From the GM: Longer Days Ahead
There's a particular kind of optimism that shows up at this time of year. The mornings are still dark, the site boots are still wet, and yet you can feel it turning. In a few weeks the clocks go forward, and not long after that we'll be finishing the day with light still left in it. Half past seven at night, and warm enough to be outside.
That, for me, is the best part of coming out of winter. Not summer itself so much as the anticipation of it: knowing there is time after work again. Time to get out on the water, get the barbecue down to the beach, do something other than drive home in the dark. If you're anything like me, you're already counting down.
A step forward for our industry
Winter has been anything but quiet on the regulatory front.
In April, WorkSafe New Zealand released its updated suite of asbestos Good Practice Guidelines, and it deserves recognition. The most significant change, to my mind, is structural. Surveys, removal, assessments and clearances now sit in their own standalone documents, written for the people who actually do that work. Surveyors get guidance written for surveyors. Removalists get guidance written for removalists. It sounds like a small thing. It isn't.
Alongside that come tighter requirements. There are changes to surface testing at clearance, the exclusion of swabs during surveys, updated exposure monitoring, and much clearer definitions around asbestos containing dust and minor contamination.
Some read tighter guidance as a burden. We don't. Ambiguity is what allows standards to drift, and it usually drifts at the point where somebody on site has to make a judgement call under time pressure. Every piece of uncertainty the guidelines remove is a decision that becomes easier to make correctly. Three of the new guidelines are expected to become updated Approved Codes of Practice in time, which will tighten things further again.
The direction is a safer, more accurate and more professional industry. That is good for our clients, good for the people doing the work, and good for every business that has always done it properly.
Continued growth across the country
Closer to home, it has been a fantastic few months.
Every region across New Zealand has grown its team this year, and pleasingly, a number of those appointments have gone into critical areas of the business rather than simply adding numbers.
In Wellington, we're delighted to welcome Bradley as our new GeoSciences Lead, joining us all the way from the United States. Bradley brings a depth of experience that will lift the whole division, and we're very glad to have him.
Christchurch has gone from strength to strength. The official opening of the new office was a genuine highlight of the year. It was terrific to have so many people from across the industry through the door, and the response since has more than justified the investment.
SQN Atlas
We're also putting serious time and energy into our digital transformation, and it now has a name: SQN Atlas.
Atlas is being built to support every division and every department. Not just our field teams, but our administration crew and our back office as well, end to end. Too much of what we do well is still held together by workarounds and good people compensating for clunky systems. Atlas is how we fix that.
I'm genuinely excited about it, and I can't wait to see the efficiencies it delivers for our people.
Our team, and how we look after them
Finally, a big thank you to our team.
We've been working hard on how we support our people better, and our wellness programme is the result. That includes health insurance provided complimentary to all staff, and a contribution towards getting our team active. Gym memberships, wellness programmes, pottery, Pilates, whatever it is they want to do.
Deliberately, we haven't prescribed what wellbeing has to look like. Our job is to help people do more of whatever keeps them well.
So enjoy the last of the winter, and here's to those longer evenings.
Leading the way to a safer future…
Andre Halkyard
General Manager, SQN