Samantha Kloe recently caught up with David Waddell from Waddell Engineering to see what his secret was to long-term happy staff.

So what’s been your biggest challenge in growing your business?

“….My background is in Fitting and Turning; I have always been hands-on in the business. As the business has grown I have stepped more and more away from the day-to-date operations. I am still really hands-on, however, I think one of the biggest challenges for owner-operators is letting go.

How have you learnt to let go over the years?

“As I started to employ more people, I employed those with complimentary skills sets to mine to fill the gaps we needed. I had to learn to let people do their jobs and provide their expertise in their given areas. As soon as I did this, my experienced team really flourished and took on the challenges themselves, needing less and less of my input. This then allowed me to work on the business more and look at ways to expand in to other industries.

What’s your secret to keeping the right people?

“I thoroughly research when it comes to making large capital purchases, I evaluate the machinery and buy the best I can and I place a lot of emphasis on the returns from the machinery purchase. With high-tech, high return machinery comes the requirement to understand how to operate the machinery and get the best performance.

“My philosophy is to employ the best people possible with the most experience.

“The work environment is also important, I promote a clean, safe and enjoyable working environment.”