Cardinal Logistics

The client

Cardinal Logistics is a specialist provider of third party logistics and distribution services.  Established in 1992, it is a rapidly growing company.  Its Auckland and Christchurch operations employ more than 100 Pacific Island (mostly Samoan) people, nearly three quarters of whom have English as a second language.

The challenge

In 2009 the company opened a new warehouse and recruited 25 new staff.  As it grew and developed it also discovered that many of its employees struggled with communication and this was starting to impact on productivity. The challenges they were facing made them reflect on the training direction they were taking. 

Some of the issues the company faced were:

• Mistakes were being made in the warehouse operation
• Poor communication between staff and managers
• Staff morale was down
• Higher than usual absenteeism
• Employees reluctant to engage in team meetings due to lack of confidence in their communication skills

Practical solutions

Workbase developed a literacy and numeracy training programme around the results of the needs analysis it carried out. The purpose of the training was to improve communication, productivity and build skills to complete qualifications. The training covered: 

• communication skills - listening, vocabulary, reading, speaking
• mathematics (e.g. calculating proportions when an order is not for an exact number of   boxes)
• coaching to enable employees to complete unit standards towards NZQA  qualifications in warehousing and distribution

Great results

Cardinal has seen great results from the programme:

• A decrease in the number of service-related issues (fewer picking discrepancies and errors).
• Reduced Absenteeism
• Higher Staff engagement
• Improved Health & Safety performance
• The Best Workplaces Survey (JRA) results shows over 87 percent of employees now understand how their work helps Cardinal succeed and almost 90 percent of them want to keep working at Cardinal.
• Participants feel confident to speak up in meetings and contribute suggestions to improve productivity
• Almost 40 graduates from the literacy programme are now completing the national certificate in warehousing and distribution.

In addition benefits from the programme have spilled over into home life. Programme participants now help their family more with tasks such as budgeting and homework.

Cardinal Logistics' Literacy Programme won the Skills Highway Award 2011. See also the Skills Highway website for more information.