The Trinder Group

Team dynamics and individual awareness of communication styles has a fundamental impact on the success of a team. We can all recognise when it is not working, but it is much harder to know how to change it.

We are thrilled to showcase one of our clients, The Trinder Group, who have been incredibly successful in cultivating a team ethic and dynamic that has paid dividends for the company.

The Trinder Group is a solution-focused organisation, with a reputation of engineering excellence. The Trinder Group (Trinder Engineers and Waimea Engineering) provide a wide range of services from design, manufacturing, installation and repairs across a varied range of sectors throughout New Zealand with over 100 talented team members to assist in the delivery of these high-quality services.

The Trinder Group’s (Trinder) workforce is made up of a diverse range of team members from those who have been part of the Trinder journey for over 20 years through to newly minted apprentices. Trinder’s Managing Director Kerry Hill had previously utilised Chapman ER for both employment relations and human resource advice.

However, this relationship developed further following the creation of Trinder’s revised strategic plan. A priority objective, ‘taking care of our people’, provided a clear mandate to invest in and support its people to achieve their best and strengthen its ongoing commitment as a great place to work. Kerry said his very next thought was ‘ok, now I need to deliver!’

Following the successful delivery of a customised training series ‘Effective Communication in the Workplace’ and receiving positive feedback from his staff, Kerry approached trainer and consultant Claire Chambers to explore how Chapman ER could support the Trinder group in the achievement of their strategic objective.

Kerry and Claire, worked together to identify the desired culture, the required expectations, and positive leadership tools to support a great workplace culture, utilising a recent staff survey to identify the views and desires of the Trinder team.

A customised coaching programme was developed and implemented for the Senior Management Team. Following its initial success, the coaching programme was then extended to create two more levels to provide a clear progression and differentiated opportunities for all levels across the organisation. This has enabled a greater number of team members to undertake training and development and develop a sense of collective responsibility across the organisation, as well as build internal capacity and shared understandings, now referred to as being part of ‘The Trinder Way’.

The programme focused on several key knowledge and skill areas which included:

• Leadership strategies and approaches: Leading the Trinder Way
• Creating and maintaining a positive culture and high performing teams
• Effective communication in the workplace
• Managing and supporting behaviour performance and standards (addressing the issues)
• Team empowerment, accountability, trust and motivation
• Identifying different approaches, processes and strategies to support continuous improvement.
• Identifying positive practices to support staff retention

Kerry says that the changes are obvious ‘the place feels different, we have different types of conversations, and I can see the positive changes’. The positive impact for both managers and the team referenced in staff feedback, as ‘the air feels different’ or ‘I already know about this strategy; I have already seen it used at Trinder’ or ‘we came up with a great solution by staying in adult’.

When asked what Trinder’s number one recommendation to another organisation with this strategic focus would be, Kerry says ‘Call Chapman ER, it’s worth the investment’.