Fonterra’s Whakatere Programme nurturing talent
Fonterra has launched an innovative new programme to seek out and nurture talent for critical Maintenance Manager roles.
Fonterra has a team of 30 Maintenance Managers who are responsible for ensuring the reliability, availability, and compliance of assets and equipment throughout the season. They work at manufacturing sites across New Zealand and lead large teams to deliver all maintenance activities.
Whakatere, meaning to steer, navigate (a canoe), buoy up, float, accelerate, speed up, hasten, quicken in te reo Māori, is a programme designed to invest in people development, improve role retention and build a depth of internal talent.
“The Whakatere Programme identifies potential talent and then supports their capability build and onboarding into the Maintenance Manager role”, says Ben Langley, Maintenance Delivery Manager, who is leading the programme.
And it's doing just that, "It's a good glimpse into the Maintenance Manager role and the multifaceted nature of it." says Hoani Savage, who has just moved into a Maintenance Manager role.
Attendee numbers are purposefully limited to enable crucial 1:1 mentoring from experienced maintenance managers, site services managers and those who have advanced to regional roles.
This programme has given me an opportunity to show what I offer the engineering team at Fonterra and let me create a development plan to work towards.
With nine modules and 45 presenters covering 42 topics, the programme is intensive and has already shown real benefit to our participants. "This programme has given me an opportunity to show what I offer the engineering team at Fonterra and let me create a development plan to work towards. It's cemented how much I enjoy engineering within Fonterra and the effort going into creating a great culture." says Josh Hodgson, Maintenance Team Lead.
Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from participants enjoying the variety of areas covered, getting the opportunity to network with like-minded people and hear from subject matter experts.
“Stories shared during the programme have assisted people in tackling their challenges on site and new friendships are providing valuable sounding boards for ideas,” says Ben.
“In addition to supporting individual development journeys, the programme has also built wider team capability in teams from the South Island to Northland, as participants take the content presented back to their sites.”
Fonterra is excited to welcome Whakatere’s Cohort Two in early October and continue building a great talent pipeline.