Work-life strategy wins Minister’s Award

Thermal Electric Elements has won the Minister’s Awards for Excellence for Employers of Australian Apprentices for the north coast and Hunter regions of NSW.

The company produces electrical heating elements for commercial and industrial sectors for air conditioning, ducted heating, refrigeration elements and commercial cooking with hot water bain-maries.

According to Ingrid Hughes from the local MEGT Australian Apprenticeships Centre: “They won because they stepped back from their business and looked at the whole employee experience with fresh eyes.”

Nigel Kruger, the QA & Recruitment Officer at Thermal Electric Elements, explains the organisation has taken a holistic approach to employee work-life balance: “Our staff work a four-day week. We have people who work here Monday to Thursday and people who work Tuesday to Friday. That means they have three days off every week to spend with their family. They come back fresh and their work time goes very quickly.”

The company’s strategy includes a career-streaming plan based on a blend of mature-age workers and young people, working alongside each other.

Every six months, every person in the company - from MD down - has a development review when they go through company values and how that person performs against them. That’s also the time they talk about how they think they are going and the areas they think they would like to improve.

In this way, the business captures the way they can upskill everyone, not only for current work performance, but also for the future.

“You can definitely see why staff are happy here,” adds Hughes. “About 80% of their current staff have undergone competitive manufacturing training. The training they do here is not only an advantage for the business, it is also of benefit to the employee.”