Mark Golotta loved welding – he loved improving his craft and contributing to projects of all shapes and sizes. So, after narrowly surviving a motorcycle crash, the only thing on Mark’s mind during rehab was his return to work.
However, welding in a wheelchair is about as difficult as it sounds. Mark tried anyway, even after going bankrupt and being made redundant in favour of faster welders. With the help of Ability Works Australia, he managed to find employment again, but as the work grew more demanding and the projects became bigger and more unwieldy, Mark and Ability Works CEO Sue Boyce knew they needed a new plan.
The pair set about assessing Mark’s skills and passions in order to find work that better suited his new circumstances – and Mark now heads up his own team in an entirely different capacity.
In this episode of Getting it Right, host Craig Foster poses the question: how much more effective could your organisation be if you re-evaluated the skills of the people you already employ?
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Getting it Right is a Jobsbank podcast, produced by Deadset Studios, hosted by Craig Foster.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mark Golotta (00:05):
It made me get back to the person I was and
it helped me get back into the workforce. It helped
me heal
in ways that I wouldn't have even thought it would.
Craig Foster (00:22):
Mark Golotta was working as a welder when his life
changed in an instant. He'd spent years using heavy welding machinery,
working long days maneuvering large scale equipment and he was
good at it.
But when things took a turn for Mark, he was
determined to have a meaningful career. It hasn't been an easy road,
but eventually he connected with a service that would change
(00:44):
his life dramatically again.
This time for the better.
These days. He runs the mailroom for a global toll
operating company and runs a team of employees with disability.
Mark had the skill and determination to make this transition.
All he needed was someone to give him a chance.
So when he saw a series of doors held open
(01:05):
by companies that wanted to make a difference, he didn't hesitate.
I'm Craig Foster and this is Getting it right, the
podcast where you meet the people and businesses who are hiring,
buying and working with purpose and maybe learn a thing
or two along the way.
Mark Golotta (01:30):
Hey, my name is Mark Golotta . I work for Ability
Works for the Transurban account. I've been there three years now
and I'm 37
Craig Foster (01:42):
You started your career in a pretty different place to where you
are now. Can you tell us how you got into welding?
Mark Golotta (01:49):
Uh well it's a bit of a funny story um,
my dad said, I'm not going to pay for you
to go to school anymore. You need to get a job.
And that was the first job I decided to do
apprentice boilermaker all the way through the qualified trades person.
Um I love my job, I love welding, I love
(02:12):
everything I do.
Craig Foster (02:13):
So in 2007 you were in a motorbike accident that
changed your life.
Mark Golotta (02:19):
I was on my way to work on Wednesday morning
and I only know what I've been told, but I
was on my way to work. A car did an
illegal U turn in front of me, I hit the
driver's door, uh pushing the driver's door past center of
the car.
He didn't make it. I made it and I woke up,
(02:43):
I couldn't move, I couldn't talk. I was my one
hand I could move was shackled to the bed, broke
my back in two places, fractured my neck, broke three ribs,
collapsed along, broke my arm in seven places, broke the
little bone in my hand, left hand and 10 bleeds on
(03:04):
the brain. One caused the haemorrhage that caused my stroke. So
I've got left side deficit where I can't use my
left hand properly.
Craig Foster (03:13):
The injuries were immense Mark, and they meant that you'd live with
paraplegia and use a wheelchair from that point on. What
was that period after your accident like?
Mark Golotta (03:23):
wow, I got into work pretty much within months of
getting out of rehab, really. Um My previous boss, my
previous employer employed me as his second in charge and
that's where I was was for a little while until
I bought that business from him. And at that time
(03:46):
it was more about just having a purpose. It didn't...
it didn't matter if the company made money or not,
but at first it was more about just getting some
normality back in my life, that was during the manufacturing downturn.
(04:06):
And that went to went to bankruptcy after a couple
of years. And then I tried myself in some more
commercial work and nothing really fit. Like there were job opportunities,
but I wasn't given the same grace as some of
(04:29):
the others were because of my situation and being slower
because of being in the chair. Just there wasn't the
right support in place.
And in the end you were made redundant. That must have
been incredibly difficult.
