Tully is a detail-oriented executive who has a rock-solid knowledge of his market as well as an extensive network that he has built and developed through high services levels, excellent technical experience and through delivering when required. He is an inspiring manager who develops an excellent team of people to achieve outstanding results. Tully’s team at Blue Tongue has been instrumental in assisting MACA with our upskilling requirements to ensure we maintain the advantage to keep us ahead of our competitors. Blue Tongue are experts in their field with experience that sets them apart. MACA has worked with Blue Tongue for the past 7 years and through the upskilling program we have gained reliable, loyal upskill employees with new age skills sets and attitudes as part of our permanent workforce.  Blue Tongue has assisted us in our long term labour management and we have achieved excellent results through our partnership.  

The Blue Tongue model definitely improved workplace culture and we were able to retain quality staff.  We were pleased at how well the Blue Tongue candidates seamlessly fitted into the Atlas Copco business. The culture strengthened when we could clearly see the retention in happy, satisfied candidates. Blue Tongue really provided a full-service approach.  I did not see Blue Tongue as simply a recruitment provider but a partner who worked alongside us to achieve the same long-term goals.  The bonus part of the Blue Tongue service was the fact that we didn’t have to worry about the individual issues of the candidates as Blue Tongue completely managed this side of things.  I am very passionate about the program because it brought so many benefits to our business. I loved the complete workplace training approach and would back it 100%. I am passionate about the fresh, innovative way Blue Tongue provides a long-term, partnership approach to our recruitment needs.  My role in particular was made a lot easier by working together for long-term retention and hiring quality staff. Overall, the way Atlas Copco and its industry was understood by Blue Tongue and the way we worked together to fill the skill shortage was impressive.

When Tully first conceived the upskill program we thought it was a good idea and jumped on board with that first program to see how it would work. It's been a huge success so we keep going. Upskill programs are a good way of attracting and retaining people.  You're attracting the right people, and you end up getting loyalty from the people who go through the program because they are appreciative of the training and the opportunity. That's worked very well for us. There was a question about the continuation of the program through the downturn. We considered the merits of continuing on with the Blue Tongue program because things had been a bit quiet, but we were lucky we did continue doing it, because it means we've come out the other end. We're better off than a lot of companies with the people we have and the level of direct employees as a result of what we've done maintaining the upskill program. We have better workforce retention.

I started working with Blue Tongue when I was at my previous employer WesTrac in 2013.  We ended up bringing 30 guys over from NSW and VIC due to skills shortages back at that time, the same issues we have today. Now at Komatsu, we started with 15 guys on a 12 month program.  It's a different opportunity to bring a skill set in that we can train to suit our environment.  The benefit of Blue Tongue is these guys are already three years post-trade or more.  So they can basically walk in over a 2-4 week period and depending on which section they're in they should learn the fundamentals fairly quickly over that time and be a productive employee. Paul has come out routinely to do a walk around the workshops and to check up on the guys, check on their wellbeing, their welfare and how they were enjoying their work.  I think it's encouraging that Blue Tongue does invest time into their people after they've been put out into industry. It's 15 roles that we've ticked the box on, so it takes the pressure off recruitment straight off, so they can focus on specific areas.  How I use the guys too, it's given me a little bit more flexibility.  The feedback I get about them is really good.

I worked with Tully (Blue Tongue MD) extensively at Iveco Trucks, where attracting and recruiting high calibre senior and middle level management employees was a constant challenge. Tully has excellent networks and knowledge in the automotive and mining sectors and both him and his team at Blue Tongue were consistently proactive and reliable in assisting us to secure talent into our business.