In our latest EMACAST, we talk to EMA Board member and People and Culture Director with Corys Electrical Sarah Caunter. We explore how Sarah builds culture in a company with employees spread across the country, what businesses need to do to attract and retain top talent and talk about her working journey from the UK to NZ.

LM4 is a family business with three subsidiaries based in the Waikato. Abi Turner joined the business at the start of 2022 and has the goal of making it the Number one place to work in the region. To achieve this Abi and the HR team have worked with senior executives to understand better how they can retain and motivate their staff. This has been achieved without any leading edge technology solutions, but proactively seeking staff views, plus the inspiration and perspiration of Abi and the team. This has led to a range of strategies and actions that have meant staff needs have been responded to and the business has a strong development culture that has increased mobility in the group and set the business up for future success.

Southern Cross Healthy Futures 2022 report provides indepth and longitudinal data on the state of New Zealand’s health and Well Being. Kate Bukowski has a background as a practioner and senior manager in the Healthcare and now works alongside the southern Cross Healthcare Human resources team on Well Being and Diversity and Inclusion. Kate takes us through some of the key findings of the report, strategies organisations can adopt to prioritise the most important well being focuses for their employees and practical tips we can all apply in our working life.

Natasha Stone is the Manager of Market information at Strategic Pay. Strategic Pay have the largest data base of New Zealand salary data and Natasha has been working with this for over ten years. As such she is very well placed to advise on current and historical trends in rewards and remuneration. In the podcast we explore some of the key current market trends, how these are similar and different to events in the past and also look at why Strategic pay now supplements its annual benchmark review of salary data with a quarterly pulse check. Natasha gives insight into the big picture in pay and remuneration, and also answers many of those immediate tactical questions to help you make the best decision for your business in this tight labour market.

Chris Hewitt is the Commercial Partnerships Manager for Revolutionaries of work (ROW). ROW works with business on their Well Being Strategy. They have worked with many New Zealand businesses using an approach based on professional expertise, lived experience, and human-centred design. In particular they help business leaders and People professionals to lead Well Being in their organisation, and to deliver strategies that benefit the business and employees. We discuss with Chris the latest trends in Well Being, what has worked well in NZ businesses and how you can get started on your journey to lead Well Being and embed it in your business’ employee experience.

Dr Toma is a research fellow at the University of Auckland, and Founder/Director of Heart and Brain Works. Georgi brings a data-driven approach and her experience as a workplace mental health researcher to the area of Well Being at work. Georgi is an expert in stress, burnout, mental wellbeing and psychosocial hazards in the workplace.

We discuss the psychosocial hazards audit that helps business understand exactly what are your rates of burnout and stress and which aspects of work negatively impact your people, the Well Being Protocol which is the only scientifically-validated programme in NZ and AU to reduce stress and burnout in the workplace, and some of the bespoke training she provides on topics such as civility at work and psychologically safe performance reviews. In this episode we learn what works in NZ businesses to improve well being and hence business results.