Tony Teesdale doesn’t think too many people in the B:HIVE need to worry about something that has put New Zealand on the International Labour Organisation’s “bad country” list.

But the founder of Level One’s Teesdale and Associates says the NZ Government’s Fair Pay Agreements (FPAs) policy has ruffled a few of his clients’ feathers.

The consummate professional, who hung out the company’s shingle in 2008, says he sits firmly on the fence when it comes to the rights and wrongs being bandied about by different sides of the political spectrum. He’s just trying to educate people about what happens if FPAs becomes law.

For now the policy is only at Bill stage, with the first reading in Parliament having been completed. The Bill now goes to Select Committee where interest groups’ lobbying becomes super charged.

However, Teesdale says even after some changes after the Parliamentary process the Minister in charge doesn’t expect to see anything come out in terms of a FPA before late 2023 or even 2024.

The technical process for even getting a FPA to the table is arduous under the current law and the Government has written that it retains control into its policy. But Teesdale say unions ( the CTU) have indicated they have a priority list that has people like cleaners at its top.

Meanwhile the FPAs have attracted the attention of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Along with 21 other countries accused of labour breaches including discrimination, forced labour and child labour, New Zealand is deemed to have a case to answer regarding its intention to breach a fundamental labour convention which protects freedom of association.

BusinessNZ says New Zealand’s Fair Pay Agreements policy contravenes ILO Convention 98 by constituting an ‘act of interference’ in the affairs of workers and employers. It says businesses believe the compulsory nature of the Fair Pay Agreements policy constitutes interference and are also concerned at other sections of the policy which would limit the freedoms of workers and employers.

Asked for his opinion on that, Tony just laughs and says: “well it is not the first time the ILO has taken New Zealand to task.”  And, he adds, there is a General Election before the end of 2023 that may change things too.

New Zealand has long been a testing ground for international companies. Our workforce is seen as agile and early adopters of technology.

That’s partly why multinational software solutions company Bravura chose its Level 3 B:HIVE team to pilot a new way of working.

ASX-listed Bravura, which has a market capitalisation of around A$389 million, employs around  1,500 people in 17 offices across Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Europe, Africa, and India.

Another part of the pilot decision was the attitude of the team led by NZ country manager Kylie Bryant. After the challenges around COVID and remote working, her people were up to conversations about how to make working together better.

Bravura partnered with New Zealand hybrid working specialists Anywhere Culture for the pilot. Together with Bravura’s Eilis Devlin, learning experience and culture partner, and Elissa Fletcher, acting chief people officer, Anywhere Culture led a co-design that put employees at its heart.

Kylie says with the physical office move from a traditional office to the B:HIVE, it was an opportunity to think differently not only about where, but how the team worked.

“Through the Anywhere Culture project the team adopted new mindsets, tools, norms and habits that were fit for a hybrid world,” she says. “These mindsets focused on community, empowerment, growth, and wellbeing.

“Through our conversations around empowerment, we watched employees start to think differently about the opportunities brought by hotdesking – including the ability to choose a focus or collaborative zone dependent on the type of work, and to form new connections with colleagues they don’t usually work alongside.

“With on-site yoga, weekly socials and networking events, the B:HIVE embodies our mindsets and provides endless opportunities to connect to community, prioritise wellbeing and experiment with new ways of working.”

Kylie says one thing that stood out was rituals matter: “It was crucial that we maintained the ‘moments that matter’ to make the B:HIVE feel like home, and no culture revolution was going to get in the way of Biscuit Wednesdays!”

Kylie will be talking about the Anywhere Culture pilot to interested B:HIVE residents later this month. Contact events@bhive.co.nz for more information!

Has your credit card ever been hacked? Suddenly there’s a couple of dodgy payments “pending” that you just know is not something you have bought?

Hacking into the payment tokens that are generated for your legitimate purchases is easier than it should be says Pete Bailey, head of cyber security for Theta on Level Three.

