Jamie Smith

Training Facilitator

Jamie may be newly appointed to his current role, but has 40 years’ experience behind him, including two years with Taylors.

The establishment of Jamie’s role was partly in response to feedback from a recent staff survey. Jamie believes this reflects the business commitment to continuous improvement in training.

“My role is across training and development for everyone in the company, from our depot here in Brightwater, to our offices in Canterbury and Wellington. Taylors’ CEO Charlie Taylor and others have identified that staff growth and development is an important part of the company, and having someone dedicated to the role is vital.”

Jamie began as a machine operator at 17, worked his way up to foreman, and then owned his own company in the North Island for 14 years.

After coming to the South Island, Jamie worked as an area manager for Downers.

He has also been a committed volunteer firefighter for more than 30 years, with 25 years at a senior officer level.

Some of the current work Jamie is delving into involves bringing some of the older paper-based training modules into the digital world, and keeping staff up to date with unit standards requirements.  

Other rewarding work is more people-based, such as mentoring people and working with them on their development pathway.

The Training Facilitator role, which Jamie describes as boots-on-the-ground, allows him the scope to get out into the field chatting to the guys and listening to their concerns.

“The project manager and site supervisor need to be focused on their work programme, budget, and project delivery. They need support with someone getting alongside their young operators to identify where staff might need a bit of assistance to develop, so that’s where I come in. In my experience, not that many companies in the industry invest in their staff in that way, but it’s a very clear sign that Taylors is putting its people first.

“You can’t move dirt with machines alone. It’s the people that make the dirt move.”

Jamie feels that Taylors have created a workplace where people have the confidence to put their hand up and say, ‘I don’t feel confident doing this’ or ‘I don’t know’ without feeling stupid. He says that speaking out about your gut instincts is rewarded rather than dismissed as time wasting – and in his many years of experience, your gut feeling is rarely wrong.

Jamie has become adept at recognising different ways that people learn and has incorporated that into his day-to-day work. He realises that we all learn differently and will help to break down the barriers that people may be experiencing with their learning.

Supported by Taylors, Jamie has recently completed his assessors’ unit standard qualification, meaning he will be able to set, deliver, and mark unit standards before submitting them to NZQA. Jamie has also started his Level 5 qualification in adult teaching, which will help him to put some more structure around the training that he is currently developing.

Ultimately, what gets Jamie out of bed in the morning is helping people to achieve what they thought they couldn’t.