62 | Workplace culture lures Armi from page 60 A video training initiative, championed by Armi and showing the best and safest technique for opening mussels, has boosted productivity and proven popular with workers. Marlborough: Talley’s Blenheim REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT “My supervisor encouraged us to apply for work visas. Once we had our visas, I still thought I’d be going home to Malaysia to pick up audio engineering again, but I could also see lots of opportunities with Talley’s. “I was really attracted by the workplace culture, and management’s vision for building the best team by the way they recognised talent and valued people.” By 2017 Armi had been promoted to a senior supervisor role and Jeslyn had moved up into a training role. Talley’s management tried its best to secure residency for their star workers, and while their application was declined the experience only served to strengthen Armi’s conviction to keep working for Talley’s. “I saw the effort and resources this company put into supporting people like us,” says Armi. In 2018 Armi was invited to participate on a project to improve productivity. The project started with a trip to Christchurch with Talley’s IT manager to meet an IT development team. Armi’s job was to answer questions about opening mussels, to shed light on the everyday practicalities of the factory floor. Adding his own ideas to the discussion, Armi was appointed champion of a project to build a gaming-style app showing mussel openers their work, so they could see where improvements could be made. Fast mussel opening has to be safe and the project had a second workstream to improve workers’ techniques and avoid sprains, strains and cuts. Armi’s wife Jeslyn championed that workstream among workers, gaining their critical buy-in to being filmed and then being asked to watch footage of themselves in action. “We filmed hundreds of openers in action and then analysed their techniques in slow motion, at about one-tenth of their normal speed. After a month, we’d found the best, safest technique for opening mussels and broke this down into six clear steps. We played staff footage of themselves alongside footage of workers with the best technique to help them see the differences and where they could improve.” Strategically, Armi started the video training with the newest workers, then intermediate workers. By this time, the longest-serving workers, confident and settled in their technique, could see the positive effects of the training among their less-experienced colleagues. They started to ask to do the training themselves. Armi had also come to the attention of Don Boote, General Manager at Talley’s Blenheim and in 2020 was invited to participate in the build of the new state-of-the-art Blenheim Proud to work alongside Talley’s Limited in Blenheim 173 Maces Road, Christchurch, New Zealand Phone: (03) 381 4499 Email: enquiries@kelfordengineering.co.nz www.kelfordengineering.co.nz BOILERS ARE YOUR LIFEBLOOD AND OUR LIVELIHOOD Emergency Boiler Service / Boiler Inspections / Repairs and Maintenance / Boiler Installation’s Combustion Tuning / Portable Boiler Hire / KESB Electrical Steam Boilers / Parts and Servicing PROUD TO BE A SERVICE PROVIDER TO TALLEY’S LIMITED Quality ISO 9001 Registered elarc.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=