. In Chile, we have a very long standing investment in Soprole, the market leader in consumer dairy, which is very similar to our Chinese model in that we are establishing farms, working with local farmers to improve efficiency

and production, meeting demand for fresh dairy through consumer products and in this case, we are also exporting from Chile.

The final platform of our strategy aims to strengthen our business by increasing profits from value added products. One example is the interna-tional brand portfolio we have built with household names like ANCHOR, ANLENE and

MAINLAND. Using these strengths we want to

build the most successful and profitabledairy co-operative in the world by

using Fonterra’s deep knowledge of dairy right across the supply chain.

There are limits to the amount of milk that can be produced in New Zealand, especially given the need to farm sustainably. Our strategy sees Fonterra not only as the world’s leading dairy exporter, with a clear value add strategy, but also emerging as a true global business earning revenues from fresh milk opportunities in numerous geographies alongside traditional export streams.

While high local interest rates and a tight employment market are driving some manufacturers off shore we are deeply rooted in New Zealand. Our factories dot the countryside, and we are here to stay.

Growth strategy for NZ's biggest maunfacturer(Edited from the address of Andrew Ferrier, chief executive, Fonterra, to EMA Northern’s CEO Network Breakfast on May 1.)

"...becoming indispensable to customers by

augmenting New Zealand supply with product from

multiple countries..."

PAGE � EMA Business Plus Magazine - Exclusive EMA news, advice, learning and networking

EMA employment relations specialists have become regular highlights on Television Hawke's Bay’s Chatroom. To spotlight issues in employment, the show has recruited EMA to undertake fortnightly sessions with Annie King, Employment Relations consultant and Libby Brown, Solicitor, EMA Legal, of EMA Central’s Napier office. The two are regular interview subjects on different aspects of the employer and employee relationship. EMA is receiving positive feedback. Television Hawke’s Bay is the regional TV broadcaster for the region. Launched in 1994 by owners, Murray and Judith Sawyer as a Tourism Information channel focusing on the sights and sounds of Hawke’s Bay, the station has evolved to broadcast now to over half the TV sets in the region. Aside from Hawke's Bay residents, the large number of visitors

to the region also tune in to get a feel for what is going on locally. An independent survey in January 2007 found 46,000 people watching TVHB weekly. TVHB’s programme line-up includes local news and sport supported by satellite programmes courtesy of Deutsche Welle and WorldNet. TVHB this year brought Chatroom on line with each interview downloaded on to their website: www.tvhb.co.nz. People anywhere in the world can view what’s up in Hawke’s Bay and what EMA employment relations advisors have to say on Chatroom.

EMA goes live on Hawke’s Bay TV By Elizabeth Brown, EMA Central

EMA’s Annie King employment relations specialist, right, goes to air on Chatroom with TVHB host Eva Bradley

The announcement of the closing of Fisher & Paykel’s appliance plant came as a shock, though it was hardly surprising given the unfriendly state of our business investment environment.

We have the highest interest rates in the developed world, which are a result largely of Government losing control of its spending on administration along with price rises from other monopolies. The consequence is our exchange rate, the 11th most traded in the world, has become a plaything for the world’s fund managers.

Our business tax rates compared to Asia, Australia, Ireland, Canada and even smaller UK companies, are far too high; with our dividend imputation system exporters could be given a zero company tax rate.

On top of these factors we have rapidly rising labour regulation and other compliance costs.

The outcome is New Zealand’s poor productivity record. High interest rates and the related high dollar are not causes; the unsustainable outcomes that are driving some of our best manufac-turers offshore prematurely.

We don’t accept Kiwi manufacturers

should necessarily have to move some, or any, of their production offshore to low cost labour countries.

We reject the message of Economic Development Minister Trevor Mallard when he said recently some of our manufacturers are better off overseas, or that they should set up part of their operations offshore.

That’s no future for the 250,000 kiwis employed full time in manufac-turing.

When Fletcher Building chief executive Ralph Waters retired last year he said: ‘As a country we do all we can to discourage major manufac-turing investment… there are not many compelling reasons to be here.’ Fisher & Paykel repeated that message.

But give any manufacturer good reasons to invest more in production capability, in automation and in the associated higher skills development required to run it, and they will willingly boost investment and productivity here to keep themselves competitive.

Other countries with far higher labour costs than ours have retained very strong manufacturing sectors.If Germany and Japan with their far higher costs of employment can make cars, New Zealand should be able to

make washing machines.However, in today’s circumstances

the F&P announcement was an entirely rational business decision that will be good for F&P’s shareholders by taking advantage of lower costs and incentives in Thailand.

Government needs to act urgently to ensure companies like F&P can retain their r&d, design, specialist skills, and head offices in New Zealand.

A growth oriented and sustainable environment for business, especially manufacturing, would seek to lift investment locally faster than competitive pressures rise from low cost countries.

The cuts to business tax foreshadowed by Dr Cullen for the Budget won’t be enough to get us on the front foot. They will have us playing catch up. Innovative policies, and leadership, are needed to retain profitable manufacturers in New Zealand.

We need lower and flatter taxes, more NZ T&E people on the ground in offshore markets assisting exporters, reform of local government, and a partial sale of some SOE’s to speed up investment in infrastructure.

We are nowhere close to achieving what we could achieve.

By Alasdair Thompson, Chief Executive, EMA Northern

Huge catch up in business investment needed.

PAGE �Our Vision. Your Success

The New Zealand manufacturing sector is under threat from globalization, in particular from China.Iconic Kiwi companies such as Swandri, MacPac, ClickClack and recently Fisher & Paykel, among others, have relocated some or all their manufacturing in Asia; others have closed up shop.

“The dollar is killing us, and skilled labour is hard to find. But what happened to our # 8 wire attitude that saw New Zealand become a diverse and flourishing manufacturing country?” That's the question raised by Dr, Rory Flemmer, of Massey’s School of Engineering and Technology.

Dr. Flemmer challenges the view that moving manufacturing to China and elsewhere in Asia is something we must learn to live with. Dr Flemmer has over 20 years experience in automating industries in the US and is leading the charge to take on Asia.

Its Dr. Flemmer’s view that automation can substantially reduce labour costs to the point where New Zealand manufacturers can out-perform the Chinese at their own game in terms of quality and cost.

“New Zealand manufacturing has fallen behind because it has not developed its automation capacity,” said Dr. Flemmer.

“Bringing in automation consultants, or buying off-the-shelf machines are stop-gap measures that will not solve the problem, or put New Zealand up there as an innovative and cost effective manufacturing country.”

The solution, Dr. Flemmer says, is to develop in-house capacity to build

“intelligent” machines with highly sophisticated vision systems working in conjunction with robots that can perform a variety of complex tasks more accurately and reliably than the most skilled labour.

By increasing the technical levels of companies, you keep on winning. If you can do it in-house your particular automation problem can be 25 per cent of the cost. You see technical possibilities to make your product cheaper, and you start to develop enabling technologies downstream to improve the supply chain logistics of your product.

Dr. Flemmer cites current work aimed at developing a robotic packing

line for the kiwifruit industry. “The robot will not only reduce packing costs but also inspect and pack more consistently 24 hours a day. In addition it will collect data on the internal properties of the fruit case-by-case to enable coolstore operators to decide which fruit to market and at what time.”

Dr. Flemmer’s work has led to a new initiative by Massey University to launch the Master of Engineering in Industrial Automation – the M.E.I.A. The MEIA starting in 2008 is a three- year part-time, extra-mural degree with the same feel as an MBA to turn out can-do hotshots.

Students are expected to start within the first month on an automation

project based on their own work environment, and aim to lose one worker. Thereafter students do another one each year, getting bigger and better. The productivity achieved is what pays for the cost of the training.

