In the News
Highly Commended - EEO Trust Skills Highway Award 2011
Highly commended was Stevenson Group, which services the quarrying, mining, engineering and construction sectors, for its five-day foundation skills programme Stepping Up, developed with training company The Learning Wave. Fifty-two employees took part over 14 weeks last year.
Human Resources Manager Geoff White says the business benefits were apparent after six months, with fewer disciplinary hearings, lower employee turnover and fewer sick days. "Injury rates are also down, and it seems that employees are taking more responsibility for their wellness."
Participant feedback has been positive. A quarry operator wrote, "I learned about choosing the right language, about looking people in the eye, about being clear about what I say. I learned to step back a bit and just give people a bit of room."
For more information please see: EEO Trust Work & Life Awards
The Learning Wave feature in Mäori workforce literacy and numeracy outcomes report
Government and Mäori emphasise the critical importance of good literacy and numeracy skills for Mäori development, and more broadly for the New Zealand economy. Te Puni Kökiri recently completed a report on Mäori workforce literacy and numeracy outcomes.
Click here to see a copy of the full report…
High Confident in NZQA External Audit
As a registered Private Training Establishment (PTE), The Learning Wave undergoes audits by NZQA. This establishes how confident they are in our performance in delivering quality solutions to our clients and participants. Over the past year, NZQA have amended the process to be much more outcome focused, rather than system/process focused, and looks at results being delivered. This is now known as the EER (External Evaluation and Review) Audit.
In October we were involved in our first EER audit and found the process to be extremely valuable. After 2 days of consultation with internal staff, clients, participants, facilitators, Industry Training Organisations, and visiting our programmes in action, NZQA awarded The Learning Wave with the highest possible rating of ‘Highly Confident’ in both educational performance and self-assessment. This is a great result as it validates that the solutions we are providing our clients are recognised as some of the best in the industry.
Click here to see a copy of the full report…
Roading New Zealand Excellence Awards 2010
InfraTrain New Zealand Industry Best Practice Award - People
Category Winner - Zero Harm Culture Change
Creating a new culture of safety has led to measurable results for Downer. As a major player in the infrastructure sector, Downer wanted to tackle behavioural issues that were the final obstacle to a true 'safety culture' amongst its 8,000 employees and subcontractors. So it created a company-wide programme - Zero Harm - to challenge ingrained attitudes and tap the willingness of Downer teams to start owning the issue of site safety. Launched by the CEO and delivered by 148 employee safety champions, the Zero Harm model engaged workers at all levels and gave them unique tools to take back on the job.
The results were dramatic:
• 50% reduction in plant incidents.
• 75% drop in accident severity rates.
• 84% drop in number of insurance claims.
These improvements were reflected in a drop in injury-related costs from $69 to $41 per employee from 2008 to 2010. The strategic aim was to move from a compliance-based regime to a value driven culture focused on individual and team participation. This resulted in sustainable change, delivering benefits to the organisation, individuals and their communities year after year. By empowering workers to manage their own safety more effectively, Zero Harm has created a workforce that is more capable and confident-and one that is measurably safer.
For more information please see: Zero Harm Culture Change winners 2010
Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards 2010
Better business support is helping business work through the changing business landscape with ideas, information, products and services that challenge the now and prepare business to achieve its longer term goals.
Finalists in the 2010 Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards have achieved results for their business customers despite the challenges of a very different economic environment. They have spent 2009 working ‘on’ New Zealand business to ensure they are well placed and prepared to come out of the recession with improved efficiency and productivity. They have kept business vigilant on key areas such as education, research & development, innovation, sustainability, cashflow, business culture and productivity.
A record number of nominations and entries for the 2010 awards also signals this growing commitment to business excellence and business capability in New Zealand.
The Learning Wave was nominated as a finalist in the "BDO Spicers Business < $5m T/O One on one Offering".
For more information please see: Bizzone Awards
HRINZ HR Initiative of the Year (Auckland Region) with Distinction Nov 2009 - Team Up To Safety (TUTS)
While Downer EDI Works had been successful in getting injury rates down to low levels by industry and historical standards, insurance claims, plant incidents, and medical treatment injuries were still running at unacceptable levels. It was time to take the next step.
Everyone agrees that safety matters. The problem lies in getting civil construction teams, who have decades of experience, to challenge their ingrained beliefs about what is OK when you’re under pressure. The standard corporate response is some new manuals and posters, or perhaps the latest learning programme. However, when your workforce includes hundreds of employees with low functional literacy, this is not an empowering option. In response, Downer EDI Works and The Learning Wave developed a wide-ranging programme that not only jolted workers out of their complacency, but also empowered them to implement the necessary changes.
