WRU team outside of depot building
As we recognise Harmony Week, it's a time to celebrate cultural diversity and importantly, promote inclusivity. In the workplace, diversity brings in different perspectives, experiences, and ideas that can lead to better decision-making and problem-solving.
The Western Roads Upgrade team are from a range of diverse backgrounds. The team is made up of individuals with backgrounds from India, Vietnam, Korea, China, Syria, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Greece, England, Ireland, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Iraq, Turkey, South Africa, Colombia, Nigeria, Italy, and Portugal.
Benefits of diversity
Project Director Jose ‘Joe’ Figueiredo believes that cultural diversity is an essential element in building a successful team.
Pictured: Joe Figueiredo pictured right, with Alex Monson, Group Manager Sustainability on the left.
"A culturally diverse team can bring together different perspectives and creative solutions that can lead to better decision-making and problem-solving. Celebrating this diversity helps to create a more inclusive and collaborative work environment," he explains.
Our team's diversity is one of our greatest strengths. It allows us to approach problems from different angles, think creatively and come up with innovative solutions.
The benefits of cultural diversity in the workplace go beyond just improved decision-making and problem-solving, Jose explains.
A recent study by Gartner revealed that a highly diverse team can generally improve team performance by up to 30%. Diversity can also lead to better decision-making and higher profitability. Another recent study from McKinsey & Company, suggested diverse companies outperform their less diverse peers by 36% in profitability.
To make this possible Ventia partners with organisations such as CareerSeekers, who help to enrich our talent and supporting our goal to reflect the diversity of our communities.
CareerSeekers is a non-profit organisation that supports humanitarian arrivals to overcome the barriers faced when seeking to establish and recommence their careers in Australia.
Celebrating culture
The Western Roads Upgrade project team celebrates their cultural diversity in various ways. The project has a social committee called the "Culture Club" not to be confused with the 80’s British pop band, jokes Jose.
The Culture Club meets quarterly to discuss the different cultural events and major days of team members. Team members are encouraged to share their cultural experiences, stories, and traditions.
A popular event series is the international food tastings, where team members bring in traditional food, and share stories about their cultural heritage. These culture days help to create a sense of community and inclusivity within the team.
Through our specialist recruitment arm Skout Solutions, we enable inclusive recruitment practises whereby we encourage and support candidates from a variety of different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.
The goal is to create a workforce that is representative of the communities we work in. For WRU Harmony Week is a year-round activity.
"Harmony Week is great to celebrate our backgrounds but it is not just one week for us,” Jose says.
We live and breathe it every day, and it has become part of our team's culture. We are proud of the fact that we have created an environment where everyone feels welcome, valued and respected regardless of their background.