Help Centre: FAQs
Do you offer short term hire for serviced offices
Our standard licence agreements are for 12 months, thereafter rolling over month by month. Subject to availability, shorter terms of 6 or 9 months may be offered upon upfront payment of an extra monthly payment. This payment includes the office (or desk) plus any monthly extras included in the agreement. This additional fee covers our admin costs, most of which are front-loaded and normally expensed over the 12 month term.
Do you offer coworking desks or hot-desking?
At Hastings HIVE our focus is on providing serviced offices. We can cater for limited numbers of coworking desk users sharing a serviced office by special arrangement. Our desks and offices are dedicated full time to the customer and we do not offer part-time desk use.
We keep our desk based pricing low, which means this can be more cost effective than hot-desks in some other coworking spaces. This also means you can safely leave out equipment on your desk or in your office - things like screens and keyboards or desktop / floor standing computers. For a comparison, check out our quarterly updated List of shared workspaces in Hawke's Bay.
Can customers have more coworkers than desks in their office?
Serviced office customer staff may share desks within their own office using our Flexi-worker plan for accommodating hybrid working models. However meeting and breakout spaces mustn't be used as overflow offices for customer staff and we monitor this.
At any one time, a customer may not have more staff in Hastings HIVE than the maximum desks paid for in their licence agreement. So flexi-workers may only come to the HIVE when it is their scheduled day in the HIVE. However we do allow a regular organisation wide meeting to be held, and accept that extra staff may be around shortly before and after the meeting time.
What if we have temporary staff or staff visiting from other centres?
Serviced office customers may have staff visiting infrequently from out of town occupying spare desks in their serviced office, just a few days per quarter. For this purpose only, special visitor fobs may be requested, that provide easy access for these visitors. It is a customer responsibility to hold on to and manage the return of these fobs after each visit.
Visitor fobs may not be allocated to regular coworking staff. Visitors use the HIVE guest Wifi. There is no printer access or room booking capability with these fobs. Visitor fobs are priced at $250 each. Please ask our community manager for more details.
What happens if we need to onboard staff?
During initial setup of a new serviced office customer, there is an onboarding fee to cover the customer set up cost. This levies each coworker with a one-off on-boarding fee. Subsequent coworkers working for the same customer are charged at the lower "additional coworker" on-boarding rate. This reflects that there is less work required, once the multiple HIVE systems have been setup for the customer organisation.
On boarding coworking desk users is the same price as adding an additional office coworker and incurs a one-off Extra fee.
How quickly could we be in and running?
Serviced offices are allocated on a "first come, first served" basis.
The serviced offices are filling fast but we still have some vacancies, despite building six new offices in the 2021 Stage 2 and five more offices in the 2022 Stage 3. Our last Stage 4 fit out with 6 new serviced offices opened in July 2023.
There is one simple agreement to sign and the on-boarding checklist to complete.
One week is enough notice but in emergencies we can have started organisations with less notice...!
​
Do we get an address to use?
You certainly will have a physical address​ that you can promote to visitors and for deliveries. Remember to include our name Hastings HIVE to differentiate from Kiwibank next door, who share our street address. We do not have a separate postal address.
Do you have a reception service?
No we don't, because, with the advent of messaging and mobiles, we are not sure why you need one. We do have a welcoming foyer at our Market Street entrance with generous lobby and automated visitor kiosk which will notify you by email when your visitor is signed in and waiting. Courier vans may pull up right outside the rear car park entrance and leave your package in the rear lobby where it is protected by the CCTV camera. If they leave a parcel there for your organisation, they do so at your own risk. By automating this amenity, we save on OPEX costs, which allows us to spend on the valuable amenities and services we do provide.
​
There is no manned phone reception and we encourage use of mobile business plans with fixed line number and freecall option as required. There is excellent mobile coverage in the building from all the mobile carriers. Alternatively, IP telephony can be deployed over the network and Glenn Cook Technologies can provision and operate this as a service for you.
What if we have a problem?
Hastings HIVE has a local community manager who is on site 4 days per week to meet with you if you have any issues to resolve, or changes needed in your plan. The owner is contactable by email, or on mobile for more urgent situations. We have a maintenance manager for the building with a network of skilled trades to fix any building issues quickly and efficiently.