Yeah, I was I was made redundant at my workplace
(04:50):
and then the next day they hired someone new to
take over my job. So that was real good redundancy.
Craig Foster (04:56):
And tell us about the impact on you during this period.
Mark Golotta (05:01):
that, that made me think, what am I doing, what
am I doing wrong, what am I doing right? Um, it
made me second guess sort of all my moves up
until then
because no matter how hard I tried or how hard
I put in, I didn't seem to get the gratitude
(05:21):
that I think I deserved.
Craig Foster (05:24):
Even though you had these setbacks, do you think going
back to work gave you some sense of normality?
Mark Golotta (05:29):
Yes and no, because I had pitfalls, it was like
it wasn't a win, but it was it was still
a win because it made me get back to the
person I was and it helped me get back into
the workforce, it helped me heal in ways that I
(05:51):
wouldn't have even thought it would.
Craig Foster (05:54):
And so how did you come across Ability Works?
Mark Golotta (05:58):
The TAC, After being Made redundant? The partnership the TAC have with the sector,
the disability sector is how they introduced me to Ability Works.
The TAC being the transport accident commission. They mentioned to
me that they had an opportunity for some welding work.
(06:20):
Um so I jumped at it, it was welding work
at first, but once, once I moved into Ability Works,
I realized where my feet could land sort of thing.
Sue Boyce (06:38):
My name is Sue Boyce and I'm the CEO of
Ability Works.
Craig Foster (06:42):
You aim to find meaningful employment for people with disability. So
it's no surprise that Mark found you. When did you meet?
Sue Boyce (06:49):
The first time I met Mark was probably in the corridor
at Ability Works. I think in those early days we
were very focused on trying to get Mark welding jobs
because he told us about how passionate he was about welding,
we were having discussions around with the toolmaker, trying to
(07:10):
work out well how do we get products to him
and we were building, you know, turntables and trying to
work out how we could, you know, make
welding accessible to him.
Craig Foster (07:23):
And so you developed a turntable that allowed him to
work faster, right? But after some period of time you
realized it really wasn't ideal
Sue Boyce (07:31):
We developed a turntable where the products were small enough,
the products that needed welding was small enough that they
could be placed on the table and other employees because
it could assist by bringing the products to the table.
But as the jobs got bigger, that got more challenging
and that's when we looked at other opportunities for Mark.
Craig Foster (07:51):
So if one work environment or one particular role doesn't
quite work out, where do you go from there?
Sue Boyce (07:57):
You look at the person and you look at their
skill sets and you look at what they're passionate about
wanting to do and you try and create that match.
So we often,
we break jobs down, we'd carve jobs up into component parts.
So if someone has got particular challenges and they can
just do one aspect of a job, that's what they do.
(08:20):
We also use artificial intelligence robotics and training to get
people into work.
Craig Foster (08:27):
So Mark got on a project with a company called Transurban
who run major toll roads all over the world
Ability Works, won the contract to run their mail room
and sort the e- tags, the little things that beep
as you go through a toll road can tell us
a little bit about the history please between Transurban and Ability Works.
Sue Boyce (08:46):
So Transurban has been a customer of Ability Works for 10 years.
Ability Works one that account at competitive tender.
This was well before my time, but our relationship since
then has progressed and we've always managed their mailroom services.
But since the Victorian government introduced their Social Procurement Framework
(09:09):
and policies in 2018, Transurban has been trying to assist Ability
Works in many other ways by introducing us to
other relationships that they have in their supply chain.
Craig Foster (09:23):
And there's a special tool in the mailroom, a piece
of technology that supports people with disability to work independently
sorting mail. And that tool is called Matilda. What does
she do?
Sue Boyce (09:35):
So Matilda uses artificial intelligence and we use Matilda to
assist people with literacy challenges to work on the Transurban account.
So normally to work on that account, you need to
be able to scan read a mail document. But Matilda
has been fed with keywords um which when she picks
(09:57):
that up, she's able to advise an employee about what
to do with that piece of mail.
