Now Traidcraft is boxing clever

Nov 20 2007 By The Journal

THINKING outside the box has helped Traidcraft, the fair trade organisation based in the North East, increase the number of packages it can deliver by about 10,000 a year. This 5% increase will help the Team Valley distribution centre meet the growing demand for the developing world products it supplies to its customers throughout the UK.

It has been achieved through an innovative programme of training and flexible working which has improved the skills and motivation of over 16% of the staff employed at Traidcraft’s Tyneside headquarters.

The latest initiative – involving staff working across six different departments – has been NVQ Level 2 and 3 training in team leading, warehousing and distribution, customer service, business administration and IT, all delivered by Access Training.

Christine Borley, Traidcraft director of human resources, said: “We have people here from different backgrounds including some from overseas whose first language is not English. Effective training not only improves skills, it creates a greater cohesiveness among the workforce, improving communication and motivation. The results have been impressive and, as a result, we are well prepared for our busiest season.”

In addition, Traidcraft has introduced extremely flexible working packages to help its staff balance work and family life, including part-time, flexi-time, job-share, annualised hours and home working. Access Training rose to the challenge of fitting the programme around these arrangements.

Training manager Chris Scott said: “We began by talking with Traidcraft to understand what it wanted to achieve. This enabled us to identify the areas and types of training, which would best deliver results and then we had to devise very flexible delivery.

“The workforce has responded very positively which has helped them to deliver impressive improvements in productivity.”