In January 2021, Schlam CEO, Matt Thomas, held a series of Townhall presentations at the company's locations in Forrestfield and Waroona. The presentations were held to give staff an open and transparent view of how Schlam performed in critical areas such as safety, human resources, finance, and sales in 2020 and to provide an outlook for the year ahead.
The tone of the presentation was upbeat, with Matt saying that the company had achieved a lot in only 12 months, including growing its headcount by 30 per cent, driven by strong demand from the Schlam People Solutions division in both the areas of mechanical and fabrication.
This phenomenal increase in employees was also driven by demand for Schlam’s products from a "who's who list of clients" including the most notable Tier 1 miners and OEMs in the industry.
"There wouldn’t be a mining services company in the world that wouldn't be envious of this client list," said Matt.
Despite the rapid growth, the company still maintained a superb safety record in 2020.
“The group worked over 650,000 hours without a lost-time injury event. That is an incredible achievement. But as you know, safety never sleeps. In 2021 we will implement a host of safety initiatives across all business units, including manufacturing and field service.
“We also mapped out a mental health program called A Mark’ed Difference named in honour of Mark Guillaumier, a respected colleague who worked for Schlam for over seven years who sadly passed away in July 2020 after a long battle with depression,” said Matt.
On top of welcoming new team members, the Townhall meetings was also an opportunity to recognise those who had been with the company for more than five years – and even some who had been with Schlam for over ten years - with Matt saying it's uncommon to have such loyal employees these days.
“We undertook a significant rebrand in 2020. I want to thank everyone for their patience. The result is something that we can all be very proud of.
“The rebrand has given the company a much more confident, professional identity and changed the way Schlam presents itself to the market. The move to a single brand has provided a valuable opportunity to think about who we are as a business, where we are going and how we’ll get there,” said Matt.
From a structural point of view, Schlam formed a Board of Directors and developed a three-year strategic plan in 2020 to emphasise corporate governance and improve productivity.
Looking forward, Matt said that the company had big plans for 2021, including to grow and diversify the business and expand through new services, products and geographies.
"Schlam is well-known, and we have highly-regarded products. I can tell you that it’s good to be working for a market leader because the alternative is not much fun.
“We have quality people in our workshops and on-site. We have a stable workforce, and we have an ambitious growth strategy.
"It's a good time to be working at Schlam," finished Matt.
