Motshidisi From Botswana To Australia
Where did Motshidisi’s journey with us begin?
We first met Motshidisi in 2012.
I was tasked with sourcing highly skilled Caterpillar Dealer trained technicians for one of the world’s biggest Caterpillar Dealers. And on the 6th of April 2012 in Lusaka, Zambia, Motshidisi sat down for a chat with myself and a number of senior managers from that Australian Caterpillar Dealer.
We already knew that Motshidisi was working as the Ex Pat for the Botswana Caterpillar Dealer Barloworld, and that he was working on a Maintenance And Repair Contract (MARC) site, working on a fleet of Caterpillar 793C, 793D and 789C off highway dump trucks. But what we found out from chatting face to face was the passion that Motshidisi had for getting things right and his passion for the trade.
Motshidisi was already converse with Caterpillar Electronic Technician (ET), Service Technician Work Bench and Caterpillar Service Information System (SIS). And he was ready to seek new challenges.
A Job Offer From An Australian Caterpillar Dealer
Motshidisi was offered a position with an Australian Caterpillar Dealer one week after his chat with the three Australian Caterpillar Dealer Managers and Supervisors and me. Motshidisi was stunned to hear that not only had he been offered a position in Australia with the Cat Dealer, but that he was not required to pay any fees or costs.
Motshidisi wanted us to state on his behalf that he never paid anything for his employment, medicals, visa or flights, he was even provided with three months free accommodation upon his arrival in Australia. He never paid a cent.
He said that starting work for the Australian Caterpillar Dealer was a big step up in terms of Contamination Control (CC), he said the first workshop he went in for the dealer was run like clockwork, with amazing attention to detail paid to CC and also following procedures. He said to us that the experience he gained there has stayed with him until this day.
And that he was exposed to a new initiative that the Australian Caterpillar Dealer had brought in so that the Caterpillar Dealer could comply with the “Contamination Control Initiatives” that had been introduced by Caterpillar. And he said that while the ultimate goal was to improve machine and component life through work practices. There are many other consequential benefits as well.
And that initiative also became ingrained in him, do the job right, first time, every time, and don’t leave it to someone else to have to complete your work, including the paperwork.
Unfortunately in 2014 Motshidisi faced a serious family issue and Motshidisi returned to Botswana in 2014 to take care of his family.
While caring for his family, Motshidisi applied for a position with, and was hired by, Komatsu Botswana and worked at Orapa Mine.
We Meet Again
I met up again with Motshidisi once more in Lusaka on the 7th of December 2022.
An Australian Company had issued us an order to recruit highly skilled tradespeople for them.
We don’t place online adverts or use social media to try and source the right candidates, we directly contact people and through word of mouth. Motshidisi found out that we were recruiting for Australia and he contacted us and we arranged to catch up.
At the meeting in Lusaka, Motshidisi was discussing what he had seen at the Australian Caterpillar Dealer, and was explaining in great detail to the person with me, all about this and that aspect of an initiative that the Australian Caterpillar Dealer had brought in. The person with me started asking very specific questions about how Motshidisi felt about that program and Motshidisi explained he thought it was excellent.
It’s a small world, the person I was with that day was Brent Diflo. Brent had worked for that Australian Caterpillar Dealer for over 30 years as a senior manager, including group equipment assembly manager, overseeing billions of dollars of equipment assembly and delivery. And Brent explained that there was a lot of exchanging of ideas over a long period of time at the Australian Caterpillar Dealership about this initiative, and generally all service managers worked together to share ideas and implement best practice into their branches.
Brent also explained that each of the Branch Service Managers of the day were tasked with ensuring that their workshops and work processes met the criteria set down in the CC Best Practices Manual. Parts managers also had their part to play and other areas of the business as well.
Interestingly another one of Skilled Migration Group Limited’s technical advisors and interviewers, Peter Pelling (who also worked for the Australian Caterpillar Dealer for over 30 years, and then worked as the Group Maintenance Manager for Mackellar Mining Group for over ten years) was in fact a trailblazer at the time so to speak in adopting the challenge of CC implementation and developing ways/processes to ensure the workshops met the criteria. Especially in the Component rebuild area.
Brent and Motshidisi had a great conversation that day with a real passion for yellow iron flowing, and Brent said that although he was personally not responsible for what happened at other branches, he was across all of these processes and their implementation through his involvement in Brisbane Branch and his collaboration with other service managers at the time.
This right here is a perfect example of nothing beats experience – I have a fair amount of experience, over 25 years of chatting with people and getting to hear their stories while sourcing people for International Recruitment projects, and on this day in 2022 I witnessed a candidate just raving about Caterpillar Dealer systems that he had seen some 7 or 8 years earlier, and he was raving about it to one of the people that was involved at the time of implementation of the initiative.
You can keep your Zoom and Teams interviews, nothing beats sitting down face to face and just chatting with people that really know what they are talking about. Motshidisi loved chatting with Brent and me, and we enjoyed chatting with Motshidisi, and of course we arranged for him to meet the Australian Employer in two days’ time.
Pack Your Bags Mate, You’re Going To Australia!
On Friday the 9th of December 2022, Motshidisi got to meet the Australian Employer, and they got on well. Brent Diflo and me were there, with them and the conversation flowed, discussion about safety and mine site procedures, contamination control, discussion about many different aspects of the trade, from detailed fault finding situations through to mentoring people with less experience.
It went well for everyone, and a few days later that Australian Company offered Motshidisi a position which he accepted and he was deployed to Australia early 2023. Where he remains, Motshidisi pointed out to me that his employer in Australia was exceptionally good to him, he said they had treated him so well, and were so supportive in helping to bring out Motshidisi’s family.
Motshidisi cannot speak highly enough about his Australian Employer.
What’s It Like Living And Working In Australia?
Motshidisi quickly settled back into Australian life and work – he learned about machines he had never worked on before and he helped ease some of the less experienced and younger mechanics into the routine. For the record, Motshidisi never paid any fees or costs for his recruitment, medicals, visa, flights or deployment – His Australian Employer paid for everything and for that Motshidisi is extremely grateful.
He is working for an employer of choice, and he knows it.
Feedback from Motshidisi
To say that Motshidisi is happy to be living in Australia and working for his current employer is an understatement. He said he has made good friends in Australia both at work, and outside of work, and he is simply loving life, enjoying the work, socialising and fishing. He said that he hopes many more from Botswana will get the chance to be recruited in the same way that he was, and that he hopes they too get to work for an Australian Employer as good as his is. He said that to this day he has never paid one cent for his recruitment and I’ll leave you with his email that he sent to me earlier today:-
Hi Dennis
As we discussed I’ve shared with you some pictures in this email that you may use in the article,
I’m about to leave for Africa botswana this is in preparation to have my family join me here ,and the company is so supportive in this process and I really appreciate.
Thank you once again for the opportunity I will be forever grateful for that,
Thanks
This was Motshidisi From Botswana – And his Worker’s Journey.
