Paewai Mullins Shearing

Paewai Mullins Shearing is a contract shearing business established in the 1950s.
The directors, Koro and Mavis Mullins, have met several challenges over the last few years:

• Sheep numbers and wool prices have decreased over the last five years.  
• Many young employees have come into the business with few skills, so they have invested heavily in training.   
• A tight international labour market has lured some of their skilled employees overseas in search of higher wages.  
• They have also faced mounting heath and safety concerns as the average age of shearers has increased over the years.

Their set of Maori values for working and living have led them to invest heavily in the personal development of their staff, meeting ISO quality requirements, building leadership skills, upholding their reputation as an industry leader and preservation of key systems and networks.

When their ISO status was being assessed they realised that the quality processes were being undertaken naturally – they had to give their staff the ‘language’ to describe what they did.

To read more about becoming a more productive workplace visit http://www.workplaceproductivity.govt.nz