Taumarunui i.SITE reopening following staffing issues

A perfect storm of staff shortages, recruitment difficulties and sickness have all combined to put pressure on i.SITE service offerings and forcing the closure of the Taumarunui i.SITE over the past two weeks.

Executive Manager Community and Economic Development Pauline Welch said that despite our best efforts we were forced to close the Taumarunui i.SITE due to not having enough staff to keep all three i.SITES in Taumarunui, Ohakune and Whakapapa open.

"With the first wave of COVID, lockdowns and loss of tourists we redeployed the i.SITE staff into helping our business sector access the government and other support available at the time.

As we had no idea how long this would last we decided to 'right-size' the business for the environment and not replace all the staff when they chose to leave," she said.

"COVID has seen many people re-evaluate their life with many choosing to change employment or do other things.

The i.SITE has been no different in this respect and we ended up operating with two to three staff less than pre-COVID times.

A compounding issue has been the labour shortages across the country and despite actively looking to recruit new staff over the last eight months or so it has been extremely difficult to find anyone as remaining staff left to do other things.

Since Christmas we have only had one staff member based in Taumarunui being supported by experienced staff from Ohakune.

Despite juggling staff between i.SITEs when the Taumarunui based staff member left in February to go to University we had no option but to open part time.

We then had two staff in Ohakune off sick over the past two weeks forcing the Taumarunui i.SITE to close and rely on the 0800 number (0800 647 483).

Fortunately, we have since been successful in recruiting three new i.SITE staff for Taumarunui and are hoping to reopen next week all going well.”

Ms Welch added that anyone looking for a job with a great local employer should check out the openings Council has available.

Council has a number of exciting opportunities at this time in a range of areas including administration, information management, technical services, project management and the i.SITE.

For more information on any of these roles see Council's website ruapehudc.govt.nz," she said.

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