“Hardware costs are not a killer in the scheme of things – if you can’t automate better than with a one-year payback, you desperately need an MEIA,” said Dr. Flemmer who holds seven U.S. automation patents and has built “intelligent” machines for Futaba, Siemens, Bausch & Lomb, Corning Glass Works (Pyrex), Nissan, General Motors and Union Carbide.

Interested students should contact Dr. Rory

Flemmer for more details. R.C.Flemmer@

Massey.ac.nz

EMA’s Export YEAr

Initiative launched to take on China

“Automation can reduce labour costs to the point

where New Zealand manufacturers can out-perform the Chinese in

terms of quality and cost.”

New economic indicator survey due Business NZ’s Performance of Service Industries Index (PSI)

This month Business New Zealand in association with its four regional associations including EMA and selected industry groups sees the launch of the Performance of Service Index (PSI).

As with the Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI – see page 22 for the PMI report ) the PSI will provide a monthly indicator of activity levels in the Services sector. The Services sector makes up around 70 per cent of total GDP, and 75 per cent of all enterprises in New Zealand.

Like the PMI, (See full report on page 22) the survey will contribute to and be comparable with global PSI surveys and provide a benchmark of where New Zealand sits in terms of services industries worldwide.

PAGE �Our Vision. Your Success

With the launch of the voluntary work based savings scheme

Kiwisaver on 1st July 2007, businesses throughout New Zealand

will need to make sure their payroll systems are compliant.

For IMS the changes have been simple, because IMS have

been incorporating the ability to manage Employer & Employee

Super Contributions for many years.

IMS Payroll Partner will allow you to minimise your time involved

in managing Kiwisaver, while offering your employees all of the

benefits.

■ Enrol employees when they commence employment

■ Change enrolment status for existing employees

■ Indicate employees are on a “Kiwisaver Holiday”

■ Set default employee & employer contribution percentages

■ Include Kiwisaver deductions and employer contributions

(and any applicable SSCWT) in your IR345 or IR346 reports for

payment to the IRD

■ Automatic generation of electronic transfer files for IR348/349

and KS1 which is the new “Kiwisaver Enrolment” return. Its

all managed from a single New Screen on the Employee File

of IMS Payroll Partner.

Payroll changes needed

Contributing to your employee’s retirement savings through KiwiSaver is seriously worth considering. It won’t be right for every business and those who do contribute, but opt for the simple garden variety, may well miss a valuable business opportunity.

Employers who contribute to their employee’s retirement savings often find it a much needed tool in their campaign to attract and retain good staff.

Others who decide to contribute may be driven by their personal belief in saving but if they don’t consider the business benefits they may later regret it.

Employees already in superan-nuation schemes with employer contributions can testify to the comfort and satisfaction in seeing significant nest eggs put aside for their retirement. They do think twice when weighing up the opportunity to change jobs.

But not all employees value superannuation. For some the need to pay daily living expenses

or supercharge their car is more important. For them, their employer contributions to a superannuation scheme makes little, if any difference in the race to find and keep good staff.

Employers need to ask themselves whether contributing to an employee’s retirement savings will actually help attract and retain the sort of employees they usually employ.

Employers are free to attach conditions to the contributions they make to KiwiSaver, except for any contributions making up part of the employees minimum four per cent payment.

As a staff retention strategy, consider imposing a period of service to be required before employees get to keep the contri-butions.

Any conditions like this are usually put in to a trust deed with the superannuation fund, which also ensures money can be returned to the employer if the conditions are not met.

The tax free status of employer contributions (up to a maximum

of whatever the employee is contributing or four per cent, whichever is the lesser) is welcomed. But it means an employee who has joined KiwiSaver with employer contributions will have a higher value remuneration package than an employee who chooses not to join KiwiSaver and is taxed on their full remuneration. Explaining why their remuneration packages are differently valued is complicated, so producing a total remuneration schedule with and without employer contributions will help clarify matters.

Some employees are likely to exercise their right to switch in and out of KiwiSaver after one year. Remuneration packages both with employer contributions and without will keep transitions of that sort simple and without controversy.

Unions have announced their intention to arm twist employers to make contributions. The question then becomes whether an employer contribution is in addition to a wage increase, or a form of salary sacrifice when an employee’s pay is reduced, or a lower wage increase is paid. To a

Making KiwiSaver countBy David Lowe, EMA Northern’s Manager of Employment Services

>

KiwisAvEr fEAturE

PAGE � EMA Business Plus Magazine - Exclusive EMA news, advice, learning and networking

large extent the answer will depend on when the employer contri-butions are introduced; whether they are made in conjunction with a pay review, or as a separate exercise.

Employer contributions are voluntary. Employers should be careful to ensure it remains that way. In the same way that not every employee will want to be part of KiwiSaver; so too it won’t suit every business to contribute.

Since employment agreements can only be changed with the agreement of both the employee and employer, and once these

sorts of provisions are included in employment agreements, it is very difficult to get them out or to change them.

But KiwiSaver has some very attractive features for businesses who do decide to contribute to their employees’ retirement savings. The Government subsidises the fees involved, and employees get a kick start of $1,000 courtesy of the tax payer. Later on help for first home buyers will be available. If you are happy with the basic garden variety of superannuation funds, then the set-up is also done for you.

But there is very wide scope to get smarter than the basic scheme allows. You really can make employer contributions work hard for your business. Opting for a simple garden variety of employer contributions could well mean you miss an opportunity in the race to attract and keep good people. A summary of issues to consider is available from EMA Northern’s AdviceLine on 0800 800 362 or the website www.ema.co.nz. And from EMA Central on 04 473 7224 www.emacentral.org.nz

KIWISAVER Seminars May 2007 To register: Call AdviceLine on 0800 800 362; or email AdviceLine@ema.co.nz

Mon. 21 May 10.00am - 12.00pm CT Club, Inst. Of Chartered Accountants 27-33 Ohinerau St, GREENLANE EAST

Tues. 22 May 10.00am - 12.00pm North Harbour Stadium, Presidents Lounge, Appian Way, ALBANY

Tues. 22 May 2.00pm - 4.00pm North Harbour Stadium, Presidents Lounge, Appian Way, ALBANY

Weds. 23 May 10.00am - 12.00pm Grand Tiara Hotel, Fenton Street, ROTORUA

Thurs. 24 May 10.00am - 12.00pm Butterfly Creek, Tom Pearce Drive, MANGERE

Thurs. 24 May 10.00am - 12.00pm Kingsgate Hotel Whangarei, 9 Riverside Drive, WHANGAREI

Fri. 25 May 10.00am - 12.00pm Hotel Armitage, Willow Street, TAURANGA

Mon. 28 May 10.00am - 12.00pm CT Club, Inst. Of Chartered Accountants 27-33 Ohinerau St, GREENLANE EAST

Tues. 29 May 10.00am - 12.00pm Kingsgate Hotel Te Rapa, 100 Garnett Avenue, Te Rapa, HAMILTON

Tues. 29 May 1.30pm - 3.30pm Kingsgate Hotel Te Rapa, 100 Garnett Avenue, Te Rapa, HAMILTON

Weds. 30 May 10.00am - 12.00pm CT Club, Inst. Of Chartered Accountants 27-33 Ohinerau St, GREENLANE EAST

Weds. 30 May 2.30pm - 4.30pm Lincoln Green Motor Hotel, 159 Lincoln Road, HENDERSON

Thurs. 31 May 10.00am - 12.00pm Hotel Armitage, Willow Street, TAURANGA

Fri. 1 June 10.00am - 12.00pm Waipuna Conference Centre THEATRE, 58 Waipuna Rd, MT WELLINGTON

<

KiwisAvEr fEAturE

■ Employer contributions are voluntary.