The building IT and networking is all monitored and managed remotely and the provider Glenn Cook Technologies (GCT) will be responding to most issues, probably before you even realise something is wrong. For anything more serious, GCT are less than 5 minutes away in central Hastings. Issues with your own IT can be resolved and charged to your business, though you will need your own account set up.
GCT provide all our customers with an amazing special rate for support work. We recommend every customer take advantage of this.
Can we access the CCTV?
The CCTV is in place to protect customer health and safety, the intellectual property and the physical property of all stakeholders.
CCTV access may be used by management to check that customers are fairly sharing the shared facilities and amenities and not abusing a privilege to the detriment of others or the facility.
CCTV may be used by management in ascertaining the responsibility for damage or theft to customer or Hastings HIVE assets. It may be handed over to police or otherwise as required or directed by NZ law. In keeping with our value mutual respect, CCTV may be used by management in the event of bullying or harassment of any kind. It may be handed over to police or otherwise as required or directed by NZ law. CCTV access will not be made available for customers to spot-check staff movements (other than for safety) or invade the privacy of individuals.
CCTV may also be used to check on courier deliveries that may go missing or aren't delivered as expected. Please contact HIVE management for assistance with date and time of an event.
Currently CCTV data is stored for 45 days and is backed up off site.
Do we get a key?
There is no need for a key as the main doors and your serviced office are opened using a personal electronic fob or an optional App running on your mobile. In this way we know who is in the building at all times, adding to the security, and health & safety in the event of an emergency affecting the building. Each person is allocated their individual fob as part of our on-boarding programme. Your staff access is maintained in our Gallagher security system through the on-boarding and off-boarding processes.
What if we lose our electronic key fob?
If a coworker loses their key, the community manager can arrange a replacement. There is a one time $50 fee for this service to update our systems so your staff member has full access again to the building, to your serviced office, to meeting rooms and secure printing.
Could a HIVE serviced office suit a corporate branch with strict IT standards?
The HIVE ICT design provides for logical and, where required, physical separation of network resources between all customers, using Aruba ClearPass technology. The latest Fortinet firewalls with failover protection secure our networks and diverse path fibre access is delivered over Orion and Chorus. These fibres are dynamically balanced to provide load sharing between our two diverse internet providers (both ISPs deliver local and international bandwidth).
Dedicated building ethernet connections, your own appliances in our secure Comms Room, locked server cabinets and your own WAN infrastructure can all be provided for - we have spare dark fibres to Chorus and Orion demarcation points in our Comms Room. Our ICT environment is remotely managed in realtime by Glenn Cook Technologies (GCT), who are based about 3 minutes walk from our building in case you need remote assistance. Additional charges may apply, depending on your specific requirements.
What if we need to print something?
We have a dedicated print station, with a high speed multi-function colour printer/copier/scanner (MFP), that will provide for all your printing and copying needs. The MFP is set up so it will only print out a job when an authorised fob is present with the authorised user.
Hawkes Bay Technology provide us their latest RICOH multi-function printers and an incredibly generous rate for printing, recognising the incubator role we play for small business. It means you pay less than many large corporations do for printing and copying. Many of our customers have economised further by becoming paperless, helping eliminate paper waste.
What if we outgrow our office space?
A special feature of our shared space is its collaborative and flexible nature. We have six-monthly and annual agreements that rollover monthly, unless you re-sign for a further term. Once your term is up, we may ask you to shift offices so that another customer can move to occupy two adjacent offices. We would ask the same for you.
We won't ask you to move to a smaller office (unless you want to) and if we ask you to move to a larger office that you don't need, we won't charge you any extra. The same flexibility applies when a customer needs to reduce office space.
Can multiple organisations share a serviced office?
This can be enabled by special arrangement with management, where one organisation will have the primary licence agreement with Hastings HIVE and be responsible for all the coworkers in their serviced office. The primary organisation pays the serviced office invoice covering the whole space used and recovers a share of costs from the secondary organisation.
