Ray White is pretty famous for its in-house training programs, but in the last six weeks, the real estate group mobilised its 400+ strong corporate staff and moved its entire training calendar online in response to the lockdown in New Zealand and Australia.
The combined group has already held some 200 sessions and had almost 15,000 attendances, including 5000 in New Zealand alone.
Ray White Head of Performance Adam Downes said the online training program was yet another innovation born of the COVID-19 period.
“I think it’s here to stay too in some form. Obviously the convenience of live-streamed training is a big one but we were able to unlock our talented national trainers too,” Mr Downes said.
“Our members have always had a big appetite for training and development but we turned it on in a frequent format – on the hour, every hour.
“I am also really happy with the numbers tuning in. There’s no expectation or requirement that people log in but we are here if they need us.”
The best sessions by way of attendance and engagement were the ones held by the group’s in-house Profit Team, Property Management plus every session with chairman Brian White and managing director Dan White.
It’s been a challenging few months but Ray White’s corporate team of 17 accountants have provided a life-line to many hundreds of franchises during this stressful pandemic period.
Led by Chartered Accountant Luke Richardson, the team quickly drew up cash flow templates for all businesses who needed support.
“Our first webinar had 400 people on the session and we handled hundreds of calls. You could say I am ‘JobKeepered out’ now as a lot of people have now lodged, and are in the middle of that process,” Mr Richardson said.
“We worked out what we had to do quickly and we’ve become experts in working with the ATO.”
Ray White Canberra CEO Ben Faulks said many real estate operators had been operating “from a place of fear” in the last six weeks which created inertia.
“If the head goes in the sand then many people, just stop. But this period has been all about opportunity for us. We run a sales business and our energy has been all about finding buyers for our vendors.
“We are not ATO tax experts or HR experts, so the support and guidance from Ray White has been invaluable.”
