Education Centre

Should Agents Be Good Corporate Citizens?

Australian business are great corporate citizens, however there is more to corporate citizenship then just donating money to worth while charities.  Our agency is activity involved with ensuring tenancies it creates are sustainable and 'at risk' tenants are assisted in finding their way through the challenges facing them.

David Birch says in the Journal of New Business Ideas and Trends (1-1, 2003, pp 1-19), that for modern businesses to be sustainable they must engage in their local communities.  Although most literature relating to corporate responsibility primarily focuses on Multi Nationals, I believe corporate responsibility is just as important for small businesses. 

Realtors have a direct effect on their local community, and productive engagement at a local level is the most effect way of ensuring our responsibilities as corporate citizens are maintained. 

The State Government recently funded the Sustainable Tenancy Project through a Wesley Mission programme called BAYS (Beenleigh Adult and Youth Services).  Our agency supports sustainable tenancies.

BAYS say that "The core component of the project is to develop and deliver workshops about the different aspects of finding and successfully managing a private (not public) rental tenancy. It is hoped that with an increase in skills and knowledge in this area community members will be better equipped to sustain their tenancies.

"Workshops will also be held for staff of local community service organizations in order to encourage workers, who engage with community members on a daily basis, to keep up to date with the issues and supports available for people who are living in private rental accommodation."

We support the BAYS initiative and believe that it is in the interests of our customers (tenants) and clients (landlords) to refer at risk customers to BAYS.

Our agency has also offered to assist BAYS (on their request) in the preparation of and delivery of programs that directly effect and assist at risk community members.  The delivery of programs to reduce the number of people facing housing problems in our local community is the most effective way to contribute as a corporate citizen.

Tenants may face a number of risks that make tenancies challenging.  Financial problems are only the tip modern challenges; family problems, job stability, ill health and time management all contribute to difficulties in a tenancy. 

All of these modern challenges contribute to risk of faltering or the ending of tenancies.  At the point a tenancy falters or ceases the problem is not the individuals', but the communities.  If a community can stem the flow of faltered tenancies the community, business and investors will be better off in many ways.