Alice Springs
Katherine
Darwin
Perth
Katherine
Darwin
Perth
Every quarter, our HiQA team diligently identify team members whose dedication exemplifies the coveted ‘Yes’ experience. The ‘Yes’ experience isn’t always about saying ‘Yes’. It is standing out from a crowd. Exceeding expectations or position responsibilities and the value they have added to the team, client and/or supplier.
Recipients are rewarded with a $250 voucher of their choosing.
Take a look at our Yes Award Winners…
Thank you, Belinda. I extend my gratitude to you for all the support and assistance you have provided with Work Health & Safety matters. While learning a new role and a new software program, no task has been too daunting, no challenge too great. I am grateful for your contributions and your ‘Yes’ attitude. I can rely on you to deliver results. Your hard work has not gone unnoticed.
I would like to nominate Colin. Since starting with HiQA, Colin has shown the yes experience to everyone around him. Whether it’s picking up 30 plus densities in 40-degree heat or going the extra mile to get results out to the client. Colin gives 110% every day. Colin recently took over as Annex Leader at the Carpentaria Project. He happily stepped up and is owning it. Colin’s experience and knowledge is second to none. I am always getting great feedback from the client regarding Colin and his can-do attitude. Keep up the fantastic work.
When I think of the Yes Experience, I think of Emily. Over the last year Emily has become an indispensable member of the Support Team, not only does she own her role, but she’s also grown the role through her eagerness to learn. She is now a very capable second invoicing officer, able to hold down the fort when Peta is on leave, and has recently learned the AP essentials to provide coverage there when required, if that’s not evolve and improve, I don’t know what is!
She is also an out of the box thinker and capable of showing initiative and finding solutions to challenges quickly and efficiently. Need a gigantic and weird shaped box to ship something? Emily will build you one. Need a quote for a painter in Alice Springs? Emily will hunt one down and pester them until they agree to quote. And if you need to figure out a system so Team Members always have clean bedding at Manila Place…Emily will make that happen. The majority of the time she acts so quickly that she already has a solution in mind before I’m aware of the challenge.
Emily has also developed fantastic relationships not only with the HiQA Team but with suppliers and clients. As Finance Support Leader I know that I can count on her to follow up tasks and meet deadlines, as well as take on additional tasks when required. From the last newsletter and feedback, I received when I returned, I can see that she was also a huge support to Kat whilst I was away and has assisted Bianca in settling into the BSO role. On top of all this she has massively improved our relationship with Atom and is able to get quick turnaround times with uniform, something which historically has been a pain point.
I really couldn’t think of anyone more deserving of HiQA’s most prestigious award.
Last April, Maxwell was commended by Advance Civil Engineering via Customer Feedback for going above and beyond and exceeding their expectations. This is not the first time that Max has been praised by a client. We receive frequent requests from our clients, asking for Max to complete their testing due to his experience and professionalism. Max is not only good to the clients, but he is also loved by the Darwin team, as he always lends a hand when needed. Well done young man!
LEADERSHIP. In the past year since his moved in the Darwin Lab, Nick has provided the team with good leadership especially when I’m on leave. He is always up to the challenge and always willing to learn new things out of his comfort zone. He always treats everyone professionally and with respect. With his experience and knowledge around the CMT industry, Nick has played a big part on developing our new trainees to become experts in the CMT field.
CHARACTER. Aside from being a good Leader, Nick is a man of good character. Always happy, always smiling and his work ethic & positive energy is very contagious. He always offers to help even if he is busy with his own tasks, and he never fails to say ‘Hi’ or ‘Good Day’ to everyone.
COMMITMENT. A good example of Nick’s commitment to the team was when the incident occurred at Tennant Creek. Nick has been very helpful and was cooperative with the police officers, fire department, etc. He stayed back in the lab to devise a solution and to make sure everything got sorted. This shows the level of commitment and dedication to work is exceptional.
