Business View Oceania | January 2020

91 92 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA JANUARY 2020 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA JANUARY 2020 PARKWOOD RET I REMENT V I LLAGE & LODGE industry, which it didn’t. And there’s a shortage now, as more people retire and new villages are built, there’s a scarcity of the number of employees available. Carers and registered nurses. We’re fortunate that we’re a long distance from a public hospital because if you’re close to one, many of the registered nurses will leave to go there for the better paying conditions in the hospital system. We’re all funded by the same people but they get more. We are fortunate in having a lot of long-serving staff, but if there’s a shortage generally, there’s no one near to recruit. And that’s a problem.” The wait list for a normal two-bedroom house in the village is between five and seven years. But because each one has a different design, sometimes a house may go to a newer person on the list because the people ahead of them didn’t like it for some reason. But, while it does fluctuate, generally the houses are being shown to people who put their names down in 2012. Indeed, a lot of people in their 60s are thinking www.csstechnologies.co.nz 0800 000 670 Unit 1, 2 Akeake Place, NZ Central Technology Park Otaki 5512, Kapiti, New Zealand Proud to be associated with and providing technical services for Parkwood Retirement Village We present a single point of contact for the supply, management, support and care of your internet-based information and telecommunications technology requirements ahead and putting their name down now and Rouse believes that is a wise choice. All ages of the local community are actively involved at Parkwood. In that regard, the facility’s administration manager set up a new initiative with the local school, where students in two classes have become pen pals with the residents. They meet every term to chat with their pen pals and exchange letters. “It’s absolutely brilliant,” says Rouse. “It’s wonderful for the kids and the residents. And we also open up our facilities for various organisations in the area because it fits quite big audiences.” In the technology realm, Parkwood is in the process of getting ultra-fast broadband rolled out in the village. Once that is in place, they’ll be able to change their database platforms and other systems which are quite old. Rouse admits, “We haven’t been able to change them because without the high-speed technology the systems won’t be able to run. So we’re looking forward PREFERRED VENDORS n Trustees Executors www.trustees.co.nz Trustees Executors was established in 1881 and is New Zealand’s oldest and most experienced Trustee Company. We have been helping New Zealanders and their families secure their financial futures for over 135 years. As trusted advisers we are always looking for ways to help our clients shape their financial future, whether this is through wealth protection structures such as trusts, wills and enduring powers of attorney, or other complementary investment strategies. We are also a leading provider of back office investment administration services to our institutional clients and as a Licensed Supervisor, our Corporate Trustee Services team are responsible for more than $83bn in client funds. Our client base includes some of New Zealand’s leading financial institutions, banks, fund managers and retirement villages. n Braddock Painting Ltd 027 5511547 n CSS technologies www.csstechnologies.co.nz to upgrades this year. We’re also in the midst of a 10-year project to resurface all our roads in the village with asphalt. That will be finished in 2020 as well. About a million dollars worth of roadwork.” Main goals for the future are to keep the facilities upgraded and improve on any aged care amenities that residents would like. “And to keep on modernizing our houses.” Rouse adds. “We’ve got a 50-year-old verge, so there’s a huge amount of maintenance every year and we just need to continue to keep ourselves up to date. Take on technologies as they come. We’ve got a lot of work ahead just to keep the place looking good. But the residents are pretty happy with the environment they live in here. It’s a very caring culture. Staff go out of their way to help them … it’s just part of working here. And people get it. I thought I’d be here for three to five years because of the direction it was going at the time, but that has ended up being over 25 years and I’m not done yet.”