NZSA CEO’s May Report In this update, NZSA CEO Gary Morrison talks NZ Security Awards online, wage subsidy audit, good practice guideline, virtual reality CoA training platform, work broker programme, and International Security Officers’ Day (24/7). It is amazing how our world can change so dramatically and within such a short time span!
The Covid-19 crisis continues to have a major and long-lasting effect on almost every aspect of our personal and professional lives. People and businesses are hurting, and even though security providers are recognised as an essential service, our members have not been immune to the impacts and many security providers have experienced a significant downturn in business and profitability.
Gary Morrison NZSA CEO
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The focus for the NZSA during this time has been to support our members as far as possible, be it through working with government to ensure the best possible outcomes for our members, providing timely and effective communications and advice, or maintaining and establishing member benefit programmes that provide necessary support and value. The good news for the security industry is that our businesses are in a far stronger position than many other industry sectors and we are well positioned to maximise business opportunities as the government works to kick-start the economy for the remainder of this year and years ahead. It is also apparent that many of our members have taken the opportunity to review and tweak their way of doing business and how they can operate more smartly and effectively. For our training providers this will see the move to greater online delivery accessibility and capability and for the NZSA, a more permanent shift to working remotely and without the need for traditional office accommodation. These changes can only be viewed positively and will assist the industry going forward. We appreciate that we have issued a significant number of member communications and updates over the last two months but hopefully this newsletter will provide a more general update on our activity and issues affecting our members.
Business continuity support for NZSA members As conveyed within earlier updates, the NZSA has formalised an agreement with leading financial advisors Smetric to provide Cash flow Management and Business Support services to its members free of charge under a government support package for business continuity. Smetric will provide funded advice that covers: • Actions to stabilise cash flow during lockdown and in following months • Scenario planning for the business post lockdown and developing strategies • Review of customer base to ensure customer retention • Review operational and capacity requirements post lockdown For more information please refer to the Smetric website or contact Warwick Russell on warwick@ smetric.co.nz. Wage subsidy audit Our Covid-19 survey [refer to Covid-19 survey article in this issue of NZSM] indicates that approximately 80 percent of members accessed the Government Wage Subsidy payment scheme. Whilst the survey responses confirm that most members have suffered a significant drop in their turnover consistent with the government criteria for accessing the subsidy payments, there have been anecdotal claims that several providers may in fact struggle to
June / July 2020
