Lessons on supporting and training staff when they’re miles from office headquarters

Renae Kunda is the co-founder of Cape York Motorcycle Adventures, with her husband Roy Kunda. The 30-year old business has won multiple tourism, business, and management awards, offering motorbike tours in remote Cape York. It’s challenging, and potentially dangerous, which makes both the training and retention of staff equally important.

In this piece, she shares what she’s learnt over the years.

One of the biggest issues we have in our business is retaining great staff members for the long term. Our business is seasonal and we can only offer work for seven months of the year — but our guides have to be the best in the business. They literally have people’s lives in their hands, so they have to be responsible, smart and totally reliable.

Renae Kunda’s five rules for training (and retaining) staff

1. Make sure the new kid fits in with their teammates.

2. Create a plan for what needs to be done and you’ll know what to teach the new kid.

3. Don’t buy a training package off the shelf, create a fun one that includes movement and creativity.

4. Teach your employees to do one or more roles within your organisation.

5. Hand over responsibility when it is earned and don’t look back.

Every trip, we put a group of 17 on motorcycles and let them head off into the great unknown.

That group could be made up of chief executives, company directors, airline pilots, and more. The first day is especially challenging: they get a testosterone/ego overload. We call it ‘first day fever’.

(L-R) Renae Kunda; Jordan Kunda; Mark Westgate; Jeremy Coatman; and Roy Kunda. Source: supplied

The challenge is to keep all that under control without coming across as being militaristic. The riders are on holiday. The guides are there to help them enjoy it — and keeping them safe can be a fine line to walk. 

Roy says, “As a tour guide we have to do a degree in psychology to find out what headspace our riders are in and judge what information they need to know right now”. 

Just like our riders, not all guides are the same. There are the ones who roar in willingly and are capable after a very short time. Some are seriously nervous, and some make small mistakes regularly because they just won’t ask for help. 

“When you spend a week or more with a fella you get to know him pretty well and after the years I’ve spent doing this I have developed a knack for spotting the ones who might need a little extra help here and there,” says Roy.

“It’s been the longest degree in psychology anyone has ever done but now, I can spot the different fellas a mile away.”

We place very little substance on the resumes that come in (the degree in psychology is not a literal degree), but a lot of weight on the compatibility of the new person to fit with our team. Everything else can be trained. Shouldn’t it be that way in every workplace? If your team gets on with each other well, then everything else is easier work.

Our guides have to be highly skilled riders. Creative and mechanically minded, compassionate counsellors without an ego but with the patience of a saint. That is our first hurdle in finding the right person for the job. 

Why isn’t cloning a thing yet? 

So, once we’ve found that person we need to be clear on what we need them to know. If you’ve been a one man band for a long time then I bet you don’t even know what you do in a day.

Jeremy Coatman holding a yabby. Source: supplied

We created this industry so I couldn’t just steal a job description off the internet, I had to create it all from scratch. That simple (but time consuming) process gave us insight into where we needed help. I encourage you to make time to do this task as it will definitely identify some weaknesses. 

Next, I firmly believe that training should be a reward. How many of you cringe when you hear that you’re going for staff training? What if I say the words ‘first aid course?’ Snore.

It used to be a snore for us too — until we did our Remote Area Wilderness Courses with Jason at Category 5 Emergency Training here in Cairns. Oh my goodness, he did small theory sessions backed up by hands-on training. Every patient was costumed in stage makeup to produce a realistic looking injury and the course is done at a location that can give you epic scenarios. It was fun and all of the crew stayed awake because they were both doing and learning.

Our training trip at the beginning of the year is pretty similar. We take trainees out to set up scenarios to see how they will handle a flat tyre, a motorbike stuck in mud up to the seat, a mystery guest that gets to try and steal a bike or whatever takes our fancy in the think tank. If it is fun and they are doing what they will learn. I implore you to try and make training fun in any way that you can.

This training extends to different roles. We have a pretty small crew, so it is important that each member on staff can step into another person’s role if something happens. Cross training is something to consider if morale is low or you have team members that are not getting along, because half the time it is a lack of understanding of what the other person does in a day.

For example: the boys in the workshop might not understand how the office staff could possibly be stressed and tired when they sit on their tosh all day long! I’m sure you’ve heard something along those lines before. A couple of hours doing each other’s small tasks might put a stop to those misunderstandings. A break from the repetitive tasks might be just what the team needs. 

Chief executives should make coffee for their trainees and the trainees should be in the boardroom for big decisions; after all, they might just offer something from outside the box. Lead by example and show your team that you are prepared to do every role as you would ask them to do it.

(L-R) Roy Kunda; Mark Westgate; Jeremy Coatman; and Phil Warring. Source: supplied

Having a small crew means we’re hands on working side by side with our employees, so sometimes it is really hard to let go of the tasks that we are so used to performing. You can do it quicker because you’ve done it 1000 times and I hear myself saying, ‘here, I’ll do that for you’. That’s probably why I don’t have an assistant as of yet. I’m a control freak.

Are you and are your staff members struggling with that? Everybody thrives on responsibility if it is given in earned doses.

I can’t remember who said this to me but it has been very powerful: “The answer you get is equal to the communication that you give”. Isn’t that so true for handing over responsibilities!

Then, the 4 F’s come into play: friendship, feedback, faith and following up. 

I’m a firm believer in making friends with my team inside and outside of the business. If you are friendly with your team it is easy to give them feedback about their role. I earn their faith by being always and totally on their side. Then I will follow up and check in on them personally.

I know it is not common, but I will always back my staff against any mistake or customer complaint. I know this works because I have argued with a customer who was desperate to strip down one of my employees and — like any good lioness — I protected my young. The issue went on for weeks and made us all feel terrible but that employee stayed for six years, which is very rare in this industry. He became almost irreplaceable and still often comes in to help when we are super busy.  

We’ve also had some employees that didn’t reciprocate, which breaks your heart, but that is generally also short lived. So, I’m happy to say that I’m still going with the formula that delivers long term and lasting results. The 4 F’s.

I find that our staff can be trained efficiently and effectively with a strong sense of teamwork using these methods. They have the dream job but it’s bloody hard work and I think they’re all superstars.