So you no longer need to be able to read
to work on the Transurban account. And that provides our
employees with a lot of joy to be able to
work on trans urban because it's considered quite a prestigious
account to work on Ability Works. One of the other things
(10:20):
that happened was the computer skills, so a lot of
people may not have used the computer um prior to
working on the trans urban account
and when they pick up those skills at work, they're
able to take it to their home life as well.
Craig Foster (10:35):
So with your experience, what would you say to other
workplaces trying to embark on a project that supports people
with disability in the workplace?
Sue Boyce (10:44):
Oh, do it because it gives people such people with
disabilities enormous purpose pride in the fact that they have
a job, a sense of belonging because they are accepted
in the workplace because a lot of people with disabilities
have challenges getting a job. The participation rate for people
with disabilities in the workforce is almost half that of
(11:08):
people without a disability.
Craig Foster (11:19):
So it's been quite the journey for you Mark from
starting at Ability Works as a welder. What's that been
like for you?
Mark Golotta (11:25):
when they approached me first about the welding job and
I was like yeah, go for it,
even though it was too hard for me to do,
I kept trying as hard as I could
ah and that was to just show that look, I've
got the drive and I've got the motivation if you
can give me the footing
(11:45):
and
and that's all I really took for me to to
want to do better and be better. We upskilled some
of my basic skills to be able to move into
the position where I am now as a team leader
for the Transurban account. Whereas I help John, our supervisor,
(12:08):
oversee the whole process and make sure that things are
going right and whatnot like second in charge basically.
And I I assist John with everything from day to
day stuff to end of month to yeah, shipping everything.
Craig Foster (12:31):
And it's not just the fulfilment from your job. You've
got out of Ability Works is it didn't you meet
a pretty special someone...
Mark Golotta (12:38):
I met, the love of my life at Ability Works. So
um as long as well as filling a hole in
my social life and my work life, it's filled more
than I could ever have imagined it would feel.
Craig Foster (13:09):
So it's great for Mark and his team at Ability Works.
What did Transurban get out of this arrangement?
Sebastian Conley (13:15):
I'm Sebastian Conley, I'm the Sustainable Procurement Manager at Transurban and
my role is to work closely with our social enterprises
and shared value initiatives across our business. We've been working
with Ability Works for more than 10 years now. In
the early days the team at Ability Works, simply sorted our
mail . Today, they process more than 30,000 link tags, the device
(13:39):
that beeps when you pass through a toll gantry every month.
They also scan and sought up to 400 pieces of
mail a day. From a business perspective, working with our
partners to create real and meaningful jobs for people also
gives us a competitive advantage around opportunities. Future project partners
can see we're serious about ensuring our activities deliver social benefits,
(14:00):
ability works has evolved and adapted with us. For example,
when we changed our mailroom logistics, so all mail went
directly to Ability Works in Melbourne to avoid double handling in
other states and associated emissions
Ability Works stepped up with new technology to support its workers. Through
this transition,
the team even started using our shredded mail in its products,
(14:21):
packing activities, reducing waste
at Transurban , we work to create this kind of
flexibility with all of our partners so they grow with
us and so does the value and the wider benefits
of each partnership.
Craig Foster (14:38):
Mark, was it a bit of a learning curve stepping
into the trans urban mailroom from your past career as
a welder?
Mark Golotta (14:45):
it's completely different. Being a boilermaker has taught me a
good work ethic I think and I've then shifted what
my focus is from being, just wanting to do welding
because that's all I really want to do is welding,
but I love the other skills that I get to
(15:10):
use and get to put into place and get to
um advance and grow on
is the other skills that I never thought about, it
helps me with. Like I helped train some of our employees,
I help support our employees. Like this is all things
(15:31):
that I would never have been doing otherwise being the
team leader, you're there to keep everyone's spirits up, you're
there to keep everyone driven and you're there to motivate
them every morning. We come to work and
we're like, all right, how many tags you reckon we'll
do today? And like it's a bit of banter, but
(15:53):
it's also a bit of like work motivation.
Craig Foster (15:56):
Do you see that kind of transformation that happened within
you Mark happening in the staff that work in the Transurban
mail room as well?
