20 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS <strong>April</strong>/<strong>May</strong> <strong>2021</strong> You don’t need to do everything yourself TAXATION AND THE LAW > BY ELSA WRATHALL Elsa Wrathall is a PwC senior manager based in the <strong>Waikato</strong> office. Email: elsa.n.wrathall@pwc.com Ever been stuck in a bit of a pickle? For example: • a staff member has left, and you haven’t found the right replacement, or • you’ve decided to restructure and you’re not sure what you want your team to look like yet, or • you don’t have an employee with the right skill set to complete a specific project, or • an employee is sick and there’s no one to stay on top of the financial reporting processes and things are falling behind. A secondee could be a good option for helping you solve these problems. They can provide breathing room and capacity, allowing you to make the right strategic choice for your business. A secondee is someone who is transferred temporarily to alternative employment away from their primary job. The original employer usually remains the legal employer but the secondee can be instructed by the organisation they are being ‘lent’ to. This means the business can access a range of skilled and experienced staff on short notice for a specific period or project. Many firms are able to provide this service, including accounting firms. Which provider is best comes down to the specific needs of your business. The arrangement can be flexible where you can customise the role and hours to suit your business - being part-time or full-time or anywhere in between. Fee arrangements can also be flexible, based on an agreed hourly or daily rate or a fixed fee covering a period of time, that provides an ‘all you can eat’ element. From stepping in to help with monthly or year-end reporting, technical accounting, process reviews, budgeting and cashflow forecasts, they will have the skill set to cover a variety of roles. There could also be the option that, if your business isn’t large enough to support a full time CFO, you could get access to a ‘virtual CFO’. A virtual CFO comprises someone who can review your financials and provide valuable input a few days a month to support you and your finance team. It’s also a great opportunity for your advisor to gain further insight into the day-to-day operations of your business. This can enable them to give you further valuable feedback on your processes and structure of your finance function. By bringing in an experienced professional, it takes the pressure off the finance function and gives your employees the chance to upskill and get some valuable mentoring from an external professional. It provides the opportunity to network and build relationships with a professional outside the business, and gain access to new resources and networks that could help develop both the employee and the business. There can be benefits to getting a secondee from a larger firm. They generally have a wider variety of experience across all sorts of businesses and industries. Plus, they have a larger firm to support them in the event anything unusual crops up. This can help take the burden off management and ensure focus remains on the important aspects of operating the business. We are seeing an increasing number of secondments occurring. From our point of view there is an opportunity to experience working directly with other businesses and learn a new thing or two as well. Secondments can vary from maternity and sick leave cover, to changes in finance teams, and all look slightly different depending on what the client needs or wants. So, if there is a role you need filled and you want to take the pressure off, reach out to your trusted advisor and they might just have the person for you. The comments in this article of a general nature and should not be relied on for specific cases. Taxpayers should seek specific advice. Welcoming Australia, major events and regeneration Monday <strong>April</strong> 19 marked a historic date in our Covid- 19 journey as New Zealand and Australia began quarantine-free travel between the two countries. Although we are not expecting any significant shifts in visitor arrivals in the Mighty <strong>Waikato</strong> for the next few weeks, it has given us hope about a return of Trans-Tasman travel for leisure, business and events. We expect a growing number of leisure travellers to return once the Visiting Friends and Family (VFR) market starts to ease. Australia is a key market for us which will help ‘prop up’ our visitor market during the quieter winter months – Australia was our number one international visitor market pre-Covid injecting $87.5 million annually into the regional economy. We are working in collaboration with a number of partners to maximise our efforts to encourage visitation to the <strong>Waikato</strong> from Australia, especially with our main international marketing partner, Tourism New Zealand. We were proud to be part of the bid process for the Fifa Women’s World Cup 2023 and are excited for Hamilton to be chosed as a host city. The tournament is being jointly hosted by New Zealand and Australia – the first time a Fifa tournament has been co-hosted across two football confederations – and will also for the first-time ever see the Fifa Women’s World Cup expanded from 24 to 32 teams. Welcoming back the New Zealand National Fieldays at Mystery Creek from June 16-19 June will provide the region and visitor sector with a TELLING WAIKATO’S STORY > BY JASON DAWSON Chief Executive, Hamilton & <strong>Waikato</strong> Tourism much-needed economic boost in the middle of our winter season. The last physical Fieldays event in 2019 generated an impressive $549m in sales revenue for New Zealand firms with $183m going into the <strong>Waikato</strong> region alone. Based on the official event attendance figures for 2019 of 128,747, it shows that each person though the gate contributes around $4,200 to the economy. The event also proved hugely beneficial to the <strong>Waikato</strong> region. The economic impact report estimated that every gate entry resulted in $312 in direct spending in the <strong>Waikato</strong> hospitality sectors including accommodation, restaurants, bars and retail trade. As a non-ski destination, <strong>Waikato</strong> needs to work a little bit harder to drive domestic visitation during our traditionally quieter months. Hosting events are crucial to lead the economic and social recovery of the <strong>Waikato</strong> region during winter. Tourism New Zealand research indicates that up to one-third of domestic travel is primarily driven by people looking to participate in events. Lastly, we are coming to the end of the first phase of the Regenerative Tourism programme for tourism leaders. The term ‘regenerative tourism’ is about creating a supercharged sustainability movement of leaders to take action. The programme is educating and inspiring our tourism sector to do better – creating action to support communities and people to thrive. <strong>Waikato</strong> has joined six other pioneering regions, Bay of Plenty, Coromandel, Queenstown, Rotorua, Ruapehu and Wanaka, to roll-out the regenerative tourism programme. Addressing major issues like climate change, sustainable employment opportunities and building a resilient tourism sector for the future have been some of the conversations tackled. We want to create a change and influence a new direction, so collective action is the next step in our journey.
DAVE CARDEN THANK YOU FOR WHAT YOU HAVE MADE POSSIBLE, INNOVATION IS TRULY IN YOUR DNA! FROM YOUR TRT FAMILY “He built a considerable company by placing people ahead of profits, and continually reinvesting in the business!” Jerry Rickman, Chairperson TRT Board of Directors. 48 Maui Street, Hamilton 07 849 4839 www.trt.co.nz
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