Spring is finally here- and now is the perfect time to do some cultural spring-cleaning in your business. Karen Loon is a workplace cultural diversity expert, author, and former Senior Partner at PwC. She believes that business leaders and executives need to take an active approach to fostering a holistic sense of cultural diversity in their organisations.

Karen’s top advice to executives and business leaders for growth in this area is:

• Create an environment of psychological safety: Culturally diverse employees face unique challenges, which will vary from person to person depending upon their background and specific set of experiences. Taking the time to learn and understand what these challenges are, as well as fostering an environment of psychological safety where employees of all backgrounds feel comfortable discussing these topics, is essential part.
• Offer opportunities for career advancement: Employers should give aspiring culturally diverse leaders greater access to sponsors, mentors, and coaches, and increase their availability to leadership development programs. Employers also need to create ‘holding environments’ that allow them the time and space to reflect and develop.
• Become a sponsor: Culturally diverse employees can rise and thrive at work by building a broad range of sponsors who are not necessarily like them. If you’re in a senior leadership position, consider how you could become a sponsor for some of the culturally diverse employees in your organisation and help boost their careers.

Karen has also recently launched her debut book, Fostering Culturally Diverse Leadership in Organisations, which combines her many years of extensive research into the topic of cultural diversity in the corporate workplace.

Some familiar faces, and some new!

We begin our September issue with Events & Venue Management. This sector features Shipleys and ILT Stadium Southland (ILT Stadium). Both Shipleys and ILT Stadium shared their stories in 2021- now in 2022, we highlight their growth and success over the past 12 months.

Our Aged Care sector features two innovative New Zealand retirement villages- Althorp Village and The Sterling at Kaiapoi. These villages are built on a foundation of trust, respect, and freedom, and seek to provide later living residents with an environment that allows them to live and independently as possible.

Park Agility represents our focus on Automotive & Traffic Management. An Australian-born entity, Park Agility was established in 2014 to deliver highly accurate and reliable parking guidance solutions. Having expanded since, the company now offers one of the most effective and affordable systems in the market, providing a high level of accuracy, extensive reporting, system flexibility, and value for money.

Our Equipment Rental & Hire focus is represented by Chadwick Forklifts, who we also spoke to in 2021. Since then, Chadwick Forklifts have dedicated themselves to significant investments in technology, skills, assets, and asset support.

Finally, we conclude this issue with GTech Global for our Food & Beverage View. Established more than three decades ago, GTech Global is a leading designer and manufacturer of high-quality, industrial grade separation machinery for a wide range of industries across the world. Their Oceanic operations hail from Melbourne (Aus) and Christchurch (NZ).

That’s it from us for September. Be well, stay safe, and as always… Enjoy the Read!

Morgan Kenyon

Editor-in-Chief