Case Study - New Zealand Midstream

New Zealand - Volume Contractor Provision

Our client needed large volumes of contract resources (35+ personnel) for their project and operational needs. 

Amongst the hire volumes of new hires our client struggled to maintaining a sufficient level of service to individual contractors to foster long term relationships and loyalty.

The roles required have included:

  • Terminal Operators
  • Aircraft Refuellers
  • Project Engineers
  • Maintenance Coordinators & Planners
  • Safety Advisors / SSHE Leads
  • Construction Managers
  • Shore / Wharf Officers

The Terminal industry in New Zealand is very small with a limited available talent pool, meaning that sourcing candidates with transferable skills from other sectors is often critical.

These candidates are often passive, making the search more difficult and time consuming.

Since our inception with the client we have experienced the COVID 19 pandemic. During this time, our client needed to pull back and manage hours carefully whilst still retaining as much of their essential service staff as possible.

Our Solution

NES Fircroft assigned a dedicated Account Manager to handle all contract staffing requirements for our client. All client contact with the contractors is through us and the strength of our relationships and trust with the contractor workforce allows us to amend and adjust each situation differently to navigate difficult times, such as those circumstances caused by the global pandemic

We pro-actively built strong relationships with all levels of management, specifically the decision makers on the ground, enabling us to grow rapidly in terms of contractor numbers and our perceived brand recognition on the client’s sites. This approach also allowed us to go beyond the generic hiring requirements passed on by their project management office and enabled us to truly understand what they were looking for technically and culturally for
new roles being filled.

Our superior service has included:

  • Full onboarding compliance (including medicals and background screening)
  • Travel organisation (without the contractor footing the initial bill)
  • Full payroll and tailored payslips which show all leave accruals for contractor satisfaction

8 months into our contract with the client they rolled out a new VMS system for timesheets and invoicing; we adapted our systems accordingly to provide our client with the most streamlined process. The success of our adaptation enabled us became the key differentiator between us and our competition.

The results of our support

Coming out of lockdown we managed to retain the vast majority of contractors, providing them and our client with substantial support to ensure business continuity.

  • As our number of new contractors has grown, as has our brand’s positive reputation in terms of how streamlined and error-free our service is. Brand reception has proven to not be the same for our competitors as many contractors have chosen to transition over to NES Fircroft to get a smoother and more customer-focused service.
  • When the client first enlisted the support of NES Fircroft they already had a main agency provider who had the monopoly of national contractors on their books. However, just 2 years into our 4-year contract we now have the most contractors nationally with a presence in every client facility across Auckland, Mt Maunganui, Wellington, Christchurch, and Bluff.
  • Now our networks are so developed that we often attract personnel through the connections of the existing contractor base. When skilled personnel arrive in New Zealand we will approach our client with strategic opportunities for bringing on great people which is generally outside the bounds of how this type of major contract works.

Staffing expertise for a brighter tomorrow

Get in touch