National Infrastructure Plan

Key investments

• State highways: $10.7 billion over the next 10 years
• National grid: $3.3 billion over the next five years
• Urban broadband: $1.5 billion over the next 10 years
• New schools and buildings: $2.7
  billion over the next five years
• Total Budget capital spending: $7.5 billion over five years

 

‘Caring for each other’ the cornerstone of Transfield Services’ HR development programme

By Lynne Richardson

January 2010 – Transfield Services renews a $103 million roading contract to maintain part of New Zealand’s state highway network for the next ten years … November 2009 – Transfield Services is awarded a major project valued at approximately $40 million to assist with reinforcing and upgrading New Zealand’s national electricity transmission grid over twoand- a-half years … July 2009 – Transfield Services begins work on an eightyear $22.4 million contract for maintenance and repair of street lighting for the Auckland City Council ...

These are just a few of the major contracts awarded to Transfield Services within New Zealand over the last year. The company is a leading provider of operations, maintenance and asset management services in the mining, transport and utility sectors, and is part of a global firm, founded and now headquartered in Australia, that today employs over 28,000 people across ‘Caring for each other’ the cornerstone of Transfield Services’ HR development programme By Lynne Richardson Australasia, North and South America, the Middle East and South-East Asia.

Paul Arenhold (left), electrical supervisor, is a mentor and on-job assessor for Transfield Services; Glenn Jeffries (right) is a fourth-year electrical supply apprentice

The time periods for these projects are long term, which necessitates a detailed and strategic approach to human asset management – something that Transfield Services has valued since its inception. Kevin McKenna, Transfield Services’ executive director for New Zealand, explains: “Transfield Services has as one of its primary values, ‘We care for each other’, and that approach has its roots with the two Italian friends who founded the company in Sydney in the 1950s. In true Italian style, they looked out for each other and their families.”

Indeed, the fledgling company employed only Italians for many years. Nowadays, however, it has a far more diverse workforce, and Transfield Services has carefully nurtured and managed its human resources to ensure it has the capacity and capability for when such long-term projects come on stream.

Programme development

A strategic across-company approach to human resource management wasn’t always the case though. “We’ve always had an apprenticeship programme, with several hundred apprentices at any one time,” Mr McKenna says, “but when we first started to look at the issue a few years ago, we found that the apprentices were ‘owned’ by each business unit, and their training was handled by that business unit manager. There was little coordination across the company, and very different approaches to apprentice/ cadet/trainee career development – we felt there was a better way of doing things.”

A formal apprenticeship programme was set up in mid-2007, and four apprentice coordinators were appointed who would report to the training management team, led today by training and development business manager Denis Orme.

The organisation had some key objectives for establishing the apprenticeship programme, says Mr Orme. “We wanted to ensure every apprentice, cadet or trainee had a written career plan. We needed to identify gaps in training and practical experience, then ensure those gaps were closed. We set the apprentice coordinators the task of holding six-weekly face-to-face meetings with every person in the scheme in order to focus solely on career progress, and making sure good connections with business unit managers were formed to ensure the programme had weight. In the end, we wanted recognition from the various ITOs (industry training organisations) that we were offering a value proposition.”

Transfield Services works with a number of ITOs, with mixed results. “The better ITOs identify our needs and develop the qualifications to meet our training requirements,” Mr McKenna says. He mentions ESITO (the Electricity Supply ITO) as an example of where the relationship is working well. “We’ve led initiatives regarding new protocols and unit standards with ESITO and ETITO regarding compliance with the NZQA framework.”

Integration with training providers and NZQA

Most of the training courses now offered for Transfield Services apprentices are aligned with the NZQA framework to provide nationally recognised qualifications or unit standards, “and if they’re not, we look to see how they can be aligned,” Mr McKenna adds. “For example, we are currently developing a health and safety course, and are in the process of reconfiguring that to maximise accreditation through Aoraki Polytechnic.”

Internal training providers are used for apprenticeship training, and external providers are called in when more specialist training – such as working at height – is required. Transfield Services is making best use of its ‘mature’ workforce when it comes to apprenticeship training. “We recognised some time ago that we have a reservoir of skills available to us,” Mr McKenna says. “As senior employees retire, they often express an interest to give something back to the company – we believe this reflects the loyalty they feel towards Transfield Services – and we ask if they’d like to become mentors within the apprenticeship programme in order to pass on tribal knowledge. Not everything is a written procedure or process.”

