Bev Cassidy-Mackenzie: Country's most diverse city lacks diversity in governance

Photo / Jason Oxenham.

Whilst it is perhaps not surprising to read the facts revealed in Bernard Orsman's piece Auckland's Super City club: Who's running our city? White men from wealthy suburbs, it is none the less disappointing to see that progress on diversity and inclusion is so glacial at Auckland Council, particularly given their important economic position as one of Auckland's and indeed New Zealand's largest employers.

Regularly released data from Statistics NZ continues to highlight that the numbers of migrants arriving into the country and specifically into New Zealand's largest city, Auckland, are at their highest rate in over a decade. This influx not only has a significant impact on economic momentum but the flow on effect of this population boom places a growing need for organisations to support and nurture the continued diversification of the workforce.

As a country we are one of the most diverse in the world with over 213 different ethnicities identified in the last census and over 186 residing in Auckland alone. When you put Auckland Council's boardrooms and executive management team under this spotlight, the lack of accurate representation of Auckland's communities becomes even more apparent and frankly untenable.

Whilst there is an increasing level of awareness amongst leaders, including those at Auckland Council, that promoting and fostering organisational diversity is about more than just doing the right thing, there is still a great deal of work to be done to achieve a general acceptance that there is no one size fits all approach and that doing diversity and inclusion well requires true leadership rather than management solutions.

Leaders must put in place mechanisms to bring out the best in diverse individuals and teams, ensuring that they make the most of everyone's talents by encouraging an approach that values the transmission of valuable knowledge and experience from one generation to another, one culture to another, and one team to another. Much of the thinking has already been done on thought diversity, but I would argue that many are yet to take real and sustainable action on diversity.

The conversation around diversity has moved on, it is no longer just about ethnicity or getting women onto boards, it's about age diversity, sexual orientation, physical and mental ability, religion, wellbeing, culture and politics. It is about a vast array of differences and how embracing those differences is ultimately good for all business and society at large.

Pivotal to this is an understanding about the role both conscious and unconscious play in our decision making. New Zealand organisations are increasingly following the global trend to train their leaders and wider business on how to recognise and manage the impact of bias.

It is clear that Auckland Council are taking steps in the right direction but as an organisation with such a large sphere of influence, there is no place for tokenism and pro-active decisions must be taken at leadership level that truly reflect the people of Auckland and ultimately provide a positive force that will shape the future of our incredibly diverse city.

Bev Cassidy-Mackenzie is chief executive of the Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO).

About the EEO: The Equal Employment Opportunities Trust is a national body established by government to provide support to employers around the issue of equal opportunities and diversity in the workplace.