Business View Oceania | May 2021

43 44 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA MAY 2021 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA MAY 2021 it’s got to be a trusted relationship and a two- way partnership. We’ve got clients we’ve dealt with for more than 15 years, and they have that confidence behind them that everything we put in or deploy is going to work when they need it to work, which is the most crucial thing.” Vision Systems doesn’t do a lot of marketing per se. It’s done more through strong relationships they’ve built over time. Some national contracts and large businesses that they started working for seven years ago still offer a consistent flow of work. Rarely do they only do a single job for a client. Johnson offers as an example, the shootings that happened in Christchurch two years ago at the Muslim mosque. He recounts, “The government released funds for a “Save the Communities” project and the Jewish community were the first to pick up on those funds. We successfully negotiated with them to use those funds to upgrade all the security around the synagogues in New Zealand. From that, we created a relationship with the Muslim community for the same thing. Those are multi-million dollar contracts that we got involved in – starting first with relationships, doing a good job, and then just carrying on. It’s very rewarding. I see what’s happening with people being abusive outside the synagogues or the mosques and I can see first-hand that the security systems we put into these sites is directly helping them make their community safer.” Adapting to pandemic protocols has been interesting for Vision Systems. Because the business is classed as an essential service it means the staff is still required to go out and operate on clients’ premises. According to Johnson, “We developed our own app at the time of the initial lockdown in New Zealand; it’s a way for our staff to log on each day and declare their COVID status. So we’ve got contact tracing within our own organisation, if it’s required. $60 to $80 thousand dollars in bonuses that we’re paying out to staff. We love giving out the bonuses and a lot of the staff that are just starting with us can see that people stay working here. Other benefits we give the staff on top of those bonuses help with retention as well.” Those extra benefits come in the form of education. The company doesn’t just train the staff on electrical and security, they also offer courses around business management and project management. These courses can enhance the person’s skills and give them diplomas which they can use as a springboard to further their career. The management understands that not everyone’s going to work for Vision Systems until they retire. Johnson explains, “If we can help them by giving them knowledge around something they’re passionate about, in the three years while they’re doing that diploma they’re still working for us and bringing the V I S ION SYSTEMS When Auckland particularly goes into a level change it does slow our processes down. It’s harder for us to get around to some sites and do work, but generally we’ve been pretty lucky in New Zealand with the response we’ve done on COVID. The main thing it has changed… we did a lot of work in the South Pacific and the pandemic has stopped that simply because there’s no movement between countries in this area of the world.” Vision Systems, quite simply, is a great place to work. As a result, most of their employees are long-term, with very little turnover of staff. The company culture is very open, everyone gets along and puts the effort in. They all understand that people have tough days sometimes and everyone is there to help each other out. The firm does offer a very generous initiative that helps with staff retention. It’s a “bonus scheme” – for five years service at Vision Systems you get $10,000 and for ten years service you receive $20,000. “We like to recognize people,” says Johnson, “and reward them for length of service, because 10 years is a long time to work for someone. So, every year we’re allocating from