If ever you found yourself stranded around Armadale or had a flat tyre in the middle of the night, and you had no one else to call – ring Kev. He’s that type of bloke whose always there offering help and guidance at the drop of a hat. Through my observations in the NAVB lab/office Kevin is an exemplary representative of HiQA WA South; who upholds all of our HiQA values; Hard Work, Family, Evolve and Improve, Excellence and Results.
Kev has a great rapport with all of the NAVB team members – he greets everyone upon check in and farewells them every afternoon; he genuinely cares for his team and their families. If for whatever reason someone is running a little late or if they’re unwell, he calls and checks in on them (myself included). He also makes regular calls to team members who are working offsite and ensures they are okay and have everything they may need in order to complete their work tasks at hand.
Kevin’s awesome interpersonal skills doesn’t just occur within the NAVB branch, but it also extends to the water delivery person Dennis, our Wednesday cleaner Sharon (whose made a couple of comments on his friendly demeanour) and to all visitors who enter our doors.
During my short time with Naval Base I would consider Kevin a very knowledgeable and an extremely hard worker, who is always planning ahead and crunching numbers. I appreciate all of yours and the NAVB teams help to date and for welcoming me into the team Kev – lets go smash out some testing and hit those KPIs. You got this!
I would like to nominate Colin for the yes award this quarter. Colin is doing an amazing job in his role. Col is ALWAYS available for any quality or compliance questions. Recently during the HiQA conference, we had a very small window to get all the things submitted to NATA to get LAAs on the scope in Darwin. Colin gave the ‘Yes’ experience and finalised everything to be submitted to NATA at 10:30 PM. If Colin didn’t go above and beyond to make this happen, it would have cost HiQA thousands to get NATA back up to do the assessment.
Colin works tirelessly in the background making sure our LIMS is up to date and the entire HiQA Group is compliant to our NATA requirements. Col is always checking reports, doing internal audits, updating policies and procedures, organising and booking in audits and attending site with NATA for audits. I feel Colin needs to be recognised for his hard work and dedication to HiQA.
I want to take you on a trip down memory lane….
It all started on the 1st July, first day of the new financial year 2019. HiQA’s new Accounts Payable and Purchasing Officer started with us all the way from the mothership, England.
She came with years of experience and a passion to grow within a company. 2 years later and she became HiQA’s Finance Support Leader. In case anyone is unsure on who this superstar is, it’s Eve Penny. HiQA’s country music loving, wine tasting, 4wd camping expert.
So why do I think Eve deserves the Yes Award? Well keep on reading people, I would like to share some examples where I have seen Eve put the HiQA team first, where Eve has put someone else before herself.
People
COVID…feels like the gift that keeps on giving. Who is sick of COVID, raise your hand! Anyway off track. Our previous Projects Leader Wes travelled to Darwin during the peak of COVID, unfortunately when he arrived he was made to isolate in the hotel quite early on in his trip without any warning. Wes was in Darwin, in a hotel room, without any notice to prepare and no family in town. Eve found out what happened to Wes and straight away that afternoon contacted Wes and dropped off some supplies. She checked on him to make sure he was ok and getting through the isolation and made sure he didn’t go without and had emotional support while locked up in his hotel room. This is the first time Eve had met Wes, but he was part of the HiQA team and she put herself in his shoes and without any hesitation was doing all this behind the scenes.
Evolve & Improve
Another example of why I think Eve deserves recognition, is in regards to last year’s charity raffle. Musa and I were trying to come up with ideas on how to raise more money for HiQA’s chosen charity. There was a lot of brainstorming going on, but nothing had been decided on. It was Eve, even though this is outside the scope of her job description, spoke with Musa about the raffle and the benefits it could bring. We were able to raise more money in that raffle than we did in the whole year and it also brought all the branches together.
High Performance
When I think of High Performance, I think of Eve. Someone who wants to not only meet her KPIs, but exceed them. Someone who faces challenges and finds solutions. Eve is always accountable for her actions and puts in so much effort into learning about new tasks and the purpose of them. This in turn builds confidence in her role. High performance is also about motivating your team and I see Eve doing this in different ways, for example when she sees a team member down she will write a positive message on her whiteboard for that person. My favourite is ‘Think like a Proton, Always Positive’ and drew a proton, or another personal favourite is ‘Don’t be a sad sack’ drawn inside a sack. These are just little examples, but I know seeing these messages have always put a smile on my face and other team members.
