SOPs alone won't stick without the right foundation. This framework connects goals, incentives, processes, and team culture into a single system — each layer supporting the ones above it.
Click any layer to explore
Minimise exposure to employee claims by ensuring procedures are followed, documented, and the workforce is genuinely engaged — not just box-ticking.
Move from reactive compliance to a proactive safety culture. Hazards flagged before they cause harm, not after.
Current baseline ~20 tons/day is consistently met. The question is what happens at 22-24 tons — where's the marginal value and can it fund incentives?
Break the cycle of recruit → under-train → low confidence → leave. Retention saves recruitment cost and preserves experience on the floor.
"We just trust that people will come to work, do the job... but we can't rely on that. It comes from the environment we create."
— Rebecca Roberts20 tons/day target is always hit. The bonus doesn't encourage or deter anything — it's become background noise. Needs recalibrating to reward marginal improvement.
Connect the floor to the trading desk. When people see cost per kilo, contract value, and where their work goes, "churning random wool" becomes meaningful.
Competency framework with junior/mid/senior levels. Clear what "getting better at your job" actually means and how it's recognised.
Map the economics of 22-24 tons/day with Paul. If increased throughput creates value, distribute some of it. Make the connection between effort and reward visible.
"It's stagnant — they always achieve it. So it doesn't really have the effect that we want it to. It doesn't encourage anything and it doesn't deter anything."
— Rebecca Roberts, on the current bonus schemeScouring operations need procedure-level granularity — exact steps, exact fields, exact sequence. More prescriptive than trading because the work is physical and safety-critical.
Supervisors hand over but operatives don't. Each department needs its own handover — what was done, what's outstanding, what to watch for.
Replace the absence of goal-setting with a short start-of-shift check-in. What are we doing, why, and what does good look like today?
Digital tools on the floor for standup check-offs, metrics visibility, and minimal-input data capture. Built into the same data platform as trading — one operational view for the board.
Staff are suspicious of monitoring. The CD player → smartphone principle applies: introduce changes one at a time so they become normal before the next one arrives. Introduce digital that helps them, not digital that watches them.
The 10-person shift owns collective delivery, not individual tasks. Specialisms exist within the team, but the team is responsible for outcomes — not individuals for roles.
Management filters intent down; teams execute on shared principles, not rigid instructions. The "that's not my job" mentality dies when the team owns the goal.
One supervisor is already itching for change. Empower her to lead — give her visibility and the authority to act. Use her energy to create momentum from the inside.
Cleanliness, tidiness, and visible care reflect how people feel about their workplace. The goal isn't to tell people to tidy up — it's to create conditions where they want to.
"It'd be like putting a fruit bowl out for your kids and hoping that each day they take one more piece of fruit."
— Rebecca RobertsIn a few months the new scour arrives. That frees the supervisor to actually supervise. If the cultural and process groundwork is done by then, the new equipment amplifies everything. If it isn't, you get the same complacent culture with better machinery.
Immediate actions to build out each layer of the pyramid
Build the operations equivalent of the ROCE metrics tree for the scouring side
Done — reviewDiscuss marginal gains of 22-24 tons/day with Paul — where value is created and how to share it
Next weekAs-is process across feeding, scouring, and packing — down to Level 5 procedures
Site visitGroup the 35 feedback forms into affinity-mapped workstreams with Rebecca
Site visit