The hybrid working environment has helped thieves. Working between the B:HIVE, your favourite local to home café and home has real security challenges. Attackers are out there constantly looking for vulnerabilities.

“Recently people have been trying to find software to make dividing personal life and work life easy,” Pete says. “They have downloaded ‘free’ software to split their hard drive into home and work sections. What they don’t realise that this ‘free’ gift is only free for hackers to get malware in and find passwords via your browsers and folders to get your information and money out.

“Never let your browser, like Chrome, store your passwords. You should use password lockers or managers for security.

Pete has a diverse background in process improvement, training and digital marketing, and has spent the last decade in security, previously running one of New Zealand’s largest information security consultancies.

Pete says there are five main focus areas for companies to prepare for smart cyber-attacks:

1. People – Do your teams know what cyber-attacks look like, and the impacts they can have on your systems? You need to invest in good training for tools, processes, and awareness for your staff. Combine that with having the best filter/alerting tools in place to instantly spot an attack.

2. Hybrid working risk assessments – Your systems and processes should adjust according to new risk factors as they arise with people working on multiple sites.  You should conduct a threat assessment – where is your organisation’s greatest security risk? Prevent your staff from taking shortcuts – ensure you understand how they are working and what they need to achieve this. Review constantly.

3. Artificial Intelligence (AI) – AI and machine learning (ML) have grown 28% in the past year and is already being used in several security applications. Users, asset and network profiles are built using these behaviour histories, allowing AI to detect and respond to deviations from established norms. You should specify what level of security your organisation needs – there are systems that specialise in email filtering, threat hunting, detecting bots and bot activity. Invest in the right AI system.

4. Spending – When concluding a budget for cyber security, 10% of your IT budget is considered standard, but for high-risk industries this can go up to 25%. High-risk industries include: 

Business/corporate 
Healthcare/medical 
Banking/credit/financial 
Government/military 
Education 
Energy/utilities

5. Consult & Research -Attack vectors (pathways for attackers to illegally access your environments) and technology change fast. You should do your research and seek the best advice and solutions that are relevant to the current security situation. 

“Hiring is no longer about choosing the right candidate, it’s about candidates choosing you”, warns Eighty4 Recruitment’s consultant Lexi Jones. How do you go about holding on to the talent you’ve got and attract newcomers in a market where there is a growing shortage of skilled people?

During a record quarter for the business, Lexi says Eighty4 asked its network of candidates what employers could be doing better. Of course, the usual ‘more money’ and ‘more flexibility’ came up plenty of times, but there were a few other answers worth attention.

A common complaint was: “I feel like I’m doing the jobs of three people”. Feeling stressed, burnt out and exhausted has become the norm for a lot of employees since COVID hit.

Perhaps someone on your team has left and you haven’t managed to hire a replacement yet. It’s extremely important to support those who are picking up extra work, even if that’s simply hiring administrative support or getting someone in on a temporary contract part-time.

“It might cost you up-front but losing that skilled person, combined with the cost of onboarding and training someone new, means that more often than not, it’s worth hiring help,” Lexi says.

“Next, having a good culture alone won’t do the trick. Are you realising your employees’ full potential and providing them with opportunities to grow? When was the last time you sat down with them and asked them about their goals?”

The Eighty4 survey also highlighted that the days of getting home after the kids are in bed have gone, as an increasing number of people are updating their policies regarding family time.

“People are less willing to give up those important moments to celebrate milestones and be with their families – and they don’t have to anymore,” Lexi says. “Companies that show understanding and actively encourage their employees to make time for their families are winning the recruitment race.”

“The reality we are facing right now is that it’s so incredibly hard to hire good people. We still have limited international immigrants coming to NZ to fill the gaps, despite the borders slowly starting to open so it’s more important than ever to invest in our local talent.”

Joseph Darby could be excused for having a wee skip in his step.

He has just successfully merged his 10-year-old company Milestone Direct with Become.nz to form Become Wealth, creating one of the few 100% New Zealand-owned financial service providers with no ties to specific product, or product provider. Fundamentally that independence means it can offer its clients the product it thinks best suits their needs.