Isn’t that what it’s all about? Being there for each other and encouraging each other? As they say ‘No Man Left Behind’ and Eve would never leave a team member behind.
I nominated Rebekah Morrison for her hard work and going the extra mile to get the work done and on time. She has stepped up when needed for example, I needed to do a job at Tindal RAAF base that took longer than expected, I was pushed for time. Once I got back, she had already done my CBRs that were due for the day and helped guide Khoen our new trainee through his day-to-day jobs. Showing the hard work value overall. When she was needed, she delivered. She made my life a little bit easier as Rob and Nick were both away at the conference in Darwin. She already had a lot on for the day striving to give the yes experience for our clients and our team.
I would like to nominate Aldrin for a ‘Yes’ Award due to his Hard work, Evolve & Improvement and the Results he has shown/achieved during the last 3 months.
Hard Work: Over the last 3 months Aldrin has been working extremely hard on our NATA Audits &
Aldrin Bravo – Quality & Training Coordinator at HiQA
Variation Visits. During this time Aldrin has been working with the team to prepare for and deliver: 2 x Variation Audits (Welshpool & Katherine), 3 x Internal Audits (Welshpool, Alice Springs & Tennant Creek), 2 x NATA Reassessments (Alice Springs & Tennant Creek), Submit 4 x Annex Facility Accreditations & while doing all of that Aldrin has continued to migrate and integrate HiQA Kanga & Associates into the Family (Updates to LQM, Training Records, GeoTester Setup etc).
Evolve & Improve and Results: As well as the above, Aldrin has been putting an extensive amount of time & effort into the Learning Management System. Due to his hard work & persistence, Aldrin was able to present this to the Senior Leaders and release it into the wild during the HiQA NT Conference. The feedback was really positive and all the team members have really seen the value and benefit of what has been created.
The LMS is a very big step for HiQA and Aldrin has continued to create value within his role. This expert system will assist HiQA in its growth journey and will allow us to remain agile. Due to the scalability of the LMS, this will no longer be a growth stopper for HiQA.
I am nominating Kathryn as I believe she encompasses the ‘Yes Experience’ in her role every day. Kathryn gives the ‘Yes’ to her team daily. She is always there for them no matter what challenges they are encountering. Recently she has been working hard channelling the Family values to ensure one team member, who has been on extended personal leave, transitions back into full-time work. Over the period of the extended leave, Kathryn has also covered the role or re-assigned tasks to ensure the role has continued without any interruptions to day-to-day workflows. Kathryn has also been busily Evolving and Improving the processes within invoicing with her awesome Excel skills to ensure efficient strategies are put in place to reduce the time to process invoices to clients and also reduce client disputes. All in a day’s work.
Well done Kathryn, well deserved.
Colin showed true team spirit when he offered to help out our Tennant Creek Branch when we needed it. As the only team member at the Branch, Colin showed initiative by organising work and liaising with clients and other Branches. He also helped prepare for the branch’s successful NATA surveillance audit.
Back in Darwin, whilst working on our recently implemented tablets, Colin realised the tablets didn’t have a suitable PDF application to complete our sampling and testing forms. After spending a number of hours trialling and testing different applications, Colin was about to find the best program and this has been installed on all company-wide tablets.
Showing initiative is leading the way…that is making a difference.
Great work Col!
Our clients always receive the ‘Yes’ experience with Rob. In particular, Rob had been working with a client that were having challenges with their testing. Rob took the time out on-site to help provide solutions for the client.
Rob understands that testing turnaround times can be a pain point for our clients. He is often seen working after hours. Both on weekends or at short notice to assist our clients with any testing required.
Thank you Rob for always putting our clients first.
Excellence is going the extra mile!
