At the Deloitte Top 200 event, SKYCITY Entertainment Group won the 2018 Diversity & Inclusion Leadership Award.
It won the award for its Maori leadership programme, Tahuna Te Ahi, a six-month initiative including two-day workshops, projects and personal coaching. The aim of the programme is to encourage Maori leadership and development, teach business and commercial skills, and also connect them with their culture in the business.
“While nine percent of our workforce identifies as Maori, we don’t see this represented in our senior management. We want to change this by accelerating leadership for Maori employees and implementing initiatives which lift the standing of Maori at SKYCITY more broadly,” said Claire Walker, group general manager human resources, SKYCITY.
"When people are connected to their values and know how to be themselves in and outside of work, it gives people the mana, the power, the permission, to play their roles to the very best of their ability – to achieve their goals."
Throughout the past year, two groups have completed the course and will graduate in March and October next year.
“Our graduates say that the programme has encouraged them to connect indigenous values with business in a practical way. Learning to draw on their cultural core and bring their whole selves to work has a powerful impact on their own development, and on how they lead and engage with others around them."
