XP Relines puts focus on its people
XP Relines continues to invest in the career development of its staff as we look to share the knowledge amongst our more than 100 staff around the world.
At XP Relines, we continue to invest in our most important asset, our staff.
“When we got into Covid, we realised we had relied on a small number of our crew to be the holders of all the knowledge,” says Managing Director, Craig Barker.
“When they couldn’t travel, we noticed a gap in our crew so that’s when we started looking at a junior and senior mentoring programme.”
XP Relines pairs entry level reliners with more experienced reliners to support knowledge training
The family-owned and operated business based in Methven, New Zealand, started the junior mentoring program to identify people who had shown potential in their first six relines and paired them with a senior crew member to speed up their development.
“It aims to streamline their development, put them through more courses, and give them more exposure to different tasks.”
The senior mentoring program highlights crew members who have excelled on 50 or more relines and have shown the potential to be future business leaders within XP Relines.
“We allow them to see more of the behind-the-scenes aspects of the business, the planning and processes that go into our decisions.
XP Relines looks at pairing them with experienced people so their progress can be fast-tracked.
The goal is to ensure crew members feel more engaged and aware of where the company is going and that they can see a long-term future with XP Relines.
Craig says they look for people who are good leaders with strong communication skills.
“We can give people the skills and knowledge but they have to have those natural traits.
“We don’t want screamers and yellers, we want natural motivators and crew members who lead by example.
“Our staff are our most important asset, so if we value and put time into them, then we believe we will reap the benefits, long term,” Craig says.
Staff are the most important asset at XP Relines
Mill Relining in the past has had a reputation of being “a labouring job” but XP Relines knows there is far more to it.
“If you want to be good at it, you have to be able to problem solve and look at a reline and our processes and procedures in place and make it more efficient and that’s where XP is changing things.
“We have intelligent and cross-skilled people throughout our company.
“We’ve had guys who at the start only wanted to swing a sledgehammer and now they have become a supervisor by taking opportunities for more education,” Craig says. “That’s always extremely satisfying for us to see that people are reaching their full potential.”