■ An employer can attach whatever conditions they wish to any

contributions they make, except those employer contributions

that make up any part of the employees minimum four per cent

payment.

■ Employer contributions can be used to create a real business

benefit through attaching conditions.

■ Employer contributions are tax free to the lesser of, either:

- the equivalent amount of the employees contributions; or

- four per cent payment. of the employees gross wages and salary.

KIWISAVER: Your Employers Contribution ChecklistIf you have decided to make employer contributions to KiwiSaver or are seriously considering

it, here’s a checklist to identify some key issues:

PAGE �Our Vision. Your Success

KiwiSaver toolsWith KiwiSaver just around the corner, New Zealand’s 2.11 million workers will be thinking about what it means for them and how it fits their personal financial situation.

The Retirement Commission has developed new tools to guide your employees on it, and managers and employers can introduce these tools to them.

From July 1, when any worker1 changes jobs they will automat-ically be included in the KiwiSaver workplace savings scheme. They then have to decide whether to stay in, or opt out.

In the February edition of EMABusiness+, I noted our research has shown many New Zealanders lack significant knowledge in important areas of personal finance, such as mortgages, investments and savings, and these are some of the very things they need to understand

to see whether KiwiSaver suits them. Sort Me and the Sorted KiwiSaver Decision Guide

Sort Me is an online financial health check. It asks about your current finances and future goals, then suggests how that situation can be improved.

Sort Me will become available this Month at www.sorted.org.nz

The Sorted KiwiSaver Decision Guide is the next step on. It asks questions such as:■ How much will KiwiSaver cost

me each pay? ■ How much will I save by 65

years of age through KiwiSaver?■ What incentives am I looking for

in a scheme? ■ Should I ‘stay in’, ‘opt out’ or

‘opt in’ to the scheme now? ■ What type of scheme should I

select?

Managers can help Employers are required by law to

pass on KiwiSaver information from Inland Revenue to their employees, but there’s much more managers can do voluntarily.

Getting sorted on money matters and improving workers’ financial situations doesn’t just benefit the employees and their families. Staff not worried about money tend to be less stressed and take fewer sick days, so do better on the job.

But managers cannot and should not give staff financial or investment advice, but you can give them access to the tools that will help them get sorted on KiwiSaver, and on financial planning in general. ■ To find out how KiwiSaver

works, both employers and employees will find information on the Inland Revenue Department’s KiwiSaver site: www.kiwisaver.govt.nz

■ If you want to receive Sorted information to help your staff make well-informed decisions on KiwiSaver, register online at www.sorted.org.nz/kiwisaver-registration.html.

By Diana Crossan, Retirement Commissioner

1 KiwiSaver is open to all New Zealand citizens and people entitled to live here permanently who are under the age of eligibility for New Zealand Superannuation (currently 65). This includes workers on a part-time or temporary contract, self-employed people and beneficiaries. See www.ird.govt.nz/kiwisaver for more details about membership.

KiwisAvEr fEAturE

KIWISAVER: Your Employers Contribution Checklist

PAGE �0 EMA Business Plus Magazine - Exclusive EMA news, advice, learning and networking

HR can be your key to business success. But for many years the value of the HR department has been hotly debated.

HR is often accused of imposing cumbersome processes and system on busy line managers who resent the pressure to complete things such as position descriptions, staff surveys, staff appraisals, and to adopt outdated and bureaucratic systems.

The line managers may well have a good case if the HR activity or process is not contributing to the bottom line or success of the organi-sation. And if its not contributing to the desired outcomes of the organi-zation, why do it?

The HR function can be essential to the business success if its activities are integral in the strategic direction of the organization.

So first, are your organisation’s vision, mission, strategic direction, and profit expectations clearly documented, communicated and understood?

Balancing operational and cultural excellence

Operational excellence is achieved by developing management processes and systems necessaryto achieve desired goals. Cultural excellence is about effective leadership and people strategies to lift the organisation’s performance to the highest level.

Many organisations focus on operational excellence factors which are generally short term, risk averse, and often use a command and control management style. These factors are concerned primarily with efficiency and cost reduction and may achieve short term results but very quickly hit a performance outcome ceiling. On

the other hand, other organisations develop virtually unlimited capability and growth when equal emphasis is placed on both operational excellence and cultural excellence.

Cultural excellence can lead to top line growth by developing world class leadership capability, innovation, empowerment of staff, and balancing short and long term focus; in brief they invest in their people.

HR practice continually builds people capability and commitment to achieve organi-sational goals and objectives through “operational and cultural excellence”; it can therefore play a major role in achieving organi-sational outcomes.

HR is really about…Professional HR practitioners

work in partnership with other managers as advisors, leaders, change agents, coordinators and facilitators to maximise the return from investing in your people resource.

Experienced HR practitioners assist your success by aligning individual behaviours, management style and culture with your organisa-tion’s vision, mission and values. They will:■ Implement performance

management processes where employees and teams are assessed against key result areas and desired cultural behaviours.

■ Play an active role in planning for

operational and structural changes in the business to ensure your communications with employees are robust.

■ Ensure all employees are rewarded fairly and in line with prevailing pay rates, and help develop workable incentive schemes based on individual, team and company performance.

■ Recruit the best possible people using best practice processes and tools to achieve the ideal person/environment fit.

■ Recognise that an employee’s personal issues impact on your organizations goals and implement programmes for timely intervention as required to achieve minimal impact on the workplace.

EMA, your leading HR resourceEMA Central and Northern have

a team of experienced HR practi-tioners who can work with managers to help transform businesses. These practitioners have worked in successful businesses at all levels and only recommend HR tried and true processes and systems which will contribute to the bottom line performance and success of your organisation.

Organisations can only develop so far through cost cutting and demanding efficiency from their people. To sustain ongoing growth you have to take your people with you.

Kerin Roberts has over 20 years proven

HR Management experience at site,

regional and corporate levels in the feilds

of Change Management, Culture, HR

systems and Organisation development

Call him on 04 4709921 or mob.

027 6876411

Why HR?….Is your HR department really necessary?

By Kerin Roberts, Senior HR Consultant EMA Central

Operational Excellence

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PAGE �� EMA Business Plus Magazine - Exclusive EMA news, advice, learning and networking

It’s a truism that a country with a relatively small population will have a relatively small domestic market – bringing a need to sell to overseas markets in order to grow large and profitable businesses.

It’s the export imperative – something we’re very aware of in Export Year 2007.

Exporting is the one thing that can make all the difference for a high standard of living for our citizens.

Exporting part of NZ historyExporting has always been an integral

part of our history, from the 19th

century when Maori tribes exported crops to New South Wales settlers and early New Zealand farmers exported meat and butter in the first refrigerated ships.

The early days when Britain bought all the agricultural commodities that we could send – when we were ‘Britain’s farm’ – were pretty easy. There was no need to hunt down prospective markets, no need to tailor products to consumers’ needs, no need to advertise, no need to innovate to keep existing customers and get new ones.

This charmed existence reached its peak in the early 1950s, when NZ for a while had the highest per capita income in the world. What topped it off was

the Korean War, which increased even further the demand for NZ-produced wool for solders’ uniforms.

This all changed in 1973 when Britain joined the European Economic Community, and severed the prefer-ential relationship for NZ produce.

We found ourselves without our safe British export market at the same time as the inflation from the oil shock started to bite. The drop in our wealth was only partially disguised by the Government’s significant overseas borrowing to prop up our standard of living.

It was a time of cold hard realisation. We realised we would have to start actively marketing our goods to a

New Zealand’s export story

Workplace literacy steps up Business New Zealand has been working with the Council of Trade Unions, Workbase and Industry Training Federation to develop a joint action strategy on workplace literacy. The strategy will call for greater action to:• Raise awareness of the benefits of literacy skills and training

with employers and employees;• Build an industry- driven and relevant workplace literacy

training system; and• Scale up services to improve low workplace literacy skill

levels.

