Snell Packaging & Safety Ltd

The client

Snell Packaging & Safety Ltd is the leading distributor of packaging supplies and safety products in New Zealand. Snell distributes over 15,000 products and employs around 100 staff. 60% of its workforce are of Pacific Island origin and have English as a second language.

The challenge

To be successful, the company needs its employees to be engaged in what they do and bring value to the business.  Managers realised they had a problem when they tried to introduce performance evaluation and some participants were unable to understand what was required or admit they didn't understand. The company also couldn't get any feedback on company initiatives as no-one would speak up at meetings.  Managers knew the employees were bright - some hold senior positions in their communities - but they were being held back at work by not being able to communicate effectively, either from poor language skills or having missed out on schooling.

Practical, sustainable 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 productivity and build confidence. 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)
• a structure based around unit standards so employees could work towards NZQA qualifications

 Twenty one employees attended the training. Their initial suspicion about the training was allayed by everyone in the company doing an evaluation and all results being kept confidential.

Great results

 The company has seen a very positive effect from the training:

•  employees are more confident to speak up
• when picking, employees can calculate proportions of items more quickly and accurately
• a drop of 74% in picking errors (when the wrong item is sent or the wrong number of items is sent)
• employees have a greater awareness of how to keep themselves safe in the workplace and will confidently report a hazard.
• Employees taking what they have learned home to share with their family or community.