Tailored innovative approach to build business leaders
Kalós Windows & Doors upskills its staff with support from Wintec | Te Pūkenga
Leadership capability is quite often learnt on the job. However, many businesses are now reaping the benefits of investing time and resources into their people of all levels, with the help of Wintec | Te Pūkenga.
Today’s business environment requires resilience, adaptability and practical skill sets around business topics such as communication, dealing with change and conflict, and strategies for developing teams.
For four years, Wintec | Te Pūkenga has offered tailored professional development programmes for businesses. Companies that are continuing to experience great outcomes from these programmes include Foster Group, Kalós Windows & Doors and Vestas New Zealand Wind Technology Ltd, to name a few.
Wintec | Te Pūkenga has decided to share some of the epic testimonials coming from this space in a mini-series over the next few weeks. Next in this series we caught up with Palmerston North based Kalós Windows & Doors Director, Stewart Hanegraaf. Read related stories here.
Hanegraaf partnered with Wintec | Te Pūkenga to deliver leadership development programmes for his young and upcoming managers, and team leaders over the last couple years.
An advocate for training and upskilling staff from his previous experience in facilitating leadership courses, Hanegraaf had been searching for a company to assist in providing a similar type of training for his team.
After co-designing the course with the Wintec | Te Pūkenga team, the tailored training was centered around various topics, including management vs leadership, communication strategies, customer service, presenting with confidence, people development, coaching and leadership, strategies for workplace relationships and conflict resolution.
Hanegraaf said the training aimed to empower his people to become better leaders for his company while supporting their personal growth.
"As an organisation, we want to ensure we support good leaders for our business. While some people may decide to move on in the future, if our contribution to that young person is this upskilling experience, then I'm supportive of that.
"Personally, seeing the growth these young men and women have had, shows how well the programme has been facilitated. It's targeted at the right level for the trade environment that we work in. Some of the staff we had go through the course had a background in trade, others had been to university, and it suited all of them. So, it's been well worth the investment," Hanegraaf said.
Hanegraaf said that all the Kalós staff had an incredible experience on the program and he watched his team's confidence grow throughout the training.
"I have watched each one of them light up on the inside with some of the newfound skills they have learned and ways of dealing with things like stress, staff, and how they communicate. I have seen a significant, positive change in all of them through the programme."
One of the Wintec Training Consultants, Michelle Pearse, says these programmes are for any business to upskill their team to become leaders in a broad range of critical topics.
"We want to make these programmes available to any business. We have an amazing team of facilitators available to support here. We understand that each business is unique, so we tailor them to any business needs, so it is delivered at a time and location that suits best."
Wintec offers around 70 different professional development programmes, all of which can be tailored to the needs of each industry.
There are two training consultants in the team, Marty Lowry and Michelle Pearse. They connect with leaders and senior managers of a given business, to discuss the specific areas of personnel development required. A training needs analysis is completed in order to provide the most appropriate tailored programme.
Each topic is run as a one-day workshop, Pearse said they were very interactive and the participants learned a lot from the facilitator as well as each other. The workshops are designed to provide skills-based learning relevant to the workplace environment.
“We tailor the workshops to a variety of needs such as personal performance, leadership development, mental health, first aid and more,” Pearse said.
She said there could be more than one facilitator working on the programme depending on the needs of each business.
“It’s about connecting each company with the relevant subject matter expert, in order to help them learn and grow in the way they want to,” she said.
Wintec in-house facilitator, Delia Beuker, has an extensive background in people development and communications, having worked with a large range of industries - from small business to corporate environments for over 25 years.
Beuker understands how challenging the current business environment is and the importance of upskilling individuals and teams to be more adaptable, resilient and confident in their day-to-day roles.
“We’re moving forward from the pandemic now, and what’s really important for businesses going forward, is that leaders and their teams are aligned through common goals and work towards creating a really positive workplace culture – that’s vital.”
Beuker said for a business to perform at its best, its people needed to be at their best. This was something Wintec | Te Pūkenga could help with through these tailored programmes.
“Identifying participants with management and leadership qualities and supporting them to transition upward, is key to future growth and development. We are seeing increased capabilities from participants, and an improved customer-focused collaboration within other areas of the business.
“We saw a marked improvement in confidence and motivation from Kalós Windows and Doors participants as well as a deeper understanding of what is required to lead themselves and others to achieve the best performance from their teams,” she said.
Right now is the perfect time to take your business forward into the future. To talk to our Professional Programmes team about your business goals and how a tailored Leadership Programme can work for you, contact: Michelle Pearse: michelle.pearse@wintec.ac.nz or Marty Lowry: marty.lowry@wintec.ac.nz
