Testimonials

Clients of DST people explain how working with us has made a great impact on their business and their people.

“We were first introduced to DST people in 2015 when we engaged them to design and run a Team Development and Leadership Program for 11 of our middle managers. The training approach was highly practical, and participants were able to apply newly learnt skills directly to their management roles within Fuchs. What really stood out for me, was DST people’s approach to our Leadership teams’ training needs as they specifically considered the employee skill level, previous training and current performance criteria, before tailoring a program to meet our specific requirements.

With outstanding staff feedback from the first program, we have gone onto complete our second Local Team Development and Leadership Program with DST people. The benefits for our leadership team are once again certainly embraced.

At Fuchs, we also run an International Leadership program in Germany. Fuchs’ leaders are carefully selected to attend this program. So impressed are we with the standard of the DST people program content and facilitation, we now include attendance of the DST modules as part of this selection criteria.

If you are looking for a genuine partner in training, growth and development of your people, I wouldn’t only recommend DST people to you, I highly encourage you to engage with them. You won’t look back.”
Graham Murdoch
Employee Relations & Safety Manager
Fuchs Lubricants Australasia Pty Ltd.

“I have been working with John, Will and the team from DST People for some time now and I have truly gained a great deal from the experience. My journey began some three and a half years ago when my Facet5 profile assessment was created. I found the experience very positive and the results eye-opening. After much reflection on the detailed report, I have made many changes to how I interact and people manage within my organisation. The resultant positive effect upon my career assisted me to transition into a senior management role.

When given the opportunity to run a division at Fuchs (Industrial Division) I was more than pleased to engage their services to help us transition as a new (but old) team at FUCHS! The Industrial team is a well established team, with myself and another new member, making up a pretty diverse range of skills, experience and knowledge. One constant across the team was limited exposure to soft skills, team and leadership development – we have all spent most of our careers as technical experts. Will Heine took the time to understand this, worked closely with me and the team, and tailored a perfect workshop for us.

The use of the Facet5 profile (and Teamscape) made for a team development day for technical experts unaccustomed to such soft skills training, an incredibly successful one. Will Heine did a great job of facilitating the day, and I noted just before the lunch break that “if we have nothing else on the agenda this afternoon, I’ll be happy. I have got everything I had hoped from the program already”. Will engaged my team, included all participants brilliantly, and we had a terrific, fun, and successful day. I am aware that we’ve only scratched the surface on the potential for what can be gained from activity (and follow up sessions), and if all scratches were as satisfying, I’d be red raw! I am truly looking forward to continuing to work with the DST People team – I would highly recommend them to anyone.

In summary I depend on DST and the tools they use to assist in the progression of my own and my team’s development in both the personal and professional space. In my experience the DST People team guides and mentors in an easy to consume format from a solid base of vast experience in people, business, team and character development.”
Kevin Newman
National Manager Industrial Division
Fuchs Lubricants Australasia Pty Ltd.

“Our team had – collectively – a great experience with Michelle in our Facet5 training day. The outcomes were not only increased self-awareness, but increased awareness of other people’s strengths and how we can make better decisions together. Michelle should be complemented as she kept the training brisk and on point; I liked the simple messages and the interaction the exercises enabled.

Most importantly we had a great experience as a team which we think will help us build for better leadership.”
Jon Broome
Managing Director
Proclaim

“John brings an understanding and insight from a business and a people perspective and the value he continues to provide is excellent. John provides commitment and direction “with encouragement” to achieve the agreed plans. He’s very insightful about people, what’s needed to for building enduring teams as well as retention and review mechanisms and strategies.

Our success rate is very high and I believe this is because John’s developed great staff of his own too and they’re committed and driven to ensuring our success. I work with them on Facet 5 – profile and testing for development and management. I find that if you use that in conjunction with performance review and development, the results can be outstanding. Maximising performance and retaining key staff are the results we like to see, with a process that’s straightforward! when you see the results in high performing and happy teams of people, keeping the discipline up is easy.

DST people and John Smith are with Pemara for the foreseeable future because they are an integral part of the Pemara story. There is no doubt that John’s work has had a significant impact on the performance of the business. We’ve achieved considerable success, let’s put it that way. DST people is an outstanding partner for my company.”
Andrew McNamara
Group Managing Director
Pemara Labels

“The truly brilliant ‘DST people’ workshop “Service Without Selling’ was just that … a focus on providing engaging, client centric service, which articulates Kalparrin’s points of difference, without having to put on the sales hat.
The workshop had a strong focus on understanding client needs, delivering client benefits and understanding your unique organisational value. More so its lessons struck the perfect balance between the empathy required in the human services sector and the business intelligence required in the sales sector. Something we’ll all need heading in the NDIS environment.”
Mark Baigent
CEO
Kalparrin

“We recently needed to recruit for a senior role in our business and were referred to John Smith at DST people. DST’s professionalism and passion to help us find the right person for our business made the recruitment experience a genuinely positive one for us. DST people made the effort to gain a strong understanding of our business. The recruitment process was tailored specifically to what we required, which made us feel so much more at ease and optimistic.

DST took the time to not only understand our professional requirements, but also had great insight into the skills and ability we needed from the person in the role and the personality and behavioural traits required. DST supported us throughout the whole process making the recruitment so much easier and allowing us to become involved at required decision making points, versus entangled in the detail of the process.

From writing the job advertisement, to short listing, to interview question scripting, candidate assessments (which we now firmly believe in the value of) and final candidate offers, we felt greatly supported and confident. We were impressed with three candidates presented to us and now have a new employee within the role with great cultural fit.

We enthusiastically recommend DST people for recruitment support and look forward to a continuing relationship with their team.”
Terry Mahoney
Owner
Superior Hi –Tech Coatings Sales Pty Ltd

“When I originally engaged with DST People I had been planning to implement a Training and Development program for managers and supervisors. DST people were able to assist me to build the framework for this program, and then provide an incredibly broad scope of programs and workshops. DST people were agile enough to cater the program to our needs, and flexible enough to change some of the program content to reflect the needs and wants of the program participants. The tools used by DTS people during this program and the quality of the facilitators has been exceptional.

I have been impressed with the course content, delivery, and the fact that the DST people facilitators come from highly successful commercial backgrounds, and are therefore presenting from real life experience and knowledge. The feedback from the participants of the program has been exceptional.

The success of the program is being represented in the feedback from participants, and also, more importantly, in their improved confidence and capabilities as leaders at Scotch.”

Ian Gelling
Administration Manager
Scotch College, Melbourne

“We are pleased to provide this testimonial for DST people who we engaged to work with our board using the Facet5 individual profiles and Teamscape tools. Their business experience and knowledge of Facet5 helped our Board to achieve the desired outcomes. We are now working more collaboratively and effectively for the organisation as a board and are able to support the management team who have also used these tools”
Hervey Graham
Commercial Director
ACA International Pty Ltd

“We use recruitment support provided by DST people because it’s a uniquely different approach, and it works! Our experience working with dst people directors and managers has helped us find the ‘right’ people and has been far more strategic in it’s approach than the traditional model of recruitment. As a director, I’m confident and reassured that the guys at DST people are in our corner working to help us build a winning team.”
Mark Johnson
Director
Outerspace Design

“I approached this workshop with some scepticism. Kalparrin, after all, sells itself with a reputation as an industry leader. However as the workshop unfolded, I became more engaged, appreciating the client first approach and the suggestions on how to achieve the best results for the client. The methods offered made sense, where easily achievable and oddly enough did not involve selling. I came away with a sense of “I can do that” and I know it will make a difference.”
Glenda Winfield
Administrator
Kalparrin