Employers show diverse and winning ways to balance work and life
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Video Clip: Supreme Award Winner Air New Zealand |
Air New Zealand, "mini-multi-national" bee products company Comvita and New Zealand Post are among the winners at the EEO Trust Work & Life Awards 2008.
Prime Minister Helen Clark presented the awards during a gala dinner on Thursday, October 30 at the Auckland War Memorial Museum. Many of New Zealand's largest and most influential employers were represented.
The EEO Trust Work & Life Awards, now in their 11th year, celebrate organisations which actively help their employees achieve balance between their work commitments and their diverse and varied lives - an approach which EEO research has shown aids recruitment, retention and the bottom line.
"There is now a much greater understanding of work-life issues. Increasingly, employers recognise the benefits of structuring work in such a way that people are able to fulfill their responsibilities at work and elsewhere," says Dr Philippa Reed, EEO Trust Chief Executive.
"Organisational commitment to diversity and equality leads to better business results. Employers who value what employees bring to work from their life experience, training, education and culture enjoy greater loyalty and engagement.
"Despite the pressure on business caused by the economic downturn, employers with their eyes on the long-term are still investing in developing staff," she adds.
The Awards changed format this year to recognise employer support for diversity in its broadest sense. This follows the success of last year's new Diversity Award, which proved that employers were ready to be recognised for their initiatives to encourage workplace inclusion.
The Supreme Award in the Work & Life Awards 2008 goes to Air New Zealand for its creative and interactive campaign to encourage teenagers into aeronautical engineering
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Prime Minister Helen Clark with Simon Pomeroy of Air New Zealand. |
Air New Zealand also wins the Tomorrow's Workforce Award, which celebrates innovative approaches to meeting the needs of the future labour force.
Comvita New Zealand wins the Workplace Work & Life Award for its suite of policies that promote employee health and wellness alongside flexible working.
ANZ National Bank receives the Workplace Diversity Award for the breadth and depth of its diversity initiatives, with programmes covering women in leadership, flexibility, and community connection and service.
The Work & Life/Diversity in Action Award goes to New Zealand Post Group for its programme to encourage more women into senior positions.
The Walk the Talk Award, for individuals who demonstrate leadership in their management of a diverse workforce, is shared by Lucy McKimm of the Accident Compensation Corporation in Hamilton and Mike Foster of Express Couriers in Christchurch.
IBM New Zealand supported this year's awards, and Managing Director Katrina Troughton applauded the winners. "At IBM we actively encourage diversity, inclusiveness, flexibility and work-life balance, as we know it is good for business," she says.
"Diversity of culture leads to diversity of thought. This type of melting-pot environment is very fertile; you can get very powerful ideas and forces for change - but first, you have to find them and connect them.
"The winners in the EEO Trust Work & Life Awards show all New Zealand workplaces how to do that."
The judges of the 2008 EEO Trust Work & Life Awards were: Paul Hellyer, IBM New Zealand's Human Resources Manager; Philippa Reed, Chief Executive, EEO Trust; Dave Stewart, Managing Director, Human Value; Carol Beaumont, Secretary of the Council of Trade Unions, and Alison Thom, (Ngapuhi), Deputy Secretary, Relationships & Information, Te Puni K?kiri (Ministry of Māori Development).
Supreme Winner Award, and Winner of Tomorrow's Workforce Award: Air New Zealand. The Supreme Award recognises all-round impact and innovation. It is awarded at the discretion of the judges from amongst the winners in any category. The Tomorrow's Workforce Award is awarded to an organisation, industry or operating unit able to demonstrate innovative approaches to meeting the needs of the future workforce
Philippa Reed said the judges chose Air New Zealand for its funky, future-focused and highly successful campaign to draw more teenagers into engineering apprenticeships. Air New Zealand has 2,700 engineers, but with that workforce rapidly ageing, the company needed to boost the number of 'Generation Y' apprentices - those born between 1978 and 1994.
Young employees helped devise the campaign, which emphasised communicating with 14 to 18-year-olds about engineering careers through text applications, interactive websites and the social networking site Bebo, run by a 21-year-old staff member with the online name 'AeroCareerBoy'.
The digital environment "provided a platform for us to listen carefully to young people and understand what is important to them", says Simon Pomeroy, Manager Sourcing Inspiring People.