IRD relocation expenses plan rebuttedMost businesses tend to treat new employee relocation expenses the same as existing employee relocation expenses, i.e. as a general business expense. But the tax department has been trying to change that; it wants them treated as employment income, and therefore subject to the same treatment as income tax.EMA and Business NZ strongly reject this. It would add substan-tially to costs of recruitment especially for businesses which regularly obtain skilled staff from offshore, and contrary to the stated policies of the Government’s ambition to develop a high skilled and productive workforce.

ACC change rolled backAs a result of Business NZ and EMA’s lobbying, which included nearly 700 letters from employers, ACC Minister Ruth Dyson

has decided to omit hearing loss, and reconsider the status of asthma and contact dermatitis, from her review of conditions covered by the ACC scheme. Removing hearing loss is a significant win, but the battle continues on the others given the need for accurate diagnosis, not merely of the condition itself, but of its workplace origins. It’s essential if there is to be a shift in the onus of proof from employee to employer.

Research on employment disputesThe Department of Labour is preparing a survey on the costs and benefits of the ‘personal grievance gravy train’. Initial focus groups have been held on the topic and a survey is to follow. The Minister of Labour has acknowledged her concern at the problem.

Quality flexible workThe Employment Relations (Flexible Working Hours) Bill introduced in March 2006 by Sue Kedgley is still before the Select Committee, but its report back has been delayed til July 31 2007. Business NZ is discussing the way ahead for the bill with Government and the CTU which favours legislation. We much prefer education as the best way to promote flexible workplaces, and point out the inherent contradiction of trying to legislate for flexibility. True flexibility must involve matching employee desires for different working arrangements with the realistic capacity of the employer to respond.

EMPLOYMENT ISSUES UPDATE

By Phil O'Reilly, Business NZ’s CEO

>

PAGE ��Our Vision. Your Success

wider range of overseas customers. And it slowly started dawning on us that commodities alone wouldn’t make us all millionaires. We would have to begin more processing, moving away from commodities and towards more elaborately transformed manufactures.

Another realisation was how hard it was to sell into protected markets. Being the commodity supplier to what had been the British Empire, there had been no problems with tariffs or import quotas. An empire, after all, doesn’t have to erect tariff barriers to protect its domestic farmers – it just uses its best farmers wherever they happen to be within the realm.

That’s not what happens in individual sovereign states. Understandably, they want to be self sufficient in agricultural commodities and that’s why so many countries still subsidise their farming sector, regardless of how inefficient it is.

So, after 1973 when NZ started knocking on the doors of potential overseas customers, we found out pretty quickly it would not be an easy ride. It was a galvanising experience, and paved the way for our decision a decade later, to totally embrace free trade.

Taking on free tradeIn what some called an act of folly,

NZ unilaterally dismantled its tariff structure. We decided we would not protect our less efficient industries with tariffs and import quotas – we would let them sink or swim. And we would back ourselves in the quest for selling the products of our more efficient producers.

The results were uncomfortable for many firms and many employees. Adding to the discomfort was a more general programme of reform during the 1980s – privatisation, deregulation, tax cuts and the floating of the NZ$.

All this happened because we had reached crisis point. We weren’t selling enough overseas to keep our economy afloat, and the Government’s policy of overseas borrowing came to an end because we couldn’t meet the repayments.

The result is that we are a totally unprotected economy with regard to international trade. We still have trouble getting our products in to some other countries, because many still have tariff and other protections.

But we allow just about any product in to NZ, which brings a number of consequences.

First, it keeps New Zealand businesses on their toes. Having to compete against all comers on a level playing field helps them focus on efficiency and effectiveness.

Second, it keeps prices down. Consumers now have access to a wide range of competitively priced products from all around the globe.

And third, the influx of foreign goods at low prices helps New Zealand companies see where they can best compete. They realise it’s not in their interests to try and compete against high-volume low-cost items - instead, they can make more money by creating higher-value items with a greater design component, aimed more at niche markets overseas.

How can we do better?As a nation we are making good

progress towards higher value exports to more markets, but we could be doing better.

The high New Zealand dollar, the difficulty of small firms gaining enough scale to begin exporting and high transport costs are all disincentives to export.

There are also drawbacks associated with the general environment for business which are well analysed in international studies like the World Economic Forum’s National Competitiveness Index, which ranks all countries on their ability to compete as exporters.

This year’s index showed NZ 23rd in the world for overall competi-tiveness, and lists our outstanding disadvantages as wastefulness of government spending and burden of government compliance.

Wasteful government spending is

inflationary – and so adds to the pressure on the NZ$. It also means that taxation is higher than it should be – so New Zealand businesses have a higher tax burden than their competitors.

And the burden of government compliance means New Zealand businesses have more red tape holding them back than their overseas competitors.

These are areas where Business NZ and EMA advocate very hard for improvement, as being essential to improve the position of New Zealand exporting.

Of course it’s not just action by the Government that’s needed - New Zealand firms and organisations also have a part to play in making changes that would improve our exports position. Action by different parties is needed in many areas, including:■ Lower tax ■ More R&D ■ Less regulation ■ More on-the-ground support in

overseas markets by NZ Trade & Enterprise

■ More focus on high-tech exporting and value-added products

■ More focus on design ■ More use of New Zealand culture

as a point of differentiation

Business NZ and EMA are totally supportive

of Export Year 2007 and will continue our

advocacy towards New Zealand’s export

success.

Business NZ’s CEO Phil O’Reilly

<

PAGE �� EMA Business Plus Magazine - Exclusive EMA news, advice, learning and networking

“Employees are our greatest asset” but if you look at your organisation’s spend on employee maintenance, is that true?Computers get their own air conditioned, dust free room and are continuously maintained while staff are often exposed to a wide variety of airborne contaminants. Some of these contaminants we can see and smell; others are unseen and may have no odour.

In a recent NOSHAC (National Occupational Health and Safety Advisory Committee) report the following statements were made:■ Each year between 700 and 1000 deaths

are attributable to workplace exposures to contaminants compared to around 80 work place deaths caused by accidents.

■ Each year between 17,000 to 20,000 new cases of workplace illness are caused by contaminants in the workplace. Given a New Zealand employee workforce of 1.765 million, this equates to a 1.1 per cent chance of becoming sick due to a workplace exposure to some form of a contaminant.

Lotto odds are far better than this.The Department of Labour along with

the Workplace Health and Safety Strategy

will be focusing on air borne contaminants over the next few years in an attempt to reduce this alarming number of illness related conditions.

Health categoriesEmployee health monitoring falls into

two main categories: Lifestyle monitoring, and monitoring work place hazards.

Lifestyle health monitoring is about monitoring the key indicators of health falling outside work place health hazard exposures. These indicators pick up underlying issues that, if treated straight away, will correct or control illnesses in the early phase. This has an immediate kick-on effect for employers through less absenteeism and less time and money spent on covering for sick staff.

Workplace monitoring is about measuring the body’s burden or load absorbed by an employee in the course of their employment.

Some contaminants must be monitored by law while others are deemed to require a prudent or reasonable measure of monitoring under the “all practicable steps” definition.

The monitoring of the health of your staff is probably the only way you can know your workplace hazard controls measures are working.

By Paul Jarvie, EMA Northern’s Manager of Workplace Health & Safety

Health monitoring: Fad or futureNext stepsThe writing is on the wall on workplace health issues. In the mid 1980’s the Department of Health undertook work place monitoring for employers, but alas that has all gone. From now on employers will be required to do a lot more to verify that the air quality in their workplaces is good and that staff exposed to air borne contaminants are not becoming ill from those exposures. This can only be done by eliminating the contaminant, isolating the employee from the contaminant, or regularly monitoring both the air quality and the employee’s health.EMA OH&S practitioners have the specialist skills to assist you provide the monitoring required by law, and advise on what other monitoring might be required. Life style monitoring is not a legal requirement but if staff are your greatest asset then some maintenance may be due.

