Category: MIL-Submissions

At home or in the office, workplace fun isn’t a one-size-fits-all affair – leaders need to acknowledge that and offer a safe environment, according to a University of Auckland study.

Working from home one or more days per week has become a norm for many employees post-Covid; how has this shift affected the ways workers have fun?

Business School researchers Associate Professor Barbara Plester and Senior Lecturer Rhiannon Lloyd explore fun and safety at work in their article Happiness Is ‘Being Yourself’: Psychological Safety and Fun in Hybrid Work.

Based on in-depth interviews with workers from two companies, the study finds that fun activities shouldn’t be uniformly enforced or encouraged by workplaces; instead, a nuanced understanding of individual preferences and safety considerations is required.

The researchers say hybrid work, where employees work partly in the office and partly at home, may foster greater interpersonal ambiguity with physical cues missing from some interactions.

“This creates challenges for generating emotional safety and for encouraging fun at work, as interpreting the experience of fun, and understanding what’s safe may be increasingly hard to navigate. This seems to result in less fun or more opting out of fun, both online and in-person, due to uncertainty and confusion about what’s now acceptable,” says Dr Plester.

A positive and inclusive environment where fun is an optional, safe experience can boost morale and employee satisfaction, according to the study. Managers can nurture feelings of safety, encourage authentic self-expression, and find creative ways to promote spontaneous interactions.

Spontaneous fun, say the researchers, is rated more highly by employees than managed, planned or structured fun.

However, impromptu fun still comes with risk

“We argue that when a fun activity isn’t forced or managed by an organisation, the rules of ‘fun’ are more fluid and ambiguous, and so, there’s potentially more risk associated with fun activities that are not specifically task-related or mandated.

“In such instances, mental and emotional safety should become an important management consideration as, particularly during transitions, we see in our data that employees need to feel safe to take risks to find and stabilise a ‘new awkward’.”

Managers, says Dr Plester, should be aware that online work interactions may limit opportunities for spontaneous fun.

“Providing time and space for employees to engage in unplanned interactions and activities can help alleviate this issue.”

While online interactions might lack the spontaneity of in-person interactions, Plester and Lloyd say they also offer the advantage of allowing employees to opt out more easily.

Meanwhile, study participants also indicated that fun needs to be championed – if fun is modelled by senior staff, it helps to create psychological safety, says Plester.

The study utilised in-depth interviews, data and observations from a digital design and technology business with 70 employees and a food manufacturing organisation with more than 600 staff, including permanent employees and contractors. It’s published in the Administrative Sciences journal.

It’s a wee issue but with a big environmental impact; and a new award-winning technology developed by AgResearch may help farmers to address it.

Scientists at the research institute have developed what they call acoustic urine sensors to tackle the problem of nitrogen loss from the urine of cattle, which affects water quality and leads to emissions of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas.

The device attaches to the rear leg of dairy cattle to enable recording and identification of distinct sound patterns in “urination events”, including timing and volume. Data from the recordings is analysed using technologies that include machine learning.

Dairy cows typically urinate 10-12 times per day with an average urination volume of two litres per event and an average equivalent urinary nitrogen application rate estimated to be approximately 600kg of nitrogen per hectare.  

“Our research has shown that the nitrogen load of an individual urination event is closely connected with daily urination frequency, the time of day and the volume of the urination event,” says AgResearch senior scientist Brendon Welten.

“This means that urination frequency and volume per event directly affects the amount of nitrogen deposited in urine patches on the pasture. Therefore, cows that urinate more frequently per day coupled with a lower volume per urination event tend to excrete lower amounts of nitrogen per urination event and so represent a lower risk to the environment.”

This knowledge has led to AgResearch developing the concept of an environmental nitrogen herd test to identify and manage cows based on urinary-nitrogen loss potential.

The concept is similar to routine herd testing for milk quality and production; with a service provider deploying the urine sensor technology on a dairy farm to provide an accurate estimate of an individual cow’s urination frequency and volume per event. This informs the urinary nitrogen loss potential of individual cows in the dairy herd.