"Engaging with young people like this, and through a portal they felt comfortable with was critical to achieving their trust and getting the relationship started." Within three months of launching the Bebo site, Air New Zealand was talking to 1500 young people.
The campaign was a resounding success, says Simon Pomeroy. Air New Zealand recruited 108 engineering trainees in 2007, the highest intake for a decade.
But the initiative that really captured hearts and minds - and offered some serious fun - was a national schools competition called Make It Fly. It challenged young people to make a plane out of a soft-drink can and no more than $20 worth of recycled materials to see whose stayed airborne longest. Invercargill's James Hargest College won the finals on October 19.
Contracting company Fulton Hogan is highly commended for its collaboration with the Department of Corrections in a project which helps inmates to make the transition between prison and independent life as well as helping solve a staff shortage.
The programme gives selected inmates the training and support to work in various roles for Fulton Hogan in construction of the Mt Roskill, Auckland, extension to State Highway 20. "We've found that all inmates have been willing to work and keen to learn and progress," says John Smith, Fulton Hogan Projects Safety Manager. "Some of these guys have been high-calibre."
It has been a life-changing programme, as one former inmate, now a staff member, attests. "I'm grateful to Fulton Hogan for the opportunity they've afforded me and I've been able to reintegrate into the community effectively," he says. "I continuously enjoy my work."
Workplace Work and Life Award winner: Comvita New Zealand. This award recognises organisations that are able to demonstrate support for employees' work-life balance throughout their organisation or operating unit.
Comvita describes itself as a "mini multi-national". With 80 per cent of its sales and more 
than half of its 250 staff in Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, it has come a long way from its origins in Paengaroa, near Te Puke, 34 years ago. The company is now the world's largest manufacturer of manuka honey and makes a range of health-related products.
Comvita stood out for the breadth and depth of its initiatives to boost staff health and wellness. In response to staff concerns around managing stress and workloads as the company expanded, Comvita formed an employee-driven wellness committee. It developed a work-life programme which formalised flexible working arrangements so people could adjust their hours to better handle work and personal commitments.
The programme also has a strong community focus, reflecting the company's support of grass-roots projects around the world. "It reflects a pro-active, long-term approach to caring for its employees as it does its consumers," says Philippa Reed. "Comvita is inspirational, and its policies and processes widely replicable".
Comvita chief executive officer Brett Hewlett says, "Healthier, happier people are bound to be more committed and productive. We're getting some extremely committed and talented people who appreciate the benefits and are really focused because of it."
Workplace Diversity Award winner: ANZ National Bank. This award recognises organisations that are able to demonstrate their support of a diverse workforce throughout their organisation or operating unit.
ANZ National Bank won for its suite of projects under its Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, which was launched in May 2007. Its central
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IBM New Zealand Managing Director Katrina Troughton (left) with Felicity Evans of ANZ National Bank. |
"ANZ National is clearly committed to diversity from the CEO down," says Philippa Reed. "Employees understand that diversity is a valuable part of company culture."
Under its Diversity in Leadership programme, the bank, whose 11,600-strong workforce is 61 per cent female, commissioned a study to find out why women were under-represented in leadership roles. It then acted to dismantle the barriers.
The project has been a great success so far - the proportion of women at executive level has increased from 14 per cent to 21 per cent. There has also been a marked increase in the number of women on the company's "talent radar".
CEO Graham Hodges says, "We can't afford to turn our backs on half the workforce. Having more women in the executive leadership team has changed the dynamic. There are more perspectives and generally a more collaborative approach".
Flexible options are available to all permanent employees, irrespective of how long they have worked for the bank or whether they have caring responsibilities. The bank encourages managers and staff to collaborate to develop flexible working arrangements which meet personal and business goals.
Diversity is supported through seven networking groups. They include a women's group to help members build networking skills and generate new contacts, an Asian network, a Māori network, a group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, and a part-time working parents' network.
The bank also holds a range of language and cultural events, and each staff member is given one paid day off a year to contribute to community work.
Mercy Hospice Auckland is highly commended. "It has a remarkable culture of inclusion and support in an environment that many would find stressful," says Philippa Reed. "Mercy's mission and values - compassion, respect, quality and advocacy - underpin the working environment and culture."
Wesley Community Action, which provides social services to the greater Wellington area, is also highly commended. "Wesley has successfully fostered an inclusive and diverse culture which permeates its services to a wide range of clients, from troubled teens to the elderly," says Philippa Reed. Wesley's emphasis on diversity enables it to recruit and develop committed staff who reflect the community.
