04 - Our People

Looking after our people is always our number one priority and this extends beyond our goal of zero harm.

It’s been a tough couple of years with Covid19 lockdowns and the rising cost of living, particularly when it comes to kai and petrol. Throughout 2022, we’ve continued to reach out to our people and provide additional support wherever we can, because we know for some of our whānau it’s been really tough.

Our learn@moana internal training programme launched in August, providing new opportunities for our people to learn new skills and develop their capability and careers. Monthly learning and development offerings have been made available to all Moana staff, including our internal leadership training, building managerial confidence and development of emerging leaders.

The programme has three key areas of focus: Growing talent, building cultural competency, and supporting leadership. The first modules covered time management, active listening, running effective meetings, and mental strength. These modules were made available to all staff across Moana via in-person and virtual online sessions, with all participants receiving a certificate of completion and a record of their training to recognise their hard mahi.

The second phase of modules include workplace respect, conflict resolution, email and business writing skills.

This programme has attracted positive feedback from our teams and we’re looking forward to launching a full calendar of new training activities throughout 2023, in addition to the current training modules.

This year saw the introduction of the Te Ao Māori Programme, in conjunction with our learning partner Education Perfect. Building on our existing te reo and te ao resources in use at Moana, this programme was made available to all Moana staff who wanted to improve their te reo and tikanga Māori.

Another learning opportunity was Te Kura Reo Pakihi held in Rotorua. The two-day wananga is annually sponsored by Moana New Zealand and this year representatives from ika operations and group support staff attended.

Taking place on a marae, it provides a safe learning environment for participants to learn te reo Māori with language for everyday business use being a strong focus. It also gives those new to te ao māori an opportunity to be immersed in tikanga and participate in practices such as pōwhiri. All levels are catered for from beginners to experts.

We intend to ensure this is another avenue to build confidence of our staff to be immersed in te reo and tikanga.

It is an important way we stay connected with our people, and it allows us to take a clear-eyed look at what is working well and where we need to improve.

Strengthening our workplace culture and improving employee engagement is a critical priority. We have asked a lot of our people through the pandemic and to support the regeneration of the business this year, their engagement, and health and wellbeing is an ever-present focus.

This year we will deliver cross functional, site and team-based workshops to better understand the level and drivers of engagement across the business. In addition, we will deploy a groupwide programme of leadership, values and rewards and recognition initiatives designed to enhance the employee experience and make a meaningful difference to our people.

As an important part of the Māori Fisheries Settlement and the largest Māori owned fisheries company in Aotearoa, we have a responsibility to help develop and shape the future of the kaimoana sector, Māori economy and Aotearoa, and to provide meaningful opportunities for tomorrow’s leaders.

The first of our future leaders appointed as Associate Directors are Ngarimu Parata (Ngati Porou, Ngai Tahu) and Linda Grave (Whakatōhea).

At Moana, we believe we have a lot to offer to the Māori business leaders of tomorrow. They gain exposure to a large, successful Māori business and have the chance to learn from our experienced Board of Directors. In turn, our Board has the opportunity to grow and learn from our Associate Directors, unfurling new possibilities for our future.

This year it was awarded to two deserving recipients, Te Waikamihi Lambert and Michaela Martin. 2021 inaugural recipient, Daria Bell, is continuing on the path that the scholarship helped set her on.

Daria Bell (Te Whānau-a-Apanui) was the first recipient of Moana's Te Pae Tawhiti Scholarship. She completed her Bachelor of Science, majoring in aquaculture, in 2021. Her undergraduate research project allowed her to look at a local Mataitai Reserve (Te Kopa o Rongokapana) within her Iwi, applying her skills to create a report assessing its current mauri and a management plan for taonga species.

In 2022, she has embarked on her Masters degree, continuing to develop her understanding of aquaculture with a focus on how business, science and matauranga Māori can function together for more sustainable aquaculture practices.

Ranging from step challenges to specific health issues like diabetes to living sustainably. One of the standout kaupapa for 2022 year was Take a Little Time, which ran through the month of August and challenged our people to look after themselves and spend quality time with the people they love. We wanted to make sure they weren’t putting self-care on the back burner.

Our technology partner Theta, who has years of experience with Moana, implemented this upgrade and betterment project with us early in the year. Over the following months, staff were involved with various aspects of the project including discovery workshops, creating test plans, learning Business Central, and user acceptance testing.

The move to Business Central allowed us to migrate all business units onto a single financial database, enhancing ease of reporting and providing further benefits of operating as one business and transact through a single company.

Business Central enables ongoing enhancements to be incrementally released and upgraded, at the time we want to accept them. This means benefits from improvements are regularly available, rather than us waiting for the next version release or full upgrade.

While it was a huge undertaking, the project team led by CFO Grant Shuker were able to deliver on time and under budget — a fantastic outcome for the whole business.

Unfortunately, due to Covid19 restrictions, these haven’t been possible for the past two years. Instead, they were replaced by pre-recorded video messages from our CEO, Steve Tarrant.

This year however, they made a comeback. At nine Moana sites across the country, over 18 days, our people got to meet with and hear from at least four senior leaders at each presentation. We know the importance of getting out and connecting with our people kanohi ki te kanohi.