Doesn’t Transfield Services run the risk of the older employees passing on any bad work habits and shortcuts? “Not at all,” Mr McKenna stresses. “We have a stringent quality management system in place that standardises the methodology of delivery. This includes qualification through a train-the-trainer programme. Our apprentice coordinators listen to a mentor’s commentary during a training session to ascertain that standards are being upheld, and that there is a knowledge transfer.

“What is interesting is that internal trainers have slightly different methodologies across the country – a cable jointer, for example, in the South Island will do things marginally differently to one in the North Island. It’s just the way things are done.”

The mentoring programme is proving to be successful, with one disadvantage, according to Mr McKenna: “The really good guys – the ones who would make the best mentors – are highly soughtafter within the operations side of the business, and they’re just too busy. But, in most cases, they are willing to donate their time.”

Transferable skills

Transfield Services’ apprenticeship programme is open to those recently out of school and adult trainees looking to upskill. The older apprentices follow the same three to five-year programme as the school-leavers, with cross-credits for any existing qualifications.

Now that the programme runs across all business units, is available to a wider range of age groups and abilities, and includes a range of disciplines, it has resulted in apprentices (or ‘cadets’ as they are referred to in the roading business unit) with skills and qualifications that are recognised worldwide.

“The world becomes their oyster,” Mr McKenna says. “They can stay here in New Zealand – and many choose to do so – to gain more technical or supervisory experience through our Leader of Teams development, or they can transfer to Transfield Services’ offices around the world. They become globally mobile workers.” Of particular appeal is the opportunity to work across the Tasman. “The Transfield Services footprint in Australia is very similar to ours here in New Zealand – their operation is configured the same – which makes the transfer virtually seamless,” he adds.

Workforce planning

The New Zealand government has pledged to spend billions of dollars on capital projects over the next 10 years, and some of these projects have come online faster than expected. “This creates a great challenge in terms of the availability of skilled human resources,” Mr McKenna says. “Some of these infrastructure projects are huge, and will require an enormous workforce. We need the lead time around these projects to train up skilled workers and technicians in time. We face similar manpower challenges of keeping staff utilised when projects are delayed, or reprioritised.”

To try and circumvent this problem, Transfield Services has developed a workforce planning team that looks strategically at the future needs of its business units for human assets. This includes succession planning. The company is not afraid to go looking overseas for skilled workers, as was the case when Transfield Services was awarded a ten-year contract in June last year, worth $1 billion, for telecommunications field services with Chorus, the fixed voice and broadband network division of Telecom NZ.

To provide the workforce of skilled telco technicians needed immediately to install the new high-speed broadband network, Transfield Services had already proactively begun recruiting a number of workers from South Africa, Fiji and the Philippines with the necessary experience and qualifications – and assisting them with gaining permanent residence for themselves and their families.

Ownership of infrastructure

Another challenge is retaining the apprentices once they become qualified, Mr McKenna says. “Around the world, Kiwis are seen as a great resource – they’re adaptable, smart and pragmatic. The more you upskill them, the harder it is to hang onto them. However, this won’t stop us investing in their development. We simply have to find other ways to keep them here in New Zealand.”

Another issue that could arise is if New Zealand gets out of step with Australia in terms of infrastructure development and project scheduling. “That would prove a huge draw on our human resources,” Mr McKenna says. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of work here, thanks to current government spending on infrastructure, and there are some exciting projects in the pipeline.

Mr McKenna gives the relationship Transfield Services has with the New Zealand Transport Agency as an example. “We’ve worked with the NZTA and its predecessor, Transit New Zealand, since 1999, and have recently renewed our roading contract with them to maintain the state highway network in the Waikato and King Country regions for the next ten years.

“There is a real need there for a huge ongoing workforce, and there are some smart things happening on those projects,” he says. “The bulk of our roading apprentices will be sent there, and they’ll be involved in some challenging and rewarding work. They’ll look back on it in years to come with a great deal of pride, and will have some ownership of this country’s infrastructure.”