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Our people Ō mātou tāngata

Being a Guardian means knowing you are valued for your unique skills and identity.

We welcome all kaitiaki

The Guardians is a welcoming place for everyone, and we make sure our people feel supported, respected and part of the team.

Our culture
Tō mātou ahurea

Our people define our culture. Teamwork, respect and collaboration are part of the Guardians’ DNA.

Our culture
Tō mātou ahurea

Transcript

The culture at the Guardians is unique because we do what we say.

A lot of organisations talk about the importance of culture and the importance of people, but they don't act in a way that's consistent with that.

For us the action and the rhetoric has got to be aligned.

So we talk about culture being important and we anchor it in everything we do.

The big thing is where do you see examples of that because it's not about flashy coffee cups with "culture is important", it's about the action that I do it's the action that my colleagues do, it's the action that my team does that really counts.

And I think making sure they're aligned is key and I think everything we talk about has the culture at the centre of it, discussions with the leadership team are all about the culture, we track the culture because we like to turn things like that into numbers and charts and so-forth.

we also have underlying programmes that are focused on the culture.

The other areas I think that we see it are around the values, we've got these four values, the one that I always quote that's probably strongest to me is "we support each other" and I see that time and time again from the organisation and the support comes in many forms.

Probably the time it's most evident and most appreciated is when people are going through tough times.

And it never ceases to amaze me how many ups and downs we have in our lives and the willingness of the organisation to step forward and support people is incredible from my perspective.

And often in those darkest times is when the organisation will shine brightest.

So, that is really important to me when people are going through difficult times that those people know they've got our support.

It's important to me to give that support, it's important to the team to actually provide that support so of the four values that ones comes through very, very strong.

The other one I'd say is "team not hero" the whole focus is about how do we operate as a team.

And the values are not coasters and screenshots and things like that they are things that we should and do get held accountable to by the team in terms of how we act.

So I think the difference between us and a lot of organisations is a lot of organisations will say they're doing similar things to what we're doing, I think the difference between us and a lot of those organisations is we actually do it.

Our values

Our values guide everything we do at the Guardians.

We stand strong
Kia tū pakari ai mātou

We are transparent and clear in our purpose and approach. We lean into the hard times and keep a clear head during the good times. In a world of sudden change there is often pressure to change our minds or yield to the immediacy of the situation. Our foundations are deep but not fixed. We stand strong, together.

We support each other
E tautoko ana mātou tētahi ki tētahi

We look out for each other and make sure we succeed together. Our job is often difficult, and we must respond quickly to disruption. We understand that our work lives are busy – we celebrate the good times and support each other in the hard times.

Future focused
E arotahi ana ki anamata

We take a long-term view. Every decision we make today will have an impact in years to come. In a world that is often constrained by short-term thinking, we rise above the noise of the present and consider the future. We ask ourselves – what would the future me think of this decision?

Team not hero
He toa takitini mātou

Success is determined by the strength of our team. We succeed and fail together. None of us is perfect, and our ability to pick each other up and learn from our mistakes makes us stronger. Teamwork is a force multiplier. Trust and communication are the cornerstones of our work.

Diversity and inclusion
Te kanorau me te whakauru

The Guardians is dedicated to cultivating a diverse and inclusive environment where our people feel fully engaged and included. We pride ourselves on an environment where people are confident to be themselves, are respected and have a voice that matters.

Diversity and inclusion
Te kanorau me te whakauru

Transcript

At the Guardians we celebrate diversity and we nurture an inclusive environment so that we can create a space for people to be confident to be themselves, feel respected and to have a voice that matters.

So we're really keen to ensure that we have a diverse workforce at the Guardians and we work really hard to make sure that our environment is inclusive for all talent.

So we're really deliberate about how we think about making sure that we can create an inclusive workforce for all of our employees, and we tackle that in a lot of different ways.

So obviously we want to have a really supportive work environment and managers who understand the needs of their staff.

We also think really hard about our policies and how we can create a structure that gets the best out of all of our people, no matter what their individual circumstances are.

And some of the examples of that are things like we have a really generous paid parental leave policy, which really encourages both mums and dads to take leave when that exciting moment happens for them.

We also think about things like flexible work so we can get the best out of people while they're working for us but that we recognise that people have got other things going on, and that we can actually still create a really great workforce and workplace and allow people to invest in their personal lives as well.

One of the ways that we really try to make people feel that they can bring their whole selves to work here is that we celebrate everyone's different perspectives and we work really hard to draw out the different points of view that people have and really capture that diversity of thought and diversity of opinion across the Guardians.

What our people say
He aha nga kōrero a to tātou kaimahi

James Li
Portfolio Manager, NZ Equities

James talks about his experience where diverse perspectives are key to generating good investment ideas at the Guardians.

What our people say
He aha nga kōrero a to tātou kaimahi

Sarah Court
Head of Business Solutions Group

Sarah shares how she loves working in the Business Solutions Group because it bridges the gap between the Technology team and the business, solving problems through collaboration.

What our people say
He aha nga kōrero a to tātou kaimahi

Hishaam Mirza
Director, Direct Investments

Hishaam explains how the Guardians, as a major investor in New Zealand businesses, contributes to economic growth by supporting companies and promoting best practices.

What our people say
He aha nga kōrero a to tātou kaimahi

Transcript

We're a fund and everything that we do is about intellectual property and therefore it's people.

So it's the people that make it really interesting here.

There's a really diverse crowd in terms of professional experience, personal background, cultures, beliefs and interests.

From our perspective we try and find opportunities with things to invest in, and there's not just one way to do it.

So really a lot of the time it's just about having a good idea and I think you just need that natural interaction with other people who've thought about things from a different angle or with different experience or a different lens on something that gives you that idea.

What our people say
He aha nga kōrero a to tātou kaimahi

Transcript

One of the things I love the most about our work at the Guardians is the Business Solutions Group is the interface between the IT team and the wider business, so we get to interact with everybody.

They come to us with some of their problems and issues and then we're working with them and the technology team to try and resolve those so we get to work with everybody which is really great.

We're an investment fund and we actually have quite a large technology team to support all the operations of the fund and that's divided up into different groups.

We have my group which is the Business Solutions Group which is running all the project and is the main interface with the business.

We've got the Cloud Operations Team who are running the cloud technology and all the software and keeping the lights on, we've got the Service Desk Team who are the first port of call they're sort of the front facing part of IT as well.

And then we have the Application Development Team and they build all of the investment data related software that the investment teams are using to run the fund and make decisions.

What our people say
He aha nga kōrero a to tātou kaimahi

Transcript

I think the biggest difference the Guardians makes to New Zealand is we're one of the biggest investors in New Zealand businesses and this is both in a listed and unlisted capacity.

This ultimately contributes to the growth of these companies, it contributes to maintaining and creating employment and ultimately helps our economy succeed.

For our private businesses in particular we're quite active and hands-on, particularly around the governance of these companies and best practice around the management of environmental and health and safety matters.