HR IN A COVID-19 WORLD HELEN BAILLIE-STRONG
Fast-tracking a safe return to work Returning to work at alert level 3 presented numerous challenges for Piritahi, a land development alliance responsible for delivering build-ready land and new and upgraded infrastructure and amenity on behalf of Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities. This is the story of how its HR and Health and Safety teams addressed the massive challenge of ensuring safety and compliance training was delivered efficiently, effectively and safely.
A
s New Zealand approached the possibility of moving to alert level 3 back in April 2020, Piritahi teams prepared and planned for how its sites could be managed and operated safely during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in addition to the already rigorous health and safety controls required in a construction environment. Piritahi facilitates government-owned land becoming ready to build new homes on. It also designs and constructs new or upgraded infrastructure, parks
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HUMAN RESOURCES
AUTUMN 2021
and public spaces. A big part of this planning and preparation was figuring out how to educate and inform people on the new mandatory site protocols and procedures that were implemented to keep people safe. Because of gathering restrictions, social distancing, and the priority of keeping its people safe, Piritahi knew it needed to make the training online and available 24/7 so staff and sub-contractors could complete it at a time convenient to them. It had to act quickly and effectively to get its people trained and back to work safely. Already having an efficient cloudbased HR system, Piritahi decided to develop an integrated learning management system (LMS) to enable online delivery of training and integration with its HR systems for reporting and record keeping. Why choose an LMS for the training? • Cloud-based – needed to be
accessible anywhere at any time because so many people were working from home.
• Tablet and smartphone accessible – needed to be
accessible on tablets and mobiles because so many staff were working from home.
• Personal email access – needed
the ability to gain access to the system with personal email addresses because numerous staff and sub-contractors did not have Piritahi email addresses. • Off-the-shelf solution – the system needed to be set up quickly with minimal technical support. • Integration with existing HR software – the system needed
to integrate reporting and training records.
What training was delivered via the LMS? Piritahi created scripts covering the following topics that people needed to understand and know before returning to site: 1. introduction to COVID-19 2. arriving at site 3. visitors to site 4. starting work on site 5. leaving sites 6. what to do if someone gets sick.
The LMS saved the organisation a huge amount of time and meant people could return to site quickly and safely.
