Dunedin City Council – Labour Force Survey

With the help of New Zealand Post’s PO BoxDirect Data list, the Dunedin City Council received a higher response rate and less returned mail on their annual survey.

“The impressive response rate in relation to previous years made using New Zealand Post’s service invaluable in meeting the council’s objectives.”

- Anne Gray, Dunedin City Council

Here’s how our data list helped

The Dunedin City Council annual Labour Force Survey started in 2003 and examines the current and future labour needs of Dunedin businesses.

The survey alerts potential job seekers to the range of employment opportunities available in Dunedin and also compiles a list of job and skill shortages.

Using the data from the list, the council can then develop strategies to address significant labour and training issues affecting the city.

In 2010, the council needed a mailing list they could use to send out the survey, targeting businesses around the area.

They chose New Zealand Post’s PO BoxDirect data list, where filters could be used to select addresses based on a defined geographic area. Featuring over 100,000 businesses, the council was able to target both new customers as well as established contacts. It was also able to narrow its database down to the 1,500 businesses it wanted to survey.

Prior to using the New Zealand Post’s PO Box Direct data list, 104 surveys (10%) were returned for reasons of “Gone No Address” or “Business Closed”. However, in 2010 only ten surveys (1%) were returned for these reasons - a 9% improvement.

Anne Gray, Dunedin City Council, said the data list provided them with a large number of reliable contacts and the impressive response rate in relation to previous years made using New Zealand Post’s service invaluable to meeting the council’s objectives.

“New Zealand Post was able to remove the majority of shelf companies and family trust type set ups which saved us a lot of time. We didn’t have to spend as much time editing the list as we had previously. We will definitely use the service again in future.”