Call Paul Jarvie 09 367 0963 or Jacky Hyslop 027 580 1923

Audiograms, hearing testsThese are required to be done annually if noise levels average 85dB (A) in an eight hour period. The current ACC bill for noise induced hearing loss (workplace only) is around $28 million. It is forecast to reach $90 million in the next few years. Noise surveys of the working environment are also required every five years if nothing changes, or more regularly if there have been alterations or new plant introduced.

Lung function tests These are performed to measure the elasticity and functioning of the lungs of your staff. Air borne dusts, fumes, solvents, vapours all get inhaled and can

permanently damage lung tissue thus reducing both lung capacity and oxygen transfer.

Urine testing This measures the body’s biochemistry and identifies hazards that within the body’s tissues. Lead is a common hazard identified by urine testing. Vision testing This is done regularly for VDU employees but is vital for drivers and those doing close work, or work requiring detailed analysis.

Blood screening This identifies the presence of bacteria

and similar that should not be present, thus indicating an exposure to a contaminant in the work place.

Musculo skeletal monitoring The rates of low back pain, sore shoulders, and general aches and pains industry millions of work days are lost every year. Monitoring and surveillance is very beneficial in identifying the tasks and time frames causing this discomfort. The Health and Safety in Employment Act Sect 10 (2) (c) requires employers to monitor their employees’ health, and to monitor hazards that have not been eliminated or isolated. This requirement covers many of the common health issues canvassed above.

As a guide the following monitoring is available:

PAGE ��Our Vision. Your Success

Have you started your New Zealand International Financial Reporting Standards (“NZ IFRS”) conversion project yet?

If so, your NZ IFRS impact assessment should have identified tax as a major impact area.

Why’s that, you ask? A recent survey conducted by Ernst & Young identified taxation consistently in the top 10 of all IFRS adjustments.

Two tax aspects of NZ IFRS need to be considered. First and most urgent is the financial reporting requirement in conjunction with your conversion project, in particular deferred tax.

Second, completion of income tax returns for the first year of conversion.

Our experience to date indicates that there are a number of financial reporting issues that will result in signif-icantly different treatment under NZ IFRS than under current NZ GAAP. Therefore the underlying fundamentals in preparing financial statements, with which we are all familiar, will most likely change.

NZ IAS 12 (Income Taxes) prescribes a new methodology of determining a deferred tax balance for an entity. It requires the determi-nation of a deferred tax balance under a “balance sheet approach”. The balance sheet approach adds complexity to the determination of both the deferred tax asset and the liability of the entity.

As a result of the balance sheet approach and the probable changes in financial reporting treatment under NZ IFRS, there is an increased need for tax accountants to fully understand the methodologies used to determine all items in the Statement of Financial Position. It is equally important that the financial accounts understand the taxation aspects of NZ IFRS.

The preparation of a tax balance sheet requires consideration to be given to the tax treatment of each asset and liability to determine the tax

base of each. It is important to note that the income tax legislation has not yet changed as a consequence of adoption of NZ IFRS. It is, therefore, vitally important for tax accountants to understand how the accounts are put together so they can apply the principles in the current tax legislation to the NZ IFRS treatment.

What the IRD said about NZ IFRSYou might ask what the IRD has

said about NZ IFRS. To date the IRD has issued two statements. The first identified some areas where the Income Tax Act 2004 (“the Act”) makes reference to current NZ GAAP, for example, inventory valuation (FRS 4) and research and development expenditures (FRS 13). The statement recognises that the Act may need to be changed in relation to these items to incorporate the change to NZ IFRS.

The second statement was released March 2007 and comments that the current Act will be amended to accommodate the change to NZ IFRS. The amendments are to be introduced in the May 2007 tax bill.

The IRD statement states with respect to financial arrangements, taxpayers who adopt IFRS for financial reporting will be required to use IFRS valuation and timing methodologies for tax purposes.

There will be three Determinations available for the valuation of certain financial arrangements (G9C, G14B and G27). The IRD statement allows these determinations to be used but we will have to wait to see the legislation so we can understand the circumstances in which they can be used.

The IRD has also indicated that the legislative changes will be made retrospectively so that early adopters can adopt the IFRS treatment for financial arrangement in income tax returns already been filed.

Income tax returnsAdopting NZ IFRS will impact

on the preparation of the income

tax return, particularly in the year of conversion. Some of the issues to be considered are:■ What amounts of income and

expenditure have been put through the Statement of Financial Performance under NZ IFRS that may have differed under NZ GAAP?

■ What amounts have been put through Equity that may be taxable or deductible and therefore may require adjustment?

■ What impact will the NZ IFRS transitional adjustment have on the financial statements in the year of conversion?

■ What is the affect of balance sheet items in the comparative NZ IFRS accounts released in the conversion year, particularly when the income tax return for that comparative year is filed under NZ GAAP?

Recommended approachTax should be considered part of the

NZ IFRS conversion project. The tax consequences of each change should be considered at the same time as the NZ IFRS analysis. The project teams should include suitably experienced people in both financial reporting and tax matters.

When planning the conversion project, the lessons from our experiences to date are:■ It is vitally important that tax is not

left to last;■ Correct project planning makes the

conversion project more efficient; and

■ It takes a lot longer than was first anticipated to complete the conversion project.

If you have any queries on IFRS please contact one of our Ernst & Young IFRS team: Auckland, Sanjay Kumar09 300 8114, sanjay.kumar@nz.ey.com Wellington, David Griffiths04 470 0511, david.griffiths@nz.ey.com Christchurch, Jason Macgregor03 379 1870, jason.macgregor@nz.ey.com

EMA's TAX TIPSBy Jason Macgregor, Senior Manager, Ernst & Young

NZ IFRS and tax

PAGE �6 EMA Business Plus Magazine - Exclusive EMA news, advice, learning and networking

The client: an Auckland importing and manufacturing business.The targets: Sales manager David and his sales assistant Lorna.

Staff morale was plummeting and the Australian based director was at a loss to explain why, until he spoke privately with his most trusted and long serving employee.

It was revealed David and Lorna were having an affair, and it seemed, the entire staff roster were aware of it.

David was making life easy for Lorna. She was cruising in her role as a result. On top of that, the two love birds often left the office together and returned ‘refreshed’ an hour or two later.

Why should other staff have to carry the load while these individuals were having all the fun?

Sometimes there is a dilemma in business over when staff activities are acceptable inside and outside work hours. We all know when staff morale drops, productivity and profits respond accordingly.

But when should you butt in on what could be construed as a private matter?

The director decided if he could prove that the pair were ‘dancing in the sheets’ during work hours, he would be able to take positive action. In fact, a clause in their employment contracts dictated they were not allowed to visit

their home residences during work hours.

We conducted a surveillance operation to track the activities of David and Lorna over a three day period tailing each of them around appointments and activities for the duration of their work days.

For the first couple of days they restricted their meetings to coffees and lunches when they were supposedly at client meetings. But the director was

still uncomfortable as it would be easy enough for the pair to explain and excuse their way out of any argument over that.

On the third day events took a turn. The trysting two deviated completely from the standard routine and traveled to Lorna’s home where they proceeded to blow out the cobwebs!

Now of course we no longer peek through windows or key holes to

prove adultery, but with both parties caught on camera emerging from the address after more than an hour; both freshly showered in the early afternoon, it was a fair enough summation.

