A well-respected HR consultancy is expanding its services in the Otago and Southland employment market to support communities in growing capability and retaining talent in the south.
Christchurch-based Brannigans opened the doors to its new centrally-located Queenstown office at the
Mountain Club’s Beach Street co-working space this week with well-known HR professional
Kim Arnold at the helm.
A long-time Queenstown local, Kim is an experienced human resources director with more than 25 years working in the hospitality, travel and tourism industry in New Zealand, Australia and the UK for organisations including the Hilton, Millennium Hotel, the Skyline Group, and Air New Zealand.
The Brannigans team is no stranger to adversity, having worked hard to rebuild its own business and assist others after the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes.
Led by business partners Nick Carter and Sally Wynn-Williams, Brannigans is now considered to be the South Island’s top talent hunter and an HR industry leader. The 17-member team specialises in executive and governance recruitment, safety and wellbeing, operational HR support, people strategies, leadership development, and flexible professional contracting for organisations around New Zealand and the world.
Sally says the team is keen to bring a fresh perspective, innovative ideas and expertise gained through their own experience to help southern communities work through the HR challenges they’re facing.
“Having been through tough times ourselves post-earthquakes, we understand the challenges and disruption that organisations and communities face when the unthinkable occurs and just how exhausting it is,” she said. “But it made us stronger. Safety and wellbeing were our top priorities and we took a one-team approach to solving problems, really focusing on creating innovative people solutions for a sustainable future.”
Sally says the scale of problems people are grappling with, including immigration issues, plugging gaps in capability, supporting employer and staff wellbeing, and retaining local talent to scale up businesses post-COVID, probably feels “understandably daunting” to many.
“It’s a lot for people to get their head around and try to solve when they’re struggling to stay afloat personally and professionally. Particularly if they’re a small business with no HR person.
“That’s where we can help. We can plug in to businesses of all sizes and industries, from SMEs to large organisations, and help them end-to-end or just take care of the parts they need help with.
“This might include finding innovative ways to attract talent, planning and scaling their workforce effectively by adding and changing resource, providing operational HR support, streamlining people processes, or helping create people strategies or flexible workplace solutions like sharing staff and training to assist with cost efficiencies. We also have a list of experts in different areas we can call on to help plug capability gaps where and when needed either onsite, remotely or on a flexible working basis.
“Kim will be our dedicated resource on the ground supporting Otago and Southland and she will be backed up by our Christchurch team. Ultimately, our goal is to add value wherever we can, provide wrap-around support and help people get back to spending time doing what they do best,” said Sally.
Brannigans is also planning to expand its quarterly speaker series to the Southern region. bringing thought leaders and business strategists in to share their ‘war stories’, insights and experiences. As per its popular Christchurch model, the sessions will be free for any businesses who would like to attend.
For more information about Brannigans, visit
www.brannigans.co.nz.