AURIZON CULTURAL AWARENESS
Creating cultural connection across the country
Aurizon wants to make a tangible difference to reconciliation in Australia.
Aurizon is Australia’s largest rail freight company, which transports more than 250 million tonnes of Australian commodities each year. With operations across five states, they manage the 2,670 kilometre Central Queensland coal network – and they’re the largest haulier of iron ore outside the Pilbara in Western Australia.
Working across 44 Traditional Owner groups around Australia, Aurizon has a long history of employing and training Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, whose contribution to their workforce is invaluable.
Aurizon wants to make a tangible difference to reconciliation in Australia and since 2012, has been formally committed to it by partnering with Reconciliation Australia and creating their Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).
Working across 44 Traditional Owner groups around Australia, Aurizon has a long history of employing and training Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, whose contribution to their workforce is invaluable.
Aurizon believes reconciliation is in the hands, hearts and minds of all Australians to build respect, trust and positive relationships with one another. And they wanted to ignite the hands, hearts of minds of their employees with a cultural awareness program that would not only educate – they wanted one that would inspire change, spark connections and tell a story representative of the many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who work at, or with, Aurizon.
Driven by two of Aurizon’s values, people and integrity, creating a cultural awareness program that was underpinned by an environment of inclusion was integral to the success of this project.
The Challenge —
Sharing stories grounded in respect and consultation
Cultural awareness and education of Australia’s First Nations’ cultures isn’t a deep focus within Australia’s standard curriculum. Depending on where somebody grew up, went to school or the time in which they were educated – their beliefs and understanding about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ can vary from personal to in depth to basic to misunderstanding.
Driven by two of Aurizon’s values, people and integrity, creating a cultural awareness program that was underpinned by an environment of inclusion was integral to the success of this project.
Their goal was to build inclusion fostered through education, equity and acknowledgement. This meant everyone at Aurizon – from the Pilbara to Central Queensland needed to receive the same information and experience the same training.
Most importantly, the work needed to be grounded in respect and acknowledgement for Aurizon’s First Nations’ employees and broader community.
Aurizon’s existing cultural awareness training had been a self-directed powerpoint presentation, and the team was keen to refresh the training into a learning experience.
Chloe Mossman, Principal HR Partner and Inclusion Lead saw there was an opportunity far bigger than simply learning. It was about creating a culture of inclusion and psychological safety for everyone at Aurizon. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ to have a say in their cultural representation, and for non-Indigenous employees to gain invaluable insights so that everyone at Aurizon would feel comfortable having open, respectful conversations about Indigenous Australian culture.
During our strategy phase,
EM’s Head of Ideation, Narelle was reading ‘The Power of Moments’ by Chip and Dan Heath. The book explores why certain moments jolt, elevate or change us – and how we can learn to create such extraordinary moments in our work and life.
The Shift —
Cultural awareness that goes beyond learning to life-changing.
During our strategy phase, EM’s Head of Ideation, Narelle was reading ‘The Power of Moments’ by Chip and Dan Heath. The book explores why certain moments jolt, elevate or change us – and how we can learn to create such extraordinary moments in our work and life.
Through their research they found our most memorable positive moments are dominated by the four elements of elevation, insight, pride and connection – and these became the driving pillars and framework that this learning experience would be founded on.
Elevation —
To design a learning experience that rises above the everyday. Let’s not just deliver information. Let’s create an engaging experience that is both memorable and meaningful.
Pride –
To design a learning experience that captures us at our best — showcasing Aurizon’s approach to building a more inclusive workplace through its RAP.
Connection –
To design a learning experience that strengthens Aurizon because it invites the workforce to connect in new ways, through a powerful call to action.
Insight –
To design a learning experience that rewires how the Aurizon team sees the world — help employees realise something that influences them and changes their perspective.
Narelle says, “We saw this as an opportunity to ask ourselves: ‘is this a moment elevated above the everyday, that shifts the way you see the world... that creates a moment of pride or connection?’ And then set out to achieve that.”
For Chloe and the Aurizon team it was crucial that the experience was created to bring a moment of insight, and to ensure this experience had no form of knowledge test.
“I am a Senior Indigenous employee and feel very proud to work for Aurizon. The company is working hard to close the gap between Indigenous and non-indigenous people. They are creating opportunities for indigenous people throughout Australia and are educating all employees around the cultural subtleties of the world’s oldest living culture through a Cultural Awareness Training package, that was jointly developed between the Aurizon Indigenous Reference Group and Everyday Massive”. Matt Dukes
“We didn’t want to be testing cultural awareness. We wanted to be fostering connection and understanding.”