When presented with the evidence the parties were initially bewildered and wondered why they were under investigation in the first place. They were so tied up in their affair that they had failed to notice the effect on their jobs, their fellow employees and

in David’s case his marriage and children.

■ Employers and people in general are often afraid to pursue an issue when they are unsure of their footing. Its human nature, hence the need to obtain irrefutable evidence prior to making decisions or playing your hand.

■ The director was right to bring this to a head and since the issue has been dealt with, the business has prospered and the organization hums with happy and team-oriented employees again.

Names and some details have been altered for reasons of confidentiality.

Rod Moratti is the principal at Moratti & Associates, Licensed Investigators since 1989. Feel free to contact Rod on 027-6958863 at any time or email rod@moratti.co.nz or visit www.moratti.co.nz

True stories from the security files of: Rod Moratti, Private Investigator

Caught playing during work time…

Jarvie appointed to safety councilEMA Northern’s Manager of Workplace Health & Safety, Paul Jarvie, has been appointed to the Government’s new Workplace Health and Safety Council. The Council is to provide leadership, co-ordination, and advice to the Government on relevant legislation, standards and policies, said Labour Minister Ruth Dyson on announcing

the appointments.On the Council Jarvie joins CTU secretary Carol Beaumont, Finsec general secretary Andrew Casidy, and Panu Raea, a barrister, and 2003 Pacific Business Leader of the Year. Ex officio members of the Minister, CTU President Ross Wilson, and Phil O’Reilly, chief executive of Business New

Zealand. Appointments are for an initial term of three years.

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PAGE �� EMA Business Plus Magazine - Exclusive EMA news, advice, learning and networking

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The Business New Zealand Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) has been running for over four years, and proven to be a lead indicator. It has demonstrated the level of manufacturing activity, both across the country and in regions in the North and South Islands. The monthly survey run monthly takes 1-2 minutes to complete, and is based on the views of over 200 manufac-turers throughout the country.

PMI results have shown that, despite the general strong economic conditions over recent years, it has not been plain sailing for New Zealand manufacturers compared with other sectors.

After growth 2003-2004, the sector stagnated in 2005 as the New Zealand dollar reached record levels, and labour/skill shortages

constrained firms' ability to grow. 2006 saw some recovery, whereas 2007 has so far shown an upward trend beginning October 2006.

Results for the EMA Northern and EMA Central regions broadly followed the overall national result (fig. 1), respondents in the North Island make up around 75 per cent of all responses. Table 1 shows the comparisons by numbers, with the average quarterly value for 2007 showing some improvement.

New Zealand’s PMI results contribute to the NTC Global PMI, encompassing manufacturing activity from 23 countries, including the USA, UK, Australia, China and France. These run the same survey as New Zealand. Collectively

the Global PMI accounts for an estimated 82 per cent of global manufacturing output. Results in figure 2 show the New Zealand PMI values largely mirror activity on the global scene.

The PMI survey also asks about the major impacts on activity. Unsurprisingly, the high value of the New Zealand dollar remains the primary concern. The second biggest issue is skills/labour shortages. Interestingly, this was the biggest issue until 2005, when many manufacturers

became more circumspect about increasing their staff numbers given uncertainty about future economic growth.

Towards the end of 2006, labour shortages again started to surface, albeit not at the level seen pre-2005.

Looking forward, the main question is: How will the rest of 2007 pan out? While the year started strongly, the continued rise of the New Zealand dollar to the levels of 2005 means added margin squeeze.

Negative comments strongly outweigh positive ones, which could indicate expansion may not be possible in the short-medium term.

The budget this month may include positive announcements for manufacturers, primarily by lowering the company tax rate. Any gains though, may be some time away in terms of implemen-tation.

State of play of PMI By Stephen Summers, economist with Business NZ

Table 1: Average PMI Result by Year

Year National

Result (s.a)

EMA

Northern

EMA

Central2003 54.6 52.8 54.52004 57.5 58.3 56.52005 50.9 50.3 50.42006 53.3 52.6 51.92007 (Jan-Mar) 55.6 53.0 53.4

* A PMI reading above 50 points indicates manufacturing is generally expanding, below 50 that it is declining. The distance from 50 is indicative

of the strength of the expansion or decline.

Figure 1*: PMI Values for EMA Northern, EMA Central and Nationwide

(Aug 2002 – Mar 2007)

70

65

60

55

50

55

AUG 02

SEP 02OCT 02

NOV 02

DEC 02JAN 03

AUG 03

SEP 03OCT 03

NOV 03

DEC 03JAN 04

FEB 03MAR 03

APR 03MAY 03

JUN 03

JUL 03AUG 04

SEP 04OCT 04

NOV 04

DEC 04FEB 04

MAR 04

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JUN 04

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AUG 05

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AUG 06

SEP 06OCT 06

NOV 06

DEC 06FEB 06

MAR 06

APR 06MAY 06

JUN 06

JUL 06JAN 07

FEB 07MAR 07

PMI

NORTHERN

CENTRAL

Figure 2: New Zealand and Global PMI Values (Aug 2002 – Mar 2007)

65

60

55

50

55

AUG 02

SEP 02OCT 02

NOV 02

DEC 02JAN 03

AUG 03

SEP 03OCT 03

NOV 03

DEC 03JAN 04

FEB 03MAR 03

APR 03MAY 03

JUN 03

JUL 03AUG 04

SEP 04OCT 04

NOV 04

DEC 04FEB 04

MAR 04

APR 04MAY 04

JUN 04

JUL 04JAN 05

AUG 05

SEP 05OCT 05

NOV 05

DEC 05FEB 05

MAR 05

APR 05MAY 05

JUN 05

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AUG 06

SEP 06OCT 06

NOV 06

DEC 06FEB 06

MAR 06

APR 06MAY 06

JUN 06

JUL 06JAN 07

FEB 07MAR 07

NZ PMI

GLOBAL PMI

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TERMS & CONDITIONS: Telecom terms, conditions and charges apply.MONTHLY PLANS: Credit criteria and monthly access fees apply. DISCONNECTION FEES: If you are an existing Telecom Mobile customer in contract and you wish to take up any of these offers, you may be subject to disconnection fees under your existing contract. EMA Association 100 Plan is available to members of the EMA association only, until further notice. EXPIRY: All offers are valid until 31 May 07 or while stocks last.

PAGE �0 EMA Business Plus Magazine - Exclusive EMA news, advice, learning and networking

Running a successful business means always looking for opportunities to cut operating costs. Taking action to improve energy efficiency and eliminate unnecessary costs creates a win-win on both sides of the cost/benefit ledger.

Energy is an unavoidable cost when operating a business, so when you manage energy well your profit improves. But other benefits include reducing maintenance costs and improving productivity by providing a safer and healthier work environment.

Minimising your energy and wastage costs simply requires you to follow sound management practices similar to those used in other aspects of your business, namely: Understand, Plan, Act, Monitor and Review to ensure you achieve continuous improvement.

Step 1: Understanding your footprint

First, you need to understand your businesses energy use and costs by collecting information from your energy bills over a period of time, ideally two years, to get an accurate picture.

In the August and September articles in EMABusiness+ last year (Understanding and mining information from your utility bills) we covered this topic in great depth.

This understanding will help you judge the effects of any energy efficiency improvements. However, if you are planning to invest in energy efficiency, more specific information is needed, such as where energy is being used and how. Our next article will cover this in detail.

Step 2: Strategic PlanAs part of your strategic planning

you should plan to implement no-cost energy saving measures before considering low cost measures requiring a capital outlay. However,

you can incorporate energy efficiency into your plans if you are looking to purchase new equipment, refurbish or move to new premises. This is the time to minimise costs associated with implementing energy efficiency measures while maximising their long term financial benefits.

The Plan should clarify your strategy; goals and responsibilities and a 12 month energy plan with identified opportunities and common no-cost saving measures.

