Go with Tourism – a government-funded initiative that recently pivoted from building the tourism workforce to supporting the industry – has today reactivated its unique job connector function to assist New Zealand employers with hiring displaced tourism talent.

To complement this service, a free job search hub was launched to provide jobseekers and employers with additional opportunities to connect.

Prior to its pivot, Go with Tourism operated the job connector as a game-changing approach to job search and recruitment for the tourism and hospitality industry. Now, any business across any sector is encouraged to register to employ valuable tourism workers.

Programme Director Matt Stenton says that they hope to redeploy close to 1500 individuals who have already reached out for help. “By working directly with industries that are already hiring or expect to start hiring in Level 2, we can give our displaced tourism workers a better chance to find a new role.

“We have collaborated with several organisations so that our job search hub can serve as a one-stop-shop for jobseekers. Employers that register with us can post there for free and they can also search for and match with candidates through the job connector.”

Dubbed ‘Tinder for tourism’ by various media outlets, the job connector matches jobseekers with employers based on a job profile and a filtering system which allows hiring managers to narrow down their list of candidates to a perfect few.

Filters include level of work experience, qualifications, driving licenses, skills, interests and more.

Now that the job connector is open to all industries, work is underway to increase awareness of the platform across New Zealand. A two-minute video was released to explain how easy it is for jobseekers to be matched with employers.

Stenton encourages hiring managers from other industries to seriously consider tourism talent. “Many people from tourism and hospitality have developed a wide range of transferrable skills that will make them a valuable asset to your team, no matter which sector.”

Written by Helen Shaw, Marketing Communications Manager