Joseph had no sooner dried the ink on that deal, when the new entity then acquired the books of a couple of “baby boomer” advisers who were looking to retire.

And he is not stopping there: “Become Wealth, as we are now known, is rolling up the businesses of several more advisers who want to retire rather than face recent changes in financial markets, regulations and the need for additional scale and specialisation.”

Joseph, who retains his CEO role, says the merger and acquisitions will assist with strong future growth and build upon Become Wealth’s nearly $1 billion in funds under advice, including those managed under a Discretionary Investment Management Service (DIMS) licence.

Become Wealth has as clients major NZX and ASX-listed companies, a government department, medical professionals through the Medcapital brand, and around 17,000 individual clients.

The company is headquartered at the B:HIVE, with staff in Christchurch, Queenstown, Australia, and the Philippines.

Chris Ellison has travelled most of the world as a professional snow boarder and a corporate suit. When Chile exploded in riots and with COVID he and his Chilean wife and children came back to the safe haven of New Zealand.

“I ended up living over the back fence of Long Bay College where I had been to school a couple of decades ago,” Chris says. “While familiar, the culture shock of coming back to New Zealand has been huge for both Fran and me.”

Chris’ B:HIVE business partner Chaz Savage grew up in Gisborne. But he too has been away home for nearly a decade. After finishing uni, he left a promising rugby career and hightailed it to Australia where he worked for Telstra. That’s where he first met Chris. Then when Chaz went to work for Multichoice, a pay TV company that was ripping through Africa, as Chief Customer Officer he naturally nominated his old workmate as head of the marketing department.

The pair were based in Dubai but saw little of it as they travelled through Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique and 20 other African countries empowering local teams to set up prepay TV for their customers. “I travelled so much that I earned 3x platinum status on Emirates,” Chris laughs.

Chaz eventually headed home to the family business, Scarpa Shoes, but was quickly wooed to become Chief Revenue Officer of Sky TV.

Meanwhile, Chris continued on his travels adding digital banking to his many talents as he worked through South America.

Once back in New Zealand, the pair teamed up again on a contract advising a Canadian company, Certn, that does employment and criminal checks. Certn has just finished a Series B capital raise that will value it at about NZ$720 million.

Chris and Chaz tag-team on Certn’s marketing and consumer business and decided to join the B:HIVE so they could work the project more efficiently.

“In reality while we could both work from home, we missed the workplace camaraderie and we have certainly found that around where we are on Level One,” Chris says. “We both have other businesses and we have been able to build connections with other people and their companies to help us with those too.”

“It could also be true that we enjoy the few beers that our level one team pull out from time to time. It’s relaxing and talking, that we discovered there are also lots of people around us who have worked or had their own businesses overseas. So they are very familiar with the ex-pat feeling.”

We have a super rugby clash playing out at the B:HIVE!

Bayer’s Elevit is partnering with the Hurricanes. Apricity Finance is behind the Blues… Fortunately they are supporting different genders. Both B:HIVE-based businesses say they can see the value in supporting one of New Zealand’s strongest sporting codes.

For Bayer partnering the Wellington-based Hurricanes women’s team is a no brainer for Elevit, which provides vitamins and minerals for before, during and after pregnancy. Jarrod Rhodes, senior brand manager, says the Hurricanes Poua is heavily involved in partnering women’s health and Elevit. “They are excited about being asked for help to develop events and social media campaigns that would reach a diverse range of kiwi women,” Rhodes. “During the year-long contract we will be helping the Hurricanes grow and connect with culturally diverse audiences.”

Back in Auckland, Apricity Finance is appearing on the sleeve of the Blues Under-20 and Under-18 teams, and is partnering with several Blues events, during a three-year partnership. In announcing the deal Blues CEO Andrew Hore, said the values of teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline, and sportsmanship are at the core of Apricity Finance and closely shared at the Blues.

Hore said the partnership will pave the way for new relationships and overall business growth for Apricity Finance as the Blues connect it with friends and family of the club.

