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While Transnet’s massive infrastructure investment has grabbed the headlines in recent weeks, behind the scenes the organisation has been equally focused on getting its workforce up to speed.
As a business with around 6000 employees, of which only about 400 are managers, TPT can never succeed without harnessing the brains and skills of its entire workforce, regardless of how world-class its equipment and systems may be, says new People Transformation and Development Unit (PTDU) head Moshe Motlohi, former terminal executive at DCT .
“While past strategies and programmes have been driven from the top down by executives and managers, the aim of the PTDU is to give much greater control to employees, since they are the real engine behind TPT. The setting of the strategy and direction will remain the exec’s domain, but the driving of that strategy should be done from the frontline,“ said Motlohi.
The idea is to set up Mission Directed Work Teams (MDWTs) across all terminals over the next few months.
These are essentially mini businesses that make up TPT’s overall business operation. Each mini-business will have its own team leader and team members. Managers will be trained to coach the various teams. Employees will be able to suggest new ways to tackle their tasks and it is the responsibility of the supervisor to take all suggestions into account. Like any business, there are challenges and priorities that each team needs to address.
Training and development will receive key focus, said Mothohi. The School of Ports will be heavily involved in up-skilling of teams through train-the-trainer programmes. Best practices and innovation will be shared among all terminals. Use of the e-learning platform and peer review mechanism will be some of the vehicles that will ensure wider reach, he added.
The programme is to be piloted at DCT, where 65 mini businesses have already been identified, each with its own supervisor and each focusing on issues like quality, speed, cost and safety.
The programme will be rolled out nationally thereafter.
Do you believe that this will be the answer to improving worker productivity at TPT?
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