“Once farmers have this farm-specific urinary nitrogen loss information of their dairy herd, this could be used in a decision support tool like Overseer to allow potential immediate benefits in reducing farm nitrogen loss relative to using a default model value. Furthermore, farmers can then use it to make farm management decisions, such as breeding and culling, to move their dairy herd towards lower nitrogen loss potential and thereby provides the opportunity to achieve sustained reductions (year on year) in farm nitrogen leaching loss.”

Last week, the research behind the sensor development was recognised when AgResearch’s Cattle Urine Sensor team won the Science and Technology Award at the 2023 Kudos Awards in Hamilton.

“It’s fantastic to have that recognition given over five years of development,” Dr Welten says.

“The benefits of these sensors are that they are lightweight, simple to use and low-cost. Their use can be easily scaled up and requires no capital investment in farm infrastructure, with minimal effect on daily farm management practices.

“Our current research is assessing farm-level benefits of this concept on farm nitrogen loss using case-study dairy farms linked with modelling funded by the Ministry for Primary Industries. We are looking forward to the potential large scale adoption of this concept in the future by New Zealand dairy farmers as a new tool to mitigate farm nitrogen loss.”

AgResearch’s core focus is to deliver high quality science to enhance the value, productivity and sustainability of New Zealand’s pastoral, agri-food and agri-technology sectors. More at www.agresearch.co.nz

November brought brighter weather and a confidence-boosting trifecta of government, economic and OCR certainty.

The latest data from realestate.co.nz shows that certainty breeds confidence in the property market. During November, vendors returned to the market, demand for property rose to meet supply, and average asking prices remained generally stable.

All of this was in the face of increasing certainty around governmental leadership and the economy. Last month, the Reserve Bank also agreed to maintain the OCR at 5.5% for the fourth consecutive time.

Vanessa Williams, spokesperson for realestate.co.nz, says the trifecta of government, economic and OCR certainty has boosted market sentiment:

“Kiwis love certainty, which is why, with its reputation as a safe investment, we love property. Unsurprisingly, more stability in and out of the market gives people the confidence to buy and sell.”

 Selling by auction also remained the most popular sale method last month, making up almost a third (28.2%) of all listings. Vanessa explains that this is a by-product of market certainty:

“People sell under the hammer when they feel confident in the market. And we’ve heard that many sellers had success in auction rooms during November.”

New listings lift before Santa touches down

For the first time since November 2022, more than 10,000 new listings came onto the market last month. An increase of 5.2% year-on-year, this national lift is a combination of seasonal factors and market confidence, says Vanessa.

Year-on-year, more than half of our 19 regions saw new listings increase. The biggest lifts were in Central North Island (up 21.9%), Taranaki (up 13.6%), Nelson and Bays (up 12.1%), and Auckland (up 10.5%).

Month-on-month, new listings were up in all regions except Coromandel (down 16.3%), Marlborough (down 1.5%), and Central Otago/Lakes District (flat with a marginal decrease of 0.9%). Nationally, new listings were up 12.4% compared to October 2023.

“We are in the peak selling season, confidence is up, and vendors are beginning to come back to the market,” says Vanessa.

 National average asking prices generally stable

Average asking prices nationally and around the country were generally stable last month.

“We have moved away from the market’s COVID-19 era, distinguished by peaks and troughs. I think it comes down to more confidence and certainty in the market, which we didn’t have during the pandemic.”

Five of our 19 regions saw average asking prices remain flat compared to November 2022. Nationally, all other regions, except Coromandel, saw average asking prices increase or decrease by less than 10.0%.

Summer hotspot Coromandel saw the biggest change to its average asking price. Down 14.3% year-on-year, this is only the second time the region’s average asking price has been below $1 million since August 2021. Month-on-month, the region’s average asking price was down 20.7%. Vanessa explains small markets like Coromandel are susceptible to fluctuations.

