Meet the Team - Ronda Wilson

Meet Ronda Wilson

Recruitment and Employee Support Advisor at Eltham

Ronda has been with ANZCO for nearly two years. In her role as Recruitment and Employee Support Advisor she supports offshore workers, helping them organise accomodation, settle in, complete their inductions, and anything else they might need. She also does support work for site employees, which includes recording attendance, following up with people who are taking a bit of time off and supporting them where she can.

Ronda is also a Diversity & Inclusion ambassador, where she organises activities like the Whānau Fun Day, works with the site nurse on health initiatives, and shares resources for Samoan Language Week, Matariki, and other diversity and inclusion focuses.

Her background is in mental health, and she's passionate about promoting positive mental health around site. She organises soup and buns for staff on Pink Shirt Day, and gets supervisors to dress in pink - sometimes she even gets them in tutus! She's also in the process of arranging mental health training for supervisors so they can check in with their team and know how to get them support if needed. She loves to keep things light, make people smile, and help people feel cared for. 

She started her career in community mental health. she first held a support role in a residential home, and then moved into a management role where she helped people coming out of hospital to integrate back into the community. While she was managing the home, she opened a mental health centre where she ran art therapy, computer, budgeting, and cooking courses. She then moved down south and managed another mental health centre for the Southland District Health Board for about five years, and then travelled in a house bus for a while before getting into truck driving and working on the rebuild of Christchurch after the earthquakes. Most recently, she worked in health and safety at an Invercargill coal mine before moving up north and joining ANZCO.

She never thought she'd work at a meat processing site, but she's been pleasantly surprised at learning how much goes on behind the scenes. All the departments have a lot going on, and there are so many people from different cultures and walks of life which she enjoys getting to know more about. 

One of her claims to fame is that one of the offshore workers named their baby after her, after she supported her through her pregnancy and went to her first scan - which the dad didn't even get to go to! She feels honoured and thinks it's a pretty special thing to happen.

Outside of work, family are really important to Ronda and she enjoys spending time with them wherever possible - especially her fur-babies, two shih tzus. She and her husband are self-described petrolheads and have a '67 ford falcon that they like to get out and drive on weekends, and she also has a Harley motorbike. She likes to keep busy with all sorts of crafts and you can often find her gardening on her one-acre property.

Fun facts:

• Marvel or DC?
  DC
• Pepsi or Coca-Cola?
  She's not a fizzy drink type of person
• Coffee or tea?
  Coffee, as long as it's not instant!
• What's one thing you'd have on a deserted island?
  Her two shih tzu fur-babies
• What superpower would you want?
  Invisibility
• If you could instantly learn any language, what would it be?
  Vietnamese
• Favourite TV show?
  Any English comedies, like Mr Bean, Blackadder, Fawlty Towers