Step 3: ActYou now understand your footprint

and have prioritised where savings can be made. The most important step now is to implement your action plans. Some no cost measures can be implemented in days whereas other initiatives may take months.

Step 4: MonitorMonitoring is important to ensure

your planned measures have been implemented and improvements made visible. Monitoring requirements should be added into the action plan to make sure they occur.

You should verify and monitor your energy bills each month or quarter as good business practice. But check on a weekly/monthly basis that agreed actions are being implemented.

Step 5: ReviewRegular reviews will assess how

effectively the plan is achieving your original aims, and the effect of any influencing factors such as energy price increases (or decreases!).

The review will also identify if any delays or barriers exist and how they may be overcome.

EnergyPro Solutions Ltd helps organisations

implement effective energy management

and procurement strategies to maximise

energy and utilities savings. It has been

working with many successful organi-

sations for 15 years.

Please contact us on (09) 623 0547 or

email info@energypro.co.nz with queries

regarding specific processes and we will

include it in the next article.

Five practical steps to reduce energy costsBy Hitish Patel, chief executive, EnergyProENErGY DEBriEf

PAGE ��Our Vision. Your Success

No one need tell you that acquiring and retaining the right kind of customers is a challenge.

Many businesses find Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software can help them. But CRM is more than just software.

So how do you grow customer loyalty and revenue in a competitive market? Here are four must do’s:1. Offer a consistent customer

experience, every time.2. Focus on your customer’s needs3. Ask for regular feedback from

customers, partners and staff.4. Communicate

1. ConsistencyWe are all creatures of habit, and we

all return to the same service station, hairdresser, hotel, manufacturer or any other supplier when we are comfortable and pleased with their systems and processes. Ultimately we return because we have a familiar experience.

So when your customers interact with your business are they greeted consistently? Are they given consistent information? Does the sale or support transaction happen the same way every time? Is their experience what they expect?

Start by ensuring your customers enjoy processes that are clear and

understood by all staff, then practice them consistently.

2. Focus on the customer’s needsWe all know when we’re being sold

to and we all hate it. Yet when someone helps us solve a problem, or meets a need, we spend our hard earned money with them.

Often we focus too intently on what we need from the transaction, not on what the customer needs. We start selling, and thereby risk losing customers. Yet when we solve our customer’s problem, they feel that we have listened to them, and that we helped them. They start to trust our advice, and heed our recommendations. They consider their purchase an investment, not an expense. They come back again and again.

So how do you know when you’re meeting their needs? You ask!

3. Ask for feedbackCustomer feedback tells you what

you are doing right, and what needs adjustment. Feedback also identifies changes in market trends. Customers will tell you directly and indirectly what your competitors are doing, both good and bad. You will get a sense of the products and services that your customers are looking for, so you can evolve your service offerings to better meet their needs.

Ask for feedback both formally

and informally. As well as conducting surveys I recommend spending time on the shop floor, or on the road with your service or sales reps. Pick up the phone. Ask key customers how your business is doing.

Call those you have just won, and certainly call those you have just lost. Record what you discover, and analyze it for trends.

4. CommunicatePeople like to read short, punchy

case studies, product updates and information on events you are hosting. Email is very cost effective.

Yes, CRM helps with all these areas. You can use CRM to enforce processes and help ensure a consistent customer experience. You can record the challenges and business issues of your customers, then analyse them to provide effective solutions.

You can use CRM to conduct surveys and record formal and informal feedback.

There are many more things you can do with your CRM. Implemented properly it will help achieve the first four steps above and lead to improved customer loyalty, increased revenue and profitability. Why wouldn’t you?

David Knight works with all sizes and types

of organisation to help them grow through

CRM software. Email: david.knight@fusion5.

co.nz or call: 021 277 8808.

Effective CRM to boost customer loyalty

BDavid Knight, Business Development Manager, Fusion5

Strategic advice Practical solutions Skilled representation

Key contactsSusan-Jane Davies (04) 470 9923 sjdavies@emalegal.org.nzParvez Akbar (09) 367 0931 parvez.akbar@ema.co.nzElizabeth Brown (06) 843 3419 elizabethb@emalegal.org.nz

Specialist Employment LawyersOur high success rate reflects our expertise. Our 13 lawyers specialise in employment law and only act for employers. As part of a member-owned organisation, EMA Legal offers services that are excellent value.

PAGE �� EMA Business Plus Magazine - Exclusive EMA news, advice, learning and networking

I quit!Do you dread hearing this from a valued employee?The great news is you can avoid employees leaving when you have an effective staff retention strategy in place.

Attracting and retaining skilled staff is the No 1. concern for executives according to a global study by Accenture.

The annual study based on 425 senior executives in North America, Europe and Asia showed workforce improvement issues are dominating manage-ment’s thinking.

For example the largest number of respondents, 35 per cent, selected “attracting and retaining skilled staff ” as their top priority, while 33 per cent cited “changing organisational cultural and employee attitudes.” The third-placed issue was “finding new customers”!

The findings highlight the real battle today is about attracting and retaining talented people and translating their work into business success.

Talented people won’t stay long if they are not appreciated

or if they feel their creativity is being stifled. And the battle for talent is being fought not just against local competitors, but at a global level.

Attracting top people can be expensive with added costs incurred and momentum lost during the changeover period. Effective staff retention strategies are therefore a priority.

The benefits are to:■ Help you keep your top

performers■ Reduce the cost of staff turnover

■ Improve employee culture, morale and motivation.

Start at the topKeeping key people starts at the

very top and that involves visionary leadership. What does that mean? It means walking the talk and winning the hearts of employees. It means putting time into coaching, mentoring and nurturing people’s capabilities.

It is important to recognise high performers are the stars of any organi-sation. The danger is in leaving them get on with things because the need to

deal with poor performers.Adopting the following

principles can maximise the potential of high-performing employees:Identify who they are.- Recognise achievement.- Broaden the reward mechanisms- Provide new challenges.- Motivate and develop- Inspire others- Keep them fully engaged- Communication- Create a learning culture

Picasso Behavioural and Drake P3 are powerful psychometric assessments tools to help you select the right candidate.

Gay Barton is General Manager,

Drake New Zealand

Attracting and retaining top peopleBy Gay Barton

PAYROLL P

AYROLL

More New Zealand businesses use Ace Payroll than any other computerised

wages program.

Visit our constantly updated website at www.acepay.co.nz

for employment law, legislative links, tax planning etc

or call toll free on 0800 223 729 for a free demonstration kit.

PAGE ��Our Vision. Your Success

Some years ago my office manager had to leave due to ill health. We placed an ad in the local paper and were deluged with replies. The second person interviewed sounded fabulous, and I hired her on the spot.

Then the problems started. We’ll call her Sue. Bright, outgoing, animated, she had some excellent work experience. But I quickly found a mismatch between the skills she had, and what the job required. The wasted time just about drove me nuts.

A few weeks later, over a drink with a friend, I was having a pity party.

‘Next time use a profiling tool to find the right match,’ she said. ‘What you’ve probably done with Sue is hired her based on your liking for the person, maybe someone quite like yourself. Do you want a clone of yourself, or different skills?’

That was a good question! Oh dear, I had stuffed up!

Over the next hour I learnt about benchmarking and assessment tools. To benchmark, the employer marks a questionnaire as if they were the job. This shows what skills the job needs, rather than what the employer thinks

they’d like.Then, when a candidate looks

promising, based on their CV and preliminary phone interview, ask them to fill in a similar questionnaire. It uncovers their ideal work environment. If there’s a reasonable match, only then take the time to interview them and do reference checks.

Luckily for all concerned, a week later Sue found she couldn’t manage the hours required, and we were back in the market. Thank you, God - another chance! Even before we placed the ad I found an assessment tool to use. (It happened to be out of the DISC profiling stable, and there are others.)

