Winners and Judges at the Connexis Company Awards 2016
(From left to right): Helmut Modlik -Connexis CEO and competition judge; Kaye McGrail of Texco; Graeme McNicholl of Texco; David Howard of CCL; Dale Scrimshaw of CCL; John Bryant of Higgins; and Ross McArthur, Civil Trades Evaluator and competition judge.
A Lower Hutt based civil infrastructure company has scooped a national award for the third year in a row in recognition of its staff development.
Construction Contracts Ltd (CCL) was awarded a Connexis Company Training and Development Award in recognition of the outstanding development of its staff at the recent Civil Contractors New Zealand (CCNZ) National Awards.
CCL Director & General Manager David Howard says that CCL is thrilled to have won. “The achievement of winning the award for the third year in a row reinforces how proud we are to focus on developing our team into a technically skilled workforce.
“We want our people to be better than when they arrived at CCL. Training and upskilling our team allows them to personally develop and gives us the confidence that they can work unsupervised while doing their jobs safely and accurately.”
David adds, “The benefit of this is that we get the work done in a timely manner and we get it right the first time, providing the highest quality service to our clients. Ultimately through the skills and knowledge obtained through training, the company, and our team members can be proud that their work is a job well done.”
CCL won the ‘Up to $10 million’ category (based on annual turnover) with Christchurch’s Texco taking the ‘$10 -$25 million’ award and Higgins, which has operations in New Zealand and Fiji, the ‘Over $25 million’.
Texco Group General Manager Rob Kinney says that the company is honoured to receive an Award. He says, “Texco have a thirty six year history of training and development and we are proud of the achievements of our staff, their personal development and the commitment of our management to our training programs. We have a philosophy of internal promotion. By upskilling our staff we are able to offer these opportunities as our business grows. Our investment in training of our staff creates ongoing opportunities for them and reflects in the high quality of Texco’s projects.”
Rob adds, “The award is recognition of our Training Coordinator Kaye McGrail and we would like to take this opportunity to thank her for the commitment and enthusiasm she brings to the role”.
Higgins Group Support Manager John Bryant says, “Higgins has had a strong focus on improving its training in recent years and this award recognises this commitment to both the amount and quality of our training in the business.
“There is still room for improvement, however we’ve established a great platform to build upon in the future. Higgins is now better able to offer formal recognition for the skills obtained on the job and this helps with retention and attracting new people to our business. It’s also rewarding to see our staff grow and step up to bigger challenges.
“Training is good for business. Effectively trained staff are more productive, work safer and are engaged. As a business and in the industry, we have a significant amount of work ahead of us and we need to find better ways to ensure that new staff are up to the skill levels we require.”
Connexis ITO Chief Executive Helmut Modlik says, “Connexis is proud to offer this award and the winning businesses should be proud of their efforts around lifting the expertise and skills of their staff.
“This not only benefits their own companies but the industry as a whole increasing knowledge, standard of workmanship and efficiency in delivering top end results on time, every time.”
Helmut says that it’s important to recognise companies that have strong commitment to training, as it is a key factor in attracting and retaining good talent for the industry.
“In 2015 there were 47,500 people employed in the civil sector with a job growth rate of 6.2% between 2014 and 2015, while the total economy growth was 2.4% over that same period. The industry is continuing to grow and it is estimated that they will need approximately 19,600 new people by 2020 to meet workforce requirements.”
