Increasing Cultural Awareness at Portable
Challenge
Ensuring our company culture can support culturally diverse communities.
Actions
In 2019 we committed to taking steps to ensure that our culture could support culturally diverse team members, in particular First Nations people, who are under-represented in technology and design in Australia. Our entire team went through two key activities that have helped create a more inclusive space. The first was cultural awareness training through Wan Yaari, which set our entire team on an even footing when it came to understanding indigenous culture. In addition we asked an indigenous leader to help us understand the importance of acknowledging country, whilst guiding us each as individuals to write our own, personalised acknowledgement that we could share at meeting and events. This work lead us to introducing an indigenous internship program at Portable, to help develop pathways for young people into tech and design.
Quote
It’s not enough to declare your workplace open to First Nations people. As a leadership team you need to ensure that you take the steps to ensure that there is a sense of safety and cultural awareness that is developed and present within your cohort of people. These steps not only signal to members of the First Nations community that your company is welcoming, they help to drive further awareness to your customers, clients and staff around reconciliation.