Sharing knowledge for better connection
Content driven by Aurizon’s Indigenous Reference Group
A vital piece of any cultural awareness training is that it is created through appropriate cultural consultation.
In this instance the custodian of the learning experience was Aurizon’s Indigenous Reference Group (IRG) which drives the delivery of Aurizon’s Reconciliation Action Plan alongside Aurizon’s Inclusion team. The IRG is made up of majority (minimum 50%) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees – and this was an opportunity to present their collective knowledge and understanding in a way that mattered most to the group.
It was then up to Everyday Massive to draw on the IRG’s culture sharing and build an immersive learning experience that transferred the important information the IRG identified, and present it in a digestible and engaging way for everyone at Aurizon.
Make learning a valuable part of the employee experience.
A key to creating a memorable learning experience is to approach it from the mindset of ‘this is a moment in the employee experience’. It’s not just a box-tick exercise. It’s an opportunity to build trust, respect or loyalty within your employees.
Yes, the cultural awareness program existed to be compliant with Aurizon’s Reconciliation Action Plan – but by applying a human-centred approach to the training, we could see it as an opportunity to create a moment people could remember, that they’ll look back on and think ‘I learnt so much at Aurizon’.
“That’s the difference between training and a learning experience. The tangible output of a value. When you create a learning experience, really what you’re doing is showing you care about your people.”
Learning and development then becomes an employee benefit of working with your business. It’s as much for the participant as it is for the business. And it then becomes cultural when it moves beyond the work environment and is carried home with you, when it’s not strictly inline with doing your work. This is what we set out to achieve with this program.
“We truly achieved this for the Everyday Massive team as well as Aurizon’s people.”
The art + science
Our process blends art and science, drawing on the psychology of behaviour, motivation and learning, applied with human-centred design and communication principles. Driving emotions help shift behaviour, while a narrative layer increases connection. Curiosity draws attention to crucial messaging and inspires active learning. Complex systems and processes are simplified and visualised to reduce cognitive load and increase comprehension.
Approach —
An immersive, interactive experience —
Adult learning is not about teaching it’s about providing an immersive human-centred experience. Using digital platform Articulate, we were able to build a learning experience that told stories through video, sound effects, interactive learning modules and click-through elements.
This wasn’t about having employees recalling key stats. What Chloe and the IRG team wanted to achieve was for the learning experience to be the catalyst for a conversation and connection. They wanted it to shift mindsets and positively change company culture. From the IRG perspective, it was also an invitation for opening up conversations.
Creating an empathetic tone of voice —
Depending on their cultural background and where and when they were educated, some of the information in the cultural awareness program may have been confronting or uncomfortable for some Aurizon employees. For this reason it was important to create a very inclusive, empathetic tone of voice that was respectful to everybody.
While there was some sensitive subject matter, the Indigenous Reference Group was keen not to shy away from it, which is why putting the information into a broad, sometimes global context was helpful for showing the full picture.
Walking together: collaboration with key stakeholder groups
One of our main focuses when it comes to working with key stakeholder groups is ensuring we bring them with us on the journey throughout the project. This is why we work diligently with our collaborators to ensure we bring clarity to the purpose, our objectives and approach.
Rather than simply sharing an end product, we prefer to build an experience for those involved in the work. By sharing prototypes, mock-ups, tone of voice and audience assessments – we bring the stakeholders on board with tangible framing so they can see
What is country?
The impact —
A new benchmark for online training.
Metrics Aurizon set out for the cultural awareness program were:
They wanted 75% of Aurizon employees to participate in training by December
100% of the IRG to have participated
Build cultural awareness into onboarding for new starters.
Within 6 weeks of launch, over 75% of the nearly 5000-strong workforce had completed the program, with 100% of the Indigenous Reference Group completed.
It was also embedded into Aurizon’s onboarding program, so that it sets the tone of reconciliation, inclusion and respect for newcomers to the business. For both Aurizon and Everyday Massive, it was important the project had a highly collaborative approach, and that the entire program was grounded in authenticity, aligned to Aurizon’s wider goal of reconciliation.
Preparing for the formal policy launch.
“At a business Town Hall, Aurizon’s Head of HR also announced that the Cultural Awareness Online Learning Experience had set a new benchmark for online training, serving as a catalyst for how Aurizon will deliver training in the future. ”
This collaboration also left an indelible mark on everyone at Everyday Massive who worked on this project. It was a privilege to gain knowledge and cultural insights from Aurizon’s Indigenous Reference Group, working closely and collaboratively to share knowledge and storytelling in such a meaningful way.
Not only was it an unforgettable employee experience for the people of Aurizon. It was also an unforgettable learning experience for the Everyday Massive people too. We’re grateful for the partnership.
Download the full Aurizon Case study.