We commenced with two internships focusing on:

• Designing out hard to recycle plastics by developing a baseline to enable Moana to begin measuring diversion from landfill, rate of recycling and reduction in use over time
• Expanding our understanding of where our contract fishers do and don’t fish using GIS models in ArcGIS enabling Moana management to make better decisions on where to fish in the future

One of our first interns Sarah Al-Hili, joined us under the Harvest Footprint workstream and did an outstanding job populating our data in ArcGIS.

This year we have opportunities for a further three summer interns. One will have the opportunity to work in our new hatchery in Nelson, being involved in our tio breeding programme. This hands-on role will monitor tio families as they grow from 0.5mm to 8mm, observing and ensuring optimum environmental conditions such as water flow.

The second opportunity is based in Whangaroa and will be responsible for collecting environmental data and mapping this against growth performance and looking into husbandry and gear innovations.

Building on last year's mapping work under our Harvest Footprint workstream, our third opportunity sits with our ika team and will seek habitats of significance data layers and overlay this with where we fish.

What’s your current role at Moana?

I’m a Management Accountant for the Tio and Pāua species units, so part of the commercial team.

How long have you been here?

It’s coming up to four years in January. I’ve had a few different roles in my time here. My last role was as an Assistant Accountant in a different business unit.

How is Moana different from previous places you’ve worked?

I think I just feel more valued here as a worker, and also supported it in my personal life as well. That's been a huge one for me. I feel recognised and have been able to get promoted and that's a really nice feeling.

If someone asked, would you recommend Moana as a place to work?

Well, I already did actually do that. I brought a friend on board; she was looking for somewhere and I said come to Moana, it's a good culture here. When I’m asked I just say it's got a good culture and people are genuinely nice and you will feel supported and not just like a number.

Delegates from Whangaroa and also Te Aupōuri iwi visited Sealord in May to learn about career opportunities on offer for rangatahi in a company with a diverse range of roles.

Sealord Recruitment Specialist David Norgate was among those from Sealord to welcome them. “I’m from Ngāpuhi iwi myself and see the great potential both ways for strong connections,” says David.

Three new recruits joined vessel FV Rehua – and got more than they’d bargained for on their first trip with Sealord. As weather warnings were issued all over the country – the crews at sea experienced some severe conditions, and for the new recruits, it was quite an eye opener.

“Apparently it was the worst storm and weather the crew on that ship had ever been through,” says Te Kaahui Nepia (TK), from Ngāruawāhia, who had come through the Westport Deep Sea Fishing School. “I didn’t get seasick once, I was quite surprised, especially because it was my first time ever on a boat.”

Also joining the Rehua crew was 21-year-old Cody Tukaki, who is from Kaikohe in the Far North and from Ngāi te Rangi Iwi.

Cody worked in the freezer on the vessel, which involves a lot of stacking boxes, a physical job he says he’s grateful for because he likes the food aboard a lot! While the vessel was tied up, he took up the opportunity to get some extra hours working at Sealord’s land-based wet fish factory in Nelson. As well as doing the night shift on the processing line, he joined the cleaning crew that works until at 5.30am.

Sealord signed a collaborative agreement in 2019, Nga Tapuwae o Māui, with 41 Iwi groups, so that 60 per cent of the Iwi quota held in deep-water fisheries (including hoki, orange roughy, jack mackerel and silver warehou) is caught on Sealord vessels, with more than 80 per cent of profits returned to Iwi. The agreement also provides Iwi members opportunities for training and employment.

After dedicating his career to the oyster industry, this year Vince Syddall handed over the reins and retired. He leaves an illustrious legacy.

No stranger to the hardships of farming, and growing pains faced by the New Zealand primary industry as it has transformed into commercial enterprises, Vince has weathered the storm of biosecurity, food safety and regulatory changes. A pivotal moment being the near decimation of the Pacific Oyster industry when the OsHV-1 virus hit. When most left the industry, Vince helped steady the ship, and through his resilience and foresight gave Moana the confidence to stay committed and bold by continuing to invest in research and development.

Vince’s leadership was critical in Moana’s recovery, and the ongoing investment in Research & Development projects and initiatives such as a selective oyster breeding programmes, the move to single seed hatchery production and the implementation of new float line system on farm. These have provided an impetus for growth and transformational change across our oyster’s operations. Vince has been instrumental in guiding Moana into the future.

Dedicated to future proofing oyster businesses, not just Moana but across the industry, Vince has worked at a grass roots level, supporting new farmers entering the industry, sharing his knowledge and expertise to assist farmers in the North to grow and fostering relationships with Iwi across regions. He has held key leadership roles at an industry level, most notably as a key contributor in the development of export quality oysters to supply both IQF and live to market; opening up export channels to Australia, China, Singapore, Russia, USA for Moana.

Vince’s hard work has created a strong reputation for Moana, keeping us at the forefront of the industry, with established relationships at a local, national and international level. He has cemented his place as an original, who helped reshape the future of the industry and build an oyster business we can all be proud of.

We acknowledge Vince’s outstanding and invaluable contribution and wish him all the very best.