Challenges facing local businesses have prompted teams from Bayleys Real Estate across the country to give back in an initiative dubbed the Bayleys ‘Working B’.
The activation, spanning five regions including Auckland’s North Shore, saw more than 300 team members from the leading real estate agency donate time to complete various tasks, including site maintenance, gardening, and administration at several community organisations.
Bayleys North Shore Commercial General Manager Jayson Hayde says businesses have faced significant challenges following the pandemic and its enduring economic effects.
“Between pandemic disruption and general uncertainty, organisations – especially not-for-profits – have done it tough over the last two years, and the idea for the Bayleys ‘Working B’ was born from the wish to help the communities that have supported us.
“At the end of the last financial year, we recognised a real need and sought a collective way to reinvest our time to deliver maximum return for our communities and put Bayleys’ ‘Altogether Better’ ethos into action.
“The response from our team members was incredible, and by giving up their time to work with several community providers – including child health research charity Cure Kids, child services provider Plunket Whānau Āwhina, and volunteer environmental organisation SeaCleaners – we were able to give back materially and making a meaningful change in the quickest possible timeframe.”
Hayde says that teams were well dispersed across the region, with some tending the gardens and repainting interiors at Plunket’s Devonport clinic, while others undertook building maintenance at its Constellation Drive family centre.
Other tasks saw Bayleys team members work with SeaCleaners picking up rubbish along the North Shore’s beaches and waterways, in addition to site maintenance and administrative support at Cure Kids.
Bayleys says the ‘Working B’ initiative was a resounding success, with more than 300 team members nationally lending a hand at 19 activations, totalling more than 1,000 working hours.
On the North Shore, the teams completed the equivalent of an entire week’s worth of work, with community organisers noting the flow-on effects of the concentrated effort on broader operations.
Plunket property advisor Chris Gower says Bayleys facilitated material upgrades to eight of the charity’s premises across the region, which has a helicopter effect for the rest of the country.
“Community organisations have been running on empty after a fall-off in donations and a shortfall of volunteers following the impact of the pandemic, added regulation, and the rising cost of living.
“Historically, upwards of 1,000 volunteers have been on Plunket’s rota nationally, supporting whānau in various ways. However, we have seen an enormous drop in volunteer engagement, something we primarily associate with health concerns in the post-pandemic era and Kiwis being stretched a little thinner recently.
“To have such a huge sway of work, like that offered by our Foundation Partner Bayleys, has broad implications for Plunket’s operations across the country because we can reinvest funds saved on maintenance during the ‘Working B’ into our national service offerings.
“We see around 85 percent of all Kiwi kids, being the country’s largest provider of child and family support services, so this aid is vital and ensures we can focus our resources on the development, health and wellbeing of our tamariki,” Gower says.
For further insights, get in touch with Bayleys North Shore.
09 489 0999 | northshorecommercial@bayleys.co.nz
www.bayleys.co.nz/commercialnorthshore
COMMERCIAL NORTH SHORE LTD, BAYLEYS, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008
