Can you tell me about your workplace and the diversity of your staff?
We have 37 staff, including a couple of contractors, most of whom are based in our Auckland office, as well as seven in Wellington, two in Northland and one in Tauranga.
We have employees of New Zealand Pakeha, Maori, South African, English, Irish, Malaysian, and American descent, and we've also had employees from countries including India, Samoa, Korea and Wales. We also have a broad range of age groups and 50/50 gender representation at all levels of the company, including in senior management and on our board.
You won an award last year recognising your work in promoting work life balance for employees. Why is this a focus in your firm? And how does that impact on the diversity of your workplace?
Diversity and work life balance are key elements of our culture. They're something we see as critical to delivering on our company vision; we want to be recognised as a great place to work that fosters team spirit, and professional and personal growth, and we believe this will help us attract top talent.
Personally, I've experienced how rigid work environments can really stifle high-performing people and teams, and how a lack of trust impacts on morale. So I want to be able to turn up each day to a vibrant, energised and innovative office, where people feel they can be trusted to get the job done.
Our job as consultants can be really demanding requiring some long hours from time to time, and often working outside of core business hours. So to expect our people to do this, we need to give them the flexibility to also live their lives, and this will often mean dealing with personal matters during core business hours.
In short, you get back what you give.
Can you give me some examples of things you do to foster a greater work life balance among your employees?
We run a truly flexible workplace, recognising that everyone needs something a little different to achieve their own personal goals along with the company's. This is something we express in our mission, vision and values, but flexible work hours are also directly provided for in individual employment agreements.
Our staff can choose their own start and finishing times and when to have breaks. This means if you need to start late, take an extra-long break, or finish early to make an appointment, get to the bank, or have a haircut you can, no questions asked. We recognise that people need flexibility to live their lives and to be able to deliver quality work.
Another thing we do is acknowledge that throughout people's careers their needs change, so over the past 14 years we've done a big range of things to recognise that. So for example we've provided a three-month leave of absence to an employee who wanted to have a mini OE, extended maternity leave, reduced working weeks for fathers to spend time with their young children and help their wives to return to work and have fulfilling careers, reduced working weeks for more senior members of the team, and allowing people to work from home when they need to.
Another important thing we do is when people go on maternity leave - no matter for how long - they keep their laptops, cellphones, access to the network, and are included in all company communications and events. Children are also welcome in the office, and there are a box of toys and books for them when they come in.
What sort of payback do you get from those kinds of initiatives as a business?
The biggest payback we get is excellent retention and the ability to recruit great people. As the saying goes you're only as good as your people, and I think this is particularly true in a professional consultancy sense. Building a great team has allowed us to meet our growth targets for the last three years.
