Perspectives.

Once seen as a bit of a ‘tick the box’ exercise, companies are now recognising the real and tangible benefits of ensuring diversity in their workforce - acknowledging that a diverse team can differentiate them from their competitors by attracting top talent and capturing new clients.

With the discussion this week focusing on women’s rights, it comes with a gentle reminder around the origins of community and stakeholder engagement, specifically its roots in citizen rights movements across the world.

We engage with people from all walks of life across Australia, often on sensitive or technical projects. At Struber, we strive to have accessibility and inclusivity at the forefront of delivery to make sure our work is genuinely influential.

With New South Wales’ growing number of infrastructure projects, let’s look at some key areas stakeholder engagement experts can support the state as it puts the community first with investments in health, a focus on customer service, and expanded infrastructure efforts.

Since March 2020, when COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Australians have been working from home more than ever.

Enabling Community to design project outcomes through a Placemaking approach. What is placemaking? The term placemaking has been around since the mid-1960s but became more of a buzz word in the 1990s. Since then, placemaking is now synonymous with creating new spaces and reinvigorating existing areas.

The rapid growth of Queensland comes with challenges and opportunities. One of the key players shaping our state is the construction sector – the second-largest employer in the state with 245,100 people employed in the industry in 2019-20, which contributed $27.3 billion (8.1% of total output) to Queensland’s economy in that same year, making it the State’s third-largest sector.

On Father’s Day, I like to take a moment to reflect on and acknowledge the best things I’ve learned from my Dad, Steve Struber. Some of his values have shaped Struber, as we consistently prove ourselves as we become one of the best independent projects and program advisory services firms in Australia.

The current opportunity ‍The world we live in is changing rapidly. We are regularly reminded by increasing global temperatures and changing weather patterns. As Australians, we only need to look back to the 2019/20 summer period where bushfires wreaked havoc across the east coast, destroying an unthinkable amount of homes, farmland, bushland, national forest, with millions of wildlife lost.

Whether it’s your organisation or a community impacted by your project, use live survey tools to boost engagement, avoid groupthink, and hear from everyone – not just the loudest person in the room. The first introduction to live survey tools can be dated back to final years of university. Lecturers are on the money, nearly everyone in class has a smartphone and are able to answer course-related questions, provide feedback or ask a question and quickly receive an answer, simple.

This is the burning question that Struber has asked ourselves over the past month. Returning to the traditional way of working no longer suits the flexible approach we pride ourselves on. Going back to the old ways would also feel like we’d failed to take advantage of our learnings and growth in this challenging time.