Most workplace training is endured, not remembered. People click through the slides, pass the quiz, and forget it by the next shift. That is a problem, because the whole point of training is not completion. It is what someone does differently on the floor, at the gate, or on the wharf when it actually matters.
That thinking is why we built Border Watch: The Unwanted 12, a free interactive biosecurity game now live on Biosecurity Training NZ. It is the clearest example we have of a simple idea we apply to everything we build: training only works if people are engaged enough to remember it and act on it.
The problem with tick the box training
New Zealand's economy, environment and way of life depend on keeping harmful pests and diseases out. One incursion, a single fruit fly or a case of foot and mouth disease, can close export markets and cost the country billions. The people most likely to spot something unusual are not scientists. They are the staff who move goods, open containers, and work around freight every day.
So the training that matters most is awareness training for ordinary teams. And awareness training is exactly the kind that usually gets skimmed. A slide deck of pest photos does not change behaviour. It does not build the instinct to stop, look twice, and make the call.
We wanted to find out what happens when you build the same content to be genuinely engaging instead.
What we built
Border Watch puts the learner on a shift at the border. Arrivals keep coming, and each one has a countdown. Some are New Zealand's most unwanted pests and diseases. Others are harmless decoys, a monarch butterfly, a ladybird, a treated pallet. The player has to intercept the real threats and wave the harmless ones through before time runs out. Miss three real threats and the shift ends. Then a ten question certification round proves what they have learned.
It is wrapped around a sixty second briefing video that names the twelve highest risk threats, and it drives home the one action that matters most: if you see something unusual, do not touch it, photograph it, and call Biosecurity New Zealand on 0800 80 99 66.
It is free, it needs no sign in, and it takes about eight minutes. You can play it here.
Why the game format works
The engagement is not a gimmick. Every design choice maps to something we know about how adults actually learn and retain.
Decisions under pressure. A countdown forces a real judgement, not a passive read. That is the same call a worker makes on a busy site, so it rehearses the actual behaviour.
Decoys, not just answers. Mixing harmless look alikes with genuine threats trains discrimination, which is the hard part. Anyone can recognise a photo with a label. The skill is telling the difference when nothing is labelled.
Immediate feedback. Every call is confirmed or corrected on the spot, so the learning lands while it is still relevant.
Low friction. No login, no cost, short enough to finish in a break. The easiest training to complete is the training people actually complete.
A clear single action. Underneath the game is one message that has to survive: see something, call 0800 80 99 66. Engagement is what carries that message past the last slide and into the moment it is needed.
The same thinking runs through everything we build
Border Watch is a flagship example, not a one off. It is the visible edge of how Findlay & Co approaches capability across the board, through Capability Solutions and Biosecurity Training NZ.
We build bespoke courses for real New Zealand workplaces, covering health and safety, manual handling, first aid, biosecurity, and workplace behaviour and communication, and we deliver them on fully hosted, company branded learning systems so teams train in an environment that looks and feels like their own. On the biosecurity side that runs from free awareness content like Border Watch through to accredited pathways, including MPI Accredited Person training delivered with QCONZ.
The common thread is engagement. Training that is built to be done, not just assigned.
Why monthly plans, not one and done
Here is the part most businesses underestimate. Training is not an event. A team that did an induction eighteen months ago is not a trained team today. People join, roles change, rules change, and attention fades. The health and safety reform and evolving biosecurity risk both keep moving the goalposts.
That is why we offer monthly business plans rather than one off courses, starting at $160 per month plus GST. You get a fully hosted, company branded learning system with our library of workplace training ready to go, health and safety, manual handling, first aid, biosecurity, and workplace behaviour and communication, kept current as the rules and your business change, with enrolment and completion records so you can prove it. Capability becomes something you maintain, not something you scramble to demonstrate after an incident.
An engaged, switched on team is the cheapest risk control a business has. It protects your people, your compliance position, and in biosecurity, arguably the whole country's front line.
Try it, then let's talk
Play Border Watch and see the approach for yourself. If you want your team's training to be the kind people actually finish and remember, that is what we do.
Company branded training plans start at $160 per month plus GST. Explore Biosecurity Training NZ, or email Gordon Findlay at gordon@findlayandco.co.nz to talk about a plan built around your business.