Message from the NZCB Board

Back to Work

At the time of writing this, I am sitting in my office reflecting on the last three days, at level three. My head is still spinning with all the reorganizing: the extra PPE, social distancing, hand sanitiser, health and safety signs, keeping track of where people have been and where they’re going, and did I mention the hand sanitiser?

While sitting here, I was able to recall and appreciate the people I worked with this week, whether over the phone, over email, or with my own staff and contractors. Everyone has been in good spirits and seems glad to be back into this ‘new normal’ working situation. The situation over the past few weeks has tested us all, and we know there is a lot of uncertainly ahead. In saying that, the last few weeks have also given us an opportunity to look at where we are at and reflect on what is really important to us.

The health and wellbeing of our families, our staff, and our community is crucially important. As business owners though, we often forget the importance of our own health and wellbeing, and this needs consideration too. Many members I have spoken to have felt that the forced rest did them well, despite the extra pressure it has put us under financially. I personally have likened the two-and-a-half days before lockdown as being like a two-day Christmas rush! During the Level 4 lockdown, many National Support Office (NSO) staff and members have been representing New Zealand Certified Builders (NZCB), working alongside other associations and to help our industry get up quickly to prevent stalling in the residential home market. There has been plenty of work going on behind the scenes, whether helping to put H&S packages together or with ideas to stimulate the industry.

Be real with each other and help each other through this as a ‘community of tradespeople’

Moving forward I can see a lot more engagement with the use of platforms such as Zoom and the support for each other on our members’ Facebook pages. Continue to encourage each other and hold each other up as we move into some turbulent times. I also would encourage you to all be real with each other and help each other through this as a ‘community of tradespeople’. Those of us who have been through tough times before can help younger members with advice and encouragement, whether through mentorship or just a simple message of support. Remember that our younger members are the future of our organisation, and valuable advice from an experienced business owner will strengthen our organisation and help to grow the future of our industry. Moving into this next couple of years we may need to look at who we target and what types of work we hope to be awarded. The type of work you have been doing could start to dry up, and you may need to start putting feelers out for other avenues of work. Look into the skills you and your staff have and see what opportunities you may be able to approach. I urge you to consult others to get an understanding of the pitfalls of the areas you are looking into. For example, if you are normally building stand-alone new builds, there will be things to be aware of for alteration/additions that can affect your pricing.

Look into the skills you and your staff have and see what opportunities you may be able to approach.

As we have experienced coming out of the global financial crisis, we had a shortage of tradespeople. In preparation for this problem I encourage you to train apprentices during this period, so that we have enough tradespeople to meet the demand as our economy and our nation recovers. If taking on an apprentice is not possible for you, perhaps you could consider teaming up with other members to share an apprentice.

As a board we have had an ‘interesting’ year with the suspension of the Halo guarantee, COVID-19, cancellation of this year’s conference, and figuring out how to hold the Annual General Meeting. Along with the staff and presidents, we have carried on working hard for our association and have continued to communicate regularly through this trying period. Thank you to Grant and the team at NSO for their ongoing work and dedication to our association and to all of our members. Also, a big thank you to Mark Dobbs for his 12 years of service on the NZCB Board, and of course to his wife Tracey for supporting and enabling him to give the time and energy it has required. This, of course, will not be a farewell, as Mark will still be involved with the Whangarei committee. Thank you everybody and best wishes for the months ahead. I look forward to some good fishing stories on our Facebook page soon.