Any secondary organisation extras like printing/copying, car parks plus a flexi-worker fee per each secondary coworker occupying the space, can be invoiced separately to the secondary organisation by agreement. The flexi-worker fee covers the extra cost of administration, billing, ITC support, and extra meeting room use that multiple organisations create in the HIVE.
How do we book a meeting room or boardroom?
You can access all the bookable resources in Hastings HIVE, using a calendar-based system to reserve meeting rooms.
To respect your fellow customers, we ask that you book rooms for meetings only, not as overflow office space. And that you limit room bookings to the minimum time you need and not the maximum. This will help you reduce meeting fatigue and improve your business focus. Each coworker can have four meeting room bookings in the system for each coworker onboarded. So if you rent a six-desk serviced office in the HIVE, and have four staff on board, you can have 16 advanced bookings in the system.
​
If a meeting room is not occupied on the day you can book a meeting room and occupy it. Remember, for smaller, more relaxed meetings we have the two break-out areas, one cafe-style for coffee catch-ups and one lounge-style for quieter one-on-one meets. We also have two bookable video conference suites with the latest Logitech conference equipment and three bookable media booths for individual video conference calls, and two phone booths that aren't bookable.
​
Please leave every meeting space as you would like to find it and help us live our values.
Can I hold externally focussed events using HIVE facilities?
Meeting rooms, the boardroom, lounge and cafe are there for all customers' use and need to be available in normal business hours:
Mon-Fri 8.30am to 5.00pm. Outside these hours, events may be booked through the customer portal for your special events.
Catering may be booked through an appropriate provider.
​
To be fair to all and consistent with our values, holding externally focused events is a privilege (not a right) so these facilities can be enjoyed by all our customers, and the principle is that an event will not adversely affect our customers' enjoyment of their space..
There may be charges if extra cleaning or security is involved. You will be responsible for catering your event (please do not use Hastings HIVE supplies for your events) and return the space to normal staging afterwards.
What supplies are included?
Almost everything you need, including most kitchen supplies like coffee, tea, sugar and milk, tea towels and cleaning stuff. Usual toilet and bathroom supplies are included, along with shower gel and shower mats (but not towels), for the showers.
Office printing paper and toner is covered by the per page printer charges. Meeting room whiteboard markers and A1 flip-chart paper are included. However specific office stationery items are not included.
Can I change my serviced office cleaning time?
For serviced office customers, we will try and accommodate your cleaning time preferences, but this may not be possible as we have to fit around the cleaner's schedule. Serviced office customers may opt out of the scheduled cleaning and separately contract our Bryan our cleaner to provide a clean at a time to suit.
​
Can we have plants for our i-office?
We would love to see even more plants in Hastings HIVE, but to ensure your plants don't damage the furnishings and are looked after properly so they look great, we ask you to separately contract The Green Goose to provide and maintain your i-office plants, for a very reasonable monthly rental. Green Goose supply and maintain all our HIVE plants and visit on site regularly.
Who manages building health and safety?
The owners of Hastings HIVE manage health and safety for the whole 200 Market Street North site. ALMAK, a specialist safety and inspection company, is contracted to review all safety aspects of the building and has created a building safety and evacuation plan, posted in the cafe space and the two building emergency exits.
ALMAK also regularly tests all alarms and safety features as part of the building warrant of fitness, displayed in the foyer.
Bi-annual fire/emergency evacuation drills are held under ALMAK supervision and reporting regime.
​
Any Hastings HIVE health and safety issues of concern should be raised with the community manager immediately, for mitigation or minimisation and will be updated in our site health and safety plan and hazard register available in the Hastings HIVE portal.
​
Is the building earthquake proof?
No building in the world is earthquake proof, if the earthquake is large enough and close enough. Local council and government regulations currently assess a building's inherent earthquake resistance, as a percentage of the new building standard (NBS).
​
The 200 Market Street North building has been assessed by local engineers Strata Group, as meeting 100% of NBS for structure and 80% for sub-structure. The 80% sub-structure rating reflects that, being an older building, under-floor ancillary services like wastewater cannot be easily checked upon and could be severed in a severe earthquake, affecting building operation.
​