How this employer is attracting and retaining staff amid an exodus of workers
Connetics is meeting Aotearoa’s severe trades shortage head-on by rebuilding its workforce model around early-career talent, internal pipelines and long‑range workforce planning, rather than relying on traditional recruitment tactics.
The Christchurch-based electrical distribution contractor – which designs, builds and maintains networks for electricity distributors businesses and major clients like Lyttelton/Wellington Port, airports and public hospitals under Te Whatu Ora – has had to navigate the same talent drain hitting employers across the country.
With experienced line mechanics, fitters and protection technicians being lured offshore to higher-paying roles in Australia and elsewhere, Connetics has focused on growing its own workforce and making the most of every hire.
From rapid growth to reset – then back to expansion
In 2023, Connetics ramped up for an anticipated “wall of work” linked to the electrification of the economy, lifting headcount from about 380 to 450 in a single year – hiring roughly 135 people, or “making an offer every second day”.
When that pipeline of work softened, the business moved quickly to “rebalance” its workforce, adjusting to around 400 roles. It is now closing vacancy gaps to be at about 415 staff by 1 April, the start of its financial year, with plans to grow back to around 450 by year’s end.
Critically, that new growth is being built on capability, not just headcount. Apprenticeships and early careers have been put at the centre of the model, with Connetics expecting to qualify another five electrical fitters this year, alongside three line mechanics and three control and protection technicians over the next 12 months.
“We’re not just growing headcount – we set up to grow capability, aligned with customers’ needs,” said Mark Lewis, Connetics head of people and culture.
Beating the global talent drain by building your own
Like many New Zealand employers, Connetics is contending with a global talent conveyor belt that is “twice as wide” going out of the country as coming in, particularly to Australian markets.
Rather than recruiting scarce talent from competitors – a move that simply inflates wages without growing industry capacity – the company has doubled down on producing its own tradespeople and technicians.
The cornerstone is a staged internal pipeline. Potential apprentices do not walk straight into training; instead they enter Connetics through roles in supply, logistics or civil teams, where leaders assess their work ethic, curiosity and ability to follow procedures.
Only after 12–18 months are the strongest performers offered apprenticeships – effectively turning that period into a “long‑term job interview” for highly specialised, well‑paid trade careers.
The payoff has been a dramatic lift in completion rates. When Lewis joined, roughly a quarter of apprentices were not finishing their qualifications, meaning a significant portion of training investment was being lost.
“Now, if we lose one, it’s pretty disappointing for us,” he said. The stronger pipeline design has turned apprenticeships into a more reliable engine of capacity growth.
Building presence where the talent lands
Connetics has also responded to migration patterns by building its brand where skilled migrants first touch down.
Although the company does little construction work in Auckland currently, it has deliberately created a presence there because many overseas workers arrive in the city before looking to move elsewhere.
Recruitment messaging then focuses on the lifestyle and affordability advantages of Canterbury and the South Island – from housing and family life to easy access to fishing, surfing and skiing – as a way to encourage secondary migration into Connetics’ operating regions.
This strategy allows the company to tap into global talent streams without undermining local competitors or destabilising customer networks.
Always-on, long‑lead recruitment – not “post and pray”
Lewis is frank that Connetics cannot afford to treat recruitment as a reactive, short‑term activity.
He pointed out that roles needed on 1 April have to be in the works from December: potential candidates must be hearing about Connetics “over the barbecues and fishing trips” of the summer break, while advertising campaigns run through January, shortlisting happens in February, and offers are finalised in March so new hires can start with the new financial year.
That discipline has pushed key metrics down to around 35–40 days for time‑to‑fill, and as low as 20 days for time‑to‑hire in previous cycles – fast by industry standards but still requiring careful forward planning.
“We can’t just put our heads in the sand and pretend that sticking an ad up on SEEK and having some good perks will mean we’ve closed our talent gap,” Lewis said. “We’ve got to be way smarter than that.”
Paying employees instead of agencies
Another differentiator is Connetics’ heavy emphasis on employee referrals over external recruitment agencies.
Lewis has made a deliberate habit across his career of taking traditional agency and branding spend and redeploying it into internal capability and staff incentives.
Instead of paying an five-figure agency fee, Connetics prefers to invest around the better half of this on lifting the visibility of the brand and attracting talent – with the balance going directly to employees who successfully refer strong candidates from their own networks.
“Our people are our best advocates,” said Lewis. Connetics closely tracks engagement questions such as “Would you recommend Connetics as a great place to work?” and “Do you see yourself working here in another two years?” as early warning indicators in critical teams that support the training pipeline.
If those scores dip, leaders move quickly to address issues before turnover rises and the pipeline stalls.
Underpinning all of this is a clear view of HR’s role in the business. For Connetics, people and culture is not a back‑office service but a revenue‑critical engine: every additional half‑percent of utilisation in chargeable roles flows straight to the profit line.
That mindset has seen the function move well beyond “traditional transactional HR” and into proactive workforce design, market intelligence and long‑term capability building – work that Lewis says he would “never subcontract out”.
By putting early careers, internal pipelines, employee advocacy and disciplined long‑lead planning at the centre of its strategy, Connetics has managed to keep growing in one of New Zealand’s toughest talent markets – and, in the process, build a workforce that is more loyal, more capable and more resilient to the next twist in the global labour tide.
