Rotaform Plastics

The client

Rotaform Plastics is one of New Zealand's premier rotational moulders and materials handling suppliers, with customers throughout Australasia and the Pacific. The 20-strong family-owned company is based in Mangere, Auckland.

The challenge

Measures to improve business efficiencies, foster growth and boost profitability required Rotaform's largely unskilled workforce to use increasingly sophisticated reporting tools and technical knowledge in their jobs.  It quickly became clear their staff did not have the required skills, which also affected their engagement and pride in their work.

Practical, sustainable solutions

Workbase's literacy needs analysis uncovered the extent to which low literacy and numeracy affected Rotaform.  For example, it revealed that many employees confused kilograms with grams, even though their jobs involved manually weighing raw materials - a shortcoming that had enormous cost, quality and profit implications.

Nine staff attended literacy and numeracy training during work time, both individually and in small groups.  While participants were away from the job, other staff managed their tasks and maintained production schedules.

During the training, Rotaform introduced a new accounting system that required detailed information to be recorded in the factory.  Workbase helped the company create forms that were easy to understand and use, and also ensured staff had the necessary literacy and numeracy skills to complete the forms.

Great results

The training programme benefited the company's culture and financial results. Years later it continues to have a positive effect:

• Improved staff loyalty arising from the training has been maintained and people stood by the company when the going got tough during the recession.
• Most of Rotaform's current team leaders are programme graduates.
• Rotaform has survived the recession in good shape, with exponential profit growth.
• Employees have benefited personally (e.g. having newfound confidence to help their children with reading and other homework).

Time has shown that the practical, sustainable solutions for improving their workforce's literacy and numeracy skills provided a strong platform for Rotaform's success.