Ad placed, the phone started to ring again. It’s very hard having to choose when you’ve got a bunch of equally good-sounding people. I ended up with three who presented very well, so, following instructions, asked each of them to fill in the questionnaire before we met.

One lady sounded fabulous over the phone; I was really looking forward to meeting her. But my profiler came back with: ‘Don’t go there. You’ll waste her time and yours. There’s too much of a mismatch. She shows

up as needing constant reassurance. However, the job shows as needing a lot of independent thinking and an ability to make autonomous decisions without constant reference to you. You know you’re out of the office a lot, and travelling extensively. If you hire this lady you put quite unfair stress on her. She’ll be excellent for someone else, but not for you.’

Now we have Jill, a wonderful office administrator, and just perfect for the job. She’s so good that we now work virtual; a few years after we began together she shifted to Christchurch, whereas I live near Auckland.

The lesson I learnt? Don’t second-guess. Get help. And the help was very inexpensive and all done by email and phone. All the time management skills in the world won’t help if you’re struggling with the wrong staff.

Robyn Pearce is an international productivity and time management speaker and author. She’ll be running a PowerBox session on Delegation for the EMA on June 21. You’ll also find a bundle of further free help at http://www.gettingagrip.com, including a fortnightly Top Time Tips e-zine (email magazine).

How to select the right staff

get a griphot tips for higher productivity

By Robyn Pearce CSP

www.horizonrecruitment.co.nzthe future just got brighter...

Make sure you are a financial member ofEMA on 30 June 2007 and you could win a fantastic Nissan Maxima Ti.

Driving business performance, and economy

PAGE �� EMA Business Plus Magazine - Exclusive EMA news, advice, learning and networking

John Beck, winner of last year’s supreme winning business at the Westpac Manukau Business Excellence Awards, says the hours of effort invested on entering, and winning, a business award pays for itself many times over.

John Beck submitted his company, Styrobeck Plastics Limited, to the scrutiny of the judges twice before emerging the winner.

The first year Styrobeck entered, it came away empty handed though

they were a finalist in one category. The second year, Styrobeck won two categories, including the EMA Excellence in Manufacturing & Services Award, and the Excellence in Innovation and Strategy Award, as well as taking away the overall prize for 2006.

“We haven’t advertised since we won the award, we haven’t needed to,” says Beck. “It has certainly given us a lot more respect and our existing customers are proud to deal with us

and have confidence that we know what we are doing.”

Other past winners of the Westpac Manukau Business Excellence Awards are Kiwi Discovery, Villa Maria Estate , Epic Packaging, and Rayglass Boats.

Entries for this year close on June 22, with finalists announced at a cocktail function on July 19. Business managers and owners interested in entering should visit www.bizawards.co.nz or contact Enterprising Manukau on 09 262 2244.

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By making safetynet@work available to your employees you are providing them with:u Low-cost insurance u A means of helping to ease the

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For more information contact:Suzy Roper – EMA NorthernEmail: Suzy.Roper@ema.co.nzPh: 09 367 0909Fax: 09 367 0920

* Conditions apply please refer to the Benefit Summary

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Safetynet@work insurance is:

Effort of Award's entry worth it

Myskillpool.co.nz is an online website where ‘passive’ job seekers can place their credentials anonymously. Skilled professionals will be able to list their profiles online and through a registration process, ensure they are not identified until a prospective employer has verified their interest in interviewing them.

In an offer to be emailed to you shortly www.myskillpool.co.nzwill be provided at no charge to EMA members. You will have to sign up your business within two weeks of receiving the offer.If you don’t sign within two weeks but within the first three months of myskillpool going live, the charge will be half an

annual subscription which is being struck at $300.Myskillpool will not list active job seekers. Employers will be able to look over the types of skills on offer to see if the skills they need are on offer and without incurring recruitment fees.

Look out for the email coming soon!

Free offer on web based recruitment tool

Team Leader Toolbox 2 Getting the work doneWhen: 24 May 2007Where: Grand Tiara Hotel, Rotorua One-day seminar designed for newly appointed supervisors/team leaders who have not attended formal training in supervision practices. Special emphasis on the core skills required for developing supervisors’ performance. Contact: John Paul Moss (09) 367 0922 or email

johnpaul.moss@ema.co.nz

Payroll Pursuit Conference 2007When: 24 May 2007Where: Hyatt Regency Hotel, Akl“Stay on the Payroll fast track” with new legislation here, this conference will give you the tools needed to cope with the changes. Hear from experts on KiwiSaver, 4 weeks annual leave, securing your payroll, and much more.Contact: Sarah D’Audney (09) 367 0919 or email sarah.d’audney@ema.co.nz

Fresh People BreakfastWhen: 31 May 2007Where: Ellerslie Event Centre, Akl“Successful Talent Retention” Once you find the right people for your organization, you need to keep them. Maintaining talent is difficult but it’s important to avoid spending time and money on new recruitment.Contact: Sarah D’Audney (09) 367 0919 or email sarah.d’audney@ema.co.nz

Sales FUEL trainingWhen: EMA Training Centre, 159 Khyber PassWhere: 6-8 June 2007Rev up your sales staff at this 3-day interactive course. Take them to a new level of performance and sales success.Contact: Nicola Milham (09) 367 0957 or email

nicola.milham@ema.co.nzRegister on: www.ema.co.nz/Sales_Fuel.htm

Kiwisaver SeminarsWhen: May 2007Where: EMA Northern main centresA must-attend for ALL employers. EMA’s 2-hour seminars will inform you about your new respon-sibilities relating to Kiwisavers. Learn what you have to do to comply with the new rules.Contact: EMA’s Adviceline 0800 800 362 or visit www.ema.co.nz/advice

EMA Health & Safety ConferenceWhen: 11 May 2007Where: Stamford Plaza Hotel, AklThis year’s Occupational Health & Safety Conference addresses critical issues facing safety managers and practitioners e.g. stress, burnout, an ageing workforce, rehabilitation planning, noise injury. Learn from the experts. Contact: Grant Dixon (09)367 0965 or email grant.dixon@ema.co.nz

Women Achieving More Business Women’s Network When: 14 June 2007Where: Oram Marine, Westhaven“Staying on top of your passion” Speaker is Jenene Freer, creator of NZ’s most successful magazine website, nzgirl. Jenene is now launching her own fashion range and plans to

open five stores across New Zealand. Come and hear her story.Contact: Sarah D’Audney (09) 367 0919 or email sarah.d’audney@ema.co.nz

Fresh Technology BreakfastWhen: 17 May 2007Where: Prime Bistro, PWC Tower, 188 Quay St, AucklandLearn about state-of-the-art video-conferencing technology. It’s time to consider ‘virtually’ sending your people around the country and overseas. A special case study will demonstrate how video technology can save you thousands of dollars every year.Contact: Grant Dixon (09) 367 0965 or email

Grant.dixon@ema.co.nz

Spam SeminarWhen: 15 May 2007Where: Inst. Chartered Accountants, RemueraNew anti-spam legislation is around the corner. How will you be affected? The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act affects you whether you send one email or a thousand. Hear the details straight from EMA’s own Corporate Legal Counsel. Ensure your business is informed and prepared for the upcoming changesContact: Rachel Briscoe (09) 367 0925 or email

rachel.briscoe@ema.co.nz

Developing & Retaining Your StaffWhen: 21 May 2007Where: EMA Training Centre, 159 Khyber PassRetain valuable staff by developing a practical strategy and plan of change for your organization. In a competitive market those key positions will be hard to fill if your organization does not adapt to change.Contact: John Paul Moss (09) 3657 0922 or email

johnpaul.moss@ema.co.nz

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