Mark Golotta (16:04):
Yeah, 100%. Recently we've been doing a lot of upskilling
with our staff and
um some people have stepped up and stepped into jobs
that they probably would never have even considered before because
um it's just broken down into what they can do
and then they thrive at that when they're thriving and
(16:28):
when they're comfortable and when they're confident they're doing their
best work. So
in turn, great work is getting done in the end,
it opens doors for them really
like because it opened like me, there were things that
I picked up through Ability Works that opened doors for me.
So I'm sure that others feel the same
(16:52):
like by giving them a couple of basic keys to
push on a computer and know what to do and
know what's going to happen.
They they glow from getting to know those type of things.
Like they're just so happy about it.
Craig Foster (17:07):
And the Ability Works partnership with Transurban has actually won
multiple awards for this fantastic program, Sue, can you tell
us about that?
Sue Boyce (17:16):
Yes, so in 2020 with Transurban , we won um the
Partnership of the Year Award with Social Traders. So Social
Traders is our sector organization.
And in 2022 this year we won the Gamechanger Award
for Victoria Tasmania and we're now in the running for
(17:36):
a National Award.
And the awards criteria were around innovation, the environment, the
number of jobs created through social procurement, how you advocated
within your organization or outside of the organization to create
more jobs. So that was the criteria of the award
(17:58):
that we won,
Craig Foster (17:59):
Even though the awards are great to have, what is
this project really taught you about the importance of social
procurement
Sue Boyce (18:07):
You know, having an account like Transurban which provides work every day of the week,
every week of the year
is very beneficial to an organization like us and especially
in a 10 year history because it does take us
quite some time to set up a job when people
have complex support needs, you know, so, and then to
(18:27):
break the job down and to set up the whole system,
it can take
quite some time. So when you have a long term
ongoing project that is really helpful and we can deliver,
you know, as good if not better in terms of
commercial outcomes for our customers as a result. And a
lot of the work that tends to come
(18:51):
to us through social procurement tends to be quite piecemeal
short
after thought. You know, if someone's having difficulty with staffing
at the moment, they'll come to us. Whereas this type
of work genuinely helps
an organization like us because you can set it up
to really meet the needs of people with complex needs.
(19:13):
Let's not be an afterthought. Can you come and sit
down with us and let's work out, you know what
we could actually do for you and and build it
into your supply chain.
Craig Foster (19:34):
Getting it right, is about unlocking people and potential,
make sure you're following us in your podcast app, so
you don't miss an episode, there's plenty of inspiring stories
chock full of practical lessons, no matter if you're a
big company, small business, government department or not for profit,
getting it right is a jobs bank podcast produced by
(19:55):
dead set studios and hosted by me, Craig Foster
It made me get back to the person I was and
it helped me get back into the workforce. It helped
me heal
in ways that I wouldn't have even thought it would.
Craig Foster (00:22):
Mark Golotta was working as a welder when his life
changed in an instant. He'd spent years using heavy welding machinery,
working long days maneuvering large scale equipment and he was
good at it.
But when things took a turn for Mark, he was
determined to have a meaningful career. It hasn't been an easy road,
but eventually he connected with a service that would change
(00:44):
his life dramatically again.
This time for the better.
These days. He runs the mailroom for a global toll
operating company and runs a team of employees with disability.
Mark had the skill and determination to make this transition.
All he needed was someone to give him a chance.
So when he saw a series of doors held open
(01:05):
by companies that wanted to make a difference, he didn't hesitate.
I'm Craig Foster and this is Getting it right, the
podcast where you meet the people and businesses who are hiring,
buying and working with purpose and maybe learn a thing
or two along the way.
Mark Golotta (01:30):
Hey, my name is Mark Golotta . I work for Ability
Works for the Transurban account. I've been there three years now
and I'm 37
Craig Foster (01:42):
You started your career in a pretty different place to where you
are now. Can you tell us how you got into welding?
Mark Golotta (01:49):
Uh well it's a bit of a funny story um,
my dad said, I'm not going to pay for you
to go to school anymore. You need to get a job.
And that was the first job I decided to do
apprentice boilermaker all the way through the qualified trades person.
Um I love my job, I love welding, I love
(02:12):
everything I do.
Craig Foster (02:13):
So in 2007 you were in a motorbike accident that
changed your life.