Sky Reidy is a huge fan of flexible working spaces and it was inevitable she would eventually lead her team to the B:HIVE.

As Moustache Republic’s chief strategy officer and general manager (NZ) Sky was thrilled to settle her team on Level three in the last week of February.

Sky’s passion for flexible working was fuelled when she was lucky enough to visit the world’s WeWork in 2016 in the United States, on an International Business Exchange while attending The Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) at the University of New South Wales.

“We visited WeWork San Francisco as part of our MBA business exchange and were lucky to meet one of the founders Adam Neumann,” she says. That same year WeWork was chosen by  Fortune magazine as one of its three unicorns to bet on.

Flexible workspaces fit well with Sky’spassionate for digital transformation and design thinking and are a crucial part of Moustache Republic’s strategy to offer a remote first policy to its 30 Kiwi staff.

Moustache Republic’steam of digital commerce innovators, designers and developers are based in Auckland, Sydney and Manila. The company has grown by 30 per cent in the past year in NZ and has doubled the size of its Australian office.

Newsflash: Moustache Republic has been announcedas winners of the 2021 @Bigcommerce ‘Agency Partner of The Year Award | APAC’ and the ‘B2B Excellence Award | APAC’ for their work with Bobux. What an amazing start to enjoying the team’s new home at the B:HIVE.

A B:HIVE based mother and daughter team are on a mission to promote the trade industry.

Trade Jobs NZ founder and director Colleen Getley, who has 30 years of experience in HR and recruitment, joined her designer daughter Kim to establish Trade Jobs NZ in May, 2020.

The aim was to provide a purpose-built platform for the industry and grow the reputation of trades people.
“It’s great because we have different skill sets,” says Kim. “Mum in HR and recruitment, and me in advertising, marketing and the creative side.We have a close relationship and say it how it is – we respect each other’s side of things.

Both spotted a gap in the market when they started Trade Job NZ.

Covid created growing demand. Increased building activity and government-backed infrastructure projects, combined with border restrictions reducing the flow of skilled workers into the country, has meant the industry has been facing a skills shortage for some time – 178,000 tradies are needed in New Zealand.

They also want to improve the reputation of tradespeople.
“Tradies across the board for a long time have had a bad rap,” says Kim. “Oh, you drop out of school and become a tradie is the thinking. In reality, it can mean earning incredible money and it is really reliable.”

Trade Jobs NZ also educates tradies themselves about how to get a job. Word-of-mouth is the most common go to – nearly 60% rely on it.

“They often go through Facebook, but it is not always going to work if you are hiring your mate’s cousin,” she says.“It also might not be the best way to find your dream job.”

Remember what your grandmother told you – “take a deep breath”? It might sound old fashioned, but it works. Breathing is one of a suite of tools at our fingertips as we travel through Omicron, according to our resident B:HIVE preventative medicine expert Dr Louise Schofield.

Put more scientifically, slow breathing allows the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain associated with rational thought to come back in charge instead of the more emotional amygdala; which processes emotions associated with fear.  

Louise, whose PhD is in public health, co-founded PreKure® three and a half years ago with her husband Prof Grant Schofield and a group of nine academics and health professionals.

PreKure’s team of health coaches, mental health coaches, researchers, and cliniciansfocus on helping us to live longer, healthier lives without chronic disease.

PreKure is the third start up in the medical field that Louise has headed. The previous two were The Real Food Publishing Company (2015) and Vitality Works NZ (2010).

“They have all been in health and wellbeing,” says Louise, “because if you haven’t got your health nothing else matters. Little changes can make a massive difference.”

If you don’t see Louise around the B:HIVE as much these days, it is because she and Grant have relocated to the Coromandel. Louise travels to the B:HIVE a couple of days a week. The couple was worried how their previously active son Danny (12) was spending all day on a computer station during covid lockdown. School work? Maybe…
Now he is riding round town on his bike, swimming in the ocean, or building huts down the creek.

Louise is helping the family walk the PreKure talk.