This needed to challenge traditional behaviours and beliefs to enable a culture of permanently lowering injury rates. The Learning Wave then worked with 85 selected managers to ‘Train the Trainer’. Possibly no change is harder to engineer than a company-wide shift in attitudes towards behaviours that are seen as acceptable, but which actually contribute to chronic injury rates. We needed to get these Managers to a stage where they felt empowered to deliver this message to the business with enough effectiveness in order to create the culture shift required.
And boy did they do a good job. The Result is much more than another Health and Safety initiative – it is a major contributor to permanently lower injury rates and enhanced profitability across the enterprise. Team Up To Safety was a huge success with 50% decrease in Plant Incidents, 69% reduction in MTI’s (Medical Treatment Injuries) and 84% reduction in LTI’s (Lost Time Injuries) over a sustained period of time. Not a one off wonder.
EEO Trust - Skills Highway Award Oct 2009 - Way2Work
The Learning Wave has partnered with Downer EDI Works to implement New Zealand’s largest-ever single employer led workplace literacy programme. ‘Way2Work’ has been awarded the Skills Highway category at this year’s EEO Trust Work and Life Awards. Introduced this year with the support of the Department of Labour, the Skills Highway Award celebrates workplaces that successfully tackle literacy and numeracy skills development.
Created as part of the Downer EDI Works organisational learning strategy, The Learning Wave designed ‘Way2Work’ initiative has provided foundation skills to frontline staff who might otherwise struggle to achieve traditional industry qualifications. It has also taken participants through the Roading New Zealand Bronze Card Health and Safety Qualification and provides 21 credits towards a Level 2 General Introductory Skills Certificate in Civil Infrastructure.
Over the last 2 years the team at The Learning Wave has worked closely with Downer EDI Works to manage and co-ordinate the programme, with nearly a thousand learners having attended the Way2Work programme across 37 locations. Our ability to roll-out such a sizable programme is down to our talented pool of Associates and project management team.
The Way2Work programme has been a success, not only by providing positive benefits for their staff, but also with the increases in productivity for the wider Downer EDI business. This is evident from the steady decline in plant incidents and insurance claims over the last 2 years.
Downer EDI Works’ General Manager of Human Resources Chris Meade says, “Way2Work has touched most communities throughout New Zealand. It empowers workers who have been frustrated with their low levels of literacy and helps break the cycles of non-achievement within the home. The Learning Wave is the only literacy provider in the market that “get’s it” when it comes to linking literacy to business outcomes and their guys know how to engage learners.” says Chris.
For more information please see: EEO Trust Awards
2008 Roading Excellence Awards - TeamWorks
We’re delighted that TeamWorks (a programme developed to ensure employees have the necessary foundation, leadership and communications skills) was awarded the InfraTrain New Zealand Industry Best Practice Award for People at the 2008 Roading Excellence Awards on 25 August 2008.
The award was won by Downer EDI Works Ltd who noted that the many benefits of this programme have also spread out into the community.
Transport Minister Annette King, who presented the awards in Wellington, says she was delighted to learn that 30 projects vied for these awards – an indication that the industry is in very good shape.
“The awards promote leadership, excellence and best practise in the provision of land transport infrastructure and have showcased just what the industry can do. The winners as well as all the entrants can be justifiable proud of what they have achieved.”
TeamWorks was developed and facilitated by The Learning Wave and we congratulate Downer EDI Works for their success in these awards.
2008 NZ Association of Training & Development Awards - TeamWorks
We are very pleased – no, that’s not strong enough – we are incredibly thrilled that the TeamWorks programme has been recognised as an outstanding success in the NZ Association of Training and Development Awards.
TeamWorks took top honours in both the Instructional Design and Performance Improvement categories at the Awards on 21 May 2008. This means the programme has now been recognised as New Zealand’s best for its innovative design as well as the measurable outcomes it delivers.
It’s rare for one organisation to shine in both these areas, and this only serves to confirm The Learning Wave as an expert provider of end-to-end learning solutions on a national scale.
For more details on the programme and its concrete results, please see Case Study
What is TeamWorks?
TeamWorks is part of the Downer EDI Works ‘Inspired Leadership Programme,’ and a key component of the Upskilling Partnership between TEC, Infratrain, The Dept. of Labour, Downer EDI Works and The Learning Wave. Participants were frontline supervisors, foremen and leading hands, who worked with custom-designed materials to improve their leadership and communication skills.
The programme was co-coordinated by The Learning Wave across 23 sites throughout NZ and involved a total of 840 participants. Assessments showed an 18.4% gain in their scaled reading scores and a 19.4% increase in writing scores.
For more details on the programme and its concrete results, please see Case Study
So – is it time for you to kick-start a learning programme that will make a real difference to the performance of your organisation? If so, we are ready to take up the challenge.
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