Cultural awareness - Corporate Responsibility

Cultural awareness

Building Understanding of Indigenous Issues

A major component of ANZ's Reconciliation Action Plan is building greater understanding within the organisation of issues facing Indigenous Australians. This includes targeted events, programs and mentoring for ANZ employees at all levels. By listening to our Indigenous communities, we hope to better understand and respond to their needs.

Indigenous Network

ANZ has launched an Indigenous Network open to all ANZ staff interested in finding ways to better support our Indigenous employees and customers. The Network aims to:

foster inclusiveness and diversity
raise the awareness of issues for Indigenous staff and customers
support the mentoring development and training of Indigenous employee
enable ANZ to be an employer of choice
improve the Indigenous cultural capability of ANZ employees

Indigenous Speakers Series

ANZ is working with Reconciliation Australia to present a series of prominent Australian Indigenous speakers discussing Indigenous affairs in Australian society, in order to help ANZ employees better understand our Indigenous customers, employees, and the communities we work and live in.

The topics covered include human rights, Indigenous economic inclusion, home ownership, government policy and discussions on Indigenous cultures.

Mutual Mentoring Program

In ANZ's Mutual Mentoring Program, an ANZ leader is matched with an external Indigenous leader for six months. The aim for Indigenous participants is to develop business acumen and enterprise development. For ANZ leaders, it is to develop a better understanding of Indigenous people and their culture.

What makes this different from a typical mentoring program is the matching up of two people as equals. They are both teacher and learner.

Case study: Mutual mentoring: distance is no barrier
Deborah Walsh and Adam Moss might seem an odd partnership for a mutual mentoring program. Deborah, the Executive Director of Indigenous Leadership Network Victoria (www.ilnv.com.au), is based in Melbourne, while Adam, ANZ's Regional Manager for North and West SA, works out of Kadina on the Yorke Peninsula. The two have met in person only once. But Deborah and Adam found that what they had in common was more important than the distance separating them. Both were involved in nurturing leaders - Adam through overseeing 19 branches throughout a huge area of rural South Australia, Deborah through an organisation created to recognise, support and encourage the leadership potential of Victoria's Indigenous people - and both were doing external studies in the same field. The Mutual Mentoring program is part of ANZ's work to build greater awareness of Indigenous culture and experience among staff. It also provides Indigenous leaders an opportunity to make a deeper connection with the corporate world and explore how this can help them with their work. In Deborah and Adam's case, that means frequent contact by email, as well as phone calls during Adam's frequent long drives to remote branches. Maintaining the relationship has taken commitment, but both Adam and Deborah have experienced the benefits. Adam says Deborah has helped him to engage with Indigenous communities in a culturally appropriate way. One example was a celebration of the one year anniversary for the Port Augusta branch, attended by ANZ Chief Executive Officer, Australia, Brian Hartzer - himself a Mutual Mentoring participant. "I wanted to have a function that would be meaningful for the whole Port Augusta community including the Indigenous community," says Adam. "We had an elder giving a Welcome to Country and a traditional dance performed by a group from a remote region. Deborah was very supportive. It was because of her that we were able to do all this. Culturally, we did the right things and it was all handled very well." As a leader in a young organisation, Deborah has also appreciated the chance to draw on Adam's experience and connections. "The match between us was really good - we had a connection in the paths we'd taken. We'd lived in the same places, but at different times! The project started while I was preparing to launch the Network. Adam helped me with a resource need, and I will be drawing on his help again in the future." Deborah says that she would encourage other Indigenous leaders to participate in a program like this. "The whole approach has been very well thought out - although from here it has to turn into other actions, from both parties. It's a step forward in a long journey."

Case study: Mutual mentoring: distance is no barrier

Deborah Walsh and Adam Moss might seem an odd partnership for a mutual mentoring program. Deborah, the Executive Director of Indigenous Leadership Network Victoria (www.ilnv.com.au), is based in Melbourne, while Adam, ANZ's Regional Manager for North and West SA, works out of Kadina on the Yorke Peninsula. The two have met in person only once.

But Deborah and Adam found that what they had in common was more important than the distance separating them. Both were involved in nurturing leaders - Adam through overseeing 19 branches throughout a huge area of rural South Australia, Deborah through an organisation created to recognise, support and encourage the leadership potential of Victoria's Indigenous people - and both were doing external studies in the same field.

The Mutual Mentoring program is part of ANZ's work to build greater awareness of Indigenous culture and experience among staff. It also provides Indigenous leaders an opportunity to make a deeper connection with the corporate world and explore how this can help them with their work. In Deborah and Adam's case, that means frequent contact by email, as well as phone calls during Adam's frequent long drives to remote branches.

Maintaining the relationship has taken commitment, but both Adam and Deborah have experienced the benefits. Adam says Deborah has helped him to engage with Indigenous communities in a culturally appropriate way. One example was a celebration of the one year anniversary for the Port Augusta branch, attended by ANZ Chief Executive Officer, Australia, Brian Hartzer - himself a Mutual Mentoring participant.

"I wanted to have a function that would be meaningful for the whole Port Augusta community including the Indigenous community," says Adam. "We had an elder giving a Welcome to Country and a traditional dance performed by a group from a remote region. Deborah was very supportive. It was because of her that we were able to do all this. Culturally, we did the right things and it was all handled very well."

As a leader in a young organisation, Deborah has also appreciated the chance to draw on Adam's experience and connections. "The match between us was really good - we had a connection in the paths we'd taken. We'd lived in the same places, but at different times! The project started while I was preparing to launch the Network. Adam helped me with a resource need, and I will be drawing on his help again in the future."

Deborah says that she would encourage other Indigenous leaders to participate in a program like this. "The whole approach has been very well thought out - although from here it has to turn into other actions, from both parties. It's a step forward in a long journey."

Progress in 2008

In ANZ's Interim Corporate Responsibility report, released in March, we acknowledged that more focus was required in this area of our Reconciliation Action Plan commitments. Progress since then has been encouraging, with the establishment of a pilot Mutual Mentoring Program as well as the Indigenous Network and Indigenous Speakers Series.

The future

ANZ will continue to explore ways to build our understanding of Indigenous issues. In particular, we will evaluate the success of the Mutual Mentoring Program with a view to extending it after the pilot program finishes.