36 | Russell Fredric Port committed to staff development Port Otago is a busy container port and well placed for further development. Port Otago REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT www.impactotago.co.nz | 10B Strathallan St, Dunedin Proud to support Darling Realty SPECIALISTS IN ROOFING, PLUMBING & PIPE SERVICES Drainlayers 03 455 5871 21 On the back of a solid financial result for the past financial year, Port Otago has committed to meaningful change aimed at benefiting its 290 strong workforce. Three years ago, Port Otago adopted integrated reporting, an international framework that brings together financial and non-financial reporting, focusing on what is most important to an organisation’s stakeholders and business. Port head of people Leigh Carter says this drills down into six capitals: human, social and relationship, natural, intellectual, manufactured and financial. The human capital focuses on Port Otago’s employees, Leigh says. “Integrated reporting highlighted room for improvement, specifically in relation to company culture.” “Port Otago is working with its team to action meaningful change through several activities, including engagement workshops, a cadetship programme and enhanced safety leadership.” Between November 2021 and January 2022, the company held 27 engagement workshops and 96% of the team attended the one-hour sessions. “We wanted everyone to have a face-to- face opportunity to talk about what it’s really like to work at Port Otago, both what’s good and how we can improve. “We also wanted to check if our strategy lined up with what our people thought were the most important issues and goals. Overall, the workshop feedback reinforced that we were on the right track.” Four main themes came out of the workshops: the need to improve work-life balance for rostered teams, having a single culture in the business, an increased focus on wellness and improving communication. “The results were shared back with staff and action is underway, acknowledging that change takes time and will be a whole-team effort.” Port Otago now has three cadets at various stages of its two-year Port Logistics Cadetship Programme. The goal is to attract high-calibre individuals early in their career and give them an opportunity to explore their options within the port logistics sector and ideally find their niche. Senior people partner Christina Fricker drives the programme. “The cadetship is an amazing opportunity, especially for school leavers with minimal work experience. It’s full-time, paid, structured and I mentor each cadet to ensure they reach their full potential,” she says. Cadets work through various modules and tasks in a particular order, so their skill base, experience and knowledge grow over time. In March 2021, Doulton Tosh became the port’s first logistics cadet. He started his working life as a hairdresser, but discovered the logistics industry while helping his father at NZ Post during the first Covid lockdown. He is enjoying the variety of the cadetship and the satisfaction of a job well done, he says. At the end of his time, he is keen to join the operations team in a lashing or straddle driving role. “Isn’t operating heavy machinery the reason everyone wants to work at a port?” A year ago, 20-year-old Zoe Smith was studying history at the University of Otago. She began questioning the length of time she would need to study before she would be job ready, let alone the size of her student loan by that point. While looking for jobs in Dunedin she and spotted the cadetship advertisement online. “I love it at port. Everyone is really friendly and there’s lots of good banter. It’s great that the cadetship means you get to try everything and I can’t wait to see where it takes me.” The programme can accommodate up to six cadets and the port’s people team is currently recruiting. In March this year the company launched a major new initiative, the Safety Leadership Programme Learning and development lead Justin Wilson built the programme, which is targeted at health and safety representatives, front-line leaders and other safety leaders. The programme runs over six months and includes block courses on topics such as improving pre-start meetings, how to approach potentially difficult conversations, and incident investigation protocols. Each participant also identifies a health and safety issue from their work area and implements a real-life solution. Doulton Tosh is the port’s first logistics cadet.
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