Mark Golotta (02:19):
I was on my way to work on Wednesday morning
and I only know what I've been told, but I
was on my way to work. A car did an
illegal U turn in front of me, I hit the
driver's door, uh pushing the driver's door past center of
the car.
He didn't make it. I made it and I woke up,
(02:43):
I couldn't move, I couldn't talk. I was my one
hand I could move was shackled to the bed, broke
my back in two places, fractured my neck, broke three ribs,
collapsed along, broke my arm in seven places, broke the
little bone in my hand, left hand and 10 bleeds on
(03:04):
the brain. One caused the haemorrhage that caused my stroke. So
I've got left side deficit where I can't use my
left hand properly.
Craig Foster (03:13):
The injuries were immense Mark, and they meant that you'd live with
paraplegia and use a wheelchair from that point on. What
was that period after your accident like?
Mark Golotta (03:23):
wow, I got into work pretty much within months of
getting out of rehab, really. Um My previous boss, my
previous employer employed me as his second in charge and
that's where I was was for a little while until
I bought that business from him. And at that time
(03:46):
it was more about just having a purpose. It didn't...
it didn't matter if the company made money or not,
but at first it was more about just getting some
normality back in my life, that was during the manufacturing downturn.
(04:06):
And that went to went to bankruptcy after a couple
of years. And then I tried myself in some more
commercial work and nothing really fit. Like there were job opportunities,
but I wasn't given the same grace as some of
(04:29):
the others were because of my situation and being slower
because of being in the chair. Just there wasn't the
right support in place.
And in the end you were made redundant. That must have
been incredibly difficult.
Yeah, I was I was made redundant at my workplace
(04:50):
and then the next day they hired someone new to
take over my job. So that was real good redundancy.
Craig Foster (04:56):
And tell us about the impact on you during this period.
Mark Golotta (05:01):
that, that made me think, what am I doing, what
am I doing wrong, what am I doing right? Um, it
made me second guess sort of all my moves up
until then
because no matter how hard I tried or how hard
I put in, I didn't seem to get the gratitude
(05:21):
that I think I deserved.
Craig Foster (05:24):
Even though you had these setbacks, do you think going
back to work gave you some sense of normality?
Mark Golotta (05:29):
Yes and no, because I had pitfalls, it was like
it wasn't a win, but it was it was still
a win because it made me get back to the
person I was and it helped me get back into
the workforce, it helped me heal in ways that I
(05:51):
wouldn't have even thought it would.
Craig Foster (05:54):
And so how did you come across Ability Works?
Mark Golotta (05:58):
The TAC, After being Made redundant? The partnership the TAC have with the sector,
the disability sector is how they introduced me to Ability Works.
The TAC being the transport accident commission. They mentioned to
me that they had an opportunity for some welding work.
(06:20):
Um so I jumped at it, it was welding work
at first, but once, once I moved into Ability Works,
I realized where my feet could land sort of thing.
Sue Boyce (06:38):
My name is Sue Boyce and I'm the CEO of
Ability Works.
Craig Foster (06:42):
You aim to find meaningful employment for people with disability. So
it's no surprise that Mark found you. When did you meet?
Sue Boyce (06:49):
The first time I met Mark was probably in the corridor
at Ability Works. I think in those early days we
were very focused on trying to get Mark welding jobs
because he told us about how passionate he was about welding,
we were having discussions around with the toolmaker, trying to
(07:10):
work out well how do we get products to him
and we were building, you know, turntables and trying to
work out how we could, you know, make
welding accessible to him.
Craig Foster (07:23):
And so you developed a turntable that allowed him to
work faster, right? But after some period of time you
realized it really wasn't ideal
Sue Boyce (07:31):
We developed a turntable where the products were small enough,
the products that needed welding was small enough that they
could be placed on the table and other employees because
it could assist by bringing the products to the table.
But as the jobs got bigger, that got more challenging
and that's when we looked at other opportunities for Mark.
Craig Foster (07:51):
So if one work environment or one particular role doesn't
quite work out, where do you go from there?
Sue Boyce (07:57):
You look at the person and you look at their
skill sets and you look at what they're passionate about
wanting to do and you try and create that match.
