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Agroventures and ATTTO: Building Career Pathways
Find out how Agroventures Rotorua is creating career pathways in the outdoor industry and growing our future leaders
Agroventures, Rotorua is home to a selection of unique adventure tourism businesses, including the 43m high Bungy and Swoop, New Zealand’s fastest jet boat experience Agrojet, the body-flying experience Freefall Xtreme, and the world’s only human powered monorail racetrack, the Shweeb.
Sales and Marketing Manager Melissa Mills believes that Agroventures’ commitment to staff training is one of the reasons the four businesses work so well together at presenting a holistic experience to visitors.
“Each year we hold planning sessions with management and front line staff to ensure that everyone gets the opportunity to comment on how we can improve the business,” says Mills. “One of the key messages that came out in the last round of our business planning was our staff members wanted a career path; they wanted the opportunity to get some extra training and know that this would lead them somewhere.”
This request has been incorporated into the overall Agroventures business plan, with seventy percent of staff now involved in some form of training.
“Customer service is paramount for us, so we began by ensuring that staff are trained in this area. It doesn’t matter if we have the best adventure activities is New Zealand; if our customer service is letting us down, then that’s going to let the whole business down,” says Mills.
Staff also work towards a variety of other national qualifications depending on their background and where their skill gaps lie. This includes everything from Tourism Modern Apprenticeships to National Certificates in First Line Management (Level 3) and National Diplomas in Tourism Management (Level 5).
“The benefit of offering nationally recognised qualifications is that they are portable. It means that staff can take these qualifications with them in the next step of their career development. The fact that staff are also able to apply what they’re learning on-the-job as they go means there is a real practical application for what they’ve been learning.”
As an employer, offering national qualifications means Agroventures are supporting and growing the skill base of the tourism industry.
“If we can help to grow future leaders for the local tourism industry then that’s great; we get the benefits while they’re with us but the whole industry benefits in the long term.”
Mills concedes that the growing attraction to living and working in Australia is a particular problem when trying to retain young employees.
“Our young people need to know that there is a career pathway in the outdoor tourism industry in this country. We need to help them to look long term instead of the short term ‘pot of gold’. Training helps them to understand where they could be within 5 years; perhaps they could work towards becoming an operations manager or think about starting their own business. Either way, it makes them more likely to want to keep their skills within New Zealand if they know it will lead to something."
"We believe that our training is going to help staff retention in the long term because if they know we are investing in them they’re more likely to be willing to invest in us and stay with the business.”
As a registered workplace with ATTTO, Agroventures receives the ongoing support of an Industry Training Advisor who customises training programmes for staff to work towards.
“The relationship with ATTTO has been fantastic. Our advisor contacts us regularly to check how our training is going and we get assistance in looking at what further training options are available to us. They are really flexible in accommodating the specific needs of our business.”
Agroventures also supports staff training by paying for study costs and days spent at training. Regular performance development reviews are conducted to ensure that training remains relevant and continues to meet the changing needs of their roles.
“We have found that studying and training together creates really nice bonds amongst the staff. They can share ideas and support each other through the process. Learning on the job means staff can see a direct link between what they’re learning and how it applies in the workplace.
This is a fun industry to work in but you can also have a career in a fun industry. It’s nice to be able to offer career opportunities and not just a job,” concludes Mills.
Caption: Freefall Xtreme at Agroventures, Rotorua.
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