WaterNSW awarded for program aimed at critical skillbase

WaterNSW, and partner Mind The Gap Consulting, won six “diamond awards” at the LearnX Awards in Melbourne on Wednesday (22 November) for a program aimed at attracting and training personnel in its statewide water planning and delivery teams.

The LearnX awards acknowledge industry-leading learning, talent and skills development across various industries globally.

The award-winning program helped recruit and train WaterNSW staff responsible for managing the supply of dam water to towns, irrigators and the environment, including during floods and drought.

The WaterNSW submission for its Rapid Onboarding Program won awards in the categories of:

• Best Induction/Onboarding (industry specific)
• Best Learning & Development (industry specific)
• Best Technical Skills Training (industry specific)
• Best Custom/Bespoke Learning
• Best eLearning Project (industry specific)
• Best Content Curation

WaterNSW General Manager, Water Planning and Delivery, Ashley Webb, welcomed the awards as recognition of the success of the program in enhancing the organisation’s key operations.

“Identifying, recruiting and training skilled experts in such a niche field is always challenging,” Mr Webb said.

“With the Rapid Onboarding Program, we are proud of achieving that task in a timely manner and making sure that the new recruits are familiar with all facets of WaterNSW’s critical water planning and delivery operations.

“Retaining critical knowledge and skills for those transitioning to retirement is a common problem across many industries and we’re really proud of the end product in setting our new starters up for success.”

Sam DeGuara, Director of Mind The Gap Consulting said the project coinciding with the challenges of the La Nina 2022 flooding presented an additional challenge.

“Considering the complexity of the business problems we were asked to address, we are really proud of the business, team and individual results we collectively achieved during a very demanding period for both WaterNSW and the Water Planning and Delivery team with the 2022 La Nina event,” he said.

“Our persistence to address a number of business continuity and psychosocial risks with a structured, sustainable and best in class learning solution is a real achievement to be celebrated alongside WaterNSW, a successful partnership which continues to grow.”

Senior Consultant, Leah Seymour, described the project as one of the “most challenging yet rewarding” of her 15-year learning and development career.

“It is extremely humbling to receive all six awards, considering the complexity of the business challenges, diversity and depth of technical knowledge and constant disruptions of team members.”

Ashley, Sam and Leah will be discussing the project at a Learning Solution Review for an Industry Finalist Award Webinar scheduled for 28 November 2023.

• For dam levels and releases, visit WaterInsights.
• For more information on WaterNSW storages, visit our dams pages.