So we often,
we break jobs down, we'd carve jobs up into component parts.
So if someone has got particular challenges and they can
just do one aspect of a job, that's what they do.
(08:20):
We also use artificial intelligence robotics and training to get
people into work.
Craig Foster (08:27):
So Mark got on a project with a company called Transurban
who run major toll roads all over the world
Ability Works, won the contract to run their mail room
and sort the e- tags, the little things that beep
as you go through a toll road can tell us
a little bit about the history please between Transurban and Ability Works.
Sue Boyce (08:46):
So Transurban has been a customer of Ability Works for 10 years.
Ability Works one that account at competitive tender.
This was well before my time, but our relationship since
then has progressed and we've always managed their mailroom services.
But since the Victorian government introduced their Social Procurement Framework
(09:09):
and policies in 2018, Transurban has been trying to assist Ability
Works in many other ways by introducing us to
other relationships that they have in their supply chain.
Craig Foster (09:23):
And there's a special tool in the mailroom, a piece
of technology that supports people with disability to work independently
sorting mail. And that tool is called Matilda. What does
she do?
Sue Boyce (09:35):
So Matilda uses artificial intelligence and we use Matilda to
assist people with literacy challenges to work on the Transurban account.
So normally to work on that account, you need to
be able to scan read a mail document. But Matilda
has been fed with keywords um which when she picks
(09:57):
that up, she's able to advise an employee about what
to do with that piece of mail.
So you no longer need to be able to read
to work on the Transurban account. And that provides our
employees with a lot of joy to be able to
work on trans urban because it's considered quite a prestigious
account to work on Ability Works. One of the other things
(10:20):
that happened was the computer skills, so a lot of
people may not have used the computer um prior to
working on the trans urban account
and when they pick up those skills at work, they're
able to take it to their home life as well.
Craig Foster (10:35):
So with your experience, what would you say to other
workplaces trying to embark on a project that supports people
with disability in the workplace?
Sue Boyce (10:44):
Oh, do it because it gives people such people with
disabilities enormous purpose pride in the fact that they have
a job, a sense of belonging because they are accepted
in the workplace because a lot of people with disabilities
have challenges getting a job. The participation rate for people
with disabilities in the workforce is almost half that of
(11:08):
people without a disability.
Craig Foster (11:19):
So it's been quite the journey for you Mark from
starting at Ability Works as a welder. What's that been
like for you?
Mark Golotta (11:25):
when they approached me first about the welding job and
I was like yeah, go for it,
even though it was too hard for me to do,
I kept trying as hard as I could
ah and that was to just show that look, I've
got the drive and I've got the motivation if you
can give me the footing
(11:45):
and
and that's all I really took for me to to
want to do better and be better. We upskilled some
of my basic skills to be able to move into
the position where I am now as a team leader
for the Transurban account. Whereas I help John, our supervisor,
(12:08):
oversee the whole process and make sure that things are
going right and whatnot like second in charge basically.
And I I assist John with everything from day to
day stuff to end of month to yeah, shipping everything.
Craig Foster (12:31):
And it's not just the fulfilment from your job. You've
got out of Ability Works is it didn't you meet
a pretty special someone...
Mark Golotta (12:38):
I met, the love of my life at Ability Works. So
um as long as well as filling a hole in
my social life and my work life, it's filled more
than I could ever have imagined it would feel.
Craig Foster (13:09):
So it's great for Mark and his team at Ability Works.
What did Transurban get out of this arrangement?
Sebastian Conley (13:15):
I'm Sebastian Conley, I'm the Sustainable Procurement Manager at Transurban and
my role is to work closely with our social enterprises
and shared value initiatives across our business. We've been working
with Ability Works for more than 10 years now. In
the early days the team at Ability Works, simply sorted our
mail . Today, they process more than 30,000 link tags, the device
(13:39):
that beeps when you pass through a toll gantry every month.
