60 | CONTRACTING Ongrade Drainage and Excavation Kelly Deeks Encouraging staff to forge a career Ongrade Draining and Excavation is a versatile company that likes its employees to be versatile as well. As businesses across New Zealand struggle to find a full complement of workers, some are giving themselves an edge on the labour market by doing things differently. “It’s a real struggle across the board,” says Kent Blackler, co-founder and director of Ongrade Drainage and Excavation in Christchurch. “One thing we’re trying to do differently is show a career path, and be dedicated to the personal and professional development of our employees.” Kent tells anyone taking on an apprenticeship with Ongrade that this isn’t all he has to offer. “If they find they want to do something else, we can find something else. It’s all about versatility.” Ongrade is a versatile company that likes its employees to be versatile as well. “For our business model, we like to be a one stop shop. When we’re working on a subdivision development, we like to go in and do the earthworks, the civil works, the drainage, and the kerb and channel, and I want our guys to be able to do all of these things and understand all of these areas because they are all linked together.” Even the hazards involved in these tasks are linked together, so with comprehensive training and understanding of earthworks, water reticulation installation, sewer, stormwater, roading, and kerb and channel works, staff are better able to minimise the hazards in each of those areas. “The broader the knowledge, the easier it is to problem solve. When you’re doing an earthworks job and something is going wrong, you can revert back to something you learned in roading and that could solve the problem.” Kent tells his apprentices that once they have all of that industry knowledge on board, they can do anything they want within the industry. “You can go to project managing, or surveying, but people are trying to jump the rungs on the ladder. “If you want to be successful and work your way to the top, you’ve got to climb every rung on the way up.” Kent gets this philosophy from his older brother, who has been a role model to Kent his whole life, from when he started out 30 years ago as a trolley pusher at Countdown, to now being the owner of New World supermarket at Ravenswood. “He went through every step, gaining more and more industry knowledge as he went.” When it comes to training, Ongrade uses infrastructure training organisation Connexis to provide the structure and the qualifications, but the majority of learning is done on the job site. “I think the best training you can get is by working with experienced people. Our foreman who are out on the tools with our “If you want to be successful and work your way to the top, you’ve got to climb every rung on the way up.” apprentices have all worked with me or co-director Beau Broadhurst and they have learned the way we like to do things and our standards and our safety procedures. “That knowledge was passed down to them, and now they are passing it down to their guys on site.” The pathways to training are many and varied at Ongrade, and Kent and Beau make sure they customise each programme to suit each apprentice’s way of learning. And how do they know their apprentices so well? They talk to them. “We know our staff. We are not separate from our staff, we see them and we have conversations with them and we work alongside them and understand them. “We sit and talk to them and find out what they want to do right now. No one knows what they want to be doing in 10 years’ time, so why not learn as much as you can of what you’re interested in today, and as you progress through life these interests and the things that drive you will change. “If you learn as you go, you become versatile, and versatility is valuable in the grand scheme of life.”
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