Working as a unified public service to help our colleagues

As the property system lead, we immediately assembled a response team to support the three affected agencies, understand their needs, and find them a suitable space in the government property portfolio to allow them to continue their important work.

We had to quickly get up to speed with the event itself, the impact on the agencies, the likely duration that agencies would be displaced, and how we could best ensure their requirements (people numbers, space, security, desking and admin services) could be met.

This involved liaising with other agencies around Wellington to confirm if they had space available at short notice. We also had to confirm what provisions the agencies needed, such as desk options, security requirements, printing, and other admin services. Once we had confirmation, we then arranged site visits to confirm suitability.

One agency who helped was Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. MBIE’s Pastoral House on The Terrace operates as a flexible working environment and is conveniently located only a few doors down.

With a bit of juggling, within 24 hours MBIE were able to secure Treasury an entire floor at Pastoral House as a temporary home for around 120 Treasury kaimahi.

In addition to MBIE, seven other government agencies were able to provide temporary accommodation for Treasury. Fortunately, MoE and MPI were able to accommodate staff who needed space in their other offices around Wellington and also had staff working from home.

Sarah Hunter, Senior Facilities Advisor - Lead, Treasury says, “A week after the event, we had induction sessions underway to get our staff into the host agencies…”.

At Pastoral House, catering to the needs of another agency in the building meant restricting the use of meeting rooms on the floor, increasing orders of stationery, kitchen supplies and consumables.

MBIE’s Facilities team put in a heroic effort, going above and beyond to make sure Treasury kaimahi felt welcome and had everything they needed during their six-week stay. They also worked hard keeping the usual residents informed about the changes and how they could affect their work while in the building.

Sarah says, “Each host agency offered something slightly different, which meant juggling expectations and retrospectively finding solutions for processes. We learnt a lot about sourcing accommodation in a hurry. Overall, our staff found being hosted within partner agencies really strengthened collaborative working across different agencies.”

Brendan Tracey, Facilities and Workplace Team Leader, MBIE, commented, “Overall, Treasury’s stay at Pastoral House went very smoothly. Treasury were gracious guests and shared lots of positive feedback about the space and our efforts to make them welcome. In their last week on the floor our Treasury guests provided morning tea for the facilities team to show their appreciation and Treasury CE Caralee McLiesh extended her personal thanks to Carolyn Tremain for all the hard work that had gone into hosting her people at very short notice.”

David White, Chief Advisor Property, GPG, reflected on the event “Managing the needs of agencies in an evolving situation was not easy, however it did illustrate how together we can efficiently work across the portfolio during a crisis. Accommodating another agency at a short notice did not come without challenges but is a great learning opportunity for all of us as we look at the future of workplaces across the public sector. Collaboratively working together supports a system centric approach to property and delivering seamless public services.”

In addition to those who were able to help with the affected agency’s needs, multiple other agencies offered their support when we contacted them. This was a fantastic display of working together as a unified public service to help affected agencies when necessary.