They also scan and sought up to 400 pieces of
mail a day. From a business perspective, working with our
partners to create real and meaningful jobs for people also
gives us a competitive advantage around opportunities. Future project partners
can see we're serious about ensuring our activities deliver social benefits,
(14:00):
ability works has evolved and adapted with us. For example,
when we changed our mailroom logistics, so all mail went
directly to Ability Works in Melbourne to avoid double handling in
other states and associated emissions
Ability Works stepped up with new technology to support its workers. Through
this transition,
the team even started using our shredded mail in its products,
(14:21):
packing activities, reducing waste
at Transurban , we work to create this kind of
flexibility with all of our partners so they grow with
us and so does the value and the wider benefits
of each partnership.
Craig Foster (14:38):
Mark, was it a bit of a learning curve stepping
into the trans urban mailroom from your past career as
a welder?
Mark Golotta (14:45):
it's completely different. Being a boilermaker has taught me a
good work ethic I think and I've then shifted what
my focus is from being, just wanting to do welding
because that's all I really want to do is welding,
but I love the other skills that I get to
(15:10):
use and get to put into place and get to
um advance and grow on
is the other skills that I never thought about, it
helps me with. Like I helped train some of our employees,
I help support our employees. Like this is all things
(15:31):
that I would never have been doing otherwise being the
team leader, you're there to keep everyone's spirits up, you're
there to keep everyone driven and you're there to motivate
them every morning. We come to work and
we're like, all right, how many tags you reckon we'll
do today? And like it's a bit of banter, but
(15:53):
it's also a bit of like work motivation.
Craig Foster (15:56):
Do you see that kind of transformation that happened within
you Mark happening in the staff that work in the Transurban
mail room as well?
Mark Golotta (16:04):
Yeah, 100%. Recently we've been doing a lot of upskilling
with our staff and
um some people have stepped up and stepped into jobs
that they probably would never have even considered before because
um it's just broken down into what they can do
and then they thrive at that when they're thriving and
(16:28):
when they're comfortable and when they're confident they're doing their
best work. So
in turn, great work is getting done in the end,
it opens doors for them really
like because it opened like me, there were things that
I picked up through Ability Works that opened doors for me.
So I'm sure that others feel the same
(16:52):
like by giving them a couple of basic keys to
push on a computer and know what to do and
know what's going to happen.
They they glow from getting to know those type of things.
Like they're just so happy about it.
Craig Foster (17:07):
And the Ability Works partnership with Transurban has actually won
multiple awards for this fantastic program, Sue, can you tell
us about that?
Sue Boyce (17:16):
Yes, so in 2020 with Transurban , we won um the
Partnership of the Year Award with Social Traders. So Social
Traders is our sector organization.
And in 2022 this year we won the Gamechanger Award
for Victoria Tasmania and we're now in the running for
(17:36):
a National Award.
And the awards criteria were around innovation, the environment, the
number of jobs created through social procurement, how you advocated
within your organization or outside of the organization to create
more jobs. So that was the criteria of the award
(17:58):
that we won,
Craig Foster (17:59):
Even though the awards are great to have, what is
this project really taught you about the importance of social
procurement
Sue Boyce (18:07):
You know, having an account like Transurban which provides work every day of the week,
every week of the year
is very beneficial to an organization like us and especially
in a 10 year history because it does take us
quite some time to set up a job when people
have complex support needs, you know, so, and then to
(18:27):
break the job down and to set up the whole system,
it can take
quite some time. So when you have a long term
ongoing project that is really helpful and we can deliver,
you know, as good if not better in terms of
commercial outcomes for our customers as a result. And a
lot of the work that tends to come
(18:51):
to us through social procurement tends to be quite piecemeal
short
after thought. You know, if someone's having difficulty with staffing
at the moment, they'll come to us. Whereas this type
of work genuinely helps
an organization like us because you can set it up
to really meet the needs of people with complex needs.
(19:13):
Let's not be an afterthought. Can you come and sit
down with us and let's work out, you know what
we could actually do for you and and build it
into your supply chain.
Craig Foster (19:34):
Getting it right, is about unlocking people and potential,
make sure you're following us in your podcast app, so
you don't miss an episode, there's plenty of inspiring stories
chock full of practical lessons, no matter if you're a
big company, small business, government department or not for profit,
getting it right is a jobs bank podcast produced by
(19:55):
dead set studios and hosted by me, Craig Foster
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