Throughout 2023, the national average asking price has remained flat at around $870,000. Vanessa says this is likely to be increasing confidence for buyers and sellers:

“When we see big fluctuations to average asking prices, it can make buyers and sellers hesitant to transact. More stability should help both parties feel more certain around what number to expect on that final sales and purchase agreement.”

Demand lifting to meet supply

A new dataset from realestate.co.nz shows demand for property was up year-on-year during November, with searches per listing up by 18.3% and engagements per listing up by 45.0%.

Searches per listing divides the total number of searches by total stock. Engagements per listing divides the total number of enquiries and property saves by total stock. Together, both figures indicate the level of demand for property by measuring the level of serious buyer interest compared to the available supply.

“The increase in searches per listing tells us that more people are searching for property. The lift in engagements per listing signals a boost in the number of people actively keen to transact,” says Vanessa.

 Across the last 12 months, demand for property has been trending upwards, with both searches and engagement per listing up year-on-year.

Vanessa explains it is great to see demand lifting to match supply, adding that stable average asking prices reflect the strong correlation between supply and demand:  

“During November, stock and average asking prices remained fairly flat. This tells me that supply and demand were well-matched.”

Generally, when demand outstrips supply, prices increase. Whereas when supply is higher than demand, prices tend to decline.

Last month, Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay, and Wellington saw the biggest increases in demand year-on-year. Searches per listing were up by 42.3% in Gisborne, 20.6% in Hawke’s Bay, and 72.6% in Wellington. Engagements per listing were also up in these regions compared to last year: 119.1% in Gisborne, 97.8% in Hawke’s Bay, and 112.4% in Wellington.  

Vanessa says high demand suggests competition is high in these regions.

National stock flat, year-on-year

Year-on-year, stock was flat during November, with a decrease of 1.5% nationally. However, across our regions, it was a mixed bag. Year-on-year, around half of our 19 regions saw stock increase during November, while the other half saw it drop back.

Compared to November 2022, the biggest lifts were in Coromandel (up 37.4%) and Central North Island (up 22.1%). Gisborne and Wellington saw the biggest decreases, down 20.5% and 22.0%, respectively.

“Despite these outliers, we are nationally on par with November 2022 levels,” says Vanessa.  

About realestate.co.nz

We’ve been helping people buy, sell, or rent property since 1996.  

Established before Google, realestate.co.nz is New Zealand’s longest-standing property website and the official website of the real estate industry.

Dedicated only to property, our mission is to empower people with a property search tool they can use to find the life they want to live. With residential, lifestyle, rural and commercial property listings, realestate.co.nz is the place to start for those looking to buy or sell property.  

Glossary of terms:

Average asking price (AAP) is neither a valuation nor the sale price. It is an indication of current market sentiment. Statistically, asking prices tend to correlate closely with the sales prices recorded in future months when those properties are sold. As it looks at different data, average asking prices may differ from recorded sales data released simultaneously.

New listings are a record of all the new residential dwellings listed for sale on realestate.co.nz for the relevant calendar month. The site reflects 97% of all properties listed through licensed real estate agents and major developers in New Zealand. This description gives a representative view of the New Zealand property market.

Stock is the total number of residential dwellings that are for sale on realestate.co.nz on the penultimate day of the month.

Inventory is a measure of how long it would take, theoretically, to sell the current stock at current average rates of sale if no new properties were to be listed for sale. It provides a measure of the rate of turnover in the market.

Demand measures the level of serious buyer interest compared to the available supply. It does this by tracking two related datasets – searches and engagements per listing. Searches per listing divides the total number of searches on realestate.co.nz by stock. Engagements per listing divides the total number of enquiries and property saves by stock.

Seasonal adjustment is a method realestate.co.nz uses to represent better the core underlying trend of the property market in New Zealand. This is done using methodology from the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research.

Truncated mean is the method realestate.co.nz uses to supply statistically relevant asking prices. The top and bottom 10% of listings in each area are removed before the average is calculated to prevent exceptional listings from providing false impressions.