Our People Taylors, a great place to work

Butch Schofield Quarryman

‘Butch’ Schofield took an unusal pathway to his current role within the Quarries team. He spent nearly ten years working as a butcher before joining Taylors nearly four years ago.

A co-worker’s wife told him about the opportunity to work at Taylors, and despite having no experience as a machine operator he approached Taylors.

“Taylors said that they would work with the right person to train them up and that’s exactly what they have done,” says Butch. “They’ve supported me to get all my tickets and training, including my B Grade Quarry Managers Certificate.”

Butch says he loves working outside and is really enjoying being involved in a range of tasks in the Quarry environment.

“I get to do a bit of everything – pulling rock, loading rock trucks, drilling, and I’ve got all my tickets for blasting. I really enjoy operating heavy machinery and blasting and the work environment is great. The Quarries team are a really good group.”

Butch says that he’s keen to work towards being a Quarry Manager in the future but at the moment he’s enjoying operating the machinery and being a part of the wider Taylors team.

“The work environment is really good throughout the whole company. We’re certainly well looked after and there is a definite focus on health and safety and mental health. If you’re looking for a bit of a change I’d recommend Taylors. Nothing was spared to get me the training I needed.”

Butch’s manager Neil McKay says that he’d love to find more people like Butch. “He has an eye for the job at hand and thinks ahead. What he’s been able to achieve with no previous machinery experience has been impressive. We are developing his management skills and we see a real pathway there for Butch.” ■

Tim Fahey Drain Layer

Tim Fahey joined Taylors shortly after leaving school at 16. Since that time he has completed his NZ Certificate in Infrastructure Works (Pipeline Construction & Maintenance) with strands in Drinking Water – Stormwater & Sewer, Level 4. Tim works in the drainage crew and says that the past three and a half years with the company have been full of variety.

The drainage team moves around all departments where pipe work is required so locations can be varied from urban subdivisions to remote forests or rural road networks.

Tim says that he already had a good idea of what Taylors was like as a workplace.

“I knew it was a good place from my uncle Mike, who still works here, and my cousin Gilbert, who used to work here too. I knew the opportunity was here to move up and move forward.”

School wasn’t a place where Tim thrived. “I did the trades programme at school in civil infrastructure. I did a couple of months of that and ended up leaving school early to come here. That was the best thing I ever did. Learning on the job suited me better.”

Tim is motivated by the range of options available to him within the business.

“There’s an opportunity to keep moving up and moving forward within the company. There are so many avenues and routes you can go on. If I didn’t want to do pipe laying anymore, the business is so diverse, there are lots of opportunities to upskill and retrain.

He enjoys the fact that everyone at Taylors sees themselves as part of one big team and that they always try to help each other out.

“Here people in different teams are happy to lend a hand and push other people forward even if you’re not working with them. They see themselves as part of the larger team not just their own little team.” ■

Josh Grant Site Engineer

Site Engineer Josh Grant has had an exciting start to his career. At only 23 he has already worked on the Central Plains Irrigation Scheme and the Waimea Dam and is currently working on the Kate Valley Landfill project based at Taylors’ Christchurch office. Josh studied at Te Pukenga (formerly NMIT) and started work with Taylors part-time while completing his studies. He joined Taylors in Nelson fulltime at the end of 2019 and relocated to Taylors in Christchurch in September 2022.

“I like the big machinery and the earthmoving aspect of Taylors’ work,” says Josh. “I knew it was quite a good culture here because I was part of the Wanderers team, which Taylors sponsors. I was talking to Charlie Taylor through that connection to Wanderers and he said that there could be an opportunity to work at Taylors if I was keen on pursuing that option.”

Josh likes the variety of work he gets to be involved in and the combination of great equipment to use and a healthy workplace culture.

“I went straight up the dam and started working up there on the aggregate processing and testing. There was so much variety in the jobs I got to do there. You get your fingers in so many different pies and you get to learn a lot of different things. And the quality is strict. So you learn how to do things correctly under pressure, making decisions quickly. There’s quite a lot of opportunity. That’s the big thing, the opportunities that I’m getting.”

Josh says that he can see a definite career path ahead at Taylors. “I want to move up through the ranks and have some sort of input, helping Canterbury grow and getting a few more jobs for the business. I want to be a part of that.”

Josh says that the culture at Taylors is a big part of the appeal of his job. “Everyone loves to have a bit of a joke.” When he tells people about his work Josh says that they are often surprised by the size of the business.

“It surprises a lot of people that there’s a Canterbury branch! It surprises them how big Taylors is, how much Taylors are involved in, and how advanced they are in regard to GPS machine control. It’s pretty cool!

“I’m definitely enjoying working here. I can’t really imagine myself being anywhere else at the moment.” ■