Career development and culture are helping Westpac NZ retain talent amid nationwide skills shortages
Westpac New Zealand is countering the country's persistent skills shortages by investing heavily in internal career pathways rather than relying on the tight external labour market, according to the bank's head of people – corporate and recruitment experience, Vaughan Biggs.
New Zealand's unemployment rate rose to 5.6 per cent in the June 2026 quarter, its highest level in nearly 11 years, yet employers across construction, healthcare, technology and finance continue to report acute skills shortages, according to Stats NZ.
Biggs said Westpac has not been immune to that tension, but a long-term approach to talent has helped the bank soften its impact.
"I wouldn't say we've avoided the challenges completely," Biggs said. "We operate in a really competitive market for specialist skills, particularly in areas like technology and digital. But what helps to set us apart is taking a long-term approach to building diverse candidate pools and then retaining them once they join Westpac."
Career development as the retention lever
For Biggs, career progression is no longer a differentiator but a baseline expectation among employees, and it has become central to how Westpac keeps skilled staff engaged rather than searching for opportunities elsewhere amid the country's ongoing skills gap.
"Career development options are now table stakes in organisations like ours, and it's something we're pretty proud of," he said. "People who work here want to learn and grow. For some that might mean moving into leadership roles. For others, it could be deepening their technical expertise."
To support that, Westpac has launched The Academy, an internal learning hub modelled loosely on a university structure. "Recently we've set up The Academy, a bit like an internal university where our people can learn the skills they need to keep growing," Biggs said.
"We've found that when people can see a whole range of future possibilities for themselves and continue to build their skills, they are far more likely to stay engaged and grow with us, even in a hyper-competitive talent market."
Graduates as a long-term pipeline
Graduate hiring remains a core part of Westpac's strategy for building the workforce it will need over the next decade, particularly as more than 170 occupations are forecast to face skill shortages by 2032.
"Graduates are an important part of our talent pipeline, and we receive huge interest in it every year," Biggs said. "Our graduates bring fresh thinking, and their diverse perspectives make us stronger as an organisation. We don't take for granted what a privilege it is to be able to invest in developing future leaders from the beginning of their careers."
He added that graduate retention compounds the benefit over time. "Many of our graduates stay here a long time and move throughout the business, so we get the benefit of their contribution to our core strength over time, and at the same time we're contributing to NZ inc. by creating opportunities for people entering the industry."
Culture underpins attraction and retention
Biggs said culture is doing as much work as career development in keeping people at Westpac, describing ongoing efforts to encourage openness among staff. "We do a lot of work to keep a great culture, and it draws people to us. This includes campaigns to encourage our people to be curious, and to speak up if they see something they feel isn't right."
He said today's workforce is looking well beyond salary and job security. "People are looking for a lot more than just a job. They want to work with smart, kind colleagues and be led by authentic, empowered leaders. Our approach to building culture helps attract people in the first place, but it's also why they stay."
AI supports recruitment, but people still decide
Biggs said artificial intelligence is starting to reshape parts of Westpac's hiring process, particularly given the scale of applications the bank receives each year, but he was clear it will not replace human judgement, a theme echoed in broader industry debate over using AI to close talent gaps.
"AI has the potential to make some parts of recruitment more efficient, which is handy when we're assessing up to 80,000 applications a year," he said. "But we're also looking to see how AI can remove our unconscious biases and help us increase diversity in our workforce to better reflect the diversity of our customer base."
Westpac's new Culture and Capability assessment tool uses a limited AI component to compare candidates' responses to video interview questions. "It will give us a much richer understanding of our candidates, but people make the hiring decisions," Biggs said.
Ultimately, Biggs said the fundamentals matter most. "The reasons people join Westpac and stay are ultimately driven by the old-fashioned basics – fantastic career opportunities, leadership, culture, development and the overall employee experience."
