Hamilton-based animal health manufacturing business Simcro Limited has won a national workplace diversity award for its employee numeracy and literacy programme.
The company took out the Skills Highway category at the 2019 Diversity Awards NZ with its Foundations of Learning programme that focuses on reading and writing skills, verbal communication, working with others and team management.
Simcro Limited introduced the programme after identifying that, because English was a second language for most of the production team, there were communication and comprehension issues which affected production processes.
Staff were struggling to complete leave forms, job applications and incident forms, which stopped them applying for internal jobs and reporting hazards, near misses and incidents.
Those who participated in the programme have demonstrated significant gains in reading, writing and numeracy, and are more engaged with their roles. Hazard reporting has increased, three learners have progressed to other roles, and the programme is being rolled out to more staff.
Judging convener Neil Porteous said Simcro has demonstrated the important links between health and safety and diversity and inclusion. “The evidence presented showed health and safety improvements for the company together with better engagement and achievement outcomes for employees.”
The 2019 Diversity Awards NZ, celebrating excellence in workplace diversity and inclusion, were presented at a gala dinner in Auckland. The event was attended by more than 600 business representatives from the public and private sector and Iain Lees-Galloway, Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety. Supreme winner was Vector Ltd, which also won the Diversability and Empowerment awards.
