Transcon’s Blake Noble looks at building more skill and capability into our businesses and celebrates the return of the Government’s Roads of National Significance initiative.
In previous columns, I’ve mused about the need to constantly refine how we do things, particularly in current economic conditions. That revision may take the form of trimming, restructuring, selling down or divesting aspects of what we do. But I wonder whether an alternative approach, given the current lull, is to use this as an opportunity to prepare for the return of economic momentum, developing our skills and resources and using the time to ‘sharpen the axe’. Or perhaps re-tool that axe entirely into the shape of another implement?
There is an underlying (and admirable) focus across our sector to retain talent in these challenging times, particularly given how difficult recruitment conditions have been in recent years. Why would I let talent that has taken so long to acquire and develop leave my business? I suspect many believe the tap will be turned back on soon enough and are determined not to be caught short when more buoyant volumes return. Hence, they want to retain that capacity to make that hay as soon as the sun shines again! I’d like to think that retaining such talent presents another golden opportunity: utilising existing ‘capacity’ and harnessing it for training and skill development, the result of which the entire industry benefits, as we ultimately use this downtime to collectively ‘tool up’.
While there are obvious training elements that come to mind, e.g. the progression of license classes and the gaining of endorsements, thanks to the wonders of the internet, there also exists a raft of other opportunities for our teams to learn remotely, potentially developing other areas of skills that might otherwise prove challenging to master. It might be going down the path of some ‘soft’ skills related to EQ, customer service, or basic communication skills. It might be the development of greater internal knowledge regarding technology and its application. Or perhaps it’s engaging in something industry-specific, such as a MITO commercial road transport programme. For those who haven’t engaged with MITO (mito.org.nz), I’d strongly encourage you to do so; its network presents a raft of online and in-person learning opportunities, covering everything from simple modules related to a discreet skill or competency to multi-year unit- standards-based certificates in commercial road transport.
What excites and interests me so much about this approach is that not only are we focusing on the preservation of our most important assets (that’s our team members, on the off chance that point wasn’t obvious!), but we’re also building more skill and capability into our organisations, and at the same time growing the knowledge of our teams. Better yet, could this also be a way for us to (re)capture workforce from other sectors that are freeing up their own capacity?
On the same topic of building and developing, how good has it been to see a return of the ‘RONs’, or Roads of National Significance? Again, political allegiances aside, some gaping holes exist within our roading infrastructure network, so it’s brilliant to see the proposed being built, re-built, or simply completed and joined up.
What pleases me is that there’s at least an acknowledgement from the outset that a funding gap exists and that some level of innovation or creativity will be required to fill the hole if we’re to see the wish list of infrastructure come to fruition … in an acceptable timeframe.
I’m also of the view that for us to get these assets, some sort of ‘user pays’ system is unavoidable, most likely via some form of tolling. While it’s easy to view tolls simply as another cost, another lens to look at them is as a relatively inexpensive tool to buy efficiency and reliability. I’d far rather see an improvement-specific toll charge being applied than a carte blanche increase in road user charges (or fuel tax) to cover the shortfall that proves very difficult to identify and ringfence when it comes to spending.
The question remains over how to insulate any of these RONs, or other major infrastructure projects, from political interference and diversion in the coming years. But thanks to the constant dialogue from our own industry bodies and friend-of- industry Nick Leggett at Infrastructure New Zealand, I suspect we may well see some concrete plans (sorry, bad pun!) to alleviate such fears.
