If you’ve lived in New Zealand for any amount of time, you’ll have a favourite Pacific island to visit. You’ll swear blind to anyone who’ll listen that your place is “the place”. For my family, the place is Fiji. Specifically, the Yasawa Islands. More specifically (and I really want to say “pacifically” here), it’s Paradise Cove on the Yasawa Islands. As per the above statement, I am right about this, and will fight anyone who disagrees.
It is here that the last two blogs have been delivered from. I really don’t mind blogging whilst away, especially in Fiji. Days are filled with nothing much at all, and I’m quite happy with a cocktail in hand, my speedos gently chafing my undercarriage, bashing out a few hundred words. As is the way in the Pacific, I get looked after very well here. On Paradise Cove, I swear there are approximately two Fijians for every guest, and I’m not sure how vital many jobs are. Someone may drive the boat, but then someone else’s job is to explain that what we’re bobbing around on is a boat. Someone carries your bags. Someone else puts tags on them. There’s no real need for the tags as they go straight to our villa. Someone makes your drink. Someone delivers your drink. Someone watches you drink it and asks if you’d like another. BULA.
It’s gloriously, unapologetically inefficient. And it’s wonderful.
I love chatting to the staff. They are happy to chat back and politely laugh at my jokes. What they don’t like is when I collect my own drink from the bar. Or lift a bag. Or do anything that I may think “helpful”. The resorts of the Yasawas provide work for not just those who are indigenous to the surrounding islands, but a whole network across Fiji. Because of what it supports, the Fijians have become masters in work creation. If there is a job to do that may make my life a fraction of a percent better, there is a cousin waiting in the wings to do it.
Back home, we’ve spent the last decade convincing ourselves that a better world is built by doing more with less. Strip out the headcount. Automate the process. Cut the back office. Consolidate the departments. And look, there’s a $2.4 billion saving just sitting there if you fire 9,000 public servants and let AI pick up the slack. I blogged about it last week. Nicola Willis is decidedly Bula-free.
Sitting here, I feel conflicted. We’ve used technology across all three businesses to drive efficiency. Rice/JOYN has not had a smaller headcount in the last decade I doubt, but they’re better businesses than ever. JOYN will pick up over 40 vacancies this month with zero dedicated full-time staff. Rice is flying, and it’s just Claudia and part-time Anastasia, with annoying input from Jon and I. Even with the “Wellington situation”, smaller Kiwi-owned recruitment businesses (employing not many consultants) will do well this year, whilst global firms (who employ thousands) will stutter and struggle. We want to be AI driven, but we also want our kids to get entry level jobs. Recruiters moan when our clients don’t hire, but are creating efficiencies in our own businesses meaning the days of big recruitment firms is over. As someone just asked me, how do we want our eggs? Have we confused efficiency with progress?
This week, Accordant Group – New Zealand’s only listed recruiter – released its FY26 results. A $2.1 million after-tax loss, improved from $2.9 million the year before. Operating cash flow up $2.3 million. Blue collar revenue up 18% in the second half. Executive search up 53%. The capital raise is done, the debt is managed, and the second half perhaps tells us that this is “corner, turned”. However, as the CEO will tell you, apart from maybe AWF, the Accordant Group isn’t a big recruitment business. It’s a collection of boutique brands. With the world being what it is, it will never employ lots of recruiters. Efficiency demands it won’t.
When you make a recruitment company leaner, you make it better at placing with fewer people. When you make a government department leaner, you make it better at doing stuff with less. When you automate the public service and cut 9,000 jobs in the name of AI-driven efficiency, you save money and you also remove 9,000 people from the economy, from the café down the road, from the mortgage, from the school fundraiser.
The Fijians (and trade unionists) figured something out that we seem to have forgotten. Employment isn’t just an economic output. It’s social infrastructure. It’s dignity. It’s a bit of fat around the edges that keeps that person who’s “good for morale” in a job. It’s the reason Paradise Cove feels like paradise and not just a nice beach with a self-service kiosk.
Efficiency is a fine goal, but we should be careful about what we wish for.
Bula.
