Contributed by Millennium Hotels and Resorts New Zealand Vice President of Human Resources Ms Kim Marie Rixson.

The Pacific Quota Programme is a humanitarian programme run by the New Zealand government, to encourage New Zealand businesses to employ people from the small island nations such as Fiji, Samoa and Kiribati. This benefits both New Zealand businesses by increasing the pool of potential employees and the Pacific nations by having income be sent back to families at home. As part of the programme, once a job offer is given to a candidate, the employee can receive residency status in New Zealand instead of a standard work visa, offering opportunities to live and work in New Zealand ongoing.

Millennium Hotels New Zealand is an approved employer of the Pacific Quota Programme and employs staff to fill roles such as housekeeping, porters, chefs, receptionists, contact centre consultants and duty managers. Staff are placed in our hotels across the country, from the larger cities such as Auckland and Wellington, to our more regional locations of Bay of Islands and Te Anau.

After the successful recruitment outreach in 2017, Vice President of Human Resources Kim Marie Rixswon and Millennium Rotorua Operations Manager Michele Weston travelled again to Samoa and Fiji to interview more potential candidates. 41 new staff members were selected to work in our hotels.

As part of the formal job offer, a job ceremony is conducted. Friends and families of the candidates are invited to celebrate and witness them receiving their formal job offers as well as watching a welcome video and presentation about New Zealand and Millennium Hotels and Resorts as a company.

Once the candidates have arrived in New Zealand to their hotel placements, the hotel team takes over pastoral care, helping them open bank accounts and connecting them with local churches if they wish. As accommodation is not supplied in many of the locations, the interviewing team takes special care to place candidates in locations with family or friends living nearby – quite a jigsaw to make sure each candidate has their needs met.

One of the staff members selected as part of the 2017 Pacific Quota Programme is Paul Lafalele, Chef at Copthorne Hotel and Resort Bay of Islands.

He shared, “As a young chef from Samoa, I could say that I started my cooking career in my family kitchen while cooking for my aiga [the Samoan word for ‘family’]. It was from there that I knew I had the talent to cook, and at the same time my passion grew for food and cooking. There is still much to learn in this career, but it always brings such fullness and joy seeing loved ones smiling as they enjoy what I have cooked.”

We appreciate the rich and diverse experiences that our new staff from the Pacific Quota Programme provide to our hotels, and we hope that they will enjoy and get the most out of working for Millennium Hotels and Resorts and living in New Zealand.