Work & Life/Diversity in Action Award Winner: New Zealand Post Group. This award recognises organisations that are able to demonstrate their commitment to supporting their employees by way of a specific work-life balance and/or diversity initiative.
New Zealand Post Group developed its Women in Leadership project in recognition of the fact it was missing out on the contribution women could bring to senior management. As with many other New Zealand businesses, the
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From left: Jacqui Cleland and Vicki Bazalo of New Zealand Post Group with Katrina Troughton of IBM New Zealand. |
To find out why women were not rising in greater numbers, and building on earlier work with focus groups of senior women, the Group devised an on-line survey which was completed in mid-2007 by more than 500 women managers. They said they were not working in more senior roles because of lack of encouragement and confidence, and the behaviour of some leaders.
Women said they needed encouragement with career development, including networking and support, mentoring, and help in building confidence. The Post Group acted quickly, creating successful networking sessions for women as well as a Women in Leadership resource site on its intranet. Mentoring and career development assistance are on the way.
"It's been proven time and time again that it's good business sense to have diversity - including women - at senior levels," says Vicki Bazalo, Manager HR Policy. "Not every woman necessarily wants a leadership role and that's perfectly fine, but we wanted to be sure that it's not because of something we were or weren't doing."
Post Group has also developed a new Diversity Policy to encourage members of minorities, as well as women, to progress to senior roles. Through this policy, managers are responsible for developing a diverse workforce and a business culture which values diversity.
Walk the Talk Award: Winners Lucy McKimm and Mike Foster. This award recognises individuals who demonstrate leadership in managing a diverse workforce within their organisation, operating unit or industry through work-life balance initiatives or other practices that support diversity.
Lucy McKimm, who manages a team of eight of in ACC's Hamilton scanning unit,shows that effectively harnessing diversity is not always about power and position.
When long-term ACC employee Kerry Paul, who is profoundly deaf, joined the team last year, Lucy saw an opportunity to improve communication.
Lucy decided to learn sign language, and asked her manager to include night-class training in her personal development plan. ACC paid for the sign language course, and six other members of the team were so inspired that they attended too.
"We had a blast," says Lucy. "It was a great team-building exercise, and each and every week our communication with Kerry would increase." Kerry found some of their efforts amusing, especially as they tried to communicate with each other from opposite ends of the building.
Lucy's determination to improve communication has increased employee cohesion and everyone's understanding of disability issues. Productivity has also improved. Sign language courses have now become part of the suite of team training programmes and some staff members have moved on to more advanced sign language training.
A number of other staff have a disability, and the improved team environment means that people more readily support each other.
Mike Foster is Mike is Human Resources Consultant for Express Couriers in 
Christchurch. He excels in helping managers turn around underperforming or difficult staff.
Mike joined Express Couriers four years ago and has built a reputation as a savvy business advisor and coach, with the intelligence and sensitivity to resolve complex workplace issues.
He guides a team of 13 branch managers on industrial relations issues. These managers are collectively responsible for 240 staff and 150 contractors, so although Mike does not have his own employees, he is a key influencer. Mike has challenged old behaviours and prejudices at Express Couriers and has skillfully confronted staff and managers who were reluctant to develop and grow.
Mike is a "born coach", says his employer, South Island Branch Manager John Roche. Mike has the ability, he says, to listen to what is not being said and ask searching questions which bring people to their own conclusions - a technique that has led directly to improvements in employee engagement.
"With coaching from Mike, those same leaders have coached and encouraged those same staff to go on to bigger and better roles within the organisation," says John Roche.
EEO Trust Work & Life Awards 2008 - Winners
Supreme Winner Award
Winner: Air New Zealand
Workplace Work and Life Award
Winner: Comvita New Zealand
Workplace Diversity Award
Winner: ANZ National Bank Ltd
Highly commended: Mercy Hospice Auckland, Wesley Community Action
Work & Life/Diversity in Action Award
Winner: New Zealand Post Group
Tomorrow's Workforce Award
Winner: Air New Zealand
Highly commended: Fulton Hogan
Walk the Talk Award
Joint winners: Lucy McKimm of the Accident Compensation Corporation and Mike Foster of Express Couriers
Download a list of the 2008 entrants' work-life and diversity initiatives:
Table of Initiatives 2008 (207K pdf)
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