Hiring intentions in the South Island remained the highest in New Zealand.
Hudson executive general manager Roman Rogers said many organisations in Canterbury were trying to maintain their usual business activities while also increasing resources to take part in rebuilding activities.
"Companies are hiring more contractors in the areas of administration, finance and project manager," Mr Rogers said.
Overall, hiring intentions throughout New Zealand remained steady as the economy "inched forward". But New Zealanders were working longer and harder and the type of work being undertaken was changing, he said. More than 30% of the employees surveyed were working more than 51 hours a week, and more than a quarter said they were working longer hours than a year ago.
More than half said their workload had increased during the year, largely because of an increase in the number of projects they were undertaking and greater demand from customers. To a lesser extent, smaller team sizes contributed to the increased workload, Mr Rogers said.
"Many businesses are flying while they build the plane. Balancing 'business as usual' and project commitments can be tricky.
Employees are exposed to great work and opportunities, but it also means they are working harder and longer," he said.
"Many employees were prepared to do this. However, there is often not much, if any, downtime between projects to recharge, which can lead to burnout."
Often the qualities needed to be successful in a project-driven context were different from a business-as-usual environment, he said.
The success of projects depended on employees' cognitive abilities and behavioural traits. They needed to be able to analyse information quickly, manage tasks effectively, be adept at setting priorities and be able to articulate actions and desired results.
Employers had to use techniques such as personality and psychometric testing and benchmarking to assess candidates to ensure they had the right people on key projects, as high performance in a business-as-usual environment did not automatically translate to success on projects, Mr Rogers said.
Employee burnout increased if projects were not managed effectively. In the survey, nearly 30% of employers were experiencing increased employee burnout. Better clarity regarding roles and delivery expectations was viewed as a key way to address that problem.
Clarity regarding expectations was needed. Employers needed to think about what they were trying to achieve and what blend of skills and behaviour they needed to be successful, he said.
In many instances, fewer people were doing a broader range of tasks and work was less specialised.
"Employees need to be agile, adaptable, resilient and open to change. Employers need to ensure they are testing for these factors during the recruitment process rather than focusing on a candidate's technical skills, as these are not an effective indicator of high performance."
Putting a person in a role for which they did not have the right motivational or behavioural attributes caused stress for both employers and employees, Mr Rogers said.
