A woman with a focus on developing the training, education, and safety standards is supporting her staff with support from Hydraulink. 

Natasja (Tasj) Paulson is the Owner and Director of Gisborne Hydraulics, a franchise of the Hydraulink organisation that specialises purely in fluid power, which includes oil and compressed air. The company services machinery for a broad range of industries on the east coast of New Zealand’s north island, including agriculture, horticulture, roading, earthmoving, marine, aviation, viticulture, process factories, and more. 

The New Zealand Hydraulink network includes more than 250 service points, which all take pride in delivering consistently high levels of service, components, compliance, and traceability. 

“After more than 20 years with Gisborne Hydraulics, I took over as owner in 2017 and wanted to make sure staff were motivated, and supported on their career journeys,” explains Tasj.  

“I’ve been the only woman in meetings, and associations, but I know that I have good industry knowledge and I understand the pain points, so people respect that,” she adds. 

“I’d encourage any women looking to enter the hydraulics and pneumatics industries not to be put off by the fact that it is traditionally a male-dominated space. Be yourself, trust your team, and give them the autonomy to do their job, and you’ll have a winning formula,” she added. 

“The key is education. The more knowledge you have, the more valuable you are to the team, and the more respect you earn – regardless of gender.” 

Outstanding support 

Tasj credits her long association with Hydraulink to the outstanding support and “family” attitude of everyone in the organisation. 

“Hydraulink has given us amazing support over the years. Recently, I decided I wanted to get my MBA, and I could have a talk directly with Hydraulink’s CEO, Robin Simpson, who could give me advice, and help me with my goals,” she said. 

“The support extends above and beyond anything I’ve seen. When we had huge flooding issues with Cyclone’s Hale and Gabrielle and Gisborne was cut off from the rest of New Zealand, Hydraulink was there to give us any support we needed.” 

“I’ve also sent all of our staff through the Hydraulink Academy, which provides a range of useful training courses. And if anyone wants to seek different training, I encourage this, and it gets the full support of Hydraulink, too.” 

Leadership style 

“Everyone’s leadership style is different, but I firmly believe in team autonomy. If they have an issue, they can come to me and we’ll sort it out, otherwise I trust my team to do the right job and get the best results for our customers,” says Tasj. 

“I strongly support anyone’s request for more training. Our parts manager wanted to upskill in their administration capabilities, so we arranged for them to undertake a New Zealand Diploma of Business.” 

“You’ve really got to create your village. Having supportive people around you makes all the difference to enjoying your work, and performing at your best level.”