Putting faith in the younger generation
How many times do you hear about ‘the problem with today’s youth’? Can they really all be that bad?
Not according to Carters Rangiora manager Annette McAinch, who deliberately employed two young school leavers to join the yard team earlier this year and has no regrets.
Often the media painted the younger generation as unemployable, she said, but being the only female Carters manager in the country, she wanted to give them a chance to prove themselves.
‘‘Taking young people from school and training them up, you don’t have to train out any bad habits.’’
Store services manager Mike Russell said the two new recruits, George and Caleb, had been given the rules of the workplace and had fitted in well.
People had to learn work ethics somewhere, he said, although he was realistic about how long they would stay and he didn’t expect them to retire with the company.
‘‘They don’t sleep in, they don’t miss work. We have some pretty hard and fast rules and they’ve been told they’ve only got one opportunity.
‘‘If their hair gets too long I’ll threaten to tell their mum, we get on well.’’
Carters thought of itself as a community-based business with predominantly local customers, and employing local youth was key, he said.
George has been with the com- pany since February, after his mum heard about the job and made some enquiries. In that time he has been given plenty of responsibility and having put himself through a defensive driving course was able to quickly obtain his forklift license.
Caleb started in May, and the pair have been trained up in point of sale, customer service and stock management, as well as picking all orders for dispatch.
They are learning about all the stock and have been a hit with the customers, many of whom take time out to explain what they are buying and why.
McAinch said safety was of huge importance to Carters, and the 17 to 24-year-old age group was in fact the safest.
‘‘The boys have been a real success. They add a really nice dynamic to the team environment. Yes, we could have got the odd rotten one but to be honest that wouldn’t have put us off.’’