At HERA we have a real commitment to help our members address the challenges that are facing them. One we hear often is the skills gap which is hindering our members from delivering what’s in their pipeline – particularly as we look to the future. As a research association, it’s often hard to find a…
It’s not often you’d expect a heavy engineering research association to talk homelessness to their membership. But, having recently discovered that three homeless people were sleeping in the undercover area at the back of HERA House – here we are. The discovery led to some really challenging discussions amongst HERA House tenants on how to…
Sitting for long periods is thought to slow the metabolism, which affects the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar, blood pressure and break down body fat. This makes it a serious health and safety consideration with emerging awareness of its impacts. A range of studies show growing evidence for the serious consequences of pro-longed sitting.…
2018 has been a big year for HERA. Firstly, we had a change of leadership from Wolfgang Scholz to myself – HERA’s first ever female CEO! We also had the retirement of our longest serving employee, Peter Hayward. At the same time, we recruited two new team members; Musarrat Begum as our new Information Services…
New Zealand’s R&D and innovation performance – can we do better? The answer is yes! NZ’s expenditure on R&D is benchmarking alarmingly low. This is the key takeaway from MBIE’s recently released 2018 Research, Science and Innovation System Performance Report. But why does this matter? According to the OECD and Treasury, low R&D investment…
That’s a good question and one we have been asking ourselves. So much so, that we’ve been working with our team to define them. Initially, by getting our lead team to propose what we think are the really important values we want to live by, and then having discussions with our full team to see…
It’s that time of year when we’re sending out our feelers for potential R&D project proposals from our membership. For us, it’s crucial that our chosen R&D focuses are industry driven. This is because we 100% want to deliver you value from the outcomes – and we can’t do that if you we don’t know…
In our 2018 membership survey, you let us know that you’re mostly very happy with our support. However, we consistently hear from SME’s that they believe we’re only here for the bigger players. And, that the way the levy is administered is unclear. So let’s start by saying that HERA is absolutely here to support…
A new report commissioned by HERA shows that the NZ metals industry is a strong contributor to the NZ economy and the living standards of New Zealanders. It was prepared by leading economic research and consultancy company Business and Economic Research Limited (BERL) using Treasury’s Living Standards Framework (LSF). We understand we’re the first industry…
Last month, our Welding Centre staff assessed welding productivity and automation capability for seven of our members. This was a feasibility study to test our Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and determine if such assessments could: a) add value to individual members; and b) identify common issues that we could assist members generically to address. …
Shaping the Future of Construction: Insights to Redesign the Industry is a white paper released by the World Economic Forum in 2017. This paper identified six challenges to the future of construction: Project Delivery – creating certainty to deliver on time and on budget, and improving the productivity, quality and safety of the construction sector.…
What are the big five megatrends in construction risk? And how do they relate to our members? Last week, I attended the launch of the Willis Towers Watson Construction Risk Index (CRI). The results reiterate what our members are already telling us. They also reiterate what we are asking our members to consider. That is,…